[Phaser] bananadoh - tile tapping banana-laden action puzzle

[staff0rd]

Trailer: https://youtu.be/5GWID7iHvPs

I am pleased to present my first game written in Phaser, and my first submission to the Apple and Google Play stores - bananadoh.

 

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bananadoh is an action puzzle featuring a truck that has lost its bananas. Rotate tiles in order to keep the truck on the road as it journeys through a colorful game world, and relish in the fruits of your high-score.

bananadoh features a range of unlockable tiles and pickups, and every level is procedurally generated ensuring a unique experience each time you play.

The game is available right now on the following platforms;

• Web
• Apple App Store
• Google Play

The game runs on Phaser 2.4.4 and is hosted on the web on Amazon S3 and distributed via CloudFlare.  The iOS version is hosted inside a GCDWebserver-backed WKWebView app that I wrote in Swift.  For Android, I'm using a Crosswalk WebView app that I wrote in Java.  Both mobile versions pass all audio processing to the host application to get around performance issues I found with Web Audio, and are Google AdMob and Facebook Audience Network ad-supported with remove-ad IAPs.

I have about two months worth of devlogs that I was emailing out to friends and family to keep them updated, and I'll be posting those on my website in the coming week/s.  I'll add an update here when they're up.

I hope you enjoy the game, please let me know if you find any issues or have any suggestions.  Highest score I know of is 492.

 

[WombatTurkey]

Very cool use of procedural generated content. I will install this on my tablet tonight for sure.

One thing I've noticed is I get small camera jitterness whenever the truck is moving. I'm talking like a small, and I mean small jitterness it's barely noticeable. Am I the only one? I'm on latest Chrome. 

 

[BdR]

I tried the web version on a laptop Great game with excellent presentation. The graphics and sounds are very good. I do have some suggestions though:

• It's a pretty hard game, my highscore is 14, maybe make it a little easier or slower
• Maybe wait a little longer before starting the car? Or start moving after X seconds after the first tileclick
• The playfield could be larger, or always allow the car to wrap the edge? (when it goes out one side, it appear on the other side)
• The removing and adding of rows or columns seems is a little harsh and random, maybe introduce that in later levels or after passing a certain score
• The whole level moves around which can be a little dissorientating. I think it would be a little easier to navigate if the camera doesn't follow the car constantly

[staff0rd]

@WombatTurkey I've been staring at that truck so long I didn't notice it but I think you're right.  I think its more noticeable if you get the truck into a closed loop, and then look real closely at the lines that are just under the drivers/passenger side windows.  The lines look as though they are subtlety flashing/pulsing at the same frequency of the jittering.  I'll need to check how i'm moving it.

@BdR All valid points, but difficult to solve and find the right balance for everyone.  Your first few points illustrate the feelings of many new players to the game, one of "wtf, this game is hard!", and you're right - your suggestions would indeed make the game easier. However, if you play more than a few games, and you start to understand the mechanics and get into the flow a bit more, scoring say around 30-40, then the early game actually feels too easy.  When you start scoring 60 or above, the early game is a little annoying and you just try to pass it as quickly as possible because it doesn't offer as much challenge (or reward, ie; points).

As such, its a problem of balancing the difficulty of the early the game between not scaring off new players and not annoying regular players.  The early game is already a lot easier than original prototypes (would you believe), and the response from new players seems to fall into one of the following categories specific to difficulty;

1. Too hard, can you make it easier? (or just too hard, wont play)
2. This is hard, but I like it
3. This has good balance

The game is supposed to be hard, and I obviously like it when players fall into #2 & #3, but I do worry about players who, like yourself, fall into #1, and I'm thinking about ways beyond just making it easier that try to give the player more reasons to try again apart from just making it easier (with the expectation that if they keep trying, it will naturally get easier).  One of those ideas - daily challenges - may in fact have mechanic changes similar to your suggestions, for example different playfield layouts different row replacement rules.

Also, the way rows/columns are replaced is currently based on the direction the truck is facing as it exits the tile it collected the pickup on.

Thanks for your feedback guys.

[Rudrabhoj Bhati]

Very interesting game My high-score is 12, may be with little practice I'll be able to break it.

