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[Ammypendent]

Techno Dash
IndieDB | DevBlog

A Look of the New UI!

Greetings!
I'd like to present my team's first project: Techno Dash. The game has been worked on during myself and my partner's spare time and we started out with hardly any programming experience.

Our Current Focus
[2/3] We've finally gotten around to creating the look of the New UI with mockups. They're not implemented in the game yet but will be soon. Tell us what you think of them.

[12/20] We are focusing on improving the tutorial and are replacing more and more of the stand-in assets with polished ones. Any specific feedback on the tutorial and the interface would be much appreciated



The Game
Best phrase to describe Techno Dash is that it's essentially 'Star Fox meets Temple Run.' It's a 3D endless flyer where you primarily dodge obstacle and collect star bits in Techno Space and try to assemble stars. You can purchase upgrades, ships and items with star bits and collecting stars unlock things.

The initial platforms to release will be mobile and will use the Tilt accelerometers to control the ship. We plan to later on create PC/Mac builds and if possible, release on Ouya.


Feedback
HERE is the Latest Build - From Early Jan. Still has the old UI.

Myself and my partner would love to get feedback on our first game. We got a 'beta survey' button in the game that takes you to a survey monkey page. Let us know what you think!

[William Chyr]

Hey, I just gave it a try. Pretty nice for a first game.

Some thoughts:

• I think the voice volume is way too low compared to the music volume. If I wasn't reading the text on the screen, I wouldn't be able to tell what the voice was saying.
• It's pretty hard to gauge how far away things are, especially since you have movement in the vertical direction as well. Have you thought of having a set of lines around the border that let you get a sense of distance, like below?
  
  

[jillians]

Pretty cool first game so far.

I agree with the above feedback. I'm glad you are working on the tutorial because it's a bit long, but i did appreciate the humor when i messed up.

I'd say the sensitivity probably needs to be adjusted, the controls feel really sporadic at times. I also don't think you need to let the ship pitch further than is possible to go, it's too hard to correct after that.

I like the effect you have going on when i brush up against the wall. I can't wait to see the new assets.

[Ammypendent]

Thanks a bunch for playing and giving feedback!

@WillyChyr - The idea of the the 'distance' lines is great and we got that implemented in the new build of the game. Thanks for that suggestion!

@jillians - Thanks for the feedback on the tutorial, since the previous build we have done a new iteration of it.

The new version is on the updated link in the first post. The major change is the redesigned tutorial with Voice Over and a step that gives a preview of how the game is like. There are still a couple things unfinished as of the build (Beta 0.4) but we would love feedback on what you think of it and any other suggestions to improve the game.

[joe_eyemobi]

Hey there, this is quite a fun little game! 

I like the jaunty music and the atmosphere you've created.  I also like the nod to starfox with the level and ship designs.

I agree with the above posts re: the sensitivity of the controls.  In tight situations it's easy to completely lose it.

Also before you ship the game, I'd highly recommend upgrading the UI a bit, e.g. the overall graphics, the font etc..  Get it professional looking and you'll attract more players.

[Ammypendent]

Thanks for the feedback joe_eyemobi!

Could you go into more detail on which UI elements needs the most work on? Since the last build we've fixed the overlapping text and did some polishing but we would always like to know what else looks out of place.

[joe_eyemobi]

Having looked at a couple of starfox screens again, I guess that is the look and feel you're going for so that may be ok.  I'm not sure - just my opinion, but a cleaner, more modern UI would attract me more, perhaps like this:

http://hellowoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/future-UI-031.jpg

[gregmax17]

The first thing that annoyed me right off the bat, and this was mentioned by Willy as well, make the box lines/grids move. With them static it looks like you are in a still cubic space while, moving...?

I really like the UI joe pointed out. Maybe somehow incorporate some of those in there?

Great job so far!

[Ammypendent]

Yeah, that UI example you shown is really sweet. My partner is right now working on trying to incorporate elements from that with the revamped UI. Thanks again 

As for the grid lines, I think I see what you're meaning gredmax17. Willy talked about the lack of any of them and since we put them in I can see having them move could improve them further so it feels like you're moving through a corridor. I'll be working on that for the time being.

[ohaiguy]

Played a bit Mostly just the Demo.

1. I noticed that, when the demo music loops, there is a big audio drop/disparity. There may have been a fade or a problem with the transition back to the beginning of the song.

2. I failed the first direction input. I got "Ooops, let's try that again" and then nothing happened

[Ammypendent]

Thanks for letting us know about those bugs ohaiguy!  :D

We haven't touched the music in a while and focused on a whole lot of other things but now that you pointed it out it's so obvious. We'll get that fixed.

As for the tutorial break... I thought I created a failsafe to keep that bug from happening  . Thanks for telling us about it so we can make sure it's fixed right this time.

What's happening now is that we've got a good portion of the HUD remade and we'll use that as the foundation to remake the rest of the UI style. Once that is done we'll get some screenshots posted.

[Ammypendent]

Hey All!

We finally got enough progress on creating the look of the new UI. The first one is at the OP and here's another one of the Store Menu. Thanks to joe_eyemobi again for the cool reference. The rest of the images (and future ones) are on the game's IndieDB page.

Here's a few answers we'd like to know:

what do you think the button in the bottom right does? (without looking at the test build )

And do you think the Back Button should have a orange-yellow border?

In other news, I've finally reprogrammed the tutorial in that it should no longer have any hang-ups of any kind (I hope). Once we get the new UI put in we'll upload another build.