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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingMAGI - Magical Strategy Game
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Tr00jg
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« Reply #80 on: December 07, 2007, 01:21:09 PM »

I would suggest making elements of the UI transparent. For example, spells that are not active could be completely invisible (unless the player clicks a button to preview what else is on that tree perhaps). I think your buttons could convey more information too. Perhaps each spell can have a number of coloured dots to indicate its casting time.

Both are awesome ideas! Fade the buttons not in use.
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« Reply #81 on: December 07, 2007, 06:52:38 PM »

Quote from: th15
Perhaps each spell can have a number of coloured dots to indicate its casting time.

The idea is good, but it kinda contradicts with:

Quote from: th15
Your in-game UI could be better. That massive block of buttons can be pretty scary.

The thing is, as you said, that the game's UI is pretty intimidating for the newcomers. An addition of another coloured indicator would only make it worse and while the information it's provide is not necessary for the gameplay (casting time is already visible through the progress bars). If anything, I guess I should remove information from the screen, not add it. The whole mistake I've made when making the UI (I was a newbie then Wink) is that I wanted to show all the information on one screen. While actually I think that spells and the queue display is quite good, the rest is a bit cluttered. The worst point being the channel display. I'm adressing some of these things in the update, but there's only so much I can do without reworking the whole game. I might use your idea of fading the stuff that's not needed at the moment - thanks for the suggestion.

Quote from: th15
I don't think the main menu is really an issue.

Menu is the first part besides the intro (which I'm reworking as well) that the player sees upon entering the game. Which is very important for a commercial title. You do the first impression only once Wink. Also the old one was just inconsistient with rest of the game.
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« Reply #82 on: December 08, 2007, 06:11:26 AM »

Actually I think that representing all game data on one screen is an ideal to work towards, rather than away from. The issue is displaying all that stuff effectively and in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

It's definitely more complex than that, but what I'd like to impress upon you is that you can get more out of what UI elements you choose to have by making them stand out in different ways. Right now, each icon is the same background. It has a colour to distinguish which discipline it's from and it has an active state where it lights up to show that it's being casted. You can use that same icon to communicate so much more.

Shape, colour and animations are all areas that haven't been thoroughly explored. If little coloured pips make the UI too cluttered, maybe each spell could have an animated sparkle that differs in speed dependent on the casting time. Maybe offensive spells could be squares while defensive spells are circles. There are also some elements that could do with being associated by the space they occupy on the screen. The indicators that represent your level in each colour could do with being placed beside the actual buttons to power up those colours.

I think one of the ways you can really free up the interface is to hide the stats display and only pop it up when the player mouses over the avatar or you are hit by a stat debuff. That would free up  a fair amount of real estate.

In the end though, I understand that you just want to update it and some of these changes would mean a considerable amount of re-written code so I'm just making suggestions. You're probably right about the main menu though, I'm not used to thinking about games as a commercial product.
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« Reply #83 on: December 08, 2007, 09:20:31 AM »

Quote from: th15
Actually I think that representing all game data on one screen is an ideal to work towards, rather than away from. The issue is displaying all that stuff effectively and in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Not really imho. Some data is not always necessary in the first place. And often more data = more confusion at the start. Gettin' deeper and deeper into casual games (my day job), I start to really appreciate simplicity. And not only in match-3 clones.
Take Final Fantasy X for example - the game is very complicated, yet it only displays HP, MP and action buttons during a battle (and nothing during exploration). Damage formulas are pretty complex and many stats affect them, but when you choose a spell you only get its name and mana cost. And it's fine - you know that Firaga deals more damage than Fire because you got it on a higher level and all you need to know about Haste is that it makes you faster. How much? For how long? That's really not necessary at this point - after all there's no other hastening spell to compare, so there's no need to know the exact numbers. I'd like to pursue the same ideal with MAGI. The spells are unique enough to make exact data and numbers unnecessary.

Quote from: th15
each spell could have an animated sparkle that differs in speed dependent on the casting time.

When you cast a spell, a progress bar appears on its icon, showing your casting speed. I guess it's enough.

Quote from: th15
The indicators that represent your level in each colour could do with being placed beside the actual buttons to power up those colours.

...or dropped altogether, as the spell icons already show them. I know, but what about enemy channels Wink? That's my main problem here :/.

Quote from: th15
I think one of the ways you can really free up the interface is to hide the stats display and only pop it up when the player mouses over the avatar or you are hit by a stat debuff. That would free up  a fair amount of real estate.

I agree. Such ideas are very good and I'm gonna experiment with features like this. If I'll be able to implement them easily (and they will look good enough), I'll definately do so.

Quote from: th15
I understand that you just want to update it and some of these changes would mean a considerable amount of re-written code so I'm just making suggestions.

That's fine. Your suggestions are good and interesting to read, so I'm very happy with them. Thanks. Besides, what couldn't fit in MAGI may be of use in the sequel Wink.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll experiment with some of your ideas during this weekend. 
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« Reply #84 on: December 08, 2007, 09:35:59 AM »

I think the play area would be a good place to display each Mage's level in each area. Perhaps a number of coloured lines running to the mage?
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« Reply #85 on: December 12, 2007, 03:20:31 AM »

I'm once again looking for your feedback.

