MegaFillers Flash

[Unnamed]

Hi all,

I have a simple puzzle game titled MegaFillers. Though I wanted to say goodbye to this game forever, lately I decided to get into Flash game development, and so I learned ActionScript. Because I'm a beginner, I needed something simple to begin with. That's why I decided to completely reimplement MegaFillers on Flash platform.

I also did some research on how does the business behind Flash games work, and for several reasons I decided to try to sell the game. The problem is that Flash games are expected to be eye-candies and all to sell. (Many examples prove that if the eye-candy part is OK, the game could even suck... ) The people who reviewed my game so far all suggested that I need art and sound for the game, and I believe them. Well, one thing to know about me is that I'm totally not into graphics, so I'm physically unable to produce the art for the game. Really. As for sound, music... all the same.

Because of this, I'm seeking for collaboration to complete MegaFillers Flash.

Here's what I need:


Art:

• User interface: panels, buttons, icons, checkboxes, etc..
• Background: It could be anything. You can use your creativity here! It could be a forest, cute animals, computers, robots, candies, little cartoon girls, anything. The point that it shouldn't distract the player's attention (while still I wouldn't like to have just a pale, unicolor background). I'd prefer to have a darkish theme, like the current background has (see the screenshots below), but if you have better ideas, I'm open! The stage size is 800x600.
• Some kind of logo for the game to appear in the main menu.

Sound & music:

• Interface sounds: button press, color change, etc..
• Calming melodies to play in the background.

Shaped tables:

• Basically, these are levels for the game, and they are pretty easy to produce. Though this could be done by me, I think it's better if different people make up tables, because I think I make boring ones.
  
• Here is a guide on how to make shaped tables:
  http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/megafillers/index.php?title=Shaped_tables
  Though this guide is originally made for the former open-source Win32 version of MegaFillers, the Flash version uses the berry same file format.
• New shaped tables will be automatically made available for the former desktop version of MegaFillers too.

Business stuff:
When the game will be complete, it'll be put on bid for exclusive sponsorship license on FGL. If the game really sells, of course I'll share a negotiated percent of the revenues with the creative artist and composer who do the art and sound. This doesn't apply for shaped tables, for I won't share revenues for making them, but anyone who makes some will be credited! Just send me a valid .TEXT file, and that's all. On the other hand, if the game won't sell, I won't be able to pay anyone - please understand this risk. Though I really believe now that this game will get sponsored, so you don't need to worry that much.

Here are some screenshots of MegaFillers Flash in its current state. As you see, it really needs a visual rework.

Spoiler for Screenshots:

Please tell me if you're interested in collaborating, I'd feel honored!
If you'd like to actually try the game, please send me a PM!

[Merlandese]

I did like this idea. Sounds neat. I would be interested in helping with sound effects and music, if you'll have me. I'm a little busy at the moment, but I can find time when needed. Here's a quick link to my YouTube to check out some of my sounds. If it's not what you're looking for or you want to hold off for different offers, that's perfectly fine. I won't take offense. Good luck!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Merlandese?feature=mhee

[Unnamed]

Awesome news: Merlandese is the sound designer! \o/

Though I'm still waiting for an artist.

[Moony]

I do photography & I would love to contribute to your project if that is what you are looking for {I could do background photos and stuff}~ 
You can check out my newer work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonlitlens/
My old stuff: http://www.behance.net/meelika

[Unnamed]

I thought to post some screenshots of the game as it looks now.





The art is made by Chris Socratous.

[Unnamed]

Please help me, I need some feedback! What is your honest opinion of the new "New Game" panel seen below? Does it look well enough, or would you add some more decoration to it? What do you suggest to change?





(Please read my questions above the screenshots.)

[Unnamed]

Making it fool-proof:




Credits panel - this will contain some more information later (e.g. a link to the Win32 desktop version, just in case):



Besides, I started to work on the Settings panel. (No screenshot of that one.)

Maybe these are not so interesting updates, but I'm glad for them - believe it or not, these are major updates, in fact.

Note to Merlandese: I haven't uploaded this new version yet, so don't bother with logging in to FGL.

[Unnamed]

[Merlandese]

Whaaaaaat!? That is so cool!

[Unnamed]

Not like I'm making fun of the topic or anything... but you must admit, this is ironical:

[Unnamed]

In the recent update, I've added an option to draw shapes on blocks with the intention to make the game playable for color blind people.

Moreover, the actual version on FGL is a special "Color Blind Awareness Edition", which enables the shapes-on-blocks mode by default and sets the entire stage to monochrome, demonstrating how monochromats would see the game. (Screenshots above.) Note however, that monochromacy (total color blindness) is pretty rare amongst humans. Most color blind people are dichromats or trichromats, which doesn't make them truly blind for all colors, but they do have difficulty of telling certain colors apart, such as red from green or blue from yellow, and this might cause severe difficulties in their lives. Since the ultimate concept of MegaFillers is to distinguish a bunch of blocks by their colors, the game would be totally unplayable for color blind people without the option to distinguish blocks by different shapes. To see it yourself, you are able to disable the draw-on-shapes option in the actual version, but the game stays monochrome.

This version will be up for a limited time: the greyscale filter will be removed by the next update and the game will be normal again; the draw-on-shapes mode will remain available, of course.

You may find more information about color blindness on the following sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
http://www.colourblindawareness.org/
http://vischeck.com/

[Unnamed]

New way to select table size:



Thanks to Merlandese for the idea!

Currently, the player is able to select any arbitrary size between 10x10 and 40x30, even non-even sizes like 33x12, which I'm not sure is a good idea. Maybe I'll only allow steps by 5.

[Merlandese]

Oh, wow! I'm glad you liked it and were able to do it so quickly! You really are a good programmer!

I personally think the new setup will work better to imply that there are more complex games beyond the 10x10. I think it might also be useful to have "size" or "grid size" or "game size" or "adjust grid" (etc.) written below for succinct clarity, just to cover all of your bases. The pre-review dude was right in that people don't like to read, but in the instances where that new grid adjuster isn't self-explanatory enough, the one or two words at the bottom will clear it right up. (It may work well above the gird, too).

And his sound rating was also a 7, so if you want me to run through and try to make better SFX, I can. No guarantees I can make them any better, but I can certainly try to either make them more cohesive with the art or just see if a new set works. If you have any doubts about the sound, now's the time to tell me.

[Unnamed]

Few weeks ago I ordered a pre-review on FGL, which is a free service that FGL offers: an experienced FGL developer reviews your game and gives advice how to improve. Among other things, the reviewer mentioned that there is not enough reward for winning a match: the "Congratulations" panel kind of induces Flat Joy (of course he didn't tropetalk, I just translated it myself). When I asked him how he meant it, he said, basically the game is not juicy enough. He also attacted a pretty interesting presentation on juicy-ness:

Juice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho

So as I see, there are not enough special effects and eye candies when the player wins; (and the game is not juicy enough in general); after all, the player just doesn't feel himself rewarded enough. This is tough. I don't know what could I do with this... or is worth to do anything about it at all. I've been already developing this game for far more time than I'd expected, and I'm not sure if it worths to make any better. We're really talking about minor tweaks at this point, which I'm not sure they are significant enough to adjust the overall value of the game. Of course it would be nice to get this game as good as it can get, but I would like to go on to some other projects, and this one is holding me back. I'd like to try myself as a Flash game developer... as for now I'm failing, because Flash developers work much faster - 1 Flash game in ~9 months is really not enough, so I either I need a lot of pratice, or game development isn't for me.

[Unnamed]

Can you recognize this guy? What do you think, should I flip him?