Hi guys, So, we posted our game Feed the Rat in the upcoming iphone and ipod touch games section, and we got 130 views and 0 comments!I can't figure it out why nobody posted!It could be that the game sucks(not likely) or maybe the thread isn't clear enough! Any ideas? Thanks a lot!
For me, it isn't entirely clear from the "screenshots" what the game is about. I know that a lot of companies opt to have pictures of screenshots and put notes or captions on to explain what's going on, but this makes everything over-busy and unclear in my opinion. As a player, I want to see what the actual in-game screenshots look like. Just my opinion though. Alison
You probably did noting wrong. I think, here you get visibility mostly if you post something with "Gameloft" or "Angry Birds" or similar in the topic title. I couldn't find your post, but to be honest the title "feed the rat" is absolutelly uninteresting for me too, because I assume some 2D tap game, which is boring by now, no matter how many boni and upgrades and secret levels you have in it. So probably I wouldn't click it as well. If your game would be called "Fred the Rat", maybe I would be more curious...
It can be frustrating to not get comments. Drives me nuts! But on the bright side there is a really good chance everyone liked it. People LOVE to complain and won't hesitate in leaving a negative comment. So typically, I consider a no comment as a thumbs up. (Of course I wish they would say so!) You may want to edit the post and Expressly state that you REALLY want feedback!
Upcoming games section is a fickle section. I had 3-400 views before I got my first comment on RoboArena, and that was me! Keep updating and posting news and cool screenshots and videos. This is part of building buzz, and you have to start from ground zero to do that unfortunately.
We have gotten alot feedback on our Retrogamebox. Things you need 1) Video (youtube) embedded if you dont know how to embed I will gladly help you. 2) Screen Shots just 3 real good ones. 3) Informative game description. Now while retrogamebox has great feedback , my other upcomming thread Knight revenge was sour for 2 pages until our fans came in and saved us. So its a real tough crowd here in touch arcade , real tough. People here dont hold thier tongue's for nothing.
I just looked back on your topic, and the reason I didn't look before (and didn't post) is because it didn't catch my eye. Nothing struck me as new or unique about it. What separates your game from all the rest? That's what people are going to want to know, and that's what'll attract them to it. Right now, there is a tremendous amount of overlap within iOS games. If you want people to give you feedback, you need to find a way to get them on your topic, which basically means you need a good title. For this, I'd suggest not simply using the title of your game. Once they're in the topic, you may want to ask specific questions, or as someone else said, at least mention that you'd like some feedback. I don't mean to be rude when I say this, but from a consumer's point of view, right now your game looks like pretty much every other casual iOS game on the app store (or at least that's the impression I get from your topic). Most people would say "Why should I be excited for that?" You want to explain that as soon (i.e first thing people see in the topic) as possible, and you'll also want to do this as clearly as you can, but in as few words as you can. I'm not a developer, though. I'm making these statements based on my knowledge of psychology, and to a lesser extent, my knowledge of marketing. I could be wrong! Good luck!
Thanks a lot guys this really helps, this is our first game, and we are learning many things along the process. @yemi that's why touch arcade is one of the best forums, if you want advice you want the real thing , i don't want somebody telling me that my crappy game is the best in the world, because it does not help at all! Here is the link at the thread, i don't expect comments, just wanted you to know what this is about http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=97765&highlight=lovblapps
Since I'm kind of in the same situation with you, I'll help you with a comment on that topic BTW, the game looks cute, but I think it should has some unique selling points. It looks a bit general and simple. Besides, the recently released game House Of Mice has similar game play and seems better with more variety.
We found out about House of mice, i think when we were 3 months into development, it was a sad day indeed, as we are a team of 2 , development took a little bit longer, nevertheless, while the gameplay is similar, the approach is totally different we wanted a game based more on puzzles based on the users imagination.As simple as possible but at the same time the game is extremely challenging!You really need to think outside the box to complete most of the levels!
