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[jandyco]

Hey folks,

We have released our first game and figured that we could really use some feedback. It has been out for a few weeks now and we have made a few updates to fix some bugs and to add 10 localized languages. We are already in the process of further updates based on feedback received.

We hope you enjoy it and we certainly welcome any feedback you may have!

Thanks!

Title: Nixie - Challenge Your Brain
Genre: Puzzler
Summary: Vaguely similar to minesweeper but with some twists. Found out after development that it is very similar to Akari, although our rules are a bit different.
Other: It's free, 100 phone levels, 10 tablet levels.

App Store Links:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nixie-challenge-your-brain/id546520101?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jandyco.Nixie

Trailer/Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5unf4F0WqPI

[Quicksand-S]

It looked intriguing, so I downloaded it (for iOS).

The tutorial was very slow, in terms of the timing. It would be nice if I could move more quickly through the steps. It also stopped just after the "block is validated" step and never moved forward. I tried to get back to the main menu, but quitting just took me to a black screen.

The game could really use some music, and maybe some reworked interface/menu graphics. I do like the graphics for the "board" though. Some sounds in the menus would be nice as well. Speaking of sounds, I like most of them except for the victory one. That one comes across as obnoxious to me. It may just be that it's a bit long.

I feel like most of the "Easy" levels are far too easy. Once a person has the basic concept down, there's no need to spend another six levels or so drilling that into their brain. That said, maybe the game doesn't make things clear. In level 6, I won easily, but each of the 3s was only in contact with one circle. That didn't seem to fit with what I thought the rules were.

Bug? I tapped on an empty square and it flashed red just like it does when you tap on a lit square.

The ad that played after level 7 was long and irritating.

Level 8 broke. I placed four circles but no squares lit up. I reset and found myself unable to place any circles anymore. Quitting once again took me to that black screen and forced me to restart the app. I went to double-check something in level 6 and then level 7 ran into this same error where squares wouldn't activate.

The concept seems sound, but it's basically unplayable if I have to manually close and reopen the app every few levels. That said, it could just be my device. I'm on an iPod Touch 4th Gen with iOS 6.1.6.

[jandyco]

Thanks for the reply quicksand and sorry for the delay - I had been out on vacation.

Your response was very detailed and I certainly appreciate that! I'll try to touch on all the points.

It sounds as if there is some compatibility issues on your device. The app was developed using Corona SDK (we have since moved away from the platform) and unfortunately we do not have the low level access we need to really see whats going on.

The tutorial was very slow, in terms of the timing. It would be nice if I could move more quickly through the steps.

I think that is a good point, possibly adding some touch detection to just tap your way through versus just a timer.

It also stopped just after the "block is validated" step and never moved forward. I tried to get back to the main menu, but quitting just took me to a black screen.

I was unable to reproduce this, and it was the first time I heard of it. My only guess is device/firmware incompatibility. I'll try to investigate further.

The game could really use some music, and maybe some reworked interface/menu graphics. I do like the graphics for the "board" though. Some sounds in the menus would be nice as well. Speaking of sounds, I like most of them except for the victory one. That one comes across as obnoxious to me. It may just be that it's a bit long.

We are definitely novices when it comes to game music but this could be a good time to work on our skills. Thanks for the feedback on the victory sound - we definitely need to remove any major turnoffs like that.

I feel like most of the "Easy" levels are far too easy. Once a person has the basic concept down, there's no need to spend another six levels or so drilling that into their brain. That said, maybe the game doesn't make things clear. In level 6, I won easily, but each of the 3s was only in contact with one circle. That didn't seem to fit with what I thought the rules were.

I was on the fence about how many "easy" levels to do. I think originally I was hoping to introduce the concept slowly so that the rules were reinforced but I think I failed, hah. Good point on the rules - that is probably the most common feedback I have received and I am still trying to think of how to explain the rules in a more coherent manner. For instance, the level you described, grouped numbers only need that many circles touching any of the grouped numbers sides/corners.

Bug? I tapped on an empty square and it flashed red just like it does when you tap on a lit square.

Flashing red implies an "illegal" move. You cannot place a circle in an already lit square and you can only place a circle at the edge/corner of a number block. I tried to make this apparent in the tutorial but the length of it may make it too easy to overlook.

The ad that played after level 7 was long and irritating.

