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[Bernie]

Hello! I've made a freeware game called A Game with a Kitty 6: Moon Minion. Long title, short-ish game. It's a 3d platformer designed mostly for touch input. The point was to get rid of on-screen gamepads. I don't like them much in 3d platformers.

The control scheme is my main worry. I can use it well enough, but can other players? Is it too unresponsive on some devices? Is the scheme any good at all?

Here's how the controls work:
The camera usually is centered on the main character. You hold your finger down in the direction he should walk into. The closer to the character, the slower. Tapping is jumping. There are hotspots to tap, like ballons and objcets to cling to or climb up and down on. Enemies are hotspots, too. The player character will try to jump towards the tapped point or hotspot.

Actions like talking are triggered by tapping a !-Symbol that appears. The player character needs to look at things to make this symbol appear. Save points are activated that way.

Other stuff
Other than that, the game is basically set up kind of like Mario 64 with a certain amount of things to find in levels. Progression depends on the collected amount at certain points. (Keeping the narrative and structure simple helps me finish my stuff. ) The game wasn't designed for super-high resolution and textures look blurry sometimes.

I've also used royalty free music from www.incompetech.com because making music is hard and time-consuming.

The game is in a RC/Beta state right now. It was made in Unity3d.

Feedback!
The touch controls are my main gripe. What do you guys think? Other than that I'm having my issues with 3d modeling. My stuff looks like PS1/N64 a lot. Thanks for playtesting!

Screenshots






Downloads
Windows: http://www.origamihero.com/k6pc.zip
Mac: http://www.origamihero.com/k6mac.zip
Android: http://www.origamihero.com/k6android.zip
Unity Webplayer: http://www.origamihero.com/k6

Android Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.origamihero.agwak6

[AlexRamallo]

Wow great game! I really like it :D. Aside to maybe being a bit over saturated, I think the graphics are nice.


About the controls..

I can see what you were going for, and it works ok, but I had a few issues with it:

• Depth perception was confusing sometimes. It made jumping towards collectibles confusing.
  
• Jumping was annoying. I think you should consider having double-tap to jump instead. Sometimes I just want to move the cursor out of the way, and the cat jumps instead. Sometimes I just accidentally tap the screen with no intention of jumping.
• Minor issue, but sometimes I couldn't see where I was going because I blocked it with my hand. Probably just because I haven't gotten use to it though.
• I also walked off of platforms a few times accidentally. Not sure if it was a glitch with the game, or my touch screen registering a false touch. Didn't seem to reoccur, though, so its probably nothing

Overall though, I think it is much better than a virtual gamepad. I do like virtual gamepads, but for a slow 3d platformer like this one, your control scheme feels more appropriate.

[Bernie]

Hey, thanks for giving it a go!

• Depth: I lowered the camera's field of view because hotspots could get in the way or become kind of small and hard to tap at a high FOV. I think this hurts the depth perception quite a bit. I can't think of an implementable solution for this for now.
  
• Jumping: I tried a double tap, but it becomes quite a bit less responsive overall. It feels kind of like jumping too late.
  Two options I'm considering:
  -> make the double-tap jump optional in settings/pause screen
  -> generally hide mouse cursor on touch devices when no mouse is connected
  
• Hand blocking screen: Yeah, you're right, it can be annoying. I think it worked for the NDS Zelda games because the stylus blocks a lot less.
  -> possibly making an optional onscreen gamepad?
  
• Touch screens: I tried the game on a few android devices. I've noticed quite a difference in responsiveness and touch detection. When the device was busy with other game stuff, the touch input would become less prioritized resulting in lagged tap detection and holding detection mistakes. It doesn't seem to happen too often with mid-to high range devices. Switching to lower quality actually makes the touch screen more responsive.
  

Thanks for the feedback! You've given me a few things to think about.

Game Changes:

I altered the tap timing a little for now - tap registering is shorter now, should help with the tap detection.

[glown]

i tried the windows version with a keyboard, so i can't offer much in the way of touch controls.  i love the way it looks, though. 

(+ agwak in general)

[Noyb]

Nifty!

About 24% through according to the magician. Still haven't found any new moves or really have any idea where they would be.

Took until reaching the hub world before I started to get used to the mouse controls. Died a fair number of times before realizing I can lock in a landing spot when I'm safely bouncing on a springy thing, but I like the mechanic.

A much cleaner handling of death could reduce frustration early on. 1-2 mistakes sending the player back to the last book is super frustrating when you're getting used to the controls. Is there a good reason why death doesn't send you back to the start of the current sublevel or why collectibles aren't kept until you explicitly make it back to a save point? Most of the challenge I've seen so far has been getting to a pickup, with getting back not that interesting.

The hub is pretty large compared to the walk speed. Takes a while to navigate/backtrack.

I really like the imagery in the vertical fall level!

Depth perception is really tricky in the ball powerup area in the geek's house and the top path of the beach level. The bit with the narrow path with the spike ball leading to a bubbler. Must have tried the jump from the high left-right bubbler to the path above the starting umbrella leading to a vertical bubbler at least five times. Still not sure if that jump is possible without extra moves.

Am I right in thinking that some of the beach puzzles require me to use a spiked ball as a platform, taking a hit? The health system is pretty frustrating regardless, requiring backtracking to a save point. Is there any reason why entering/exiting a new main level or just walking past a save point doesn't refill your health automatically?

[Bernie]

Thanks for the feedback! I adressed a few things in a new update. Unfortunately the old save files aren't compatible with it anymore. The old way of saving wasn't supported on all platforms and needed changing. All zips have been updated.

Here's what's new:

-Kittey starts running after walking for a bit
-All pickups have shadows now, should help with depth perception a little
-Level gates show if a move is available inside
-Saving uses a new method but doesn't support old saves anymore (sorry)
-File size decreased by about 5 MB

Am I right in thinking that some of the beach puzzles require me to use a spiked ball as a platform, taking a hit?

No, but you may need an additional ability to clear that level completely. I've marked levels with moves to get to help you find them more easily. I also adressed the walking speed. I'm thinking about adding refilling health when going to the hub world next, and also walking past save points. What you could do in the meantime is buying an additional heart from Heartguy. Thanks