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Apparatus released!

B

bith

Lurker
Looking for some creative opinions for Tesla Plushies which was just released on the market.

Tesla Plushies is aimed at being a very challenging game that will make you rip your hair off. I can tell you for sure you will not complete all levels within a week after download.

The gameplay mechanics is based on a very simple principle, but it can take some time to get used to it. You should run through the easy and medium levels before attempting the hard levels. The hard levels are really the main point of the game and if there's interest there will be a steady stream of updates with hard levels. Even though some of the hard levels are enabled from start I do not recommend starting with them.

The current version is sort of a beta version to get feedback. The goal is to have hundreds of levels of various difficulties, but it would be pointless to make 100 levels without first understanding how you as the player experience the gameplay.
Enough babbling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PajH6W5DBU
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bithack.teslaplushies

All feedback, especially negative feedback, is very welcome, don't be shy.

The level editor is also built in the game so enabling it to the player would be just a few inches away, is there people who would actually build their own levels?

Thank you.
 
Hi,

Our latest game Apparatus was just released today.
Apparatus is a game for creative minds who enjoy brain puzzles, or just people who like to build mechanical stuff when bored.

The objective is simple - get the blue marble into the blue basket. This is done by connecting cables between motors and batteries, nailing planks and other wooden objects together using a hammer or a wrench, and swinging stuff with ropes.

One of the main concepts of the game is to nail things together and build small machines that will help the marble on its road to the goal.

The game has been developed for tablets and high-end phone.

All feedback is welcome!

Apparatus Trailer

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...ttle-big-planet-like-gameplay-and-creativity/

screen1.png


screen3.png


Thanks and let me know what you think of the game if you try it.

Apparatus - Android app on AppBrain
Apparatus LITE - Android app on AppBrain
 
Paid for on the strength of Tesla Plushies being a very, very good idea under the workmanlike graphics. (You ever going to do anything else with that one? ;) )

And... I'm impressed with the first few levels, certainly. It's kind of rough and ready: the menus and UI in general lack polish, a bit, and there are a number of little annoyances, like the way one block will actually slide another out of the way when you're trying to overlap two of them to nail them together. Or how it's not that obvious how to handle some features - I wasn't quite sure what I was doing with the swing ropes that attach to the wall. But still - very, very interesting take on the sandbox physics puzzler, IMO. Looks good, runs very well on my stock Desire, and feels very compulsive to play. Happy to hand over the money as it is, though I hope it gets some updates.
 
Hi, thanks for your reply

The UI is very ugly, yes, and will be replaced, but it's a very low priority. Icons, menus, etc. will eventually be refined.
Gameplay/controls and the "sliding" when two objects overlap, we tested 4 different ways of handling this and this is the most intuitive solution and most fit for slow devices. The main problem is that some objects *must* be moved for the physics to be stable, devices such as these would take too much time to "solve" the simulation in a better way. When you have a small screen (i.e. not a tablet) this can be annoying at first but you will get used to it and your fingers will learn an optimal way of playing pretty fast, I hope.
We're trying to refine this area constantly so I'm very thankful for your feedback.

The game certainly will get updates. We have more objects and more levels in the works.

Regarding Tesla Plushies... We have some GREAT ideas for Tesla Plushies 2. Tesla Plushies certainly was a "good idea badly executed". First of all we assumed support for low-end and old devices was high priority, this was a very bad choice that destroyed the games appeal. The gameplay in TP2 will be quite different but still based on the same concept.
 
Heh, I wasn't meaning ugly... just it seems to be something of a trademark, the way you guys get a concept and work hard on the mechanics behind it from the word go, rather than spending too much time on pretty fonts and dressing up the menus and whatnot. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It certainly wasn't meant in the same way as the usual 'FIX THIS PLZ' comments people leave on the Market for things they don't like. :)

I can understand that the way the physics might make it easiest to have objects interact in the way they do, and I don't think it's a gamebreaker in any sense. It is annoying, though, when the solution involves bolting two pieces of wood at a certain angle, to have to slide them around repeatedly until they actually overlap to form a proper V rather than a cross, or stop pushing each other across the map. These are nitpicks rather than big issues and they're certainly something I'm sure other people as well as me can live with. But they're not the ideal way of doing things. That's the only reason I bring it up.

I'm still really impressed, though. Tesla Plushies wasn't 'badly' executed, either, IMO, just more a proof of concept than a solid game. But a very good proof of concept. You guys definitely seem to be one of the more interesting studios on the Market, and I shall be waiting to see where you take this game (and anything else you make) with interest.
 