We made it so that ads play every X minutes (at the end of levels) versus hard coding them to play on certain levels. We are still trying to figure out the best monetization scheme. We figured a 15 second every X minutes had a better chance of garnering downloads and happy customers than paid app from some developer that no one has heard of with a game concept that doesn't appeal to the masses. We are definitely open for opinions on alternatives though!

Level 8 broke. I placed four circles but no squares lit up. I reset and found myself unable to place any circles anymore. Quitting once again took me to that black screen and forced me to restart the app. I went to double-check something in level 6 and then level 7 ran into this same error where squares wouldn't activate.

Can't reproduce, again I think its device/firmware issue. Will need to investigate further.

The concept seems sound, but it's basically unplayable if I have to manually close and reopen the app every few levels. That said, it could just be my device. I'm on an iPod Touch 4th Gen with iOS 6.1.6.

I completely agree - when an app doesn't work it is completely useless. This is the first time I heard of such major issues so it seems to be very rare. But I will do some digging to see if there is any way to hopefully fix the issues.

Thanks again!

[ThisIsAvery]

Had trouble finding it - had to look up by JandyCo. Turned out it was #23 under "Nixie" and it doesn't show up at all searching for "Nixie Challenge Your Brain".


Here's two videos of my trying out the game for the first time, and getting the puzzles and going on for a bit:
http://www.twitch.tv/thisisavery/b/534898351
http://www.twitch.tv/thisisavery/b/534899428

Unfortunately the ads crash the emulator I'm using, so I didn't get too far, but I got all my thoughts down for you. The ads worked fine on my Galaxy S2.


Tutorial

I totally didn't understand the puzzle after the tutorial. With the current look/animations, I really wanted to think the power "expanding" from the nodes you place is what powered the rule blocks. It was hard to get that only adjacency matters, mainly because there's no visual cue about the adjacency.

I think when you place a node next to a rule block, some kind of connection should form. Like electricity going to the rule block or a wire that plugs into one of X sockets on the rule block. Those are maybe terrible ideas, but there should be some kind of visual feedback that placing a node next to a rule block does something different than placing it away from a rule block.

Also, even after several levels I didn't get that rule blocks can power each other, as well. I would definitely argue for a visual indicator of how rule blocks are being satisfied.


10-second require ads

It's good to have the ads in-between levels, rather than the crass banner, I think. But playing ads that require you to sit for 10 seconds might be too much.


Juiciness

You could definitely add some more juiciness to most actions. Make everything feel really nice and rewarding, especially completing a puzzle successfully.

Take a look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg


Summary

Great work! It's a fully-complete game!! Everything's there from start to finish. Great level design, too. A bit more polish and it could really stand out!

Even better, it's a really different, actually-great puzzle mechanic. I could see certain players totally get addicted to it.

[jandyco]

ThisIsAvery -- your feedback was much appreciated! Watching you play the game in real time provided significant insight into how a typical consumer may interpret the game.

My takeaway from what you said, and just observing you play, is that our biggest issue is explaining the game mechanics. Even explaining in plain english how the game works has been somewhat of a difficult thing. Your feedback of adding visual clues may be a key to the solution. The fact that the tutorial didn't help at all in understanding the game, and possibly even making it more confusing, is a real big concern for us. So right now our number one concern is to remove any confusion in the game.

The ads is something that we are still trying to work out. I'll be completely honest here, the game has been out almost a month and it has made $4 dollars total. The biggest issue being that we do not have enough users playing the game. You did bring up a good point in that you were shown an ad after the first level when you started another session. I will most likely put something in place to prevent that.

Thanks for pointing me towards that video - and that term. I haven't had a chance to watch it all the way through yet it but it is on my list. I think some of the first things I plan to do after the things above are done are to change the win sound, remove the gate after levels so that users can take some time to look at the completed level, and just add some general polish and juice 

Thanks again - like I said before all of this feedback, especially the twitch videos, will be really helpful!

[ThisIsAvery]

Glad to help! If it's any consolation, explaining the rules clearly is the #1 problem for virtually all new puzzle games.

Once you really get that, though, I feel it's a pretty good, actually-new puzzle game. Even if this one never works out, maybe you could relaunch it as a new title once everything's really polished.

If you want to work on the game's virality (K-factor) and ad monetization, I can give some advice about that, too. But I think start with explaining the mechanics better.