Hi all! I used to look at this forum and site but never participated because I wasn't ready to do it, since I'm not very experienced. I want your opinion about a matter though, so I thought of coming out. I developed a game together with my colleague, we are trying to push it since we think it's a very interesting game and a good concept too... The URL is http://www.ufho.it It's a turn-based puzzle game, its name is UFHO (come insiede and you'll know why) and it has a lot of strategy. There's a lobby in which you can chat and meet for playing, matchmaking and complete stats and ranking. You don't have to register from the start, you can use the guest account. user: guest pass: guest Only by registering though, you will keep your stats (registering is free too :D ). It's free, that's why I'm asking you to try it, I made it because I like games and I'm really trying to start something in Italy... we're not even getting money on it ;) I hope you'll enjoy it... any feedback is welcome. You'll find me on the game as ness. PS we think of porting it to the DS... what do you think??

That is simply amazing. I can only imagine the reason you have got 0 replies is because everyone is so addicted! You need to make it clear to the user what they are trying to do because most people, like myself, want to dive straight in. On that note, you also want to make your YouTube video down in length, there is too much watching people play. I got bored before finding out how to lay the stuff you pick up. Aside from that, I don't think I have played a game that has been so obviously easy to pick up put impossible to master. It is like the new Tetris.

As for porting it to DS, great! But I don't know what Stylus controls would actually add to the experience. You would have to make sure that it worked perfectly, there is nothing more infuriating that wasting one of your moves accidentally rotating something when you decided not to move your blog (something I cam across in the PC version) Or dual screens. I think you would have to adapt it slightly, as having the game board stretched over the two screens could become frustrating. Use the mic for chat and make sure you can play Wi-fi. Aside from that, what you have made is simple genius.

Great game, very polished.

Note: Was hard to tell which player I was, whose turn it was, and whether I should use 'skip turn' to simply end my turn when I was done moving.

Thanks so much, all of you!

@thk123: Thanks for everything, I'll take your suggestions as gold. We're going to improve introduction for the newbies, anyway as you say the game is easy to learn but difficult to master. The new Tetris?? :D You're embarassing me... :P

Yeah of course porting it to the DS could use some optimization, we'd like to but we're not relly near to doing it...

@Argus2:
Personally, I never Skip Turns. There's always something useful you can do with your moves, if not using them to slow down the opponent.
Think of this: the opponent is 2 moves away from the gem. Next turn he use 2 moves to get it and has 4(!) moves to go to the next one. If you rotate his room and the gem's one, he'll spend 2 more moves to readjust his path, and the next turn he has 2 moves less. It was only a stupid example of the hundreds of combinations.

No Worries!

I think what Argus2 meant, although I don't know, is when you have used all your moves, is skip turn a way of just ending your go early. You might want to consider the turn ending automatically when the player has used all his moves or at least prompt the user to do so.

The turn ends automatically when your moves are 0. If it doesn't do so it's because of the slowness of the internet connection of one of the two players.

Awesome! Very original!

And I think porting to the DS is a great idea... But also consider Xbox live arcade, it seems much easier to publish on there for indie developers.

Thanks kiwibonga!

As for porting to XBLA, we should rethink the movement scheme from scrap. How can we do without a pointing device?

Without a pointing device the game would be different. However, it would still be playable, but the time limit would have to be increased to counter-balance using the joy stick. The player would move selected square using right joy stick, press X to rotate one way, B to rotate the other. A would activate your blob. A-ing on another hexagon would move him there, pressing A on the same hexagon would drop him. Triggers could be used to rotate the big hexagon that is currently selected.

Sorry about not checking the automatic turn thing, after I posted it I thought that it might happen. I was trying to second guess someone else, my apologies.

Ciao ;)

I'm glad I came across this.

I can see how there can be a lot of depth and strategy involved - the opportunity to plan ahead and make counter-moves. I didn't really know what moves to make, but I need to practice before I can play at the speed my opponent did (which was cool to watch).

Perhaps make the area-joining parts a little more obvious...?

Otherwise it looks quite polished and really just needs play-testing/feedback :) Good stuff.

Will be watching this.