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[TeeGee]

Okay guys, here's a game a small indie studio I work for is working on. It's in its beta stages and we're looking for the last bits of feedback to make sure it's as polished as possible. And ummm... yes... it's a casual game, with Egyptian theme, and it features at least one match-3 mechanic.

But before you hang me on a tree, with a "Not indie enough!" tablet tied to my legs, try playing the game .
It wasn't made with a "let's make a crappy clone of the last hit, because casual players are stupid and will buy it anyway" kind of attitude. We wanted to actually make a *good* casual game with production values, depth and fun surpassing the normal portal meat. I think that a good casual game should be just that - a game that *everyone* can play. Including hardcore players, indie folk and owls.

So it's like the final test for the game - if you guys won't kill me for posting it, then it has to be good  :D.

Saqqarah
Saqqarah is a casual puzzle game with multiple gameplays, tons of levels, lots of content in general, and exactly one blue monkey. It features over 500 puzzles to complete, spread across 7 temples - each featuring a different kind of gameplay with common features but distinct mechanics. The gameplays range from match-3 variants to strict logical puzzles. I don't think I should write more - it's a casual game - you should be able to pick it up really quickly.

Screenies:


Other screenies:
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/screenshots/saqqarah_puzzlegameplay2.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/screenshots/saqqarah_bonusgameplay2.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/screenshots/saqqarah_puzzlegameplay3.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/screenshots/saqqarah_oaza.jpg


Download (26 MB)

One more thing - if you dislike the semi-classical match-3 found in the first temple, just make it through 4 levels and progress to the Temple of Toth. It features a logic puzzle which is also my favorite gameplay. First levels are very easy, but it quickly ramps up .

Well, have fun. And please write your comments. Stuff I need the most is a feedback on balance, length of levels, bug reports and your opinions on the different gameplays. After playing the game you can fill a short survey with all that stuff chopped into quick questions. If you would take that few extra minutes, I would be really grateful. 

[siiseli]

Oh snap.

[mewse]

In general, I'm not thrilled about downloading a beta build of a game for the purposes of providing feedback, only to be greeted by a "Buy Now!  Trial limited to 60 minutes!" dialog box.  That just felt a little rude, since I had assumed that I was giving my time to do somebody a favour.   

Anyhow, apart from that, I get no textures at all when I'm running via in a WinXP virtual machine (using Parallels Desktop under OS X), so I can't actually get into the game to test it.  All the in-game UI is missing button images and the like;  I just get flat-shaded coloured squares.  Judging by the layout of the coloured squares, it looked like maybe I had reached a text entry window (maybe asking me to enter my name?  No way to tell).  Had to alt-tab out and kill it from the taskbar.

I'll also note that the installation goes into a non-standard "C:\My Games" directory by default.  That's kind of weird;  I've never seen anybody create a directory there before.  And if you do let the game install there, then uninstalling the game again doesn't actually remove the game's directory;  it leaves behind a stray "Log.txt" file, which I had to remove manually.

So I can't really give gameplay comments, as I didn't manage to reach the gameplay.  But there were definitely some oddnesses in the install/uninstall process that made me raise my eyebrow.

[bateleur]

Didn't get to try all the temples since the Beta timed out on me after an hour.

Feedback on what I did try:

Game interface: Easy to use. Nice graphics. Nice sound.
Instructions: Good. Clear.

Temple 1 (Isis): Competently done. Nothing new here.
Temple 2 (Thot): Quite a neat puzzle idea. Not sure how the casual market will take it - might completely block some players from progressing?
Temple 3 (Anubis): As with temple 1 perfectly competent, but nothing of interest.
Temple 4 (Sobek): I unlocked this temple but the demo timed out before I was able to play it.

The first and third temples were both too random for my tastes. The first generated massive combos through no design of mine. The third would occasionally leave me helplessly waiting to get lucky with shuffles or spells.

The find-hidden-glyph bonus rounds are too easy. Better perhaps to give a much tighter time limit and award a variable bonus depending on how many glyphs are found. The little hint sparkles are completely unnecessary.

Speaking of which, the timers on most levels are badly calibrated. I was always either under no pressure at all, earning maximum time bonus, or left with almost no time at all.

On some board layouts the way in which pieces cascade down is highly unintuitive. This can be annoying because it's hard to plan ahead when you don't know what will fill spaces up.

Overall I have to say I don't consider this game to be at all indie in feel even if you are in fact an indie studio. It's nicely produced and hopefully you'll do well with it, but I personally don't feel it belongs here.

