next »

[agamerguy]

I'm new here, however I'm not new to independent game development. As such I'd figure I'd introduce myself and my current brain child.

My name is Nicholas Allen, I've worked in professional game development for about 2 and a half years as a programmer. I particularly like working with retro games with new technology. I hope to learn from everyone here and share my experiences. My current website is http://www.obscurityfactor.com/


My game is Cylinder, which was originally created 3 years ago for PC, has been recently reborn and fully realized on the iPhone.

In it's current state, I consider it a complete and compitent puzzle game, akin to Puyo Puyo, with some twists and inspiration from Tetris, Meteos and others. However, games can always use improvement, and I'm already working on more puzzles and online score keeping, but I'm always open to more suggestions.

Thanks to all TIG users, and I hope I can become a valuable part of this community!

[edit] I also ment to include links to download the 2 original pc versions, a prototype done using my own software 3D rasterizer, and another more fully realized version. While the iPhone version is still the superior version with more complete and balanced gameplay, the PC versions offer a great way to enjoy the game.

http://www.obscurityfactor.com/oldprojects/CylinderPrototype.zip (101kb)
http://www.obscurityfactor.com/oldprojects/Cylinder.zip (2.73mb)

[Loren Schmidt]

Welcome to TIGSource! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I intended to try your game out a couple of days ago. I downloaded and played the newer of the two PC versions, though I imagine this isn't very representative of the level of polish of the iPhone version.

It seems like a decent idea. I found rotating the cylinder to be somewhat awkward- I could see it becoming quite a liability when playing under time pressure. Judging by the video on your site, it looks like this is a bit more streamlined on the iPhone. Can one rotate the cylinder with one finger and flip blocks with a second?

The basic mechanics are a bit like those in Tetris Attack, which is one of my favorite Sparkly Gem Puzzle Games (TM). I haven't played this much, but is it not as conducive to chaining? It may just be that I don't know the game well. Anyway best wishes on your iPhone sales, and I hope to see you around the boards.

[agamerguy]

ha, yeah, I've heard some similar comments in the past. One thing that may help, and I apologize for not mentioning it in the original post, but you can rotate the cylinder in the version you downloaded with the A and D keys. As far as similarities to Tetris Attack go, some things are similar to Panel De Pon games, but overall I feel like the game is more tetris in reverse, particularly the iPhone version, since the matches you make are the tetris pieces (4 blocks connected by any means), and in the iPhone version, lines fall in.

Thanks for your input and comments. And yeah, I understand the game does have a learning curve, rather then thinking of trying to chain matches, making larger matches is generally a better goal to reach for, it's possible to make a match of 12 (actually by chaining with a match of 4 in the middle). I bet it's possible to make an even larger match, though it would require alot of planning.

[agamerguy]

For those of you with iPhones or iPod Touches, the lite version of Cylinder has finally been accepted by apple: itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320248407&mt=8&s=143441

I'm working on an update for the full version, to include some fixes, new puzzles and online scoring. Let me know what you guys think!