Droid Odyssey Screenshots

Just a couple of screenshots…

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Droid Odyssey BETA 1.05 Released!

We have just published an update to Droid Odyssey on the Android Market.

This update includes a number of bug fixes, chief of which was a re-write of some of the core audio systems to prevent some unwanted audio reloads mid-game that were causing lag on some devices.

Most importantly, this update contains a NEW LEVEL!!!

The new level, “They’re Out To Get You” marks the first introduction of enemy robots into the Droid Odyseey world.

Grab the update now and let us know how you like it!

 

Show me the features!

We have received many many suggestions on features to improve game-play (thank you all for contributing!) and after much sifting through these suggestions, we thought it might be a good idea to share the ones we plan to implement:

Here we go…

Sideways motion and “drifting”.
Many users have suggested that your robot should not continue to drift after you release a movement control.  Although his behavior is accurate from a physics perspective, it seems this is more annoying than it is interesting.  So as long as we can still get the gameplay right we will look at tuning this down or removing it all together

Customizable Controls.
On devices with a hardware keyboard it often makes sense to use this rather than the on-screen controls however the game currently does not allow you to customize these hardware controls.  This seems like a very sensible feature so we will definitely implement this, however it may have to be in an update to the full version as we already have a full bag of goodies!

More/Better Instructions.
Although we don’t want to interrupt gameplay with too many annoying popup instructions, it seems that we have left a few too many things to chance and this has resulted in some frustration amongst users.  We therefore plan to add a help section with some very brief (visual) instructions on the basic game mechanics.

Equipment Purchases and/or Power Ups
This is a feature we would love to include, as soon as we work out how to do it!  The problem here is that power ups by their nature have an effect on how your robot behaves (e.g. move faster, jump etc) and this can in-turn affect how easy or difficult the level is to complete.  If the player fails to get the power up, the level becomes very difficult, and if they do get it the level becomes too easy.  Striking a fine balance between the two often means that the power up is sort of pointless because it becomes too weak.  However, there are some interesting concepts in here that we have started exploring… the foremost of which is using the batteries you collect to purchase “things”.  Just what these things are remains to be discovered…

That’s all for now, if there are any new developments we will post them here.

Droid Odyssey Update Imminent

We are getting ready to release an update to the BETA version of Droid Odyssey and are just finishing up the final testing.

This next release is mostly a bug fix release.  We have been working hard to resolve the most common problems reported from our users.

These fixes should hopefully resolve some of the lag problems (which we believe are caused by unexpected reloads of audio files mid-game due to audio errors), as well as some other smaller problems.

We haven’t yet had a chance to focus on some of the more “game-play” style suggestions that have come through (faster moving platforms, better controls etc).  These will be coming in the next few updates.

We should have the update live in a couple of days.. so stay tuned.. (and watch out for a surprise inclusion!)

Thanks for the help Bug Reporters…

Amongst the many positive comments we are receiving for Droid Odyssey have been an equally welcomed set of bug reports and general game-play feedback.  We are working hard to resolve all issues prior to the full version launch, however it’s worth noting that two devices in particular seem to be having some problems with the game:

• Motorola Droid X
• Samsung Galaxy Tablet

If you have tried to play our game on either of these devices, or indeed any other device where you have experienced issues; please be patient (and kind!), we are doing our best to address all of these issues as and when we can.

Having said that, our Flurry stats are telling us that a touch over 96% of all games played were done so with zero errors (of course this doesn’t account for laggy controls, misaligned graphics etc).  Regardless of this, we know that at least 4% of our [current] user base has experience an error.. and this is just not good enough.

On current numbers this equates to around 450 people.  That’s way too many people to be getting errors.

So we are committed to resolving these issues, and hopefully the full version will work on all (well.. almost all) devices.

Droid Odyssey… early results from the front line

So it’s been two days since we launched the BETA version to the market, and the response has been fantastic.

So far we’re tracking at around 7,000 downloads, and our current average rating is steady at 4.5 stars.

Many people have volunteered both feature requests and bug reports, as well as many many positive comments for which we are all very grateful.  We are working hard to resolve the issues reported and plan to do regular updates to the BETA until all the major issues are ironed out.

Meanwhile we are also straining our brains to create an amazing set of puzzles for the levels to be included in the full version.

Thanks to all the people who have downloaded so far, and particularly to those who have posted comments on the Market and provided direct feedback from within the app.  Rest assured we are listening!

Stay tuned for more updates on the official release date of the full version.

Droid Odyssey BETA is LIVE!

We are very proud to announce that the first BETA version of Droid Odyssey is live on the Android Market:

Droid Odyssey BETA

http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.carboncrystal.ro

This BETA version includes the first 5 levels of the full game, and should help us weed out any pesky errors.

Download it and and give us your feedback!

New gameplay video

We have posted a new gameplay video on YouTube, and embedded below.

Enjoy! (remember to select HD for best quality)