Dev Update The development continues.. I love how this game is turning out to really fun for all ages. My 4-yr-old will play, contented for a long time, as will my wife. They play differently of course, but each has their own goal, and finds satisfaction from different elements of the game. A lot of time this last week focusing on game balance and end-game sequences like reward levels based on challenge level and time and social snapshot sharing, dynamic and fixed difficulty adjustment algorithms per level and general event probabilities. Creating a freemium game has it's challenges. I've studied the various freemium models intently for over a year now, carefully examining what works well (maintains enjoy-ability while being sustainable). Designing freemium means that you have to design your game to be playable ad infinitum. This means a fine balance between game progress and any potential rewards-system you may have in place. The game should be challenging, but not so much so that it becomes annoyingly frustrating. One aspect that I've almost finished is an in-game snapshot of the gnome that you can share on our social networks after a game is finished. Playing around with the algorithm that determines when to take a snapshot has been fun, and generated some pretty dang funny candid shots. But how does the computer know if one snapshot is better than another? So much of what 'determines' humor in the things we see is non-determinisitc computationally speaking. More fine-tuning. Perhaps giving the player a sliding list of snapshots to choose from is the best option. Now for Ads. Incentivised is the only way to go. Next up is the 'gifting' feature. A neatly wrapped gift drops into the grid from time to time. Tapping the gift before it disappears will grant the player the option to watch a 15 second video ad for a free in-game boost. Only, these boosts are unique from those that can be purchased with gold at the end of a game in that they are only available via gifts. I am going to test this model and am also interested in your feedback on this. One last thing.. One of my sons as a gnome (gratitude to his sister for the hat and face paint).
More Progress Roland sent over a few more assets for the tutorial, stone tiles, some button and coin changes and more color schemas to use for themes. Things are coming together quickly now as I continue to work on mechanics for boosts and how they are given or earned. More work on SFX, tweaking values for ore and how gem boosts are unlocked. It is critical for a game like Gnomium, which introduces unique mechanics in the word-game genre, to properly understand how grid system functions. The more I play the game, the more it feels like an arcade game, the words merely functioning below as a means to produce the blocks that slide, grow fit so snugly together. The word system works naturally and beautifully, allowing for a whole other type of game to be built on top. The tutorial is not necessary, but is important. as it will give the player a proper understanding of what's going on and how to manipulate the grid, break words, collect coins and ore and eventually unlock the chest to complete the level. Naturally, our tutorial will feature the bird.
Thanks addictor! We'll keep you updated on the progress. Working on the last 10% of the 20% that takes 80% of your time, if that makes any sense.
More on Tut's So, I've revamped the tutorial now at least 3 times. What I was anticipating as taking a couple of days to flesh out has now taken much more. Points learned thus far: - You can almost always simplify your tutorial. - Give the player enough information to get started, but leave room for discovery and surprise. - Interactive tutorials are more engaging and memorable than video or textual tutorials. (think Threes!) - If you can integrate your tutorial into game-play, it may not even feel like a tutorial. (think Halflife) - Ideally, introduce crucial game-mechanics features first, so that if the player ops out of your tutorial mid-way through, at least they understand enough to get going. - Tutorials should be viewed as a fallback, optional, especially on mobile. A game that cannot be played or figured out within a short period of time without a tutorial is a sign that it is too complex or poorly designed. So why does Gnomium need a tutorial? It doesn't. From my experience watching people play with little to no instructions, the mechanics are figured out relatively quickly depending on the experience of the player. However, I'm including a tutorial for two key reasons: 1) The first few moments a player spends with your new game are crucial! New players will only give your game prolonged attention if they can understand and enjoy it quickly. Even having to spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to play your game can ring the death knell. 2) The letter grid used in Gnomium is deceiving in that it looks similar in appearance to other word games but has an entirely different play-style and set of rules. Introducing players to the few key ways of interacting with the grid will go a long way to dispelling any confusion from the beginning. I hope to finish up the tutorial tonight and move on to other items. As a side note, I took a version of Gnomium on my iPhone to a neighbors house the other night where a large group of mobile gaming teens couldn't put it down for a few hours. I'll be demoing Gnomium again at the end of this month at the Utah Indie Dev Game Night. I'll post more details here soon!
Thanks for the interesting description of your tutorial design process. You clearly are putting a ton of love into this and I look forward to playing it.