I still really like the way the system works - it's no LittleBigPlanet or anything but for a tiny indie studio it's great stuff, and it's fun to mess around with. Plus it runs beautifully still. Getting used to the UI, too.

Your level design needs some attention, though. I realise some element of leaving the player free to experiment is obviously part of the plan but you can solve #15 & #16 in a matter of seconds using just a couple of pieces. It doesn't feel quite right to me - 16 definitely felt as if I'd broken something (hook up the generator, put the smallest plank on the spinner, drop a pivot onto the generator switch, bam, level done).
 
Thanks again for the feedback. :)

Level #15 was supposed to teach you the difference between using the hammer and using the wrench when two objects are in different layers. If you already understood the difference, then yes I fully understand why the level felt easy.
Level #16, you're right, it really does not belong there. I will make sure it's removed or put earlier in the game in the final version.

bigbadwulff, don't hesitate to just list the things you think needs work here, it will only help us improve the game.
 
What a fantastic little game, any chances of adding Antialiasing as an option? Galaxy S2 is rock solid in this game just all the jaggies are quite nasty.

Did you make your own graphics engine for this or use a pre existing one?
 
boxrick said:
What a fantastic little game, any chances of adding Antialiasing as an option? Galaxy S2 is rock solid in this game just all the jaggies are quite nasty.

Did you make your own graphics engine for this or use a pre existing one?
Click to expand...

Thanks.
Will have a look into antialiasing, but right now I do not have a device at hand that is fast enough. But I can assure you this will be an optional feature soon.

The graphics engine is our own, though it utilizes some features of libgdx to handle vertex buffer data. It also uses libgdx to render the game on the PC during development.
 
Great game. Very smooth graphics and physics. I can rarely nail two pieces of wood together though.

I keep trying to position them, only to have the pieces automatically rotate (so as not to overlap) when I release my finger after dragging. The automatic rotation also wrecks the angles that I have already set up.

I see the hammer icon, and then it disappears when the pieces automatically rotate away from each other. Any tips?
 
Sorry for the late reply.

animatist, we are working on improving the controls. Though you have to keep in mind that the nailing is not meant to be possible when you place the planks edge to edge or side by side, but only edge to side, V-shaped. The angle limit is around 160 so you can nail them in pretty obtuse angles though.
Many people have complained about this however. I chose to make it this way because there is no way in real life you can attach two planks like that in real life, you need other tools than a hammer to do that. Maybe it was a bad choice to prevent it just because it isn't possible in real life. I will deeply consider changing this for the next update.

boxrick:
I did try out various methods for antialiasing and spent a lot of time optimizing it. However, the performance cost is too much compared to the graphical improvement.
I came up with another solution by smoothing the meshes and adjusting the contrast, I think it worked out pretty well and it certainly doesn't look as jagged anymore. Check out the latest version!

We have also released a trailer now for those of you who haven't checked out the game it.
http://youtu.be/tBkru6_BoPs?hd=1
 
This is one of the best games I've played on Android so far. Most I download and quickly forget about but this one has a "life-like" quality to it that makes it very unique. Great job thus far!

My only complaint so far is that it can sometimes be very hard to precisely line up parts to other parts because the screen is so small. I have big fingers so most times, I can't see the wrench or hammer when it pops up cause it's under my finger. Maybe offsetting the icon would help?

Other than that, I love the game and can't wait to see what you guys plan on doing with it in the future. I would LOVE to play this on PC!! [HINT HINT]
 
DBJohnston0104 said:
This is one of the best games I've played on Android so far. Most I download and quickly forget about but this one has a "life-like" quality to it that makes it very unique. Great job thus far!

My only complaint so far is that it can sometimes be very hard to precisely line up parts to other parts because the screen is so small. I have big fingers so most times, I can't see the wrench or hammer when it pops up cause it's under my finger. Maybe offsetting the icon would help?

Other than that, I love the game and can't wait to see what you guys plan on doing with it in the future. I would LOVE to play this on PC!! [HINT HINT]
Click to expand...

You can pinch-to-zoom in the game, like how you zoom in the web browser. It makes it easier to line up those pieces.
 
Just bought it. Giving it a whirl on the Droid X. I'm going to install it on my Xoom when I get home. I'll post how it works tonight.
 
Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we have just released the successor to Apparatus - Principia.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bithack.principia

Check out the community website here:
Principia - Home

I'm sure many of you played the first game. Principia is like Apparatus x 1000. Please feel free to give us feedback, especially if you think something is bad, we want to know about it.

Also coming to Linux, Windows and iOS soon!

Thanks
 
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