(Oh, a quick bug report: in the first temple it tells me that completing the fourth board will unlock the temple of Sobek. It doesn't, it unlocks the temple of Thot.)

[alexandersshen]

I have to admit that I do enjoy casual games because their production value is very high.  I don't know if it'd be considered of "taking advantage of the indie community" by asking for feedback with a game that is clearly a "Try Before You Buy" demo, as if I had downloaded it from Big Fish Games, but I decided to try it out anyway.

Pros:
+ Production values are VERY high.  Very well polished, the sounds, graphics, special FX, all very top notch.  Very talented team.
+ The Match-3 element mixed with a "highlight the board" (like Jewel Quest II) is a bit more engaging
+ Special powers are always nice and add variety to the maps (like Puzzle Quest)

Cons:
- Not particularly feeling the theme, but that is more of a subjective thing than anything else.

To be honest, it's a very well produced and polished match-3 casual game.  I'm not sure about the typical $19.99 price point, but it's definitely something that I feel will move units, especially part of a game club of sorts.

Even with the market pointing at resource management and hidden object games as the next big thing, the amount of polish may be able to shed some light on this title.

My only advice is to avoid getting swallowed up by the over saturated market by hopefully finding some exclusivity with Big Fish Games or your own portal.

[TeeGee]

Thanks for feedback. I did some tweaks to the first levels and their timers to keep them more consistent. Of course, it's hard to determine a perfect value in the more random gameplays, but it should be better in general.

Also, it's not a "Try Before You Buy" demo. You can't buy it yet. The game is still in development. However, it is wrapped as if it was the demo. After all, we need to test our DRM somewhere. I'm also curious about how far can people get in the demo (and if I should do anything about it if it's too short/long).
I'm sorry that you felt offended by it somehow. This certainly wasn't my intention  .

My only advice is to avoid getting swallowed up by the over saturated market by hopefully finding some exclusivity with Big Fish Games or your own portal.

That's true. We have something lined up already. We wouldn't want to get all these months of our work on polishing it to be wasted. Though, believe me, it's actually harder to push a high-quality, lengthy game in the casual market, than it is to push a quickly assembled hidden object flick.


As for the "it doesn't belong here" comment... Well, it's a bigger issue that kinda makes me sad. I mean, try to be more open minded, people. You don't have to like casual games, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily evil and "not indie". Our team put a lot of heart into it. And I know I had the same amounts of fun developing it, as with my personal MAGI or the other indie game I'm working on (which are as niche and indie as it can get).

It's kinda funny that every indie shmup is instantly cool, even if it's the most derivative genre ever, and every casual game is an evil clone. That strange separation and attitude in the gaming industry really bothers me.
When I was wroking on an AAA title, people there laughed at indie and casual games I played, and even didn't consider it games. Then again, on indiegamer.com folks consider AAA devs idiots and indie devs childish hippies without life. And the indie community, which seems to be the most tolerant anyway, automatically shuns on mainstream AAA and casual games.
 
Coming from all the "three worlds", I sometimes feel like I should maintain three different personalities for each community . And that every game I'll make is automatically going to annoy 2/3 of the game dev people  . It's as silly as these console flamewars. It really is. Games are games, some are good, some are bad, some big and some small.

Gaming folk should learn how to act like a real . Be tolerant! Tolerance is good! Just look at these happy faces:

[Alex May]

defensive much?

[TeeGee]

Hell yeah! And pissed! It's silly that I'm afraid to show an indie game to an indie community because I'm not showing it to the RIGHT indie gaming community  . Like if playing, making and enjoying casual games would be an embarassing fact to hide.

[Alex May]

I want to make a physics-based casual game about food recipes, and one about gardening too Hope you have good luck with your game anyway, it's not really my thing but the screenshots look sweet. Swamped with PCG entries atm but maybe afterwards I'll find time to give your game a go.

[alexandersshen]

Hell yeah! And pissed! It's silly that I'm afraid to show an indie game to an indie community because I'm not showing it to the RIGHT indie gaming community  . Like if playing, making and enjoying casual games would be an embarassing fact to hide.

I don't think anyone is actually saying that it is a bad game.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the assumption that your team consists of a Producer, possibly an AP (those roles could be switched around, depending on your company), a team of maybe 2-3 engineers, a team of 2-3 artists (possibly more because of the high polish), a marketing team/representative, a sound engineer and probably a slew of upper management.  I'm also sure that you have a schedule your Producer/AP setup to follow with deadlines where the incentive to finish is if you don't, heads roll.  And you're all possibly on salary or at least a contractual basis?  This is just based from my current game experience in the industry.