More on tutorials Happy Monday! After 4 iterations, I was able to finish the tutorial this weekend, apart from some additional testing to be done in order to identify any outlying issues, it's done. I've opted for a non-intrusive interactive tutorial. In other words, for the first few minutes of the first game, the gnome will introduce the player to various aspects of game play, most importantly, the 4 main actions the player can do, however, the player is free to play the game like any other, the tutorial detecting certain actions as being complete or not and detecting various grid states which would indicate whether or not to tell the player about new items or features. This is all done in a very light-hearted and playful way. Perhaps this will be the first poetic tutorial in the app store, who knows, but here is the text of the tutorial in it's entirety. 'Greetings all!' says this rhyming gnome. I call this magical grid my home. Playing up here will bring you much pleasure. You'll find ore, coins and valuable treasure. Look! Look! We've discovered a chest! Surely, this must be the ends to a quest. A-ha! We'll need a Garnet to unlock it. A shiny red gem to fit in the socket. Let's play the grid, it's fun, you'll see.. Leave the finding of words up to me. You can slide tiles..two, three or four.. But Sliding a word will do even more. Tapping 2 tiles will cause them to swap. ..and tapping on words will cause them to POP! Breaking words of copper, silver and gold.. ..will bring ore, coins and riches untold! Yes I know, collecting coins can be cool.. But match-3 coins and you might get a jewel! Oh no! I spy a pesky stone tile.. Words made of stone stick around for a while. Yipee! We found a sturdy pickax. Destroy words of stone, triumph(!), relax. Ah! Chisels can come in quite handy Break a stone tile..how nice, how dandy. Nothing tops a full bucket 'o ore. When caught in a bucket, counts double..or more. The delectable mushroom, small and mighty. Explosive forays keep the grid neat and tidy. I don't mean to boast, shy as I am. Tap under the grid to use the 'Gnome-Cam'. That's it. 'Buckets to you!' I say. Until the next game. Good luck and good day.
I thoroughly enjoy your detailed updates. Love getting a peek into your creative process. It further builds my admiration for all you dedicated and hard working developers. And it gets me SUPER excited to play your game. Hope that will be soon!
Demoing at Utah Indie Games Night Thanks locomoco and dradnok! I wanted to announce that I'll be demoing Gnomium at the Utah Indie Games Night this Thursday, July 30th at 7:00pm at the Brigham Young University Talmage Building room 1170 in Provo, Utah. This is a semi-monthly even where local indie developers are invited to listen to a presentation on a gaming topic, usually by someone smart, and then have the chance to demo their games. Not sure how likely it is that many of you are in Utah, but if you are and have a free night I'd love to meet you. Also, more gameplay video footage coming soon.
We all are eagerly waiting for this innovative word game . Love to test beta of this game. Tell me when it is available ??
Hello iTester! I am also very eager to get it into your hands. I am going to post further details on progress regarding the Pocket Edition in the Gnomium PE thread shortly. Here is the current plan for Gnomium and Gnomium: Pocket Edition. The full version of Gnomium (which this thread is about) will be called Gnomium: Rocky Woodlands and will likely be released first for PC and Mac via Steam or some similar platform (pending greenlight and other requirements) Both games use the same code base, so technically, any progress made in one is also progress on the other. Focus is currently held on finishing and releasing Gnomium PE on iOS followed by an Android release a few weeks later (and other mobile platforms like Windows Phone). I would like to get the Pocket Edition into your hands for testing for a short time before submitting the app to the app store (in order to identify and device specific issues and garner feedback on the game in general). My anticipation for getting beta into your hands is within the next few weeks. Why not mobile first for Gnomium: Rocky Woodlands? This is primarily a marketing decision given the difficulty of marketing a mobile game (even a popular mobile game) to a PC audience. It's all snooty and strange I know, but the data shows that PC crowd is a brutal market for mobile games. Hence, the Pocket Edition for mobile and the Rocky Woodlands edition for PC/Mac, with the Rocky Woodland version being markedly different and more advance than the Pocket Edition (scenery, play modes, additional features). Of course, the same problem does not exist for games going from PC to Mobile, so it will be a non trivial to bring the Rocky Woodlands edition to iOS shortly after a PC launch. Once The Pocket Edition is released I can return focus to finishing Gnomium: Rocky Woodlands. Thanks for the inquiry!
