In order to cut down on some clutter in the Dexterity boards I deleted my old topic and have revived it for this update. I did take note of the responses and would like to thank you all for your comments so far. Here's the update:

I've uploaded the alpha of Scrambled Knights to my webserver. God only knows how long my site will remain active but if anyone wants to try the game and share some feedback it would be much appreciated! It's a 2.5MB zip file with no installer. Just unzip and play. It's open-ended, just play until you die. I can't get through level 5 yet.

http://www.canceriannewmedia.com/sk_alpha.zip

Arrow keys or WASD to move the player, SPACE or R SHIFT to flip puzzle pieces. TAB key gives you a hint at the cost of 30 points from your score. Powerups are Death (remove enemies) and Lock (lock enemy spawn).

The game has no sound other than random music at the moment and has to be run in 800x600. Many features are either very rough or unimplemented, right now I'm just looking at the core gameplay and if it's any fun. One challenge is that I'm being requested to add a finite number of levels and some sort of overall "point" or story to the game.

All this info is included in the alpha_readme.txt file. Make sure you read it ;) Any notes or feedback will help greatly. Thanks again!

I really hate it when people delete topics that have valuable information in them. Every one of the comments directed at your game was relevant to some other game, but now, they're gone, and noone can learn from them.

Sorry, I assumed more people would be miffed at the number of posts so I was trying to keep everything neat and tidy. I've heard gumblings before about stuff like that.

Won't happen again, I promise :)

Do you have a link with some screenshots?
-Scorpio

Well I tried your game. Worked fine for me. The concept is good I believe, but just as a suggestion, make some more varied obstacles. What I mean is, you can somehow punish the player if he constantly can't get the right pictures to match. For example you can drop bombs or make some spears rise out of the ground (LoL, I just thought of that now). I understand it is early stages of development, just giving you something to think about ;)

This is definitely an example of a game where tuning the gameplay could make it work. I'm going to mention the pictures first, even though you probably plan on changing them. Photo quality images on tiles inside a knight's castle really throws the game off and makes it unbelievable. As suggested above, obstacles, finite levels, etc are all good things. You could also hide the fact that this is a memory game more. Some sort of time element would also help, and a reason to be memorizing and flipping these tiles. The tiles could also reveal a picture as they are correctly matched, instead of just sitting there flipped over. Aiming the game more at kids could give better results. They are probably more likely to enjoy this sort of game. A multiplayer aspect would help a lot (I remember playing the memory game and it was much more fun when competing with someone). The fact that you can turn over tiles all you want until you win takes away a lot of the tension of flipping a tile. I didn't bother paying too much attention to the tiles when playing since I knew that I could try all I want and could therefore just vaguely remember which section of the board had what images.

Hope that helps, you definitely shouldn't give up!

I haven't downloaded the game yet but I thought of an idea that might help. How about having multiple players (human and AI) trying to make matches also. Then through in a bit of mario kart gameplay where there's powerups to knock out other players, shrink them, mix up the matches, etc. Perhaps the goal could even be to make matches so you get power ups and the winner is the last one standing.

On another note I'm kind of surprised that the forum allows you to delete the last post. That really shouldn't be allowed if someone has posted a reply. Seems like something that should be fixed.

I tried the game and I agree with others who have said there's something worth pursuing there. I can imagine Scramble Knights being a lot of fun with some changes to the gameplay (such as making the opponents capable of matching tiles, Mario Kart-style power-ups, multiplayer, etc). Stick to it, man! :)

Excellent ideas all around! This is why I love these boards ;)

What do you think of this?:

You explore a 2D dungeon in search or treasure or rescuing a princess and whenever you encounter an enemy it jumps to the 3D game board for combat.

The pairs that you match aren't just pictures but icons that represent spells. Matching 2 icons will cast that particular spell either on yourself (shield) or on the enemy (fireball, +2 damage, etc.) and you keep making matches until you defeat the enemy. The enemy periodically casts spells or sends henchmen (black knights) in to destroy you.

I could make 15 dungeon maps for the player to beat and maybe even a level editor so they can make their own and insert their own monster designs.

OMG - I think I might actually be excited about working on this game again! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Any other ideas or thoughts are still appreciated.