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[jay-run]

Hello!

We are two guys that after various mobile games we have decided to develop our first pc game.

CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH PRE-ALPHA DEMO!!!

or if you prefer :

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRE-ALPHA DEMO

When i was a child really like playing lego and soon but I have always thought that my construction was to static.
So my friend and I are developing our new building concept: Powershine



It is a sandbox game where fantasy is the undeniable lifeblood for your own creations.
The idea that we want to give you is that in a motionless place you can explore, design, build and bring to life whatever you want.

We have created a demo that you can try the first build(DEMO link is in description):
Powershine


We are working on a new features for future updates... but in the meantime we want to show you our buildings and we would like also to see yours (and i am sure that you will be better than us)

[jay-run]

This is the direct DEMO link of 0.0.1 version (download directly):
Dropbox direct 0.0.1 link

[Matousen_]

After initial approch, not properly smooth in my opinion, I built this :



I am very happy!
It can incredible sense of dynamism
I am very new on this forum (I am registered only one months ago more or less) I have commented various thread about various games and this was passed under my eyes but..my mind told me "another minecraft clone"...I am totally wrong!!

I am a minecraft player since from beginning, after I read description I was inclined to the test. I open Demo and I realized that it was different from minecraft.

Thank you developer for this type of game, it was stunning for future improvements that you can inserted in.

only one things, one map is poor, can you added others maps?

Thank you

[Quicksand-S]

I saw the Unity loading bar and then I just got blackness. No graphics or sounds at all.

[jay-run]

Strange, i don't know why!
Maybe in some situation after loading doesn't appear anything but after click with cursor on unity frame and after seconds appears jay-run logo and game starts.
If you prefer you can click after unity web browser link and download standalone version. (I have updated initial thread post).

[jay-run]

Great building Matousen!
That's a kick!

It looks really wonderful! We are happy that you understand the mechanism of our game and you like it.
Yes, you have right! One maps is poor..
And the moment we don't know how many they will be, but we will think about it carefully and we are go to prepare other maps!!

Thanks!
Keeping post your buildings! 

[rj]

hyperactive hyperdrive, and

[Quicksand-S]

Even in the downloaded version I thought it had stopped working because the first logo takes about five seconds to show up. I would normally expect it to be maybe one or two seconds.

-The very first thing I did was place a sphere, hoping to watch it roll around, so I was a bit disappointed from the start that I couldn't activate physics on it.

-The game has a fairly nice look to it. The graphical presets are a bit weird, though. "Good" makes shadows fade in really close to the camera, for example, which certainly doesn't look "Good" at all.

-The red clouds in the storm looked pretty weird because the lighting on the world doesn't really match (especially the water, which remains bright blue despite there not being any blue anywhere).

-I think my main issue with it, compared to something like Minecraft, is that it takes too long to build anything decent. I can't just click a hundred times to build a wall. I have to click, slowly place the thing, click again, then click again, slowly place the new one, and so on.

-I think this sort of building works better when things have "snap-together" points on them, like CARGO: The Quest for Gravity or, if I'm remembering right, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. It makes everything go faster when you know things will line up nicely.

-The biggest issue I had with the game was just that objects, especially large ones, get stuck in the ground and one another. Rather than letting me place them, they'd just deselect themselves if I turned. I would highly recommend not making objects solid until they've been set in place.

-The shovel seemed really slow to use and made me not even want to try mining resources. Trying it again, I realized that it might just be the animation that makes it seem slow. Maybe that could be sped up, or the shovel could stay out for a second in case the player clicks again.

-Another speed-related thing is that the number keys aren't used as shortcuts to my tools. Having to scroll through things every time I want a new object makes building even slower.

-Trying to place a new object next to an existing one can be frustrating because it's too easy to just select the old object instead. Maybe selecting existing objects should require a key to be held or something.

