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Geek Culture / "Match" by UOK Software

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old_School
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Posted: 24th Sep 2012 23:54 Edited at: 24th Sep 2012 23:55
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We wanted to take a small break from developing Ant Farms 2 so we came up with “Match”. Match is a children’s game designed to stimulate puzzle/logic skills while providing a fun and friendly environment. Match features 10 levels filled with colorful pictures for your child to reconstruct and solve the puzzle.

Objective:
Race the clock and put the puzzle together to MATCH the image below!

Screen Shots:






Tech Notes:
Created using Visual Basic .Net 2010
Game Images by: Public Domain
Background Images by: Annick Hubber
Music by: William Johnson
Sound FX: by FreeSounds.Org
Programming by: Micah Holmes

Release Notes:
Release Date: Late Fall/Early Winter 2012
Price $0.99
Platforms: PC, Droid, Iphone and Windows Phone
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 00:27 Edited at: 25th Sep 2012 00:56
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Looks pretty good, nice to see you've got some nice art choices as a contrast to some of the previous projects you've posted, so I think a definite improvement there. So I wish you the best of luck with it (and your Ant Farms 2).

Only thing I would note is that generally non-TGC product related projects don't stay open. Usually we see such titles in Game Design Theory or Geek Culture, however, I'm not sure the mods are as fussy anymore so it might not get locked, but I thought I'd give a heads up in case it does happen.

[edit]
Either the thread's moved, or I'm going crazy again.

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old_School
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 03:15 Edited at: 25th Sep 2012 03:19
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Mod must of moved it out of WIP. Anyway, its still a WIP. Spoke to Annick our artist and she wants to adjust the GUI and some other minor adjustments. She did not like the Italic text and submit button. Plus were discussing were to put the "Menu" button and what the "Menu" button will do/offer option wise to the player. Basicly the game is finished right now but were still doing minor adjustments and adding some more mechanics to it. I think we will release a demo + Full version by end of week and seek publishing after a few months of stand alone sales. Its always good to bring stats to a publisher for those whom have had someware published know its pretty key to getting published. Its all about the numbers lol

Anyway interesting fact about this game is it only took roughly a week to develop. We used Public Domain/free images for the actors in the game and Annick made everything else (GUI, Buttons, etc.). This will be likely our fastest game we have developed for profit if we can finish it by Sunday. I also plan on using the source code in my classroom to show my students how to make some simple games. Overall I think the project has been a success so far and very fun to develop.
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Matty H
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 11:39
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This looks great. I would consider using the word 'done' in place of 'submit' since it's a children's game.

Interesting about the images, do you have any links?

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xplosys
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 15:45
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Huge improvement over previous showings. If it works as good as it looks it should do well.

Brian.

!retupmoc eht ni deppart m'I !pleH

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Benjamin
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 15:53
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Looks pretty good, the art is definitely commercial-quality. My one suggestion would be to remove the 'submit' button and have the game automatically continue when the puzzle is solved.
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old_School
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Posted: 25th Sep 2012 18:23 Edited at: 25th Sep 2012 18:23
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Thanks but 90% of the credit needs to go to Annick our artist. She made the GUI layout, Designed all the menus and pretty much everything art related. Im just the guy who made the mechanics work lol She will be pleased to hear the praise. I will also pass along the "submit" suggestion, the game design is pretty much in her hands, so ill see what she says. Thanks for the feedback btw.
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old_School
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Posted: 26th Sep 2012 04:31
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Little Update Prgramming Side:

Randomizer for Match has been built, so every time you load the game the images will auto randomize their locations. This will allow the game to be more playable and allow more playability so you want to play it more without getting bord.
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Jeku
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Posted: 26th Sep 2012 09:45
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Please do not double post.

---------

Nice looking idea for a game. How are you doing the iPhone and Android versions of the game?


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old_School
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Posted: 26th Sep 2012 23:40 Edited at: 26th Sep 2012 23:46
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This will be our first Iphone and Droid app we will be selling for a profit. So I’m not really sure how we will design it. Plus we need to hire another developer because ours is currently tied up with other projects he's developing for us but I think likely drag and drop touch based but not sure yet. I personally don’t develop for those platforms so I don't know how they work mechanically. So at this point I have no clue it would be something I would have to ask whomever we hire what is possible. At this point, I pretty much relie on my entire team/staff for suggestions/design concepts etc. I'm just the guy who programs all the 2d stuff for the PC.

