Hi everybody,

I just released my new pc game "Bloink" - you can download the 2.5 MB installer here:

http://www.brainblock.com/bloinkpc.exe

I would love any feedback!

Thanks,
Simeon Peebler

Brain Block Interactive

Just tried it out - here's my first raw impressions:

1) I had to go through so many windows just to get to the game -- plus a countdown on the ok button. I felt like I was being beaten over the head with the registration stuff. If you are going to give 10 plays - they aught to be close to the "registered" experience.

2) that yes or now window you get right before the game starts... confusing - yes or no to what? there's no question posed.

3) graphics - wise I liked playing the game - though not having the animals fall was kinda strange (when animals under them got popped).

Seems like if you increased the overall size of the game view like say 15-30% it's be more fun.. The animals seem too small.

Fun game!

Thanks for checking it out!

All of your points are great and well worth considering.

-Simeon
Brain Block Interactive

Hi, I just tried it, here are some comments:

- Personally, I always prefer to be able to use the keyboard instead of the mouse for any game.

- I was disappointed to get "game over" when I put a third animal above the line on top of two others expecting to clear them. I think you should first remove the groups and then check if any remaining animals are above the line.

- I'ld change the background, use thinner contour lines than in the foreground or reduce contrast (or make it blurred).

- After ending the game with Alt+F4, there was no mouse pointer, so it was hard to find the "maybe later" button

Other than that, it was fun to play.

I tried it again. It's still very choppy on my system. I have a pentium2 geforce3 running winxp - There's somethign strange causing it to play very slowly.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for taking another look. I'll try to pin that problem down. I can't get it to reproduce on my test systems, but I'll try to find somebody else with a configuration similar to yours to hopefully get the problem to repeat.

-Simeon

Hi Simeon,

I was on your site and I think I found a typo in your About us Section. At the very end you mention an article about your company that was in the 'Internation Herald Tribune' instead of Interational Herald Tribune.


>> I tried it again. It's still very choppy on my system. I have a pentium2 geforce3 running winxp - There's somethign strange causing it to play very slowly.

This sounds suspiciously similar to a problem I had with my game. I was getting the occassional email from people who said my game was running slowely for them, on systems that seemed fast enough to easily run my game. And, like you, I wasn't able to duplicate it on any of my test machines. The common thread was that they all had geforce cards. It turns out that the problem was caused by a version of the nvidia Geforce drivers that were released about 2 or 3 months ago that had broken DDraw drivers. Version 43.45 is the broken version. If this is the problem you're having simply updating your nvidia drivers will fix it.

Hi!

Thanks for the info about the drivers! Do you think this is the problem you're experiencing Steve?

And thanks for catching that typo!!! That is a big help.

Sincerely,
Simeon

No I'm familiar with that driver problem and that's definitely not it. I'm not running those drivers and all other direct draw stuff runs at normal speed. If it was ddraw related I'd see it for all my games.

No I'm familiar with that driver problem and that's definitely not it. I'm not running those drivers and all other direct draw stuff runs at normal speed. If it was ddraw related I'd see it for all my games

What drivers are you using then? I'm curious to know, as I have a similar setup and the game runs fine.

Hi Siemon,

I just played your game and spent about 15 minutes. Here is my feedback.

* Slow and unregulated frame per second
* Hard game play (don't use mouse)
* Somehow highlight the animal thrower system at the top (it does not seem to get attention at the first look)
* Use fullscreen
* A little paragraph of "How to play" is needed. (Use F1 for help)
* 2.5 mb is too much try to make this 1 mb maybe 1.5 mb at most
* Find a story (maybe there was one but I couldn't see) like saving the animals or what so ever
* Strengthen the game idea (use the concept of rewarding, for instance add money concept into the game)

I think the last feedback above is the most important. You can somehow fix the other problems. But strengthening the game idea is quite hard. If you can do that, go on with new versions of the game, otherwise start developing your next.

ergas

Hi Simeon,

I gave it a quick run through. Here's some comments...

1. While the changing animal icons is kind of a fun twist. I found it annoying when trying to just play the game and find matches. While it may differentiate, I think it detracts from game play.

2. Some people do prefer to use the keyboard over the mouse. I do believe that they are the minority. However, in you game (it seems to me anyway) that you could enable both at the same time. People could pick what they want, without even an option menu.

Good luck,
Jeff
www.evertt.com (http://www.evertt.com)

Hi,

Thanks for those great comments! I'm getting a lot of good ideas here on what sort of improvements I can make before I really start heavily marketing the game.

-Simeon

Very nice game, a lot of fun. My mouse seemed jerky controlling the dropper though, it's an intellimouse on windows xp. I would say that if you're going to put in full screen, definitely make it optional as this is not the kind of game I'd like to play fullscreen. The music is excellent for this kind of title, very appropriate and suprisingly catchy.

Thanks again to everybody who played it! I released a new version that should eliminate that choppy feel. I was capping the frame limit unnecessarily. I also fixed that alt-F4 bug.

-Simeon

Hi guys,

http://www.brainblock.com/bloinkpc.exe

This version fixes the choppiness totally and adds keyboard support (arrow keys and ctrl key).

I'm working on the other things that have been mentioned...

Again, thanks for the comments and suggestions!

-Simeon
Brain Block

Look at similar games like Busta Move. When you have only 1-2 pieces left, make all of the dropping pieces correspond to said pieces. For example, if you have a monkey and an elephant left on the screen, don't throw in a duck, it only really drags on the game whereby it's not fun anymore.

Make it full screen too. It's something my customers have asked for.

This is terribly slow! Don't use KeyPressed() but KeyDown() and KeyUp(). The thing should be moving all the time while I'm pressing the key, not once and then wait for half a second and then start to move a few times a second. This way, I'ld even prefer to use the mouse!

I think users should be able to select menus with Enter or Space too.

Also, any new version should reset the number of trials.

Mike

Hi Guys,

In the new version I just posted, the keyboard input now works correctly, and the enter, space bar and control key all act as the fire button.

Full screen is now selectable in the options screen, but only available when you are running a registered copy.

Thanks!
Simeon