OK had a quick play (got limited time right now).
Noticed some things, hope they help.
1) When you enter your name there is a flashing cursor and after yuo type a few letters, when it flashes on and off the whole name keeps jerking as it centres with and without the cursor, it looks odd.
2) It takes ages to load
3) On the title screen the lower part of the O of OF is truncated.
4) On the title screen it would be nice if the ticks were in time with the music...
5) on the enter name dialog you can't enter as many characters as your example which is your name :-). If you enter all Ms they come out the side of the dialog when the cursor flashes on.
6) on the select player dialog, when you click one the parchment disappears, this is an odd transistion.
7) options screen: Off/Max etc are too small to read easily. The back button writing is a bit thin and hard to read when mouse is over it + it looks to bright. The particle effects when you click are nice. When you click a new sound level a click at the OLD sound volume plays, it would be better if a click at the NEWLY selected sound volume played instead. The parchment has a dodgy black edge.
8) Credits: How about fading the title music into the credits instead of cutting it. Scrolling is a bit jerky on my machine.
9) the game has a folder as an icon on the task bar and says "Not Responding" yet it's running. This is confusing.
10) The game needs an icon in the top left of windowed mode.
11) Is there going to be a full-screen mode?
12) music is nice
13) title page looks great.
14) map screen is cool. Nice scaling/panning etc. The main menu button and treasures seem to only show half the height of the button like they are tuncated by the bottom of my 1024x768 screen. Is this intentional?
15) Treasures screen overlays map. OK, but I went to click on a treasure and it disappeared. There's no "OK" or "exit" button so it's a bit confusing.
16) The Maya screenshot is ace.
17) There's something about the buttons. They look nice but also "rendered" rather than really excellent...these things all inform users subconciously as to the quality of the game.
Specs: P4 3.2GHZ, 1GB RAM, XP SP2, Radeon 9800XT, SB Audigy 2, desktop res 1024x768
18) Hints: Parchment has a dodgy black edge. Click is hard to read and messy and the arrow is too close to it. Skip could be a bit bigger too. Can you make "Annie" a bit cleared as I didn't see it at first.
19) The Hint dialogs and animated help is good. Yeah check the grammar. One hint says point the mouse at the side to turn the wheel, I'd simply say "move the mouse to the side ..."
20) The Go text on the Go button is too thin.
21) in-game menu. The white flash as it appears is distracting. The menu could do with being vertically centered. Aha I see you plan full-screen and to show the map but they don't work yet.
22) Even Menu is slightly hard to read due to highlights.
23) The game doesn't pause or stop the music when not focused.
24) Haha, I kept wanting to drag up and down like a "normal" match 3.
25) I likt the glint on the gems as you rotate them. Somehow though they feel a bit washed out. Perhaps the gold could be darker?
26) Have you tried an all grey spindle as the red is distracting.
27) The controls work really nicely now. I remember discussing them with you a while back. They are very casual friendly.
28) I got a "Cryptex too high" message just as I removed the top one. Is that supposed to happen. No I'm not lame at playing it, I was just writing this at the same time :-)
29) Nice victory sequence. How about "Save and Exit" (I use this in my games) or "Main Menu" to be clearer. Dosgy parchment again (the top part has some "disconnected" portions of parchment!). No mouse over noise on the buttons.
30) Aha, on the map I thought each dot was a level, but now I realise just the big ones are. Perhaps the difference could be made more obvious somehow?
31) You talk about time a lot but there is no obvious counter. It would be really nice to see when the next wheel is going to fall via a gauge or something, would add tension...
32) Nice yellow orb explosion
33) The x10 or whatever text the flies off seems a bit plain/generic.
34) I tried random spinning and it was quite successful until I got to low gems although I guess on levels where the time limit goes up with spins it's not wise.
35) Is it possible to remove gems and have none left (or no matches) before a new spindle drops in?
36) There's a nice graphic of some gems in a circle in the top left, but it doesn't do anything right? It's confusing as it's the same look as the menu button. Prhaps you could put the game name there? Ah OK, jus tgot to level 3 and she explained what it was for. Maybe it should say "Remove" on the rim of the circle?
OK that's it for now, I gotta program my own game. This is amazing for a first game, well done and the best of luck!
