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[nadam]

I proudly announce that 'Foosball Maniac' is finally released.



Foosball Maniac is a realistic 3D foosball game for the PC.

It's website is:

http://foosballmaniac.com

Looking at the gameplay-video on the main page, you will immediately see how the game feels like.
The video features a match between myself (red) and a not so easy but also not the hardest opponent (6th from 8 opponents) (blue).

The game's intended audience are both casual players and hardcore foosball fanatics.

Of course I would be very happy if a review would appear on tigsource about this game. 

[nadam]

Guys, I am really short of reviews.
So if anyone would be as kind as writing a review (on tigsource or anywhere else where people are actually reading it), please contact me here or at 'nadam at foosballmaniac.com',
and I will send you a free registration key. Thanks.

[Don Andy]

I tried Demo, but the game wasn't all that exciting. It's a pretty good simulation of a soccer table, but that's probably the worst part of the game, too. I just don't think it translates very well into a video game.

The fact that you can only control the players the ball's near at was making controls a bit easier, but I often was going for a swing, when the controls suddenly switched to another bar and I swung with the complete wrong sets of players, often giving disastrous results. There IS probably a way to change this, but I didn't check.

Also, the AI in the demo is absolutely boring. The most challenge you get in it is mastering the controls and trying not to shove the ball into your own goal, which is the only way these guys ever scored. Both the first dude and that Robert guy basically just shoved the balls a bit. Robert at least was a bit better defending, but most of the times (with both) the ball basically just rolled into their goal.

The two demo AIs are good to get used to the controls, but I think you should include at least one harder AI so people can see that the game is actually able of putting up a challenge. Like this the game had more of mini golf than of soccer.

Other than that though, the game was very polished and I think with multiplayer (again, didn't check if it is there) and later on with harder AI this can be a very fun game.

In essence, I think this is a fun and deep game, but it didn't give much incentive to get further into it after beating the two bland demo AIs.

Sorry, for posting feedback here in the Announcement forum, but I felt sorry for your game not getting any attention.

Also, this is not to be seen as a review since I was mostly focusing on what I disliked about the demo.

[nadam]

Thanks Andy for the detailed feedback.

There are lots of options regarding rod selection (they are described in the help), for example you can simply select the active rod with the 1-4 keys.

I think the problem with this game is that it is a bit deeper than it seems at first, or what people expect from a casual game. It needs some practice/patience to be reasonably good at controlling the rods. (Also there are much more control-options than in an average arcade game, and people will probably not use them, because they will not read the help, they just begin playing. Although this is not that big of a problem, because it is possible to be reasonably successful with the default settings until a certain very high level, where manual rod selection and things like that become more and more important.)

I made the first A.I.-s very easy because in the beginning players are just learning to 'master the ball', and I didn't want to demotivate them with hard opponents. The other reason is that if I make the harder A.I.-s available in the demo, who will buy the full version? In fact I show how better A.I.-s play on the YouTube video on my site. Lisa (the sixth opponent) is already quite hard to beat, as you can see on the video. And the last opponent is by far harder to beat than her. (really noone has beaten him yet!) (They are very far from being as intelligent as humans, but they are much more intelligent than the first A.I.s, and what makes them really hard to beat is that they are very fast, and have good reflexes.)
You are right, though, maybe at least the third opponent should be available in the demo. I will think about it, and maybe I will change it.

[sammoth]

just to let u know, ive beaten john the king (5-4), ive loved the game, u should do a next one with multiplayer option, so it would be more like the real foosball we find on bars. Cheers