"Hue Ball" Turret Shooter Game

UPDATE MAY 11: It's called Hue Ball and will be released on May 28th, I think. See my May 11 post below for details.

UPDATE JUNE 18: It's out for iOS: https://appsto.re/i6Ln69h

------

A few years back, when I was playing around in GameSalad, and very new to game design, I designed a game called "Colornundrum" for iOS. I was never satisfied with the game I created—it contained way too many hacks and felt clunky—so I never published it. Then I dove into Flash games and Stencyl and forgot about it for a while.

UNTIL NOW. *cue dramatic music*

So now that Lava Bird for iOS is "complete," I'll begin working on this new game.

I've already created a dozen mockups, and have already tested out a few basic prototypes. It has a lot of potential, especially on mobile. Hopefully I'll keep this Game Journal updated regularly (definitely not daily or weekly) in order to help myself and possibly add to the community.

Gameplay details so far:
- Turret rotates back and forth (Google "Gimme Friction Baby" by Wouter Visser to see mechanic)
- Tap to shoot 'ball' in direction of turret
- Ball bounces around, hitting existing blocks and destroying them.
- When ball stops, it creates a new block.
- If ball hits bottom, you lose a life.
- Destroying n blocks earns a level up, giving you a point, but also increasing strength of existing blocks.
- Skulls are blocks that have not been hit for multiple level ups. They don't go away.
- Most of these elements listed above may change.

I love the graphic style.

Not quite sure I get what this is yet, but hey, your name is on it so that's good reason to pay attention.

I am a bit gun shy about publicizing my game progress, mainly because my other game (Lava Bird) was ripped off and is currently having more success than Lava Bird.  That's a long story, but I think this game journal will turn into more of a detailed post-mortem. If anyone has thoughts on this, let me know.

You never contacted Apple?

Ya, I contacted Apple. I'll go post details in the Lava Bird iOS thread.

Sorry I've been so quiet about this. I just wanted to get closer to finished before putting it out here for critiquing.

Below is a link to the Flash prototype, which looks fuzzy and the sounds don't all work for some reason. But it's playable. Keep in mind, the game runs great and looks retinarrific on my iPhone, and tapping with your thumb, is way more intuitive than pressing Z key, trust me. I've opted for a clean style similar to iOS games like Watercolors and Strand. No round birds in this one, thank goodness.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give me any feedback you have, even if it's, "I played it and it's OK." I need to know. I will get TestFlight set up soon, if any of you are interested.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7024703/Colornundrum.html

I've attached a quick screenshot from actual gameplay (ignore the black bars) since the game is WAY different than the grid version.

Hello Unept,

Quite nice simple layout with unified controls all over.

I probably didn't play long enough to see upgrades/other effects on the screen, but if you have them introduce them earlier so that the player gets a little more interesting to do then just to avoid balls colliding and going back to the player-bar.
Upgrades/Downgrades:
+ Make the bar longer again
+ Longer time for color to stay on screen
+ bonus point when you can get three balls near eachother without actually touching them
+ for 3 seconds the bar is static so it doesn't shrink when ball reaches it
+ automatic inrease layer on all balls
- bar gets shortened
- all previously enclosed balls are removed with one layer
- current time for the 'level' gets increased
- you can only fire one bullet at a time (so you have to wait for balls to come to static position)
- remove earlier point

Those are just some things I could come up with to make it maybe a little more interesting for longer play-time

Keep up the good work.

Best regards from
M.E.

Really interesting concept, first impressions were it was a bit to easy to hit a ball and bounce straight back and lose energy, but i guess that is where the game difficulty comes from. I found it really satisfying to play once there were some balls on the screen and i got a bit of a pinball effect going.

How much would it change the game play if you could control the turret instead of timing it, so you could tap either side of the turret to rotate it then tap the turret to shoot, would be less about timing and more about aim.

Really like the colour pallet used, didn't enjoy the music though.

best score is 24 so far, I enjoyed playing, but for some reason i find the losing health aspect a bit annoying, i don't know why exactly. Maybe I feel like I don't have so much control, maybe the rebound bounce is a tad strong.

I actually thought the music was catchy, but I can't say I disagree with colburt187 about losing health, though. A few times I had quick enough reflexes to spot and shoot a ball that was coming right at me, only to be hit twice.

As of now, if you notice a ball coming at you, it doesn't appear you can do anything about it... just sit and wait for it to hit you. Perhaps make it a bit easier to recover?

Thanks all, for the great feedback!

@mdotedot, I used to have upgrades as well as different 'enemies' in the older version of my game, but I felt it complicated the simple gameplay that I was striving for. I don't mind if the simple gameplay turns off some, of course the concern is that it becomes boring for all.

@colburt, I have tried different modes like controlling the turret manually, but as I stated above, the goal is simplicity. The tradeoff is the need for timing the turret. That said, it's much easier and more fun to aim from your phone than from a keyboard.

@merrak, I'll think about maybe slowing down the rebound bounce. But as I said, it's a little less frustrating on the actual phone.

Was anyone able to earn a "heart" or see a "skull" by chance?

I saw a large scull at one stage, but I died before interacting with it.  Well if it's anything to go by, I have come back and played a couple of times since my last play, I do enjoy the simplicity.

Me again.

It's called Hue Ball. It's coming out May 28 2015 if all goes well.

Preview Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHZLHJCS__Q
TouchArcade Blurb: http://toucharcade.com/2015/05/08/hue-ball-trailer/
PocketGamer Blurb: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Hue+Ball/news.asp?c=65286

Some iterations (Bottom right is final version):

Hey man, this looks great! I was a little confused at first, but picked it up rather quickly. Additionally, the graphics are fantastic! Keep up the good work