Please play my game and give me some feedback, it's free on the Apple App Store

General (non-technical) Off-Topic
#1

Hey guys,

I posted about my game a few days ago in the New App Announcements section, as well as put it up in the App Showcase.

Anyways the game is called VR Dash, it’s an endless runner similar to Canabalt.

I would appreciate any feedback people have, and don’t be afraid to be critical. I want real impressions so that I can improve the game as well as future titles.

Here’s the link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vr-dash/id589882907?ls=1&mt=8

Finally, if anyone wants to know how I accomplished anything you see in the game feel free to ask me and I will post the code for you! The whole game is only about 4,500 lines of code.

-Treb [import]uid: 181948 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 334826[/import]

#2

Well done. Congrats! I personally like the art and how you have done your options and credits, it all fits well and gives a professional polished look. I think the scrolling background is very effective. I am not sure what the red spike item does(it shakes the screen), but not sure what neg/pos it does for the player. I did not have time to play it a lot, so maybe it does something obvious that I missed. I like the simple touch screen for the jump action.

Good luck, hope it does well for you. [import]uid: 148857 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 138499[/import]

#3

Thanks!

It took a while playing around with gradient masks and the widget scrollview object before I got the right effect for the credits.

The red spiky fruit is the Rambutan, right now it just shakes the screen. I thought it would be a little more off-putting then it actually was, but speeding it up or increasing the shake distance just made you feel sick when playing. Anyways I’ll be adding another effect to it, let me know what you think when the update comes out :slight_smile:

I’ll also be putting in a help screen so the mechanics and the fruit will be explained. It will also have some hints for timing the jumps and whatnot.

I appreciate the feedback! [import]uid: 181948 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 138506[/import]

#4

Well done. Congrats! I personally like the art and how you have done your options and credits, it all fits well and gives a professional polished look. I think the scrolling background is very effective. I am not sure what the red spike item does(it shakes the screen), but not sure what neg/pos it does for the player. I did not have time to play it a lot, so maybe it does something obvious that I missed. I like the simple touch screen for the jump action.

Good luck, hope it does well for you. [import]uid: 148857 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 138499[/import]

#5

Thanks!

It took a while playing around with gradient masks and the widget scrollview object before I got the right effect for the credits.

The red spiky fruit is the Rambutan, right now it just shakes the screen. I thought it would be a little more off-putting then it actually was, but speeding it up or increasing the shake distance just made you feel sick when playing. Anyways I’ll be adding another effect to it, let me know what you think when the update comes out :slight_smile:

I’ll also be putting in a help screen so the mechanics and the fruit will be explained. It will also have some hints for timing the jumps and whatnot.

I appreciate the feedback! [import]uid: 181948 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 138506[/import]

#6

Hi Treb, here is a little feedback for you:

I like the art work and think the menu’s look pretty polished. I was a little confused by the floating icons in the game … The yellow thing looked like a bunch of bananas to me and I didn’t really get the whole going backwards until the pterodactyl pics you up.

The only other thing is that I didn’t really see anything that would make the game standout in the app store amongst the other “endless runner” games, but there are some good elements to it!

Chris [import]uid: 146966 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139243[/import]

#7

Hello,

Great job! Wow beautiful graphics, did you do that? Anyway here couple observations:

1- LOVE. The bird giving me head start! Great surprise when it happened.

2- do you any enemies in the game? Maybe I did not play long enough

3- love the change in direction of the run. I do not play much thus type of game but that the first time I saw this done. Another nice surprise!

4- you need a rate button on the menu!

5- you need to change the name! Nobody is going to search for VR! (Unless it is virtual reality) Maybe use Dino or something like that. You want words that people actually search for.

6- you may to change the return button to main menu or menu when the game over.

In any event I fantastic looking game. If you had to change only one thing I will use a different name!

Please take my suggestion with a grain of salt!

Mo [import]uid: 100814 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139269[/import]

#8

downloading it right now. [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139270[/import]

#9

Ok, i just played it.