I personally suck at art but I'm told I have great ideas. So i really relie on everyone to come together on projects and figure out everything as a whole. To give you a direct answer would likely be inncorrect. I guess at this point were not really a small Indie gaming group since there we have 12 employees now. We are more of a organized group of developers and artist with various skills and ideas. So when we discuss design etc. the concept could change 50 times before we approve a design. I hope that helps answer the question.

Sorry I'm really not a moblie device kinda guy. I personally only support the platform because its a highly profitable market. If things were up to me, Id be content with just a PC for the rest of my life lol But people love moblie devices now so I have to tend to the markets needs if I want to stay in business. I'm sure a lot of us understand that statement lol Tending to the market needs to stay a float.
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 27th Sep 2012 00:10
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To save you some money, would it be worth exploring the SDKs available for Mobile OS? AppGameKit Native (in C++) is one that comes to mind for obvious reasons, but there are others. I don't know a lot about it myself easier, but you already know how to program and you've got your software designed, so DIY might be a cheaper option. But up to you. From what I understand it's actually pretty easy.

Though for iOS, I believe you need an Apple Mac, so I don't know if you've got one.

But food for thought.

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old_School
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Posted: 27th Sep 2012 06:20 Edited at: 2nd Oct 2012 01:10
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Juan are IOS and Droid dev uses an IDE he said that can compile to both platforms in a single project file. Plus his tool is free I think so I don't see a reason to fix something that’s not broken currently. I honestly have no clue but I have no desire as well to learn how to program for ether platform. I like PC. I'll hire someone for the others lol The only platform other than PC I have a huge interest in myself would be XNA to develop for XBox which we have that covered as well. Elvis is a former EA Games developer who now works with us on various XNA projects and helps me when I have questions about XNA. But he also likes Unity and wants me to switch to 3d lol

I guess I'm just old school, I really love 2d and no real desire to leave it. I grew up as a kid playing old Atari and NES games in 2d. They continue to amaze me so more of a passion to develop in 2d at this point. Games like Match really bring out my passion for 2d personally. Will it sale? Who knows lol Lucky though we continue to prosper from doing what we love. So I guess were very lucky in that matter.

Update:
We our now in Beta 3 of Match. We expect Beta 4 or 5 to be final. I'm missing a 16x16 art image and level arranging. It should be finished after this unless we find a logical bug.
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old_School
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Posted: 4th Oct 2012 01:13 Edited at: 4th Oct 2012 01:18
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Project Complete!

Ok guys/gals here is the video preview. the game appears to be finished and we will begain the process of porting it over to retail. It should be on sale this week or next week. Of course check our website for sales info or visit Cnets of course where the demo will be placed.

Please enjoy, I was not able to use everyones feedback but I was able to use most of it. I'll update this message sometime shortly with the link to the Demo Download in the near future. Thanks everyone.

Video:
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 4th Oct 2012 06:56
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Instead of racing the timer, why not have a star rating system for your speed? Something like angry birds based on how high your score is. It's frustrating to have to restart if you run out of time.
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old_School
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Posted: 4th Oct 2012 23:42
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Ive never played Anger birds to be honest I also have very little time to play games. I wish I had more time to play more modern games like those but I really dont between teaching and running a business. The only games I get to play are the ones we make/test.

Anyway, Ive never played Anger Birds so I can't really say yeah or nah. Luckly the games done allready so no further adjustment mechanically will be made to this version. Maybe Match 2 might have that IDK too early to tell if this game will even be successful yet.
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Jeku
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Posted: 5th Oct 2012 08:13
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Honestly I can't see even my youngest nieces enjoying this game, especially as there are only 10 levels. Good luck, though.


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Quik
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Posted: 5th Oct 2012 16:37
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I can see my daughter play it in 2 years though ^^

Buut, there's a number of better games she could play



Whose eyes are those eyes?
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Libervurto
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Posted: 5th Oct 2012 22:37
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Quote: "Instead of racing the timer, why not have a star rating system for your speed?"

Yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk!
I agree that this is an odd game to have a countdown, but better to have a timer that counts up if that's an issue. The whole "three star rating" system destroys any competition for high scores.

I agree with Jeku, the game is pretty bland and clicking on all those blank squares made me cringe a little, but you've got the foundations of a good puzzle game and a nice aesthetic. Add some extra mechanics and it could be really fun.

How about: Randomly rotating the tiles and giving rotation controls; Hiding parts of the target image that get revealed over time; Animating the character when the puzzle is solved?

I would recommend against releasing the game in its current state.

Shh... you're pretty.
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Indicium
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Posted: 5th Oct 2012 23:38
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Quote: "The whole "three star rating" system destroys any competition for high scores.
"


You still have a score.