I'm guessing the mindset is that if you have an actual studio, it's not quite the same kind of effort as a garage game where people aren't doing it for their day to day job.  I think there's that special place in people's hearts to know that someone is holding down their 9-5 to make ends meet (or the pain of living in their parent's home) and still programming a bullet hell engine that makes your eyes bleed.

Now, that doesn't mean the game automatically falls to wayside as a bastard child.  It's just that the efforts may feel less "indie" than what people are used to or planned on seeing here (also, anyone correct me if I'm wrong).  This doesn't, however, mean you shouldn't post to get honest feedback.  We're all respectful here and this community isn't built on flamewars.

Besides, "casual" is such a strange term as it is to define games.  Anyone who spends time playing a game extensively, regardless of the game mechanic, is a gamer.  Someone spends hours a day playing Bookworm?  That's far from casual in my book.  They're more hardcore than I am... I can't spend more than an hour playing a game in a sitting.  I think I can beat two missions a day in GTA4 before turning it off.

Don't be discouraged.  As long as you get the Pros/Cons feedback you need, you'll know what you need to help your project see the light and that's the most important part anyway 'cause this project is your baby.

So... when are we going to see free keys to the TIG community? 

[moi]

I think the people at TIGSOURCE aren't intolerant against any type of game, as long as these game aren't boring or made without passion.
Noone ever ridiculed Princec or Lexaloffle or Pixeljam for their casual games for example.
And I don't think anyone here has anything against the match3 or the hidden object clones made for a quick buck, it's just that there wouldn't be much to discuss about these games, would it?

[TeeGee]

I don't think anyone is actually saying that it is a bad game.

Yeah. I'm referring to the "it doesn't belong here" comment, which is much harder for me to take than any "the game's bad" one .

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the assumption that your team consists of a Producer, possibly an AP (those roles could be switched around, depending on your company), a team of maybe 2-3 engineers, a team of 2-3 artists (possibly more because of the high polish), a marketing team/representative, a sound engineer and probably a slew of upper management.  I'm also sure that you have a schedule your Producer/AP setup to follow with deadlines where the incentive to finish is if you don't, heads roll.

Ha ha, quite the opposite!

There are currently only 5 people in our company. Which is less than people working with me on my personal indie/hobby project .
Two founders (one being mainly a programmer, the other one mainly a producer), a programmer, a designer, who also serves as one man Marketing/PR/QA/Production departament (humble me), and one web designer. Graphics were made by two contractors working on-site and the rest is outsourced.
Some other people came in and out during the development, but noone to stay for longer. The structure is more or less flat - everybody does what he's best at. The schedules are flexible and we rarely have real deadlines (we always take time to polish everything). We also... really like making and playing good casual games.
It's a professional studio, and yes, it's a "job", but it's as indie as such enviroment can get.

I'm guessing the mindset is that if you have an actual studio, it's not quite the same kind of effort as a garage game where people aren't doing it for their day to day job.

I'm doing both. And both have a special place in my heart . That mindset is what bothers me a bit. Games are games, and people should respect creators' work, regardless of their garage-band-factor. On the other hand - the developers should treat their creations with love, regardless if it's a job or a hobby.

Don't be discouraged.  As long as you get the Pros/Cons feedback you need, you'll know what you need to help your project see the light and that's the most important part anyway 'cause this project is your baby.

I'm not discouraged nor I am aiming my bithcing at this community in particular. It's more of a general rant on the industry's people attitude. I'm kinda over sensitive to this subject. Working on all the three - AAA, casual and indie, I faced a lot of negativity towards what was the other side of the fence at the moment. AAA developers using "I know you have these stupid little games of yours, but this one is a REAL game" as an argument in discussion can get on your nerves and make you sensitive to some problems of the industry people mindsets. And enough to make you quit and join an idie company, like I did  .

So... when are we going to see free keys to the TIG community?

As soon as you'll start taking your time filling the surveys and showing interest in participating in the closed beta .

FAKE EDIT:

And I don't think anyone here has anything against the match3 or the hidden object clones made for a quick buck, it's just that there wouldn't be much to discuss about these games, would it?

Here's what I'm talking about. Where did that assumption that a match-3 game has to be a clone made for a quick back came from? Saqqarah was developed for more than a year now, with the idea of taking a genre and pushing it forward, mixing and expanding the mechanics and raising the quality level of casual games. It's a very important project to us. If we did the same with a platformer or shmup, we would be heroes. But hey, it includes a match-3, so it's obviously a clone not worth discussing  .

Okay, I know where that assumption came from, but it still doesn't mean that every game is like this .

