This is my first post in these forums - so be gentle. First, let me introduce myself very quickly. My name is Dave Myers and I am one of the owners of an indie game dev studio, 21-6 Productions. Earlier this year we released a small title on RealOne Arcade called Cyclone. More recently we have launched our Torque-based multiplayer title Orbz. We had an exclusive deal with Real for Cyclone, but now we are reaching the end of that exclusivity and plan on putting Cyclone out elsewhere. What we plan on doing is giving it a facelift at the very least before we do so. Cyclone is a pretty interesting color-matching, bubble-popping type of game, but we think we can update it to be better. We were hoping that maybe some of you might have the time and inclination to download and install the game and possibly post some feedback here. Sorry - it''s only on Real, so if you have a strong anti-Real bias and don''t want to download their Arcade client we completely understand. Peer review and gamer thoughts of our products in order to make sure they continue to sell the next few years seems like an important part of the game dev process, so any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks. Dave Myers Vice President 21-6 Productions, Inc. http://www.21-6.com/

Pretty fun. Here''s a thought. Maybe remove the abstractness and add some sort of theme? Maybe more gamers would be willing to give it a shot if it involved cute little animals instead of cold, cold radial blocks.

One other thing I wished for was some smoothness in moving the disk. It''s a bit disorienting and jarring since the disc snaps into position instead of slowly turning. Sometimes it''s hard to keep track of things because of this quick snap.

Thanks for the feedback - it''s much appreciated.

quote: Original post by beantas
Pretty fun. Here''s a thought. Maybe remove the abstractness and add some sort of theme? Maybe more gamers would be willing to give it a shot if it involved cute little animals instead of cold, cold radial blocks.

We have some interesting history on Cyclone in this arena. We actually had a theme in it, but it wasn''t well thought out. When we sent it to Real that was one of their suggestions - either go all the way with a good theme or just pull it altogether. Now, for a small indie shop like 21-6, having to really do a theme correctly seemed like too much investment in resources - so we pulled it and renamed it. This was their suggestion also, as they felt that a non-theme puzzle game might do better. Definitely something to consider.

quote: Original post by beantas
One other thing I wished for was some smoothness in moving the disk. It''s a bit disorienting and jarring since the disc snaps into position instead of slowly turning. Sometimes it''s hard to keep track of things because of this quick snap.

This is spot-on - I completely agree on this one and hope that we can fit it in the update. One other thought was showing the incoming row also (ala Collapse and other similar games), as right now it just slaps in a new layer, highlights it a second, then continues. This also seems a bit jarring.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Dave Myers
Vice President
21-6 Productions, Inc.
http://www.21-6.com/

quote: Original post by Dave_21-6
We have some interesting history on Cyclone in this arena. We actually had a theme in it, but it wasn''t well thought out. When we sent it to Real that was one of their suggestions - either go all the way with a good theme or just pull it altogether. Now, for a small indie shop like 21-6, having to really do a theme correctly seemed like too much investment in resources - so we pulled it and renamed it. This was their suggestion also, as they felt that a non-theme puzzle game might do better. Definitely something to consider.

Interesting. Just curious. What was the theme you had in it?

A couple other things came up.

I noticed that you can speed up the falling blob by pressing down once. But once you press it, you can''t slow it back down. Also, sometimes I wish it would fall a lot faster than it does, even after speeding it up. Is it possible to change this to an analog system? By holding the button down, it accelerates? But if the player suddenly wants to stop the acceleration, by letting go of the button, it''ll revert back to its initial slow speed? I realize this might just be personal preference but it seems like giving more control to the player is usually a good thing.

Another thing I noticed was that sometimes the disc doesn''t respond to my input. Sometimes it locks up and doesn''t move for a split second. Is this by design or is it a bug?

quote: Original post by Dave_21-6
We actually had a theme in it, but it wasn't well thought out.

quote: Original post by beantas
Interesting. Just curious. What was the theme you had in it?

Pretty simplistic. The center was Earth and there was a star background. The name was Defense Net at the time.

quote: Original post by beantas
I noticed that you can speed up the falling blob by pressing down once. But once you press it, you can't slow it back down. Also, sometimes I wish it would fall a lot faster than it does, even after speeding it up. Is it possible to change this to an analog system? By holding the button down, it accelerates? But if the player suddenly wants to stop the acceleration, by letting go of the button, it'll revert back to its initial slow speed? I realize this might just be personal preference but it seems like giving more control to the player is usually a good thing.

It really feels like this is a personal preference. It's not merely a matter of giving the player more control. This really is a design consideration and it impacts game play considerably. If we allow the missiles to fall too fast, then the balance needs to be re-done to make sure the game is fair to newbies in the early levels and challenging in the later levels to pros. Still, good feedback - hadn't heard a thought like that during playtesting.

quote: Original post by beantas
Another thing I noticed was that sometimes the disc doesn't respond to my input. Sometimes it locks up and doesn't move for a split second. Is this by design or is it a bug?

I'd have to see what you are talking about to answer you. There is a slight delay, as currently the grid sort of clicks into place. If we go with a smoothly turning grid you most likely wouldn't see this.

Again, thanks for the feedback.



Dave Myers
Vice President
21-6 Productions, Inc.

[edited by - Dave_21-6 on December 30, 2002 10:33:44 PM]