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[Game] Break Blocks Dev Blog: Updated Interface Progress

So, we've gotten a lot of feedback from gamers such as mamoo and Undedd Jester on this forum who didn't think the game was going to interest them. Both of them decided to just give it a shot anyway and both realized that the game is actually challenging and addicting.

We attempted to get more gamers interested in the game with our previous trailer, but clearly that still didn't convince people. So I am here to challenge you all directly. Give the game a shot, I promise you'll be surprised: http://www.greatergoodgames.org
 
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Technical difficulties, no audio, and the block that should shrink in size doesen't animate.

I'm guessing it requires something i don't have installed..

Well, that's a first. Hundreds of players and never a problem. Makes sense that the box wouldn't animate, though, as it's driven by the music.

Did the game run the OpenAL installer when you launched it the first time? If not, please try running the oalinst.exe that's in the game's root directory and please let me know if that fixes it.

If that fixes it, then I'll just have the game installer run the OpenAL installer...
 
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So, now that you can actually play, Grobut, what do ya think? Challenging? Addictive? or Perhaps Lame? ;)

I'm definately fighting the controls a bit (the headcold i've got doesen't help, my head feels like it's stuffed with cotton, and it's hard to concentrate), so i'm not going to give you a final verdict till i've gotten propperly into the groove of it, that woulden't be fair, and i do want to give this game a fair shake.

But since you're obviously antsy for some feedback (and i know the feeling), i will give you my first impressions:

I'm the kind of person who hates rythem games, never played one i didn't find dull (it may not help that i'm a Bass player, so rythem is par for the course for me), and i pretty much expected that i'd recoil in horror from this.

But i didn't, because there's actually some depth to this game unlike most rythem games, just the fact that i find myself having to learn the rules of the game speaks volumes about that, most rythem games you'll pretty much learn within the first 10 seconds of play.

It hasen't won me over just yet, and i'm not it's ideal target audience, but i won't dismiss the posibillity that it may yet do that, especially when i get into the groove of it.

But i think this is a really solid game, there is a big target audience for rythem games, and i think it has tons of potential there, that a lot of people will love this, and definately, if anyone is reading this and you are the kind of person who liked Audiosurf and the like, go try this, because i think it'll be right up your alley.


I do have a suggestion though:

Definately set up a rules page in the main menu. It's good to have a tutorial like you have that introduces the player to gameplay elements one by one, but since new players lack an overall idea of how it all meshes togeather, it all happens a bit fast and concepts are easilly forgotten when learning a new one, because they didn't fully understand why it was important in the grand scheme of things.
 
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Thanks for playing and giving some feedback Grobut. If someone that's not a fan of rhythm games can still find some joy in this game, that's pretty exciting =)

Definately set up a rules page in the main menu. It's good to have a tutorial like you have that introduces the player to gameplay elements one by one, but since new players lack an overall idea of how it all meshes togeather, it all happens a bit fast and concepts are easilly forgotten when learning a new one, because they didn't fully understand why it was important in the grand scheme of things.

The game's about to get simpler in this next release, so I'll see if that's still necessary after that. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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Thanks for playing and giving some feedback Grobut. If someone that's not a fan of rhythm games can still find some joy in this game, that's pretty exciting =)

Especially when it's an opinionated old git like me :D

And i'm not just blowing smoke up your bum to be nice to you, i really do think you have a good game on your hands here, and that it'll do well if you can get it out there to it's target audience.

The game's about to get simpler in this next release, so I'll see if that's still necessary after that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Some streamlining is definately in order, but don't go to far in the opposite direction either, i think the main selling point of BB is going to be it's depth, in a genre that seems to be saturated with "puss button to a beat" games, i'd definately market it on "there's more to this than pushing a button to a beat" ;)

But there is some simple streamlining that could be done here, and i'll just bounce some ideas off you here:

Counting blocks is perhabs not the most fun one can have, so it might be a good idea to add a counter on the block clusters so you can quickly see how many you have grouped with a single glance, or have them flash to the beat when you've got enough to clear them and get a move.

It'd also be good to add the number of blocks needed to exicute on the ingame move-icons, like just having "10" written under the icon if you need 10 blocks to exicute it.

One thing that does need some clarity is, when you turn the block wheel with A and D, should that be done to the beat? Or is that not important and you can just change it as fast as you want? I'm not really sure, and the tutorial guy doesen't make it clear.
 
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Counting blocks is perhabs not the most fun one can have, so it might be a good idea to add a counter on the block clusters so you can quickly see how many you have grouped with a single glance, or have them flash to the beat when you've got enough to clear them and get a move.

One step ahead of ya. We've got the clearable clusters flashing to the beat now =)

It'd also be good to add the number of blocks needed to exicute on the ingame move-icons, like just having "10" written under the icon if you need 10 blocks to exicute it.

Dance moves have become an automatically executing system. Selectable Dance Moves was being referred to an unnecessary complexity and we agree. So this issue has resolved itself.

One thing that does need some clarity is, when you turn the block wheel with A and D, should that be done to the beat? Or is that not important and you can just change it as fast as you want? I'm not really sure, and the tutorial guy doesen't make it clear.

Ah, true. I'll see what we can do to make that more clear. Should be as simple as adding a little text in the rotation part of the tutorial "this doesn't have to be done to the beat".
 
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I was playing it a bit this morning and my right hand is so use to a mouse that its taking me some time to get used to the arrow keys.

I'm not much into puzzle games, but there is something that could be addicting to this game. I do agree with Grobut on setting up a rules page. Going thru the tutorial the other day, I started forgetting things as I learned new stuff. :p
 
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