Noticed some things, hope they help.
1) When you enter your name there is a flashing cursor and after yuo type a few letters, when it flashes on and off the whole name keeps jerking as it centres with and without the cursor, it looks odd.
2) It takes ages to load
3) On the title screen the lower part of the O of OF is truncated.
4) On the title screen it would be nice if the ticks were in time with the music...
5) on the enter name dialog you can't enter as many characters as your example which is your name :-). If you enter all Ms they come out the side of the dialog when the cursor flashes on.
6) on the select player dialog, when you click one the parchment disappears, this is an odd transistion.
7) options screen: Off/Max etc are too small to read easily. The back button writing is a bit thin and hard to read when mouse is over it + it looks to bright. The particle effects when you click are nice. When you click a new sound level a click at the OLD sound volume plays, it would be better if a click at the NEWLY selected sound volume played instead. The parchment has a dodgy black edge.
8) Credits: How about fading the title music into the credits instead of cutting it. Scrolling is a bit jerky on my machine.
9) the game has a folder as an icon on the task bar and says "Not Responding" yet it's running. This is confusing.
10) The game needs an icon in the top left of windowed mode.
11) Is there going to be a full-screen mode?
12) music is nice
13) title page looks great.
14) map screen is cool. Nice scaling/panning etc. The main menu button and treasures seem to only show half the height of the button like they are tuncated by the bottom of my 1024x768 screen. Is this intentional?
15) Treasures screen overlays map. OK, but I went to click on a treasure and it disappeared. There's no "OK" or "exit" button so it's a bit confusing.
16) The Maya screenshot is ace.
17) There's something about the buttons. They look nice but also "rendered" rather than really excellent...these things all inform users subconciously as to the quality of the game.
Specs: P4 3.2GHZ, 1GB RAM, XP SP2, Radeon 9800XT, SB Audigy 2, desktop res 1024x768
18) Hints: Parchment has a dodgy black edge. Click is hard to read and messy and the arrow is too close to it. Skip could be a bit bigger too. Can you make "Annie" a bit cleared as I didn't see it at first.
19) The Hint dialogs and animated help is good. Yeah check the grammar. One hint says point the mouse at the side to turn the wheel, I'd simply say "move the mouse to the side ..."
20) The Go text on the Go button is too thin.
21) in-game menu. The white flash as it appears is distracting. The menu could do with being vertically centered. Aha I see you plan full-screen and to show the map but they don't work yet.
22) Even Menu is slightly hard to read due to highlights.
23) The game doesn't pause or stop the music when not focused.
24) Haha, I kept wanting to drag up and down like a "normal" match 3.
25) I likt the glint on the gems as you rotate them. Somehow though they feel a bit washed out. Perhaps the gold could be darker?
26) Have you tried an all grey spindle as the red is distracting.
27) The controls work really nicely now. I remember discussing them with you a while back. They are very casual friendly.
28) I got a "Cryptex too high" message just as I removed the top one. Is that supposed to happen. No I'm not lame at playing it, I was just writing this at the same time :-)
29) Nice victory sequence. How about "Save and Exit" (I use this in my games) or "Main Menu" to be clearer. Dosgy parchment again (the top part has some "disconnected" portions of parchment!). No mouse over noise on the buttons.
30) Aha, on the map I thought each dot was a level, but now I realise just the big ones are. Perhaps the difference could be made more obvious somehow?
31) You talk about time a lot but there is no obvious counter. It would be really nice to see when the next wheel is going to fall via a gauge or something, would add tension...
32) Nice yellow orb explosion
33) The x10 or whatever text the flies off seems a bit plain/generic.
34) I tried random spinning and it was quite successful until I got to low gems although I guess on levels where the time limit goes up with spins it's not wise.
35) Is it possible to remove gems and have none left (or no matches) before a new spindle drops in?
36) There's a nice graphic of some gems in a circle in the top left, but it doesn't do anything right? It's confusing as it's the same look as the menu button. Prhaps you could put the game name there? Ah OK, jus tgot to level 3 and she explained what it was for. Maybe it should say "Remove" on the rim of the circle?
OK that's it for now, I gotta program my own game. This is amazing for a first game, well done and the best of luck!