The Art work = 8/10 That intro sketch looks pretty damn good. The graphics are good. Although the motions and animations feel a bit dull. (probably a Corona thing)

The Audio = 9/10 Sounds very thrilling and entertaining. Sound effects match perfectly. I have the main menu theme stuck in my head now lol.

Game play = 5/10 Very good mechanics that makes it difficult yet fun to learn. However, that banana that sends you backwards is a stupid idea if you ask me. Why the hell am i going backwards and loosing meters? where does it stop? how do i reverse again and continue with my original direction? The reverse direction is annoying and made me delete the game. I raked in about 300m, then i mistakenly got that stupid banana. i just purposely jump into lava so i dont loose more meters. Instead of going backwards, why dont you just make it a poison that instantly kills you, this way i can start a new race and get on with my life.

Overall impression 6 /10.

My thoughts. People enjoy qick fun games, this game is a bit dull and the reversing makes it worse. Like someone mentioned earlier, calling the game Dino run, Dino dash, Raptor run, Velocis escape etc is better than VR Dash, sounds like a SEGA game lol.

But all in all… GOOD JOB. Game looks excellent and i can tell you put in a lot of work. The flying dino caught me by surprise and it was very entertaining.

much kidos to you [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139276[/import]

#10

Oh I did not realize I was loosing meters when going backward! Still I found it surprising and fun (and had some more difficulty to this type of games) to go backward but again I never play this kind of games! Maybe like ugobyte said, just make it lose a life or something.

By the way how:

1- are you monitazing the game?

2- how did you accomplish the great effect of scrolling the credits (which by the way I would labeled that button credits instead of your company name)

GREAT JOB!

Mo [import]uid: 100814 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139280[/import]

#11

yea LairdGames you loose meters when you go back. That was the killer for me.

It will be impossible to change the name once it’s uploaded to iTunes and ready for sale. So might as well forget about that one. [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139283[/import]

#12

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback! It’s really appreciated.

@maher_c- The bananas will be better explained in the Help section when the update goes out. I agree that it needs more to stand out, I’m going to add more effects in future updates to hopefully better set it apart…

@LairdGames-
1 + 3: Thanks for the compliments! I contracted an artist I used to work with to do the art for the game, art is admittedly not a strong point of mine :stuck_out_tongue:
2: I have the art ready for an enemy but that won’t be in the next update, I will probably work that in the following update.
4: I need to look into a rate game button, hopefully I can get that into this update.
5: I have more common names like Dino in the metadata, so it should still come up if people search that.
6: You’re right, it isn’t very straightforward that it goes back to the main menu. I’ll have our artist redo that button.

Right now we aren’t monetizing, we’re going to integrate either Tapjoy or another service in an update. We were originally going to sell it for $1 but during our free launch promotion we got much fewer downloads than expected, so we’re going to keep it free and monetize through other means.

For the credits screen I used a mask with a gradient over a scrollview object. If you want I can post the mask I used and the rest of the code so you can replicate it in your own projects.

For the auto-scrolling I did the following:
[lua] scrollView:scrollToBottom( 25000, function() scrollView:scrollToTop(20000) end ) [/lua]

@ugobyte- Thanks for the remarks on the graphics and audio! I actually got all of the audio in the game for a little over $70 from www.soundrangers.com. They have licenses made for games and other similar media. You run the risk of other titles having the same audio, but with the number of titles out there I doubt anyone would notice.

I agree the banana effect isn’t well conveyed; the new info screen I’m adding should help with it.

A couple of notes on the banana:

  1. It doesn’t send you back forever, only 30 meters.
  2. If you make it the full 30 meters you turn back around and get a Pterodactyl boost
  3. The Pterodactyl sends you forward 75 meters, so you actually get an award of 15 meters (I realize it isn’t a huge reward for the risk of getting it, I’ll probably rebalance that effect soon)
  4. Your jumps reset when you get it, so you should be able to recover no matter where you get the banana

Again this feedback really helps me, and as I said I’ll be happy to post code and explain any portion of the game if anyone wants.

