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[gimblll]

Hello,

I just finished a game called Cosmic Mechanic (iPad only for now, 1st generation supported too) and it's now available on App Store (North America, EU and a few other countries only for now). It's a building game where you must build various vehicles and gadgets to traverse the different levels.

More info and screenshots in the DevLog thread I kept for a while:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=31609.0

Youtube game footage:







iTunes link:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id606118389

EDIT: (7. March 2014):
PC Version on Steam Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=235305337

A few screenshots:

[barley]

congrats on finishing!

if I had an ipad I'd definitely try it out

[GeoffW]

I've seen a couple of games like this before but judging by your video it looks like there's a much better diversity of challenges in your game.  And I like the style of the graphics.  I'd definitely try it if I had an iPad!

[gimblll]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it! I'm pretty happy how it turned out. There's much that could be done to make it better if I had the resources, but the gameplay is pretty solid I think. I might bring out a PC version at some point, but I'm not sure yet. I've been trying to send promo codes around and getting ipad game websites interested, but it seems that there's absolutely zero interest in the whole game so I don't know if I'll bother touching it much anymore.

Anyway, I also made a "first 15 minutes" video of the game (spoilers), if anyone's interested having a better look at it.

[GeoffW]

I've been trying to send promo codes around and getting ipad game websites interested, but it seems that there's absolutely zero interest in the whole game so I don't know if I'll bother touching it much anymore.

It seems like it has the potential to do a bit better than that.  How persistent have you been with the reviewers?

I'm no expert on the iOS market (nor any other really), but is something like a free weekend worth considering to get some eyeballs?

[gimblll]

It seems like it has the potential to do a bit better than that.  How persistent have you been with the reviewers?

I'm no expert on the iOS market (nor any other really), but is something like a free weekend worth considering to get some eyeballs?

Well, I don't have any personal review contacts so I've been trying to send stuff through the contact forms and general e-mail addresses, but I guess that all ends in spam folders or something. I haven't really tried to pester anyone with it yet. I guess I'll have to change tactics if the total silence continues and try to find some personal contacts.

Could be, I'm no expert either in any of this. I might experiment with the price at some point, but I'll probably save that for later.

[barley]

I've heard that you should always follow up on your first email and not just fire and forget. Like ask whether they got it and what they thought of it or if there were any problems that stopped them from reviewing it. Maybe ask for quick feedback on your game if they aren't willing to do a full review.

Don't harass them or anything, but gently prodding apparently works sometimes.

[gimblll]

I've heard that you should always follow up on your first email and not just fire and forget. Like ask whether they got it and what they thought of it or if there were any problems that stopped them from reviewing it. Maybe ask for quick feedback on your game if they aren't willing to do a full review.

Don't harass them or anything, but gently prodding apparently works sometimes.

Sounds reasonable. I guess I'll try a few follow up e-mails now and see how that goes. I guess my game doesn't look that interesting on the surface.

[Ruxar]

Looks great, how are the downloads going?

[oahda]

Oh, my god. This is exactly my type of game. And it's pretty. And that music is great, if it's the actual gameplay music. I was just about to leave, but I'll be checking this out tonight or something!

[gimblll]

Looks great, how are the downloads going?

Heh, well... It's now been out exactly one week and sales are at 20. So not exactly a huge blockbuster yet.

Oh, my god. This is exactly my type of game. And it's pretty. And that music is great, if it's the actual gameplay music. I was just about to leave, but I'll be checking this out tonight or something!

Yes, that's the actual gameplay music. Composed specifically for this game by my brother.

[nospoon]

That game looks really cool.
Like really really cool.

Shame I have no iPad.

Will you be porting it to Android at some point?

[gimblll]

Will you be porting it to Android at some point?

I don't have an Android tablet, so probably not. Unless it does well enough to justify the cost (which doesn't seem likely right now).

[oahda]

Yes, that's the actual gameplay music. Composed specifically for this game by my brother.