[moi]

And I don't think anyone here has anything against the match3 or the hidden object clones made for a quick buck, it's just that there wouldn't be much to discuss about these games, would it?

Here's what I'm talking about. Where did that assumption that a match-3 game has to be a clone made for a quick back came from?

I never said that all match3 were clones, I talked specifically about those match3 that are clones and I didn't mention any game, especially not saqqarah (which isn't a clone, but a very pretty and..err...very pretty game).

[moshboy]

I don't really blame people for making the assumption that match3 games are clones, made for a quick buck (and I'm not saying it is necessarily right - just that I can understand it) because all too many casual developers have taken this route (and have really given the match3 casual industry a bad name): change a theme, add a small mechanic or two to set it apart slightly, polish it up and release it.

And if there wasn't an audience there for it to happen, it wouldn't happen. My girlfriend will quite happily sit there and play and match3 game. She isn't really a gamer and has no concept of what a clone actually is, in terms of videogames (and is generally pretty easily pleased when it comes casual games - she played mahjong for the first time just the other day).

I have to admit.. where once I might have enjoyed the occasional match3 game, I've really been turned off them because every time I do fire up a casual game of this persuation, it IS a clone. The same goes for room escape games and tower defense games.

I applaud you for actually trying to take the genre further and I hope people take notice. Unless other casual devs stop giving you guys a bad name that assumption will never go away.

I've seen casual games posted here before.. you had nothing to worry about.

[Zaphos]

I think the main problem I have with 'casual' genres like match-3 is not exactly the cloning but rather the sensibility that players must constantly be rewarded for doing almost nothing.  If you have skill, perhaps you'll get through the level faster (or perhaps not) but even if you're pretty pathetic you'll probably still set off random chain reactions and shiny things will reward you and at the end it will say good job.  There's a strong artificiality to the wins, and as a result the games just doesn't provide a very satisfying experience.

This game has a bit of this same problem in the match-3 temple, where I hardly thought about what I was doing and huge combos would just randomly go off.  However, the novel field-lighting aspect of it does help a bit, because the focus on specific unfilled areas in the late-game made the random combos matter less and gave a slightly more strategic flavor to the experience.  Beyond the match-3 temple, the game provides some more focused challenges that had much less of the random rewards issue for me; the gem swap and rotate temples especially were more like traditional puzzles and I liked that clear thinking could let me progress steadily and quickly through a stage.  The temple where you have to draw over connected gems, however, I didn't really like because I felt like I was often at the whim of a random number generator during the end-game; there were no matches to be made in the key remaining areas and it wasn't satisfying to just draw lines already-filled areas until I got a swap or a no-more-moves.

A highly-related problem I tend to have with casual games in general is that they tend to ask the player to repeatedly perform a very simple borderline-brainless task.  This game solves the issue by switching the task up, and by asking the player to do somewhat more thoughtful tasks.  I'm not sure how well it would hold up if I played for more than an hour -- it seems once I started to adjust to a temple, the amount of thought required was still pretty low.  I don't think I'd find much more strategic depth after repeated play of any given temple.  It's hard to say for sure from the 1 hour of play I had, though, since I only played 4 stages of any temple.  Hopefully the ability to adjust the structure of the stages will let you keep introducing depth as the game progresses.

One thing that seems typical of casual games but doesn't bother me as much is the tacked on plot or setting, which tends to integrate poorly if at all in to the actual gameplay.  This is definitely the case with this game as well; there's a nicely illustrated and acted story which is (a) barely coherent, and (b) irrelevant.

Nitpicky Thoughts:

* 'Play' button has a click zone which is a tad too small?
* Inescapable modal dialog after clicking play is a bit unfriendly, would be nice if it went back to main menu if I pressed escape
* Saying to use the arrows for more packs when there is only one is a bit odd, why not hide the arrows until the player actually can click them.
* "Seth" seems like a silly name for a evil super powered whatever-he-is
* Was a bit confused at temple 2 when the puzzle rules change suddenly
* 'Find the matching pictures' puzzles are not a bonus!  They are the epitome of brainless monotony.

[Guert]

Teegee, I can't recall... Did I ever get back to you about that game?

[alexandersshen]

And if there wasn't an audience there for it to happen, it wouldn't happen. My girlfriend will quite happily sit there and play and match3 game. She isn't really a gamer and has no concept of what a clone actually is, in terms of videogames (and is generally pretty easily pleased when it comes casual games - she played mahjong for the first time just the other day).

I just wanted to say that that is a very interesting and truthful (in my own experience) on the look of the casual games community from the casual games community. 