-Treb [import]uid: 181948 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139285[/import]

#13

cool, i use www.neosounds.com for audio. They have tons of Music for any genre and millions of high quality sound effects. But they are a bit expensive.

Not too many people know about them so you’ll find rare and unique songs and effx [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139327[/import]

#14

Treb,

I think it would be interesting to see whatever code you cared to share, be it the scrolling credits or scrolling background or other aspects. All those things can be helpful to many learning Corona. I plan to post some of my own code once I have a a project or so completed.
Thanks [import]uid: 148857 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139371[/import]

#15

Hi Treb, here is a little feedback for you:

I like the art work and think the menu’s look pretty polished. I was a little confused by the floating icons in the game … The yellow thing looked like a bunch of bananas to me and I didn’t really get the whole going backwards until the pterodactyl pics you up.

The only other thing is that I didn’t really see anything that would make the game standout in the app store amongst the other “endless runner” games, but there are some good elements to it!

Chris [import]uid: 146966 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139243[/import]

#16

Hello,

Great job! Wow beautiful graphics, did you do that? Anyway here couple observations:

1- LOVE. The bird giving me head start! Great surprise when it happened.

2- do you any enemies in the game? Maybe I did not play long enough

3- love the change in direction of the run. I do not play much thus type of game but that the first time I saw this done. Another nice surprise!

4- you need a rate button on the menu!

5- you need to change the name! Nobody is going to search for VR! (Unless it is virtual reality) Maybe use Dino or something like that. You want words that people actually search for.

6- you may to change the return button to main menu or menu when the game over.

In any event I fantastic looking game. If you had to change only one thing I will use a different name!

Please take my suggestion with a grain of salt!

Mo [import]uid: 100814 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139269[/import]

#17

downloading it right now. [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139270[/import]

#18

Ok, i just played it.

The Art work = 8/10 That intro sketch looks pretty damn good. The graphics are good. Although the motions and animations feel a bit dull. (probably a Corona thing)

The Audio = 9/10 Sounds very thrilling and entertaining. Sound effects match perfectly. I have the main menu theme stuck in my head now lol.

Game play = 5/10 Very good mechanics that makes it difficult yet fun to learn. However, that banana that sends you backwards is a stupid idea if you ask me. Why the hell am i going backwards and loosing meters? where does it stop? how do i reverse again and continue with my original direction? The reverse direction is annoying and made me delete the game. I raked in about 300m, then i mistakenly got that stupid banana. i just purposely jump into lava so i dont loose more meters. Instead of going backwards, why dont you just make it a poison that instantly kills you, this way i can start a new race and get on with my life.

Overall impression 6 /10.

My thoughts. People enjoy qick fun games, this game is a bit dull and the reversing makes it worse. Like someone mentioned earlier, calling the game Dino run, Dino dash, Raptor run, Velocis escape etc is better than VR Dash, sounds like a SEGA game lol.

But all in all… GOOD JOB. Game looks excellent and i can tell you put in a lot of work. The flying dino caught me by surprise and it was very entertaining.

much kidos to you [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139276[/import]

#19

Oh I did not realize I was loosing meters when going backward! Still I found it surprising and fun (and had some more difficulty to this type of games) to go backward but again I never play this kind of games! Maybe like ugobyte said, just make it lose a life or something.

By the way how:

1- are you monitazing the game?

2- how did you accomplish the great effect of scrolling the credits (which by the way I would labeled that button credits instead of your company name)

GREAT JOB!

Mo [import]uid: 100814 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139280[/import]

#20

yea LairdGames you loose meters when you go back. That was the killer for me.

It will be impossible to change the name once it’s uploaded to iTunes and ready for sale. So might as well forget about that one. [import]uid: 119483 topic_id: 34826 reply_id: 139283[/import]