ChaosRandom
Member
@Paddy M
Its really nice to get feedback from you in such a short time. Your game will be a day one purchase for me. We understand you are a four man team. We know every game can't be perfect, but I thank you for putting all your effort into Mad Blocker. Keep it up dude!
ninigou
Member
I finally finished the "story mode", the final level is hard as hell
Cause the blocks' falling speed is too fast and you don't have time to think where to stack the incoming one, and you have to hit the BOSS with like 7 bomb blocks which is a bit ridiculous, I felt so depressing and almost gave up after around 6 tries
As for the "tower mode", try changing the difficulty setting, and you will see the difference
Once again, the "story telling" is not very intriguing and it could be way better
Also, the "help" message is not really that helpful, you could use some pictures to illustrate how those special blocks work
Hey djax,
I tried emulating your issue on my PSPGo but didn't get any freezes. Will keep looking into it and I'm meeting with the team tomorrow to discuss a patch.
Ninigou, the story we were trying to tell had to be told through unconventional "cutscene" methods as we are a very small team and as such we have to scale our options accordingly. Mad blocker alpha gives the player a preliminary outline of the story and then allows the player to study each background to enhance their understanding of the games progression. A lot of things in the game we would have liked to expand on but we were limited in time and had a non existent budget, considering that the game has been relatively successful critically I cite that as being down to people seeing the charm of the game through the slightly low budget presentation of the menus and help screens etc.
The visuals and music are unlike anything else in the Minis series and as such we are happy with the game itself and would only change one or two things, which may happen in a patch. Your feedback is always welcomed but there was only so much we could do in such a small timeframe with such a small team and we understand that the game doesn't have the polish of games made by companies like mediatonic or frima but that the core game mechanics are just as strong as games those companies have made. As for the last boss level being hard, it was designed to be hard. Some of my best video game boss moments revolve around being on a boss, getting him a few times and him only needing one more hit and then me failing because I messed up or something. Also, it's 6 bomb blocks to kill him, I played it earlier to double check.
As stated in an earlier post, tower mode is something of a bonus stage, not intended to be taken as it's own game mode per se. I mean we felt there was enough content in story and endless but tower was something we put in as we thought it was a nice diversion and the alternate game strategy would appeal to people looking for something a little different. Obviously it wasn't fleshed out enough but as I stated before that's something we will improve in the next iteration of Mad Blocker - perhaps on the PSN. Right now we have a lot to do with localisation, patching the title, getting the game out in the Americas and also to still keep focused on Ninjamurai and ensure it gets the attention it fully deserves.
Thanks again guys,
All the best,
Paddy M.
Thanks Volcane. I hope your enjoying the game? What are your high scores so far? Anything noteworthy take a photo and share it on the Open Emotion Facebook wall or tumblr :)
Cheers dude,
Paddy Murphy.
If you do get it djax, send it on! So psyched about the review here on PSP Minis. I'm so glad that Jasper could see the heart of the game and stuff... So happy right now! :D
volcane
Member
Hi Paddy - I am definitely enjoying the game. It's a great puzzler that adds an interesting twist on the Tetris-clone genre, particularly in terms of atmosphere and presentation. I love the detailed backgrounds, audio and artwork.
Regarding the crashes that people have reported, it seems that I may have spoken too soon before - I had 3 crashes last night.
Each crash occurred while on the loading screen for a newly unlocked level in story mode at about the level 4-6 stage.
The crash resulted in the game and PSP freezing (the little spinning 'loading' block in the bottom left corner of the screen would stop spinning mid-load). It wasn't possible to return to the XMB. The only way to recover in each case was to turn off the PSPgo, which resulted in a hard reboot of the device.
When returning to the game after each crash incident, I would find that all my progress in story mode had been lost and I needed to start again from the beginning.
I noticed that the default setting in the game is for autosave to be off, so I always turned it on via the options menu before playing the game. When progressing through the levels in story mode, the game appeared to be saving my progress after each level. However it seems that when the game freeze occurs all progress is lost despite having autosave enabled.
