next »

[zeid]

This game was made for the Ludum Dare Jam.  I started it and finished it within 72 hours.  As an added challenge to myself I made it cross platform, it is available for; Windows, web browsers using HTML5, and Android devices.

Trailer


Get Axolotl Pop on your Android device

You can also play it for free from either of these two links bellow.
Play it online for free
Download it for windows for free

Screenshots



Feedback is greatly appreciated.  I will possibly make a lite version with adds, if I get enough interest.

[PompiPompi]

I don't think I will buy it, but I am curious, how do the control feel compared to the PC?
For many games a touch device is actually a set back in terms of controls. It's hot right now so people try to foce their games into a touch device.
Also, did you consider to have the left and right buttons at the opposing sides of the screen? One for each thumb?

[CowBoyDan]

After looking at the video I would have gone with tiler left and right, and touch anywhere to shoot.  

Also, don't expect anyone to buy it.  Android users rarely buy anything, there are gazillion pixel 2d games on android for free.  Your friends/family might buy it, but that's it.  Sorry

Cheers for putting your ludum dare entry on android though.

[zeid]

how do the control feel compared to the PC?
For many games a touch device is actually a set back in terms of controls. It's hot right now so people try to force their games into a touch device.

I made a lot of exceptions for the touch input so that it feels very responsive and natural and I'm very happy with the results. The game was intended first and foremost for the phone so the considerations I made extended all the way to gameplay.  A couple of simple examples:

• The button touch area for important buttons are actually much larger than they appear on screen, and buttons near corners extend right to the edge of the screen.
• Originally the fall rate of the bubbles was faster, I made them more floaty so that the player could react nicely.
• The HUD was made incredibly small and simple so that the player could see falling bubbles easier, again the speed in which you are able to react was gauged on the phone, as oppose to on a computer
• Objects take up a significant amount of screen space and are at 2x resolution to ensure that landing a shot isn't too difficult on the player. Again this was gauged on the phone first and foremost.

Also, did you consider to have the left and right buttons at the opposing sides of the screen? One for each thumb?

I would have gone with tiler left and right, and touch anywhere to shoot.

At first I actually considered tilt controls for the fun of it, however this proved too unresponsive compared to what I wanted and no good at all. So I rewrote all the input code. I considered numerous models, but settled on the one I've chosen for good reason.

I deliberately avoided having two thumbs dedicated to movement for the following reasons;

• You can never be moving both left and right, so pressing both buttons gives an ambiguous result, whereas the player was intending to move one way or the other.
• Shooting is the most common action, and it is important for you to time your shots. The player should be able to shoot and move left/right, they can even change direction and shoot. If I had of employed the layout you described the player would have to stop shooting momentarily in order to change direction. This is undesirable
• The player cannot shoot and pickup an item therefore it makes sense to keep those two actions dedicated to the same thumb.
• And finally... It took me a while to find the words to describe this... try rubbing your belly with one hand and patting your head with another, thats not too tricky. Then try switching a couple of times. If you have both hands dealing with both a movement button, and a shoot button as well as potentially a pickup item button they can get confused as to what their task is.

[moi]

Also, don't expect anyone to buy it.  Android users rarely buy anything, there are gazillion pixel 2d games on android for free.

android users do buy games, but they generally buy the more complex and fleshed out games, simple twitch games have a tought time selling.

[zeid]

android users do buy games, but they generally buy the more complex and fleshed out games, simple twitch games have a tought time selling.

Would I be better off turning this into a free game, and just adding adds later on when I can?

[moi]

Noone can tell you but if I were you I would keep it paid for a bit, it would be a good experience

[zeid]

After about a week I have decided to make the game free.

Now there is no excuse for not downloading it if you have an android phone at the very least to see how well it plays. :D

[zeid]

I just finished throwing together a timelapse of the game being made.  Also, just a reminder the game is now free so there is no harm in giving it a try on your phones.  I would really appreciate some feedback on how well it runs on various devices.

Timelapse

[CowBoyDan]

Android has a real chicken egg problem with sales.  A game wont sell (or even free get downloaded) unless it has a lot of reviews and downloads (since google play shows download numbers, in ranges at least not exact numbers).  So nobody wants to buy something that has less than 100 downloads, let alone look at it.  you can't make something free then charge for it later.  The app store on the other hand doesn't show downloads, and lets you make something free and charge for it later.  So you could give it away as a promo to start, then charge later, or occasionally have a free weekend or something to get people downloading and reviewing.  Ratings an reviews are still there, but that's less specific than download numbers.

Thus the saying, to make a successful game on android, first publish it on ios.  See how many people say "please make an android version" vs "please make an ios version".

I was personally very upset when google removed the "just in" section in the market.  People who were bored with the "top" stuff (which has usually been top for months and months), would go looking in just in, which was mostly garbage, to find an occasional gem.  Apple still has their equivalent of this ("Release date").  Every small dev out there saw a drop in downloads and sales when they rolled out this change.  It was about the time when EA started publishing on android.

So on android, your best bet is either to have something successful already so people will see a link to your new stuff from existing stuff, market the heck out of it on the web, or play the search term game and hope people searching by text will find your game (or app)

[Eendhoorn]

I just downloaded this for android and thought it was pretty entertaining. I just couldn't get used to the controls though, I feel like the controls should be on the right side. Should be fairly easy to make an option for that I think.

What framework/engine did you use to make it? It was hard to tell from the video. I thought unity at first, but it just seems your whole interface is black haha.