-I stuck a block onto a sphere and it twisted back and forth with the sphere. I stuck a pyramid and a cube on that same sphere and they did nothing. Things just don't always seem to connect. (I deactivated, reactivated, deactivated, and then reactivated the sphere and suddenly the cube was moving with it as I'd wanted in the first place.)

-Looking at that helicopter GIF makes me wonder if I missed something about the spheres. can I make them rotate constantly? All I saw was the up-and-down movement and the spin-back-and-forth one.

-I realize that the point of the game is to build things, but I was disappointed that I couldn't go underwater (or even see underwater). Also, the edge of the water is really hyperactive. There's no need for the waves washing up against the shore to be that fast. The 3D water is pretty cool, though.

-I saw a lot of shadows flickering on the ground in some areas, without any objects nearby. They disappeared and reappeared as I moved or rotated my view. They usually appeared on slopes. Also on the topic of shadows, even with "Fantastic" graphics, the shadows are constantly jiggling, and my character's hand doesn't cast shadows on the objects being held.

-While walking, I noticed a small shadow in front of me. It looks like whatever's strapped to my character's left arm is casting a shadow on the ground even though no other part of their body does.

-Even on the highest graphical settings, the LOD changes for trees are really noticeable and very close to the camera.

-In the color-setting area, the left and right arrows for selecting colors look like they're disabled because they're dark and blend in with the background a bit. It would be nice to be able to click on of the colors from the bottom to set my object's color.

-In your help text, it says "presetted" (should be "preset") and "usefull" (should be "useful").

-You'd think I'd know this by now, but how do I reopen the graphical settings after running the game once? When I wanted to check out other graphical presets, the options window didn't open so I had to re-unzip the game.


It seems most of my gameplay-related comments are about making the building more efficient so players can make things more quickly. I find that when I play a building game for too long, I start to feel like I'm wasting my time because there's nothing to do but build fake things that I can't do much with. If it takes long to build even the simplest things, then I'll probably start to feel that way even faster.


Edit: This may have sounded a bit too negative, so I want to be clear that I think it works pretty well for an early demo and the concept is something that should appeal to a pretty large audience. It was nice to see that the controls were mostly intuitive as well.

[jay-run]

Thank you very much Quicksand-S for your extremely "completed" answer.
How we told before, this game is always under development and maybe there are some issues that do not affect the player experience.

But let's go step by step :

Yes now game is not "physical effect" : this is our personal choice but in the future (probably in some situation or maps) will be physics objects and situations.

This game is different from minecraft... in this game, you don't have to build all your constructions or creations (but if you want you can) because - in future updates - there will be some "Custom Objects" that help player to create his ideas effortless.

IMHO grid structure (like in cargo or in banjoo kazooie) is too constrict and our game isn't based on that type of foundation but it is only our personal choice.

Various problems with collision between objects and ground will be resolved in future game builds .
In future game builds (maybe 0.3 version that we will be release at the end of the week) some improvements let you build quickly like :
Double button mouse, one button for clic and another for editing pieces that are yet in the world.
With "F" KeyButton you can "fixed" your piece on the nearest rotation angle in which that piece is  (You will find instructions in menu shown before enter in level map).

About construction...
- Before giving movement to creations, you have to put a static sphere in the ambience or on your creations.
If you want to move your building (just after you put the static sphere in) you have to throw one of the Materia (lighten spheren) to the static sphere.
Just in this moment your creations will move, based on various angle and linear movement (slot 8 and 9 of the toolbar) and speeding of the dynamic sphere you have chosen.

Like you have said Quicksand-S, I realise that the first approach is a bit "traumatic" but then game becomes very satisfying.
 
For LODs system, there are some problems with game performance but maybe in future game builds we'll fix them.

We have in program one quick "animated" tutorial that helps player to know how game works.

For others issued like : fake shadows, flickering, and the sky color...When we have some time, we will fix this minor issues.

Thanks Quicksand, we really appreciate this type of feedback.
Also because that I have seen that you love give your opinion to the community and I think your contribution increase the level of the community.

