ECHO - hear to play

By iPhonedation, 11 February, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

Dear AppleVis community,

I am happy and proud that my game ECHO has been left out into the wild yesterday. The game is simple, you can read about it in your directory or on the iTunes Store, and it does in fact support VoiceOver throughout every screen/menu.

In order to promote it a bit - here are 3 promotional codes (redeem them via the link and you will get the game for free):

http://tokn.co/a8atu657
http://tokn.co/wwq5wkay
http://tokn.co/udm4axpg

If you like, you may come back with Feedback and/or suggestions what should be enhanced.

Enjoy the game and keep in mind - head phones are recommended to use the postional audio (unless you own an iPad mini and hold it really close to your face, since this has stereo speakers already or you attach your device to speaker system).

Cheers,
Alexander

iPhonedation

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Comments

By Ken Downey on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

I am really liking this game, but I can think of ways it could be even better. Power ups could give you shields and other useful items to defend yourself, as well as blow some of the nasty ones out of the water. Nasty items could speed up the ships, release dozens of ships at home right in on your position, and so on. Challenges would be good too, even simple one such as passing 25 ships, 50 ships, hundred chips and so on. It's a great beginning though, and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Hi Ken, thanks for the kind words. I was actually playing with shields and power ups, like a booster... But I was not sure if this is still handable with a non graphical UI, because following the standards of UI design it would require a clear hook (in this case sounds) for the user to identify them .. However, I have one bug report so far and it seems all pretty stable - so I will work on some minor tweaks when I find the time and then think the power up thing trough. Please be aware I have a small son and a full day job, so this whole piece of software is really been made in my bedroom when wife/son where not requesting my time. Cheers, Alex

By Ken Downey on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Awesome. This game is very nice, and the more I play it the more I like it, especially on medium momediagenic I can just sit back and zone out for a moment before the fun really begins. Blind people are used to playing with a lot of different kinds of sounds, with many going at once, so boosters and power ups won't be a challenge for us at all. If there are a lot of sounds, you can add a menu that plays the sounds and describes what they are. Then, when the person listen to the sound, they just pushed the next button and hear the next sound and it's description. This game actually reminds me of some of the games on Sound revolution, an audio game made for the game boy. Awesome work!

By iPhonedation on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Hi there, just to post that here aswell, I put a bugfix update in the review queue a few minutes ago. It will also contain a third option on "player sound", so that you can decide if you want that orientational help sound (the wha-wha-wha pulse-wave-loop) centre, borders or switched off. That will be followed by another maintenance release, because I am seeing very little crashes on iPhone 5 GSM, but I see them in the logs... So once I figure the reason for that, I will put out another bugfix. But - what I really was doing last evening is thinking the evolution of the concept through... I would like to start a discussion with a set of 2-3 visually impaired people and 2-3 sighted of my first beta set to play with prototype version how powerups can be implemented, so that playing without UI makes sense for both groups of users. From my thoughts yesterday, powerups could contain * a stackable shield * a timewarp/levelwarp, that makes you invincible and the whole thing jump X seconds ahead (think fast forward) * smartbomb, which will clear out the screen immediately You also mentioned the wish for "achievements/goals" in the game. I personally find those mini-motivators pretty annoying, but if someone helps me to define some reasonable categories, I am happy to implement them. So, who would be willing to help me here a bit with a discussion and testing beta-builds? I would need a mail, send it to my email adress alex[at]iphonedation.com Cheers Alex PS: thanks a lot for the nice podcast review!

By Azzahra1995 on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Hi How do we kno where the object is so we can avoid it thanks

By iPhonedation on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Hi Primrose, You Need Headphones and then you should be able to hear e.g. a "Ping" sound getting louder and louder. The louder, the closer to you they are - so tilt left/right to avoid them. The game uses positional audio, so you should be able to locate the objects relative to your space ships position. Does that help? Kind regards, Alex

The items sound like a good idea. IN terms of how they could work, picking them up could just work of the opposite way of how you avoid objects. There could be a specific item sound, and you would need to center it and let it hit you. Then it would activate. I'd be happy to give more feedback or test, if you are still looking for people to do that.

By Azzahra1995 on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Hi I can hear wawawaw with out headphones but are the objects always in front of you or could they be to the right or left

By iPhonedation on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

Hi, The screen is basically a window to space. You are flying forward in a fix corridor (the wawawawa marks the left or right border) and objects will be in your way, sharing the space of your corridor. So you will hear them left or right from your ships position. But, this will only work with headphones since except for iPad mini, none of the devices is stereo. I hope this explains better. Does the game need a fully spoken tutorial with sounds etc? Rgds Alex

By Azzahra1995 on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 19:15

I think you should include a spoken tutorial to explain it better suggestion cc

By iPhonedation on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

Hi there, long time no read, I know ... but I am/was very busy with my day time job and health. So now, after some thinking and other stuff I am back into working on ECHO. I prepared a shield function, where you can collect a power up that gives your ship a shield. This may stack up 2 times, so basically it is the same as 3 lives in other games, but you must collect them. I assume that this will make ECHO more easy to play, and hopefully bring more joy to players. Is anyone interested in Testing this? iOS 5.1 is a must for this. Please register here with your iOS device: https://rink.hockeyapp.net/recruit/85c21fb290bc4d78951dbc74a3ff08c6 I can then include you in the alpha/beta testing. Cheers, Alex

By iPhonedation on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

Oh, as a big THANK YOU to you people here and the feedback I got from this community: http://tokn.co/ek6bbprp http://tokn.co/z8tzfcbk http://tokn.co/twcgn7xj http://tokn.co/8dx6v2g7 http://tokn.co/nqwcthsy http://tokn.co/0n4e7pcg http://tokn.co/kj8v2cyr http://tokn.co/qsskq38q http://tokn.co/42b3u2tm http://tokn.co/7fur5h7d These are promo codes for ECHO, you can give them to friends or maybe those that did not want to buy the game now have a chance to grab it. Just post which ones you use in order to avoid frustration :-) Cheers, Alex PS: Update is under review, soon you will have a shield element in the game to increase fun and bring more action to it

By iPhonedation on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

http://tokn.co/0n4e7pcg http://tokn.co/kj8v2cyr http://tokn.co/qsskq38q Use them to get ECHO for free if you haven't bought it. I am always looking for Feedback, please use the inGame Feedback option. Cheers, Alex

By falcon wings on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

Hi, I downloaded the game using the promocode http://tokn.co/0n4e7pcg Thank you for the promo codes,alex. I was considering this game myself,but was waiting on a stable internet connection for listening to a podcast on this game,and a little Itunes credit to get it too. so this is quite welcome! oh and,I wouldn't mind beta testing this game or what you will,but reading your comment above I guess only devices with IOS5.1 would be useful? since I have ios7.04 right now,I am afraid I can't be of much help there,either. falcon wings

By iPhonedation on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

Hi Falcon wings, the game runs as of 5.1 and above in the App Store right now. The updated version will require 6.0 as a minimum, but 7.04 is definitely supported. I will get back to you for beta testing during the next week then, I am glad that some visually impaired users a willing to give the feedback - for me this is always a guessing game and I probably do not think of many aspects. Best regards, Alex

By Ken Downey on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 19:15

I already purchased the game, but I'd love to beta-test this new version.