next »

[FarspaceStudios]

Hey all,

I've already posted about this game in the Town Hall, but it was suggested I post it here if I wanted feedback - so here goes

My name is Marc McCann and I am joint owner/developer at http://www.farspacestudios.com. We are currently working on a title for the PC and Xbox360 (other platforms soon to follow) called Hyphen.

Hyphen is a must have addition to any puzzle/action game lover’s collection. Navigate a rotating stick through intricate and fiendish neon mazes while trying to avoid the walls and obstacles. Although it sounds extremely simple, it’s fun and infuriatingly challenging at the same time. Coupled with an awesome soundtrack and gorgeous glowing visuals this game will blow your mind in more ways than one.

Hyphen isn't quite finished yet but we have released a Pre-Release Demo so you can see what's in store for the full version.

This Pre-Release Demo consists of:-

4 Levels of varying difficulty from the full game
3 songs from the full OST
Keyboard/XBox Gamepad support

The demo is available to download for Windows PC's from http://www.farspacestudios.com/hyphen

I'd appreciate any feedback you can give please, we've had a fair few people play it already but haven't really received much in the way of feedback/how it ran on their systems etc.

I've attached a few screenshots and a link to a video of the game in action before deciding to download











A video of a level playthrough can be seen at





I look forward to any comments and feedback you may have

[Ancient Account]

The game looks fun...

The neon graphics makes me remember 'Geometry Wars'!

I look forward to this game.

[Digital Awakening]

Not my type of game but it looks good and it's an interesting concept

[QuadrupleA]

Hey -

Had a playthrough just now. Really well done as far as polish and production value - I used to be an XNA programmer myself, I can see a lot of work went into it. Did you use sunburn or anything like that or was it a custom engine? (only XNA game I ever released was Microbial but I've had 3 or 4 others that ended up unfinished - too ambitious, at least for my old toolset).

Framerate was a little low on the default 1080p resolution - I'm using a laptop with an Intel HD Graphics 3000 / NVidia combo - but I shrunk down to "768p" and it was fine. Nice that you allowed all the resolution switching and stuff in-game.

I'd ditch the "Press Start" screen on the PC side.

Some random gameplay comments:

On the 2nd level - the fork with two paths seemed a little confusing, since the game is so zoomed in - hard to mentally connect the two paths and make a mental map. I'd say the game would work better just sticking to linear paths (or add a minimap or something).

Didn't initially understand what the checkpoints were - there's just that down-arrow symbol - I'd change that to include the text "checkpoint", at least on the controls page. Think I had to see it on the "level complete" screen before it clicked.

It feels great when the levels complement your rotation direction - like you're gliding through in a nice flow - but really frustrating when the level goes against the rotation (e.g. a clockwise corridor when you're rotating counter-clockwise). I found myself wishing I could switch from clockwise to counter-clockwise.

I eventually got stuck on the 4th level when I set a checkpoint too close to an obstacle - the game got in a die-immediately cycle. And I was already 3 or 4 rows down after some brutally challenging stuff earlier in the level, so I didn't have the heart to restart from the beginning.

There were a few really frustrating points where I almost gave up before that - on level 4 (I think), there is a section of horizontal lines that requires almost pixel-accurate timing to get through - tiny nudges up and down, that I probably took 50 tries to get through. And I think shortly thereafter, a circular space with a very narrow entrance & exit, that also took like 50 tries.

If you're going for a catchy demo that leaves people wanting more, I'd scale the challenge way back - save it for the full game - give people a relatively gentle progression they can feel empowered by, and learn at their own pace, and then tease the harder stuff via screenshots or something. The game had a bit of a feel of being tuned toward the developers who are experts at it (I seem to make this mistake a lot in my games) - I'd do a few playtests if you haven't already where you observe someone brand new to the game trying it.

Another thing, depending on how much you're willing to change the game at this point - it'd make the gameplay a lot more compelling and empowering I think if there were powerups available that changed your abilities and gave you more choices as a player - e.g. a pellet you collect that can let you shrink your size for a brief time, or reverse your rotation, stop rotating for a few seconds, etc.

Anyway even if the gameplay has some shortcomings and might not grab everyone, I'd say super impressive polish and effort - music, graphics, transitions, etc.

And sorry for the big wall of text - as a developer I appreciate detailed feedback though so figured I'd give that (been struggling to get anyone to play & comment on the game I'm currently working on - Blaze06h has been awesome & helpful though).