[Quicksand-S]

- Before giving movement to creations, you have to put a static sphere in the ambience or on your creations.
If you want to move your building (just after you put the static sphere in) you have to throw one of the Materia (lighten spheren) to the static sphere.
Just in this moment your creations will move, based on various angle and linear movement (slot 8 and 9 of the toolbar) and speeding of the dynamic sphere you have chosen.

I purposely didn't read all the instructions in the game until later because I wanted to see how intuitive the controls were. I'm happy to report that the steps for using the spheres were pretty easy to figure out. I was just wondering if I could do more with them. I take it there really are only two movement types at the moment (spin left then back, ore move up and then down)? That helicopter GIF threw me off because it looks like it only spins in one direction and I couldn't figure out how to do that.

[jay-run]

Yes, there is now only two types of movements for spheres. At the moment we think that it's enough to build different kind of creations but never say never...
Do you have any suggestions to give us? other kind of movements for dynamic spheres?

Thank you in advance

[Quicksand-S]

Do you have any suggestions to give us? other kind of movements for dynamic spheres?

Well, since it apparently doesn't exist, I think an endlessly rotating sphere would be very good to add.

Personally, I would prefer to just be able to adjust attributes of the sphere, though, rather than only having limited options. For example, a "rotation" sphere could let users adjust whether or not they want it to only go one way, how fast they want it to rotate, etc. A "movement" or "translation" sphere could give you options for how far you want it to move and in which direction.

[darkhog]

Seems like GMod and Minecraft had a child. That might actually work, provided there's enough modability. Would love to see this finished and art style is LOVEABLE! Don't ever think of changing art style.

[jay-run]

QUISKSAND- S

Personally, I would prefer to just be able to adjust attributes of the sphere, though, rather than only having limited options. For example, a "rotation" sphere could let users adjust whether or not they want it to only go one way, how fast they want it to rotate, etc. A "movement" or "translation" sphere could give you options for how far you want it to move and in which direction.

Yes, to introduce something that let you adjust attributes of the Materia spheres could be great! Thanks for your suggestions!

QUISKSAND- S

Well, since it apparently doesn't exist, I think an endlessly rotating sphere would be very good to add.

From your reply, I might not having explain myself very well in our last conversations.
And I'm sorry about it! I try again.
About Materia spheres with linear movement:
 if I put one Materia sphere in a static sphere for giving it a movement, the static sphere (that's became dynamic)moves itself forward (and return to the starting position) depending on the speed of the Materia sphere that you have chosen (the color of Materia sphere).
About Materia sphere with rotation movement
If I put a Materia sphere in a static sphere, the rotation is already endless.
You have just to choose the rotation spheres - in the toolbar - that you want
Your building will rotate 4ever in the clockwise at the chosen rotation and his speed will be determinated by the color of the Materia sphere that you have used.
For example: if you choose a 180 degree Materia sphere, your static sphere will move endless at 180 degrees (foward and back on this rotation angle). If I choose 360 degree ones, my static sphere will move endless at 360 degree (continuuos and complete round)

We have worked in these days on toolbar to get more comprehensive the concept of how Materia spheres work.
In a few hours, we are going to upload a new build where we hope, players could undestand better our idea.
We knew that it wasn't so immediate.. 
We are also working on a new interactive tutorial, with less words and more intuitive (and not boring to read!) for players. This will be release in a week, more or less.

I hope that I understand right what you ask me and that I explain myself better! Sorry, but my english sometimes is not excellent 



DARKHOG

Seems like GMod and Minecraft had a child. That might actually work, provided there's enough modability. Would love to see this finished and art style is LOVEABLE! Don't ever think of changing art style.

Thank you very much for your support and feedback! 
We hope not to disappoint you in the future!

[Quicksand-S]

depending on the speed of the Materia sphere that you have chosen (the color of Materia sphere).

Ah, ok. That's the info I was missing. I only ever saw the two basic types of sphere and never considered that changing the color of those spheres would have any effect, since you never really see them (except when they're flying toward an object). Maybe rather than pressing a button for "Color" (which doesn't suggest anything about speed or rotation), you could rename it to "Attributes" or something, since that makes sense for all object types.

