Descensus - a 2D physics game for Android

[Tom W Hall]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.booleanoperations.descensus

 

Descensus is a simple 2D physics game which I've described as somewhere between a marble roll, tennis, and Tetris. Teris in the sense that gravity increases over time and you have to guide your object as it falls.

 

It's built with my P2Pixi JavaScript framework:

 

https://github.com/TomWHall/p2Pixi

 

which is itself built around the excellent libraries p2.js (for physics) and PIXI (for WebGL rendering).

 

It's packaged for Android using CocoonJS, which I have found to be by far the best of its bunch. I hope to also release it for iOS. It also works perfectly as an online game (though using a mouse rather than touch isn't as fun), although I haven't made it available online yet and I'm undecided if I will.

 

Enjoy!

[Sebi]

Yea, not spending 1,23 € for that.

[Tom W Hall]

Yea, not spending 1,23 € for that.

 

To be fair, the simple graphical style looks a lot nicer on a phone. But that's useful feedback. What would you pay for it? Initial feedback from others is that it's an addictive game.

[Sebi]

It's just a bunch of shapes on a black background with physics applied to it. That's all I can tell from seeing your 2 screenshots.

Also the screenshots look like work in progress rather than finished product.

I would only spend money on polished games and even then not much, unless it is full of content or is a f2p and I really like it.

If you would at least upload an video of the gameplay, then I might change my mind.

[Tom W Hall]

I've improved the graphics a bit with a subtle parallax scrolling background and other tweaks. Still going for a simple look though.

 

 

[Sebi]

Can you upload a short video of the gameplay?

[Tom W Hall]

Can you upload a short video of the gameplay?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B_jkTll5zE

 

As the description says, please don't be put off by the slight lag in the video capture. I'll try to create some better quality uploads soon.

[JakeCake]

I really like the idea, very simplistic, but as others have said, you should definitely put more work into it if you expect people to pay for it. Think details, what about a line showing your best depth, what about collision-sounds, leaderboard, different difficulties, more custom graphics (when you reach certain depths the background could gradually change (see Icy Tower)). Make people want to see what the deeper levels look like instead of just the same thing all way through. I remember in school-breaks when someone reached a new floor in Icy Tower and people rushed to see how it looked.

 

The art so far is alright, somewhat generic though. Consider making it part of your game instead of just a way to render what's going on.

 

Also, consider making it private and free while in beta if you really want feedback, I am only judging from the screenshots and video.

[BdR]

It looks alright, reminds me of Kirby Power Paintbrush for DS. But I think there are two points where your game is not consistent with its visual clues:

 

1) When you hit the brown sticks, only then it is visible that they rotate around one point. The purple sticks are still and don't move. Maybe you could make all the parts that are rotating (or can rotate) have a circle in the middle to show the rotating point, That way player can see before hitting object if they rotate or not. I know it is also visible by color but some players are color blind.

 

2) If the sides of the screen kills the player, it could give a clue and display spikes or fire or something.

 

Besides that it maybe could use some goals and objectives, like collect coins for example.