Not a Clone Update: What’s This? Another Demo Release?

Some of you may have noticed that a new version of Not a Clone Demo has been released. This is quite a rapid turnout compared to the last release, which came out a full month after the demo debuted. What’s going on?

In short, we’ve been syncing the code and assets for the demos with the recent private beta releases so that both will have the latest development changes in the game. This should help us respond more quickly to the comments on the demo and from the beta testers. Of course, since we’re now working on bugs and small enhancements, the changes between the different versions of the demo will be relatively minor.

In any case, we haven’t actually posted the changes made since the first release, so here’s an extensive list on what’s been done so far:

  1. Updated how the loading screen looks to appear more like a text message screen.
  2. Changed the bottom of game over screen to use less screen-estate.  High scores button is now placed in-between restart and home button.
  3. Added a new music for challenge mode.
  4. Added more sound effects, both for pop-up events and a couple of microgames.
  5. Updated credits to include our current beta testers.
  6. Reduced WebGL memory usage by packing sprites into less image files.  PC/Mac/Linux build remains unchanged.
  7. Updated Angry Monkeys’ physics.  The monkeys no longer collides with the slingshot or each other, and the shot-direction is based on the position you’ve let go of the slingshot, not the direction the sling moves.
  8. Background music now fades-in before a microgame starts.
  9. Reduced memory usage on all platforms by loading most sound effects and music on-the-fly.
  10. Clicking on the pause button no longer triggers a mouse-down event on a microgame.
  11. Made challenge mode a lot easier by dramatically increasing the amount of time available to the player.  The previous times assumed the game was played on a multi-touch-supporting touchscreen, but there is now a different time set for mouse.
  12. Fixed a few typos in the loading screen’s text messages.
  13. Doubled the animation speed of Light Tiles.
  14. How the first couple of microgames are selected is a lot less random.  If the player’s best score is below 15, they will always be served with a predetermined order of microgames.  If they score higher than or equal to 15, the first 10 microgames are those that either have low number of plays, or a low rate of winning.
  15. Fixing “Clone of:” label not being translated properly in Pig Latin (fun fact: the language’s purpose is to confirm our localization script works).
  16. The speed-up is calculated differently.  It’s a little easier in the beginning, but gets harder towards the end.

Let us know what you think of the changes!

New trailer, game over screen redux, and more!

Many apologize for the super-late update. We’ve had a lot of events occur between updates, including a move to the new office!

The New Office!
The New Office!

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t make any progress. First is a new trailer that includes our updated menus:

Naturally, the new Top Charts is the highlight for this trailer. Next up, the Game Over has a new two-page look to it. We’re still developing the screen, but here’s a brief preview:

Score Screen
Score Screen
Played Games List Screen
Played Games List Screen

Lastly, Astra Wijaya is at it again with a new concept art for a minigame. Can you guess which one?

NotACloneScreenshotSaturday6-3

Not a Clone minigame mockups and fun facts

Continuing our updates on Not a Clone’s progress, we’ve got a new mockup for a minigame:

TotemBG-SS

Art, again, is courtesy of Astra Wijaya.


In regards to other updates, there’s been a few small tweaks to the UI. For example, the loading screen now provides the definition of a clone:

Loading

A lot of people who play-tested our game didn’t know what a clone was, so we put the definition up on the loading screen to educate our players. Second, the game over screen now provides some fascinating (or depressing) facts about clone-related practices:

GameOver

Note that neither texts are final.

Not a Clone Update: a new Game Over screen

As mentioned on Twitter, last weekend, many of our teammates were responsible for putting together the River Jam game jam. We weren’t able to post any updates on our project back then.

During the same week, our team had an emergency discussion about the difficulty of navigating the Game Over screen. As you may recall, the old game over screen looked like this:

NotACloneScreenshotSaturday3-3NotACloneScreenshotSaturday3-4

Back then, we wanted to hammer the idea that the minigames they were playing were clones of other mobile games. From the feedback we received, though, it seems we made the menus too obtuse. As such, we’ve redesigned the menu to make it easier to get back into the game:

NotACloneScreenshotSaturday4-1NotACloneScreenshotSaturday4-2NotACloneScreenshotSaturday4-3NotACloneScreenshotSaturday4-4

What do you think?


Incidentally, one major change we’re working on in Not a Clone is adding difficulty levels. For example, if you just started the game, and played the Angry Monkeys minigame, this is how many fruits you need to hit:

Easy Mode
Easy Mode

As you clear more minigames, the number of fruits will keep increasing:

Medium Mode
Medium Mode

Until it fills up the whole screen:

Hard Mode
Hard Mode

This effort is courtesy of Taro Omiya, who was compelled to address himself in third-person. While this feature is still a work-in-progress, it should be pretty clear how this improves on the original game.