Tell him he's great, as are you!

Never got around to it yesterday - found myself getting stuck with a friend in a series, and we'll try to finish it in a grand marathon today. But I still want this, so I'll write here again when I do get the game and have an opinion!

[oahda]

I have now played the game - for hours on end, I can tell you! Until I could no longer bear staying awake yesterday evening, in fact. I did indeed correctly reckon this to be just my type of game. So where do I start?

What got me at first, already in the video, was obviously the calm and wonderful mood. The night sky and the music wove this together in a wonderful way, and it was all several times more beautiful on the iPad screen than on YouTube. I didn't grow tired of the music after hours, either. It was anonymous in a good way. It felt like it stopped playing entirely sometimes, too. Did it?

Unfortunately, I couldn't access the help screen, for a reason I shall mention later, but it didn't take me too long to figure out how to work the game on my own, so it's fairly intuitive, which is good. Just experimenting with the new pieces in each level was fun. The relative freedom of rotating, extending or contracting and connecting pieces, and often having more than needed, was a great source of entertainment as well, allowing for many ways to try to solve the same problem, and I'm sure you haven't even yourself discovered or thought of all the possible ways to solve every level in your own game - something that can't be said for a lot of games.

I also liked the different types of levels, and the star system made me really stubborn and I just had to get three stars in the tricky levels like the time trials and the jumping levels. Great additions to already entertaining normal levels, which, of course, themselves come in great variation.

I'll keep playing this! You and your brother and whoever else has been involved have done an amazing job. I tweeted about the game and started following you. I don't have a very impressive amount of followers, but hopefully someone will be interested and pick the game up, too.

Also great were the sound effects. Very well chosen. The particles when hitting things and whatnot played very nicely together with these. Very appealing graphics and sounds and gameplay, thus making for a very appealing game!

It was also amusing to find out that you're Finnish, since that's the language that my iPad is set to. That made it feel very "right" to see the word "Uusi" diagonally labelled across the application icon after download. \o/

Now, as for the misfortune mentioned, it was a crash. Two crash reports I have, in fact. One of them before I even got to starting the game, which may of course be a bad impression upon less enthusiastic and stubborn players than I. Before I started the game I wanted to check the controllers, and so I pressed the question mark icon in the main menu, only to find the application immediately crashing.

The second crash was, I think, also related to instructions, but the in-game ones, where you flip through five pages (I didn't intentionally bring these up, but hit the button to do so by mistake, so I don't really know what it was, but I think it was in-game instructions). When I pressed the "next" button at the fifth page, the game crashed.

However, my car was still saved, and this was also the case when I ran out of battery in the iPad right in the middle of a level and the device shut down; the car was still there after reboot when I had plugged it in - great job on that.

I guess the only real suggestion I have is that it would be fun to see some more dynamics in the character and have the face react in various was to being thrown and bumped all over the place. It looks kind of funny to see no reactions to such turbulence.

I love this game!

[gimblll]

What got me at first, already in the video, was obviously the calm and wonderful mood.

It's something that was always on my mind for the game, some place "soothing" and serene, where you can just tinker with your vehicles and not be stressed out by anything.

I didn't grow tired of the music after hours, either. It was anonymous in a good way. It felt like it stopped playing entirely sometimes, too. Did it?

It isn't supposed to stop at least, if it did, it's a bug.

I'll keep playing this! You and your brother and whoever else has been involved have done an amazing job. I tweeted about the game and started following you. I don't have a very impressive amount of followers, but hopefully someone will be interested and pick the game up, too.

It's just us two, and thank you!

Now, as for the misfortune mentioned, it was a crash. Two crash reports I have, in fact. One of them before I even got to starting the game, which may of course be a bad impression upon less enthusiastic and stubborn players than I. Before I started the game I wanted to check the controllers, and so I pressed the question mark icon in the main menu, only to find the application immediately crashing.