I too get bummed when people don't comment on our work. We've posted so many images and comics (we also make comics) on our Facebook and they are usually ignored. It's understandable though. I look at hundreds of things a day on the webs and I almost never comment either. Your game does look pretty cute, but I agree with Astraware, I couldn't figure out what it was in the first few screenshots, so I moved on. I would have a screenshot maybe with some captions that concisely explain what the game is about. Maybe you have something like that, but I only saw the first 3. Good luck with your game.
I'd like to offer some constructive advice to you guys. -The colour scheme\palette of the app is a little too gray imo. It's a shame you didn't go for a cheesy wonderland (rats fantasy world) even for the main menu. I just feel it lacks colour and explosive cute appeal for a puzzle game of this type. The wooden planks and cobwebs are realistic but that's not fun to look at for the player...realism is not a friend of the casual puzzler. A good example would be Foodies. I your case different types of cheese instead of sweets\candy!! - If I was making this I would have had a few more comedy elements. Like very smelly cheese leaving a green trail as it went. Other rats trying to steal your cheese as obstacles. Even the sounds of the cheese plate bouncing around is a bit dry. I'd have had squishy springy cheese noises. And use round cheeses why the need for a plate??? If the cheese get to the rat after 5 secs is rotten and he makes a disgusted face and turns up his nose XD - The main character needs to be cuter. He looks a little like a middle aged grumpy rat. I would have preferred if he was really chubby with huge hungry eyes. He could have had some nice idle animations licking his chops, grumbling belly, sitting there with a knife and fork and bib around his neck too fat to move . Honestly you need to to use the cut the rope nom nom guy as your starting point for a character like this. GoOD Sample: The fat brother rat in 'Ratatouille' but with bigger eyes - The UI presentation is very good. Everything is clear and easy to use. - Gamecenter leaderboards is a must for Puzzle games, I want to share my scores with other micks! - Nice touch with the rat changing expression on the main menu when you go back and forth. Would have been great if he was animated there. - There a lack of excitment for me during general gameplay. Like I'm expecting it to explode into life and give me lots of visual and audio awards when I do good stuff...but it just feels a bit muted and unrewarding. PopCap are the kings of player feedback look at Bejeweled 3 and Peggle for examples of constantly tapping the player on the back with positive feedback. - The grey telephones (level select menu) are also a major turn off. All level icons don't need to be different just more pleasant & fun looking (like different cheeses for each level would be cute). - I also found the controls a little awkward. The plate was not easy to flick for me, I had to flick 3-5 times before it goes sometimes. I'd have preferred an alternative control system as an option. Like the control in Jump Out! a power bar you can direct. Remember your making a casual game it's not supposed to be too stressful just to play the early levels. OK that's my feedback. I hope it's not an overload and it's not too depressing. It is a solid idea and the structure and mechanic are good. I think it's the presentation that people are not going to be excited about.
Part of this is plain old visibility. Punch the "mark forum read" button and come back in a couple of hours and look at the new posts. This is a *very* popular site. You have to get a few people really interested in your game to get the thread count going, and then others will see a thread count and figure there's something interesting going on and perhaps contribute/download you game. Drag those first few people in by hook or crook. Offer some codes, ask for help with testing, promise sexual favours, whatever you feel happiest with.
The video of the gameplay is too hard to see. It _looks_ like you have some nice high res retina graphics, but the video doesn't show them off well. Run your game in the iOS emulator and use snapXpro to capture the video instead. it has an option to hide the mouse. In your game you probably want to show what the 'finger' is doing to move - what most people do is capture a hand graphic and use it as the mouse pointer on their computer before recording with snapXpro. snapXpro has a free 14 day trial, which is probably enough to get the video done - no real need to buy it. Check out how much better the video for my game looks: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=86015 (the overlay captions were done in a rush, and could probably be better tho )
Your video really looks good! However, how did you achieve such a high framerate? When I run my project in simulator, it runs at about 20 fps, although on the device it is 50 fps.
Cool You should upload it in HD, and then embed it into the forum like this (without quotes ofc): " Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
As kam187 suggested I used, snapzProX, it's free for 15 days, so you can use it, i selected the area I wanted to capture, and it has a nice feature allowing you to set the frame rate, I selected 25 frames/second!That should be enough!
