Post by ethansdad on May 11, 2009 11:31:56 GMT -5
A little bit of history before I jump into my wish-list/suggestions. I got my ipod touch for Christmas, and one of the first games I downloaded was Aurora Feint: The Beginning. I loved it so much that within days, I upgraded to The Arena and aside from a small technical glitch when I changed over from one to the other (which Danielle quickly resolved) I’ve never had another problem with the game.
I am not the greatest player in the world – I have not maxed out everything I can. I did solve all of the tower puzzles within the game, and found that to be one of my favorite aspects. On the other hand, I’m not as into the multiplayer part. I do have a ghost, and I’ve played against other peoples ghosts – but to be honest, I just enjoy playing the game ‘against the computer’ in an attempt to win more rewards. To that end, my suggestions are really more single player based, though I’m sure they could be adapted for multiplayer purposes as well.
First, I saw that the Tower Puzzles game recently became free. I’ve worked my way through a lot of it, and it’s still a great side game to Aurora Feint. If I may make a suggestion – with it being free now anyway – add it to the main game. Heck, add those and more new ones, and yes, provide new spell rewards for completing them. But the magic tower is a great addition to the main game, and I think it would be helpful if you added some content there – and this seems like an easy one to do as you’ve already got some ‘new’ puzzles (the ones from the separate game).
Secondly, I think you should create new ‘puzzles’ (in the form of ‘towers’ or some location on the map) for each type of element you’ve introduced as puzzle pieces in the game. I’ll give a few examples of what I’ve thought of – and they’re really just variations on the existing ‘Mine’ puzzle.
The Sunken Library – water element based puzzle location. Using the ‘Mine’ puzzle, have a slowly creeping up water level at the bottom of the screen (oozing around the pieces and filling in the spaces). When that water level reaches the top, it’s the end of the level. Perhaps the pieces already covered in water move a little slower when you’re trying to swap them. Perhaps the water moves like a wave across the screen as you switch orientations. Maybe the water level only goes down when you chain together water element blocks. But the goal should be to collect a certain amount of water blocks within the puzzle – to unlock (because it’s a library) Lore scrolls. Make us play it many many times to gather enough water element blocks to unlock all those scrolls.
Then do the same for each of the other elements. Perhaps the Fire based puzzle has the bottom of the screen slowly burning away blocks, potentially screwing up combinations you’ve meticulously laid out. Perhaps in the wind puzzle new blocks are added from a gust of wind to the left or right of the screen. Maybe for Earth, the blocks tumble like a landslide when you switch orientation – and maybe for the Moon symbol things move kind of floaty like the whole puzzle is being played in space. And for each of these the goal should be to gather that particular ‘location’s element blocks, allowing the player to unlock/purchase a new item. Could be new weapons, armor, items, daemons, lore, you get the idea. Something to strive for.
Ultimately I think what’s really needed at this point is more options in terms of variations on the existing Mine puzzle, goals to achieve (a reason to play the ‘game’ by giving us something to earn with the points we accumulate), and adding more to the Tower puzzles within the main game itself. For those of us who aren’t really playing the multiplayer portion of the game, I think these things are crucial.
For the record, I still think Aurora Feint is a fun game to play and fantastic to look at. It’s one of those ‘perfect’ games for the ipod Touch I think, and I’ve gladly recommended it to friends. But I do think it can still do much more.
I am not the greatest player in the world – I have not maxed out everything I can. I did solve all of the tower puzzles within the game, and found that to be one of my favorite aspects. On the other hand, I’m not as into the multiplayer part. I do have a ghost, and I’ve played against other peoples ghosts – but to be honest, I just enjoy playing the game ‘against the computer’ in an attempt to win more rewards. To that end, my suggestions are really more single player based, though I’m sure they could be adapted for multiplayer purposes as well.
First, I saw that the Tower Puzzles game recently became free. I’ve worked my way through a lot of it, and it’s still a great side game to Aurora Feint. If I may make a suggestion – with it being free now anyway – add it to the main game. Heck, add those and more new ones, and yes, provide new spell rewards for completing them. But the magic tower is a great addition to the main game, and I think it would be helpful if you added some content there – and this seems like an easy one to do as you’ve already got some ‘new’ puzzles (the ones from the separate game).
Secondly, I think you should create new ‘puzzles’ (in the form of ‘towers’ or some location on the map) for each type of element you’ve introduced as puzzle pieces in the game. I’ll give a few examples of what I’ve thought of – and they’re really just variations on the existing ‘Mine’ puzzle.
The Sunken Library – water element based puzzle location. Using the ‘Mine’ puzzle, have a slowly creeping up water level at the bottom of the screen (oozing around the pieces and filling in the spaces). When that water level reaches the top, it’s the end of the level. Perhaps the pieces already covered in water move a little slower when you’re trying to swap them. Perhaps the water moves like a wave across the screen as you switch orientations. Maybe the water level only goes down when you chain together water element blocks. But the goal should be to collect a certain amount of water blocks within the puzzle – to unlock (because it’s a library) Lore scrolls. Make us play it many many times to gather enough water element blocks to unlock all those scrolls.
Then do the same for each of the other elements. Perhaps the Fire based puzzle has the bottom of the screen slowly burning away blocks, potentially screwing up combinations you’ve meticulously laid out. Perhaps in the wind puzzle new blocks are added from a gust of wind to the left or right of the screen. Maybe for Earth, the blocks tumble like a landslide when you switch orientation – and maybe for the Moon symbol things move kind of floaty like the whole puzzle is being played in space. And for each of these the goal should be to gather that particular ‘location’s element blocks, allowing the player to unlock/purchase a new item. Could be new weapons, armor, items, daemons, lore, you get the idea. Something to strive for.
Ultimately I think what’s really needed at this point is more options in terms of variations on the existing Mine puzzle, goals to achieve (a reason to play the ‘game’ by giving us something to earn with the points we accumulate), and adding more to the Tower puzzles within the main game itself. For those of us who aren’t really playing the multiplayer portion of the game, I think these things are crucial.
For the record, I still think Aurora Feint is a fun game to play and fantastic to look at. It’s one of those ‘perfect’ games for the ipod Touch I think, and I’ve gladly recommended it to friends. But I do think it can still do much more.