I think I know what's going on. Do you have any non-english characters in your GameCenter name? The page it crashes on is the credits page (it's one of the help pages and show first if you enter from the main menu, but not if through the in-game menu), and I have a little thing there where I write the name of the player under the "Special Thanks" heading. I suspect it might crash if there's some weird characters in the name. (You can try logging out of GameCenter and trying that page again, and it'll probably work.) I'll make sure to fix it in the first update, sorry about that!

I guess the only real suggestion I have is that it would be fun to see some more dynamics in the character and have the face react in various was to being thrown and bumped all over the place. It looks kind of funny to see no reactions to such turbulence.

It's true, there's not much animation in there as there should be. Mostly because I wanted to finish the game at some point and some things had to be cut. Extra player animations being one. But he does blink if you hit things very hard. Not very visible, I know.

I love this game!

Thanks a lot for writing all that, I appreciate it! The game has so far sold 30 copies, so it's not like I get much feedback from anywhere, so every post like this makes me really happy. 

[oahda]

It isn't supposed to stop at least, if it did, it's a bug.

Maybe there was just silence for a couple of seconds at the end that made me think it had been going on for longer because I got so caught up in the game that I really didn't think very much about the music anymore.

I think I know what's going on. Do you have any non-english characters in your GameCenter name?

Ah. That is it, then. I have an <ó>.

It's true, there's not much animation in there as there should be. Mostly because I wanted to finish the game at some point and some things had to be cut. Extra player animations being one. But he does blink if you hit things very hard. Not very visible, I know.

Oh. I'll keep an eye out for that!

Thanks a lot for writing all that, I appreciate it! The game has so far sold 30 copies, so it's not like I get much feedback from anywhere, so every post like this makes me really happy. 

It deserves more! It seems to be incredibly hard to get people interested. I just made my game free for a couple of days and it gave a massive boost in downloads, but the interest has been steadily declining each day after that. 66 downloads on the first free day, 43 on the second and 15 yesterday. Still, those are more downloads than we ever got when the game was paid, so at least the interest was caught. Maybe you should have a campaign and make your game free for a day or two or three and see if you can get any boost in downloads, if you find the gamble worth it.

Some sort of press coverage is quite essential to try and get, too. I see you discussed this earlier in the thread. Somehow a Japanese site found out about and wrote about my game, and we got 30 downloads from Japan yesterday. So if you do manage to get some sort of coverage, then you should at least get some interest - especially since this game is far too good to deserve none.

[gimblll]

It deserves more! It seems to be incredibly hard to get people interested. I just made my game free for a couple of days and it gave a massive boost in downloads, but the interest has been steadily declining each day after that. 66 downloads on the first free day, 43 on the second and 15 yesterday. Still, those are more downloads than we ever got when the game was paid, so at least the interest was caught. Maybe you should have a campaign and make your game free for a day or two or three and see if you can get any boost in downloads, if you find the gamble worth it.

Some sort of press coverage is quite essential to try and get, too. I see you discussed this earlier in the thread. Somehow a Japanese site found out about and wrote about my game, and we got 30 downloads from Japan yesterday. So if you do manage to get some sort of coverage, then you should at least get some interest - especially since this game is far too good to deserve none.

Yeah, it's really hard. There's just too many games being made and this is just one that got lost in the crowd I guess. My game doesn't look graphically interesting enough from the screenshots or the video. I know the video is pretty bad, I guess should really try to do better. I might lower the price or try the free thing at some point, I dunno.

Anyway, cheers for the encouraging feedback and good luck with your game too!

[gimblll]

Update 1.0.1 was approved and is live now!

- Everyplay integration, record and share gameplay videos online (not supported on iPad1)
- 3 new levels
- New bonus level menu
- A few extra tips and some help improvements
- Fixed crash on credits page, when using a Game Center id with non-english characters
- Minor bug fixes and polish

[gimblll]

Just put a PC version up on Steam Greenlight, would be great to get a few Yes votes if anyone is interested.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=235305337