Sunday, February 7, 2010

Change Isn't Always Welcome.

Some people don't seem to like the border enemies, thinking about calling them fence runners. With a 1 star raing, paul says "Oh well, it was fun until the latest update." Well the last update made it work on 1.6 QVGA devices(Tattoo), added highlights to the border to give it a little depth, and added border enemies. The border enemies are the only real change - they are obviously the culprit.

I had implemented border enemies, but hadn't finalized their use in the game. But after finding out that the game didn't work on 1.6 QVGA devices, I wanted to push a fix as quickly as I could. So I made the fix, and just put 1 border enemy on level 2, and 2 on all later levels. Border enemies require a lot more attention to the game. You can no longer assume safety on the border and look away mid game. Having "casual" gameplay on a handheld device can be a great strength though. A game doesn't have to be "intense" or require 100% attention to be a solid game. And it wasn't my intention to take that away.

I rushed a change and broke a strong feature of gameplay in my game. And not only is that a good feature, taking it away(publishing beta versions) also alienates existing users. I hope Paul, hans on to Claustrum Lite long enough to get the next update, which will happen today, within 24 hours of his comment.

My solution to the problem is to add 2 game types, "Casual" and "Intense." Currently the only difference is the presence of border enemies. This allows gameplay to continue as users have grown accustomed to, or to choose a mode that requires more attention and skill.

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