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(http://i.imgur.com/Pz9IZ.png)

Hey guys! Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I just launched a Kickstarter and was hoping for some feedback. My project is a virtual pet for the iPhone with GPS support and elements of Pokemon and Tamagotchi.

(http://i.imgur.com/bvsVK.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/Sfsry.png)

Essentially, the game generates in-game locations wherever you want. They're all a little bit different: the stores will have different food, toys and equipment to buy, the arcades have all kinds of minigames, the arenas have unique opponents... and so on.

(http://i.imgur.com/asPMM.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/2upls.png)

Please let me know what you guys think, and make sure to watch a video to see the prototype in action.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wanderteam/wanderpets-a-gps-enabled-iphone-game (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wanderteam/wanderpets-a-gps-enabled-iphone-game)

Thanks!

First impression: that pet thing is super creepy looking.  Is that a vampiric vagina dentata?

Hahaha... strangely, that's not the first time we've gotten that. :o

It looks like that pet might need some revision. Good to know!

Very interesting. So when you see the locations on the map, do you have to be in physical proximity to one to actually use it? Or do you just tap on the map and it becomes accessible?

I like the idea, and it has potential- but the graphics are pretty bad and the art direction non-existent. You might want considering teaming up with an artist.

In the prototype, you have to be in physical proximity to a location to use it. We feel like part of the game's appeal is in how strongly it's tied to the GPS. If you could visit any location no matter where you were, the GPS doesn't really matter at that point. There are several in-game items that allow you to bypass this restriction, however, and we're trying our best to make the game fun for people who don't necessarily run around a lot.


I'm kind of surprised to hear this. We have an artist, and although she's a student, I think the art looks much more polished than what you'd find in most other iOS games. The footage in the Kickstarter video and in these screenshots are of the prototype, and we plan to improve the look of the game (especially the UI). Is there an aspect of the art you find particularly bad? We'd appreciate all the feedback we can get here.

I don't know how, or in what circumstances, but I feel like this could lead to people eventually doing lawsuits for that gps feature... somehow!

My advice is to get some decent graphics if you want this to become really popular...and careful with the GPS thing - I agree with dogzer if you don't have a good privacy policy and clear terms of service that users have to agree with it might lead to some lawsuits.

 

There are plenty of other games with GPS functionality who manage to get by, but we would certainly tie this all up before release.


I'd love to know how the graphics could be improved, and I'm not being facetious. The UI is going to change for the better certainly, but are the pets unappealing to you? Is it too saturated?

For the pets, the blue cat is pretty cute, but the white thing is awful. Honestly, it looks terrible- it's like a 5 year old just went crazy on paint.

The first screenshot (title screen), I like. There's some effort in there.

The second screen is pretty good UI-wise, but the pet is terrible and the background looks like it was made in Paint in 10 seconds (solid greens and blues? jaggeddy clouds and grass?).

The third screenshot is horrible UI-wise. Your fonts are small, the grid is very unpleasant aesthetically (beware of the grid illusion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_illusion ) and the icons don't fit in the grid size-wise (the yoyo's string is overlapping the bottom part of the grid while the left side is cut by it).

The map view is pretty good, although your icons are not coherent- the graphical styles are different for each one (the N64 pad shows details, whereas the cart is just a glossy outline), and the colors don't go well together.

On the last screenshot, the icons are terrible too- bad outlines for the black ball things, all blurry and aliased for the fried egg. The text is barely readable (small + white on light colors), and the lack of alignment between "caviar", "food" and "109Q" makes it look bad. The buy button is too small and barely visible.

Your artist is seriously lacking in terms of color theory, typography and layout design.

Mmmh..we haven't been looking at the same iOS then... most successful iOS games are extremely well polished on a graphical standpoint.

I love the weird creepiness of the toothy white pet.  I actually prefer it to the blue one, but it is a bit odd contrasted with the rest of the game.  There's nothing else in your graphics that feel as dark or alien.  Honestly, if some the rest of your graphics leaned more toward that, it would be great.

Thanks for the writeup, Guillaume. Most of the issues you mention are my fault (the programmer) rather than the artist. She's mostly been focused on churning out assets rather than designing UI. Things like fonts will certainly be overhauled.


That's a good point. We might consider having a different background for the more evil pets.

No problem- sorry if it came too harsh that wasn't intentional.

I'm not a classically trained artist or anything, so take all I say with a grain of salt; I think I have developed a pretty good sense for good design, mostly through observation.

I recommend you and your team look at several very popular iPhone games, and think about their following aspects:

-  Colors- read up about color theory. You can find a bunch on intro that will explain to you the basics of how warm and cool colors interact, the idea of triadic colors and how to build color palettes, etc. If you look closely, you'll see that all polished games use a palette to convey their mood. Tiny Wings uses a palette of very pastel like colors, whereas Angry Birds uses bright, cheerful colors, and Trainyard uses soft, neon glowy colors.
- Typography- what fonts do they use? More than one? If so, what conditions the use of a font over an other?
- Alignment- that's pretty important, especially in UI elements- look at how buttons, etc. are aligned. Linearly, as if on a grid? Following diagonals? etc.
- Proximity- again important in UI elements- how spaced are the elements between one another?

There's a lot of other stuff to look out for to achieve good design, but these few elements usually make up the basis of something that looks well polished.