Difficulty is what makes the game fun to play and interesting. Very nice work with this game.

[_Sanjay]

This game is fun, and the graphics are great too ! Loved it.

[PMG]

Good concept. Nice twist on the usual water pipe connecting like puzzles.

I am really enjoying it.

[mattstyles]

Great job staff0rd

I think one thing that could maybe make it easier to begin with is more straight sections, although I could be wrong, its a play and test sort of thing. At the moment, at least initially, it becomes very difficult to set up longer chains of tiles. Long chains of tiles give players a chance to think ahead and a small breather between decisions, which is useful for beginners as they try to cognitively get their head around your gameplay mechanics. More advanced players would probably end up creating tighter and smaller chains, ones that more efficiently grab the goodies so they'd naturally be able to use their advanced skills to progress in the game without you changing much in the way of game mechanics.

I found the edges of the map to be a real difficulty. I keep expecting to have an endlessly scrolling map or I'd get into a rhythm and then get to a tricky spot at the edge of the map and fail. Or got a place with a straight tile which ended up driving me off the edge to failure, sometimes these became very hard to predict and move away from.

I also found the constantly sliding map tricky sometimes, I'd have my cursor on the correct tile to click, anticipating where the truck will be a few seconds from now, only for the map to slide and my cursor be in the wrong position. I'm not sure how to solve it, although I think that a larger playing field, which only scrolls when the truck gets near to the edge i.e. rather than the truck remain static at 0,0 (middle of screen) maybe only scroll the map when the truck gets to edge of a box say -300,-300 to 300, 300 (or something, in screen coords) would help. Many top-down and iso games take this approach of only scrolling when necessary rather than a constant map slide. It might just be me though.

Good job though, I enjoyed playing it! Did remind me a little of Pipemania (which is a good memory!) but with a definite twist.

[staff0rd]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

@mattstyles Earlier in the development of the game I discovered that straight pieces actually increase the difficulty!  I have had to decrease the amount of them present compared to corners due to the way they kind of shrink the dimensions of the board.  Its a bit hard to explain, but basically every straight piece on the board actually brings you closer to the boundary, so when you enter a straight piece, rather than give you any actual decision to make, it's just putting you 1 tile closer to the edge of the board (which if you go to the edge of the board, is gameover).

Anyway, your comment regarding a desire to have a chance to make longer chains is one I've heard several times since launching the game, and falls back to what @BdR was noting as well - its too fast for a lot of new players.  As such, I'm working on a fix that should make it much easier for new players whilst still ensuring that regular/veteran players can get their stress fix.

[dimumurray]

A good start.

I noticed 2 glaring issues.

The first is when you start a level and the central tile auto-cycles; when you select it the cycle skips ahead to the next tile in the rotation. That alone will throw off a lot of players; many may consider it a bug.

The second and more critical issue is visual feedback when interacting with a tile. When a player looks at the field its difficult to immediately differentiate one tile from another. You need to present a way to clearly and persistently define the tile(s) a player can interact with. One way would be to add a graphic to the tile that the player's mouse cursor is hovering over; something to indicate the boundaries of the tile. There is no analog for hovering with touch interfaces though so that it something you'll need to work-around somehow.

[staff0rd]

@dimumurray Thanks for trying the game, and for your feedback.

You cannot select tiles, you can only tap them which results in them rotating.  When you tap the "tutorial" tile, it rotates - just like any other tile on the board.  For example, if the tile was auto-tapped twice, and you then tap it, the resulting rotation would be the 3rd tile in the cycle.  Is this what you're seeing but expecting it to be different, or, are you seeing something else?

The understanding of tile bounds takes a little longer for some players than others, and that point has been raised a few times.  As such, tiles now highlight when tapped to reinforce their position within the grid.

 

[staff0rd]

I've implemented several updates since the game was released;

• Added difficulty modes.  Starts off a lot easier now - although in saying that the game is still too hard for some people.
• Added leaderboards iOS (Game Center), Android (Google Play), Newgrounds and Kongregate.
• Added achievements on iOS, Android and Newgrounds
• Added youtube trailer: https://youtu.be/5GWID7iHvPs