I'm preparing a HUGE update for MAGI. With loads of gameplay improvements, pimped character sprites (they even have some casting animation now Wink), new game modes... and a new main menu. The old one just wasn't consistent with the rest of the game. Here's what I've got so far:



There's some dynamism to it as well - the main panel slides in and out when you enter options/character creation, the mist behind it animates, the gem creates light and the whole thing pulsates with different colours at times.

What say you? Anything that hurts your aesthetic sense? Anything that I could add/remove? First impression?


Nice to see you're still updating the game! Contrary to others perhaps I believe it's well worthwhile updating the game's presentation some more, because frankly the idea and gameplay are actually already solid and work quite well, but it's the graphics that could use some more work to really make it stand out some more.

Good to hear things are going well with sales, I hope it continues to do well.
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« Reply #86 on: January 08, 2008, 02:31:01 PM »

Thanks! Now looking at the almost complete update, I can really tell it was worth it. Sales aside, it just looks nice and it fills me with indie pride :D.

And on the side note. While working on the update (including some new tracks), we realised how much music we've got there at this point. We thought it would be fun to release a free soundtrack made of remastered music from the game, upcoming update and from tracks that never made it to the game. All in MP3 format.

I think we'll be launching it tomorrow or in two days from now. It's going to consist of 13 tracks. Which is about 30 minutes of high-quality music, so nothing bad for an indie game Wink.

EDIT: You can listen to one of the coming tracks through a player on my website (www.getmagi.com) now. Enjoy!
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« Reply #87 on: January 21, 2008, 04:52:47 PM »

Ugh... triple post. But oh well, it's not my fault I update my own game with big stuff Wink.

MAGI v1.3

(click the image to download demo)

Screenshots:


So here it is. The biggest and probably last update to MAGI. More like "gold version" to be honest. It's the outcome of hard work and deep love, learning more about indie games, gathering feedback from the players and actually getting money to fund all this. The amount of changes is insane. Almost every part of the game was improved (or even reworked). The most important things are:

- Brand new menus and much improved graphics
- 3 more tracks by Rob Westwood
- 2 additional game modes
- Vastly improved and rebalanced gameplay
- Cookies!

The full list of changes is available here. Sorry for linking to my forums, but it's really too big to post here.

Other thing is that the game's price is now $22.95. I've spent lots of time and some good money on the new version. I wanted to make sure it's really better (and worth more) than the original game. With the US dollar sinking, truth is that if I'm to stay in this crazy indie business and be able to create more games (and better ones), I have to fund it somehow. I hope you understand that and these additional 3 bucks won't be a big deal Wink. I can only say I did everything to justify this change.

I'm looking forward to your comments (Guert, you know I'm looking at ya Wink). It's the last big update for MAGI, but your feedback will be very useful for my upcoming game. After all it's partially due your opinions that I was able to get this game running.

Thanks and have fun.
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« Reply #88 on: January 21, 2008, 05:51:41 PM »

Ok, I'm gonna take a look as soon as possible. Do you have some deadlines?
Later!
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« Reply #89 on: January 21, 2008, 10:53:12 PM »

Nah, I'm just curious on how do you like the changes and what actual effect they had on the game. After all, your feedback inspired a lot of them.
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« Reply #90 on: January 22, 2008, 07:23:24 AM »

Ok. I'll give it a spin during lunch break this week. Smiley
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« Reply #91 on: January 22, 2008, 10:20:24 AM »

Hey there! The game is pretty fun to play Smiley Good job!

Here are a few last, unsorted comments...

-Add a "Back" button in the Grimoire screen
-The Character creation screen feels a bit empty since there are 3 major empty spots (bottom left, bottom right and center top).
-When you click besides a pop-up message, the game plays a standard window "deny" sound. I think you should either disable the sound or replace it with something that fits the game.
-The icon with the skull, the last column, is grey but the spell icons are yellow. Make sure you only use grey icons for only elements that are unavailable.
-I'm not sure exactly how the gauge next to my health works. I know it has something to do with casting but I can't put my finger on it.
-It would be interesting to see in-game how the attributes affect the spells we cast. For instance, having a mouse-over box telling us simple messages such as "This stat will allow you to cast more spells" or something like that.
-An highlight over the insignias would help to make the selection clear in the grimoire screen

In genral, I felt like the game is easy to pick up and play even tho some elements aren't as clear as they could be. Still, it's quite good and there would be no shame if you moved to a new project Smiley Good job!
Later!
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« Reply #92 on: January 25, 2008, 01:57:58 PM »

Sorry, for the late reply - I was busy with work and release-related stuff Wink.

Thanks a lot, Guert. Your feedback is helpful and accurate as always. I'm glad that things you mentioned are the ones I know of, but I left them alone, as they would be bothersome to change at that point, while the profit would be minor. Good to know that there're no big mistakes that escaped my graps left there. It seems like a good starting point for my next project.

Anyway - yesterday I sent a press release (I paid Mitorah games to do this for me) and I'm seeing a spike of interest and sales by today. It reminds of the times when MAGI was still fresh. Seems that it's true what they say about PRs Wink.
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« Reply #93 on: January 25, 2008, 02:08:02 PM »

I'm glad your getting more sales Smiley
What do you have in mind for the next project?
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