I just gave it another look. I was able to change the attributes of the rotation sphere, which was nice, but pressing C for the other one did nothing. I could not change the speed of the linear-movement sphere because of that.

[ODINKONG]

When you said you liked to play with legos I instantly though of blockland http://store.steampowered.com/app/250340/
I would be curious to know what your overall design for the game is. It was fun running around your world and I built a couple things. Although I wasn't compelled to build much. I am wondering if you intend on making this into a survival type game, because I think that could have some great potential. If you don't want to make this a survival game I don't see any purpose for collecting materials, it just gets in the way of building. However If you had monsters guarding the materials and it was necessary to build vehicles and moving objects to get around these monsters then I think you have quite a unique Idea. It would be very interesting to see a game not based on building static objects to protect yourself but one based on building robotic objects to go on the offensive. Getting new materials using your creations could prove quite addicting. I spent most of my time playing destroying every object I could and finding the edge of the map. I would love to build some sort of robotic arm that crushes my foes. I hope this helps.

[jay-run]

Hello guys! Many Thanks for your Feedback!!! 

QUICKSAND-S

I just gave it another look. I was able to change the attributes of the rotation sphere, which was nice, but pressing C for the other one did nothing. I could not change the speed of the linear-movement sphere because of that.

When you press C, at the moment you can only change the color Materia Spheres.In Future, we will add other attributes bottons.
About linear Materia spheres: you can change speed of movement by pressing C and changing colors. If you want that your static sphere goes farther, you have to put in it more than one Materia spheres.

Movement speed depends on Materia spheres color, while the distance (that the static sphere can travel) depends on the number oF Materia spheres you put in the static one.
I hope to explain myself in a right way, if you have any doubt, please tell me again! 



ODINKONG

However If you had monsters guarding the materials and it was necessary to build vehicles and moving objects to get around these monsters then I think you have quite a unique Idea. It would be very interesting to see a game not based on building static objects to protect yourself but one based on building robotic objects to go on the offensive. Getting new materials using your creations could prove quite addicting

Yeah, really excellent idea!
Thanks for your feedback!
Ps: Feel free - if you want - to share with us also your little creations 

[Quicksand-S]

About linear Materia spheres: you can change speed of movement by pressing C and changing colors.

That's what I'm saying. It didn't work. Pressing C with the linear Materia sphere selected did absolutely nothing. It worked fine for the rotational one, so it seems like a pretty serious bug and not just a misunderstanding about the controls.

Movement speed depends on Materia spheres color, while the distance (that the static sphere can travel) depends on the number oF Materia spheres you put in the static one.

That's useful information.

[jay-run]

Hello!

Many Thanks!

QUICKSAND-S

That's what I'm saying. It didn't work. Pressing C with the linear Materia sphere selected did absolutely nothing. It worked fine for the rotational one, so it seems like a pretty serious bug and not just a misunderstanding about the controls.

Very very sorry!
You are right.. I have written wrong before!
You can change speed of movement by pressing C and changing colors for the ROTATIONAL MATERIA SPHERE!
For changing speed of movement (and colors) of the LINEAR MATERIAL SPHERE, you have to keep click on a number (in the high part of keyboard, for example number 7) and then, a little menu will open and with the scroll,  you can choose the color.

Sorry again  and I hope this time to give you useful information

Anyway, in one week time (more or less) there will be ready an interactive tutorial and everything will be explain better! 

[Quicksand-S]

For changing speed of movement (and colors) of the LINEAR MATERIAL SPHERE, you have to keep click on a number (in the high part of keyboard, for example number 7) and then, a little menu will open and with the scroll,  you can choose the color.

Wow. Is that by design, or just because the game is still being developed? It seems very, very strange that you have a pretty simple, usable setup for the rotational one and something entirely different (and completely unintuitive) for the linear one.