[FarspaceStudios]

Wow, thankyou - that has to be the single best piece of feedback we've received so far! I'll give Microbial a download now, it looks pretty fun :D This is the first and probably last game we'll be doing in XNA. We're moving on to a custom C++ DX/GL engine for our next titles

Yes, we felt we had to allow resolution changing on the fly as the game does use a bit of GPU juice as all the glow etc is done in realtime, it does work Ok with the HD3000 providing you're willing to scale back a bit as you did (If you're running the Nvidia/HD3000 optimus thing like I am, it's worth making sure this game is ran on the Nvidia via the control panel, the game is shader heavy and shaders are pretty sluggish on HD3000's. I just have my laptop set to run everything on the Nvidia)

It's a custom engine we made, it's basically a 3D game rendered using an orthographic projection matrix. We figured it's easier to design levels in a modelling tool and allows us to have huge levels without worrying about tiling or texture sizes etc. We're also much better with 3D modelling so it was easier for us to get up and running to begin with rather than trying to figure out photoshop or gimp!

I'm glad you enjoyed the demo though, we have made the game intentionally tough, in fact some are even referring to it as a rage game which is a title I'm willing to go along with!

I agree with all your feedback and will certainly be taking it on board, the game is a lot more mature than it was when we released the demo a couple of months ago and I do think the full version will already have addressed some of the issues you pointed out

Regarding your gameplay comments:-

1.) I'll give a minimap some serious thought, it's a bit late at this stage to change some of the level designs and some do have alternate routes. They are always in place with reason however, some allow you to collect powerups and others are easy but more long winded while others are short and hard. I'm hoping people will come back and play around trying alternative paths when they are looking to get better scores to unlock extra game content etc.

2.) The checkpoint issue is sorted now, I noticed this from watching people play in YouTube videos, it took some people a while to realise what they are.

3.) We aren't going to allow change of rotation direction on the fly as it can quite easily be abused but we have strategically placed powerups that change direction for you to allow passage of certain puzzles etc.

4.) Thanks - I'll look into this, setting checkpoints is too close to an object is problematic and we allowed it to happen as a bit of a punishment that teaches you not to do it again. I don't want to deter people from playing though if that's the effect it has.

5.) The difficulty is intentional, however I will agree that maybe it is a little too much for the demo. I'll address this issue in the demo that accompanies the full release

6.) Same as 5 really, I'll change out some of the harder levels for easier ones in the full demo I agree though, it's pretty easy to think everyone will be able to play your own game as well as yourself. We have had a few playtests but they are all good gamers so they got the game pretty quickly. I might see if I can canvas some random people to come and have a go and I'll watch them play

7.) We have powerups:- rotation inverters, shrinkers, unlockables and things such as switches and keys etc to make puzzles in levels. The full game is way more advanced than this demo. We'll show some of this stuff off in the full demo for sure!

Thanks for playing the demo and taking the time to give me such valuable feedback, it is much appreciated. If you ever want any feedback on your own stuff feel free to give me a shout! In fact I just noticed your post about your game so I shall get a copy and have a play of it, I'll post some feedback in your thread when I'm done

[QuadrupleA]

Nice - yeah, I ended up using the same approach in most of my old XNA stuff, level design using Blender and 3D placement. Made the switch to C++ earlier in the year, that's been nice - I'm all about in-game editors these days

Interested to check out the full game's when it's ready, with all the powerups etc.

[Ancient Account]

I didn't even notice the download link...

Stupid me.

Edit: I kind of had an heart attack when I found out that this game has as size of 160 MB. Seriously, what made such a simple looking game 160 MB!?!

[FarspaceStudios]

Yeah it's a bit on the large side!   It's down to audio mainly. There are 4 full audio tracks and they are all uncompressed due to us not yet having completed the streaming of our custom compressed format when we released the demo. We had to do it this way as the guy who has done the soundtrack (Andrew Lloyd at http://www.andrewlloydgd.com) intends to sell the OST as an album seperately from the game. Using MP3, OGG or WMA's wasnt an option available to us as it's something anyone can just take from the install directory with no effort. Also the installer takes care of all dependencies and what not so that added a fair amount of bulk. Graphics etc are a tiny percentage of the game size as they are just 3d models with all the detailing done with shaders. It's not ideal and will certainly not be an issue in future demo and game releases due to us since getting our own compressed format working. It hasn't stopped a lot of other people downloading and installing it though so although far from ideal (160MB is large but not so large it's ridiculous) it's just the way it is in this build.

[Ancient Account]

Yeah it's a bit on the large side!

Most 2d games like Limbo, Braid, Super Meat Boy have a size of 100+ MB, but I just didn't expected this game to have a size of 100+ MB as well.