They see me coding, they hating. http://indi-indicium.blogspot.co.uk/
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Matty H
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Posted: 5th Oct 2012 23:40
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Congratulations, lots of good things going on in this game.

You probably know better than anyone what features you could implement and still be worth while regarding to your intended price point. If you decide you want to do more work on it I would suggest the following:

Drag the tiles across the screen instead of the system you have, not sure why you have the clicking on blank squares part, you should think about removing that.

Since you would be dragging the squares around you would not be as reliant on the bottom picture as you could easily move them around until they started to resemble something. Then you could slowly reveal the bottom over time, as suggested above.

More levels, surly adding more levels would not be hard since you have done all the hard work, 15 levels at a minimum I would think.

Like I said, you know what your budget and price point is etc, so you are best placed to know whether changes at this point would be beneficial.

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old_School
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 00:19
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Drag tiles will likely be for Droid or IOS. People use the mouse in a clicking fashion more so than dragging on the PC but touch phones of course use drag option more.
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Jeku
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 06:18 Edited at: 6th Oct 2012 06:19
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Quote: " People use the mouse in a clicking fashion more so than dragging on the PC but touch phones of course use drag option more."


I would wager that almost all the popular PC casual games that have come out in the past 15 years or so since Bejeweled took the world by storm, have had some kind of dragging when applicable. Your game absolutely needs dragging, and PC players are used to dragging.


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BatVink
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 11:03
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I have to say, dragging is one of the most used interactions in Windows today, and has been for many years:

Files in Explorer
Text in Word
Values in Excel cells
Images in graphics programs
grabbing from IE
repositioning anything in any program (which is what you are doing )
Moving emails around
and the list goes on...

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old_School
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 18:26 Edited at: 6th Oct 2012 18:27
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Ill keep that in mind, maybe Match 2 will have a Drag Image option in the settings. Lots of things we could improve on this game but its really just a "wait and see" kind of game if it will even be successful. I suspect the Droid/IOS version will do fine but PC meh people really dont play these types of games much unless its web based or on Facebook. This is really just a prototype for our Droid/IOS version but we figured its there give the option for PC. That and by building it for PC first I am able to solve all logic issues upfront so porting over will be easier.
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Libervurto
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 18:34
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Quote: "People use the mouse in a clicking fashion more so than dragging on the PC"

Click and drag is used in many programs and OS's; it's a very intuitive action, which should be an aim when making kid's games.

Shh... you're pretty.
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old_School
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 21:02
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Match Retail and Demo our now finished. As soon as Cnet approves it/publishes it I'll post links for purchase or demo download. Thanks for suggestions/support.
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Indicium
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Posted: 7th Oct 2012 04:01
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Quote: "Thanks for suggestions/support."


No offence but it doesn't seem like you've listened to a single thing anybody has had to say. How do you expect a product to sell when you know it could be better, and shrug it off with "We'll do that in the sequel"?


They see me coding, they hating. http://indi-indicium.blogspot.co.uk/
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old_School
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Posted: 7th Oct 2012 06:25 Edited at: 7th Oct 2012 06:27
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Ahh I have listened, just because I don’t add don't mean I did not listen. At the end of the day it’s my project to decide what is added and what is not added. Some things I do agree with and other things I don't agree. IF someone strongly feels that something should be a certain way, the game is fairly simple to develop. So I would recommend you make it your way. On the flip side some of the feedback here I did use and plan to use in the near future. I can't do everything everyone suggests. Most fo you should know and understand that as well. Anyone who has developed software knows everyone has a opinion and 80% of the time there not realistic or useable. The remaining 20% are good but you may not be able to implement them right away. If you’re offended because I did not use your suggestion, I'm sorry but maybe you should develop your version. Not trying to be rude but seriously the game is pretty simple mechanically to replicate.
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Indicium
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Posted: 7th Oct 2012 19:26
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Quote: "If you’re offended because I did not use your suggestion, I'm sorry but maybe you should develop your version."


I didn't personally offer any suggestions, so I'm not offended, but my point stands.


They see me coding, they hating. http://indi-indicium.blogspot.co.uk/
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Libervurto
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Posted: 7th Oct 2012 20:44
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@old_school
I've offered feedback and suggestions on a few of your threads and you haven't replied to any of them. I'm just not going to bother in future. I don't understand why you want to post on a forum if you don't wish to discuss anything with other people.

Shh... you're pretty.
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Jeku
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Posted: 9th Oct 2012 02:09
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I doubt anyone here really cares, because we are too old to play this kind of game. We were merely making suggestions to try and help you.


Senior Developer - CBS Interactive Music Group
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