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[zukalous]

City Tuesday is a 2D platformer in which the world repeats the same 5 minutes over and over again.

You play the man in red and you are the only one aware of this time loop. Your task is to study the world to find out where the bombs where hidden and grab them before the world resets again.

So in one case you find out that a bomb was hidden in a money shipment to a bank. You have to follow the armored van to find the moment the security lets its guard down and allows you to grab the bomb.

I am coding the game in XNA for release on the XBLIG platform.

Right now I am testing the training level to make sure  the basic concepts come across.
If you want to try out City Tuesday, and are an App Hub developer, you can download it from the forums here: http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/84442/615120.aspx#615120

Here are some screen shots:

[moi]

interesting...

[Bishop]

Hey Chris, I think us XNA devs are in the minority on here. Just played the demo you posted. I think it took me about 3 minutes to get through, maybe 5 tops. I never really struggled with any part of it majorly, but there were a lot of minor confuses at the start, simple feedback issues.

The escalators too me a few attempts to realize you hold up to move up them rather than diagonal. The timer confused me a little, how it counts down in the hub world and goes up occasionally in the tutorial. Perhaps instead of having a minute per screen, give 5 across the whole tutorial and a faster speed up time notch, or maybe even a complete reset button. I also feel the tutorial should come before the hub world rather than something you access from it, but that's fairly minor. Oh yea, picking up a coin took me a little while, might have been a hit box thing.

Overall though, I liked it, great concept.

[zukalous]

Great analysis.

The time in the tutorial has been my biggest struggle. I originally had one 5 minute timer across the whole thing but there were a couple reasons why I changed it:
1) Testers feeling too much pressure because if you are just learning the concepts you dont want to also be rushed.
2) I wanted to show that it is ok if time runs out. You dont die, there is no penalty.
3) If there is one across the board timer, and it runs out,  do they start the tutorial over? Tutorials are bad enough, they are even worse when you have to do it over again.
 
Bishop, when you were first trying it did you feel any of these pressures?

[IndieGamesDig]

Wanna play this, but keep getting an error "Server Error in '/' Application.". Hmm, might be my browser (firefox) or something because I can log into AppHub no problem.

Was this featured on indiegames.com a while time ago? I've definitely seen a preview of this before.

[zukalous]

Wait just to make sure, you are getting the message "Server Error in '/' Application." from the app hub website right? Not from trying the City Tuesday on your xbox?

Ya I was lucky enough to get featured here: http://indiegames.com/2011/07/trailer_city_tuesday_chris_zuk.html

[moi]

this is typically the type of projects that will get some press on indiegames.com/blog

[Bishop]

Bishop, when you were first trying it did you feel any of these pressures?

Occasionally, sometimes I was reading and nearly ran out of time in one of the rooms before stepping into the next to have the timer jump up a minute. I think locking them in a room for the forced death is a good approach. Perhaps the timer could be invisible until that point? You get stuck and then it fades in with a minute or so left.

Also I forgot to mention I had to complete the tube station puzzle twice, didn't step through the door in time on the first completion.

City Tuesday is due for release sometime in the next couple of months on Xbox Live Indie Games.

July 12, 2011. Lol.

[zukalous]

City Tuesday is due for release sometime in the next couple of months on Xbox Live Indie Games.

July 12, 2011. Lol.

[/quote]

Ya I know, I got married.

[IndieGamesDig]

Wait just to make sure, you are getting the message "Server Error in '/' Application." from the app hub website right? Not from trying the City Tuesday on your xbox?

Yeah, I got that message on my laptop; does this only work on the Xbox atm? I only use my app hub account to access their XNA development forums, don't really use it for Xbox stuff yet.

[zukalous]

Ya for now it is only for xbox (xblig).

[zukalous]

Hi updated a ton of stuff because I submitted City Tuesday to DBP.
I also made an updated trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Zi3TnXqXbj8


If you have an apphub membership you can playtest it here: http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/84442/623311.aspx#623311

[SuperSmithBros]

I'll take a look when its gone through process, I missed it last time it was in playtest.

[wg/funstorm]

Fascinating concept. How many attempts does it take the average player to win in your experience?

[IndieGamesDig]

Hah, i just now read the idea where players take the bomb from the armored car when the security guard isn't looking, straight outa groundhog day  .

[zukalous]

Fascinating concept. How many attempts does it take the average player to win in your experience?

The game doesn't count attempts because it isn't a competition to see who can do it in the fewest. Instead players are encouraged to repeat and repeat. Some puzzles will take several game-loops to find out what they need to do.

[zukalous]

I just released a new version for testing.




Here is what is new since you last playtested:
1) A NEW PUZZLE. It is at the end of "country world".
Puzzle elements include some of the following:
- An anglophile
- A constant gardener
- A dog with a passive aggressive bladder.

2) Fixed that troublesome Code 4 that people were finding when paying JD Dyslexic to shake it (and by it I mean his god given talent).

App hub members can play it here:
http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/84442/625945.aspx#625945

[zukalous]

Hey After a year and a half I finally finished City Tuesday.

You can download it now for Xbox Live.

Here is the link:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/City-Tuesday/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550bd7

I am super excited and glad to have this community.
Here is a trailer