I find it a little odd that the default is for autosave to be off though. Is this correct? Or could it be that the autosave is actually 'on' when the GUI indicates that it is 'off'? If so, this might explain why I had no progress saved after the crashes/reboots even though I thought I had turned autosaving on (and I had actually turned it off)?
In case it matters, my PSPgo was fully charged at the time.
Congratultions on the great review on this site!
Thanks Volcane,
We're gonna try and patch the title with some added functionality and bug fixes. Yeah sorry about the confusion with the Autosave - I actually asked the programmer the same thing during testing, I think the default that it starts on means that autosave is working.
Cheers again for all the feedback, gonna get on it asap!
Paddy M.
Backup your save and start a new file. ;)
volcane
Member
Curious that you don't seem to be getting the crash any more djax now that you've completed story mode...
"loading screen for a newly unlocked level in story mode"
Perhaps that is indeed one of the key conditions required in order for the crash to occur? Maybe it only hits you if you're loading a new level for the first time?
volcane
Member
@Paddy
I'm playing at the minute and was just loading story mode level 3 (newly unlocked) and the PSP shut itself down.
The good news is that my progress was saved this time so it seems that the default setting is indeed for autosave to be 'on'.
It might be my age but I find the autosave selection text in the options menu to be counterintuitive, so my humble suggestion for inclusion with a future patch would be to make the autosave option text clearer in the options GUI.
EDIT: Looking back at the text for the autosave option, to be fair the current text is fairly clear: "Turn Autosave On" and "Turn Autosave Off" so I'm not sure why I was so confused! Perhaps as an aid for silly people like me the text could be changed to a straightforward toggle: "Autosave On" and "Autosave Off" which refers to the current state, rather than an action to take?
Like THOTH said... "everybody has a noob moment". LOL
;)
P.S. I think you're right about the feeze bug striking only the first time you've played a level... I'll check on it later to see.
Update incoming with Leaderboards accessible from the Menu, Bug's Fixed, Objective listed on Pause Menu in Story mode, Tower Mode balancing and also a High Score table for Tower Mode. Cheers for all the feedback you guys, we hope you enjoy the update and are glad to try and deliver the best MBA experience ever. Also, The NA Version is due in March and the game will be released in all other EU Territories (ie. France, Germany, Italy, Spain) on the 2nd of March (Note: this will be the updated version of the game :D)
Cheers guys,
Paddy M and the Team at Open Emotion
So far I've only had two freezes, but it's nice to see the game is updated.
Way to go guys. ;)
P.S. So, no chance of an 'Audio Mode' then. :(
Sorry Thumb,
That would take an age since it want in there from the get go :(
Will bear it in mind for Ninjamurai though :D
Cheers again all of y'all!
Paddy M.
so this game has a story? Has it voice acting? what are the different modes?
Er, pspgamer01, the site does have a review of the game which answers two of those questions. As for voice acting, keep in mind that Paddy said Open Emotion is made up of 4 people.
Yo guys, Mad Blocker Alpha patch will be going live this Thursday so feel free to re-download the game to make sure you have the latest version which includes:
Tower Mode Balancing,
Tower Mode High Score Table,
High Score Boards now accessible from the Menu,
Objectives screen now accessible in game,
Bug Fixes for Random Crash error,
Also some Minor bug fixes for other completely non-descript things :P
Anyhow, Hope you guys like it anyhow and as an added bonus the game is launching in all other EU territories this week (Germany, Spain, France etc.) so they will be getting the updated version straight away! WAH HEY :D
Cheers guys, Lots o Love,
Paddy M.
Yup sorry Volcane :P Good Call :D
The new version is 3.00 - Enjoy mate
Paddy M.
Havent heard anything back yet DJAX - You know we are all about supporting you the players and we feel awful that for some reason the update has'nt gone live - waiting on an update from Sony... But can;t do anything other than wait to hear from them... Sorry dude :(
All the best,
Paddy M.
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