"What's a clone?  As long as it's got a game mechanic I know how to use and something I like (penguins, for example), I'm ready to plop down $19.99 for it."

Personally, I'd kill for a Vegas Stakes game with a more engaging "RPG" element to it.  I don't care if Blackjack is Blackjack... clones be darned!

[TeeGee]

I just wanted to say that that is a very interesting and truthful (in my own experience) on the look of the casual games community from the casual games community. 

"What's a clone?  As long as it's got a game mechanic I know how to use and something I like (penguins, for example), I'm ready to plop down $19.99 for it."

One of the more interesting insights we've got from our surveys, was that people who filled these (mostly stereotypical casual soccer moms), were actually pretty aware of cloning and did appreciate innovation. They rarely used the word "clone", but comments as "I like how it feels better than all these quick and dirty games" or "I like how you add variety while all other games are all the same" were very common.
 
It's partially because many "casual gamers" are not so casual any more. They still wouldn't touch the hardcore titles, but they play *tons* of casual games and use up lots of their free time on gaming. I know that my mother plays Saqqarah more hours per day than I did when I was addicted to Guild Wars .
These are like hardcore casual gamers, and they seem to have the same insight on games as we do, just on different kind of games.

Also, someone here raised a concern that the puzzle temple could be too hard for the casual crowd. We had that concern too, but the surveys proved that in fact it's the people's favorite gameplay (besides the first temple, which is well... first and a match-3 clone).
People said they like how it is original and requires thinking. Finally we moved it up to the 2nd place. But then again, the same people also totally loved the bonus rounds (which I find a bit dull too) because it's "a relaxing change of pace" and hated the rotating puzzles "because they need too much thinking"  .

I admit it's sometimes hard to really understand the casual gamers and to tell what they like. Maybe they don't know it themselves? From our surveys it seems that they enjoy higher quality and variety, but BigFish's top-10 seems to contradict that.
That's one of the reasons why I'm so curious of Saqqarah's performance. The other one is that we tried to make it so it could please more than one kind of gamers (it's going to be on big digital distributors not being casual portals too). That's always a huge risk.

Teegee, I can't recall... Did I ever get back to you about that game?

Ummm... about THIS game, nope. About THAT game, yes, then I replied, then you haven't . Which one do you have on your mind?

[Ciardhubh]

I enjoyed the very high quality of the effects, both graphics and sounds. Even though it is "just a match 3 game" it is entertaining. The mini-games and various types of matching games offer a good variety.

My two major dislikes are that it is too easy (maybe it gets harder later) and that the ape feels out of place. What does a gorilla/giant chimp have to do with Egypt? The tourist bus in the intro was a bit off-putting, too (as far as the theme is concerned). Seeing it felt cheap in a "I'm not an adventurous explorer but some nosey tourist with a flashy shirt and a camera" sort of way .

The "find the hieroglyphs" mini-game was too dark on my computer. It's an ok diversion but I had trouble seeing the glyphs. I ended up clicking areas where I saw a few highlighted pixels, hoping there was anything.

As for the preference of temples in the survey, I don't really know how valid the responses can be. I played up to the third temple when my time ran out. So I couldn't really make a valid statement which I prefer most.

Do you plan on localising the game? It looks like the kind of game my mother () would like but she hardly understands English.

[lukipuk]

So I tried your game and I must say I enjoyed it most of time!
Here are my feelings about temples
1st temple: bit boring, i didnt really know what i was doing and I produced chain reactions all the time
2nd temple: this tample was maybe the best (together with 4th temple). I liked the puzzle idea that let you finish the level without using shuffle or depending on random drop of new tokens.
3rd temple: i did not like this one, because i had to wait for shuffle all the time to get something usefull.
4th temple: I liked this temple very much too! Although it takes little time to get used to rotation mechanics, but then I enjoyed every level.

Overall game feelings:
PROS:
* Polish. Graphics and art is superb, sounds are ok, and music is not disturbing, which is important.
* Temples. I like the idea that different temple has different mechanics.
* Scarab. Actually the scarab sweeper was main element of pressure for me, not the time limit.

CONS:
* Praise. One of the worst things was that game constantly praise me for doing nothing good. I was "excellent" even when I sucked big time. Wtf?
* Bonus levels. I hate them - the glyphs was too dark and did not contrast with background properly, and all the minigames interrupts flow of the game.
* Hints. Maybe there should be some difficulty settings or something, because in some puzzles I want to find MY match3, i dont want computer to play the game for me!
* Monkey. It was annoying :D