Hi! I just read in your blog about Archibald's Adventures 2. I really like the idea of making it a semi-exploration game! Great.

I don't know how far you are in the development of the game (would be cool to know actually!), but I thought I'd share some ideas that I had.

- You say you don't want a “bring here the item X from the other side of the map” type of game, and I agree with that. However, I think a semi-rpg-like way of obtaining new abilities and devices would add some depth to the game, while still maintaining your plan of map and level layout. This would some times make the player encounter a level he cannot complete yet, but maybe if an in-game note would fix the confusion around that (You need X device/ability to complete this level). Then the player understands that he/she has to do other levels until he finds that upgrade.

- Aside from devices, you could have different abilities, such as higher jumps, faster running/rolling or whatever Archie will do This would give the player a better feeling of progress, unlike in the original when you just did level by level without much changes.

- I don't know how much you guys like the "instant death and return to last save tower" system, but what about a life system? Instead of dying immediately, you would instead lose a portion of your life, allowing you to continue if you touched that spike or got hit by that drop of acid. You could get life upgrades through the game as well.

- The game could have some sort of collectibles. It wouldn't have to be necessary for the regular gameplay, it could be puzzle pieces of an image, parts of a machine that can open the door to the secret level in the end of the game, or something like that. That would it more rewarding to complete all of the levels, and giving it a better "finishing value".

- A GUN! All the time in Archibald 1, I've wished I could kill the monsters! Haha... Maybe it'd change the concept entirely... I don't know.

It's not like I'm a game expert or something. These are just ideas I had as a gamer. Maybe it's too much RPG-oriented, but I just like RPG-games I guess I am not in any way complaining about the original, I just see a great potential in the sequel! You guys make such great games. I hope you like some of my ideas.

Cheers, Daisycutter

I think we are somewhere in the middle of the development - working on editor, entities etc. Still much work ahead

Yes, we plan that the player will be able to get some abilities throughout the game, but we have not yet decided if older levels could be re-entered with the new abilities. This was not possible in the first game, where some of the levels were designed for the skater and were not playable with the magnetic vehicle (and the levels were isolated units and no info was transferred among the levels). But in AA2 it is possible to switch between archie and vehicle anytime inside any level, so this could be possible. Probably we will use it at least for some hidden areas and bonuses.

The deaths and respawn devices is something we want to improve, but still searching for ideal solution. Respawn devices will probably save entire state of the levels (so they will behave like save points; we were thinking about load/save feature at anytime, but we don' like it much) and life upgrades are possible.

Regarding collectibles, hidden areas, bonuses and achievements, would be nice to have them all, but we will see how they will fit into our time and money budget.

No, there will be no guns

I'd love a built in hint system. There are a few levels on the original version (iPhone) that, to this day, I am unable to beat. I know about the Rake In Grass YouTube channel, but that completely reveals it, and while it's nice to beat a level or two, it's kind of disappointing once you know how it's done.

Hints could be in the form of text or maybe an arrow, suggesting which direction you should go first.

I'd also like another character, maybe one that really contributes to the plot. Archibald's love interest?

But most importantly, stay creative and include a bunch of levels! While sifting through the various apps on the App Store I find that many games only have twenty or thirty levels. One of the reasons I bought Archibald's Adventures was for the large amount of levels. Keep up the good work!

I was thinking about a possibility to select one of the archibald's friends as playable character (the boys from the intro of the first game), but it depends on Undead's laziness (Undead is the guy, who is making animations to the game).


This is a little complicated. The primary target of the game is iPhone market which prefers more casual-oriented games. I know there are players who love bigger games and complicated puzzles, but with the iPhone economy, the game's genre and our possibilities it would be hardly profitable for us to make the sequel as big as the first game. For that reasons we plan that the sequel will be smaller with probably easier puzzles and levels, but also the game will cost less. But we still hope the game will be fun to play. The game is not yet finished so it's possible this will change, but this is how we look at the game right now.

That sounds promising. The different dudes could have different skills, or something!

In my opinion, a game can't be casual AND difficult at the same time, at least not at a high degree. Puzzle lovers, who favor difficulty, like to sit down and enjoy an a little more complex puzzle instead of doing multiple easy ones. Casual players, who favor amount of levels, get stuck at the complex levels, and would rather have more levels that aren't that complex. The iPhone market has mostly casual players as you mentioned, so I would say that many levels appeal more than complexity. However, to satisfy the ones favoring difficulty, you could release an expansion pack with specifically harder levels later on.

Whoa, I sound like a marketing executive... High school really paid off, I guess o.0

For me the other characters are not question of my laziness (which is substantial), but mostly question of an interface. Archie already has a ton of features right now. If we add another similarly complex character, it may become quite confusing. But we are considering it.

The size of the game is pretty much dictated by the gamers. They "vote with their vallets" and the message is quite clear: small super-cheap games. We can't create 100+ levels and sell it for $1. But we will add more if the game will be successful. So after some time it can grow to be as big as the first game. All depends on the interest of the gamers.

OK, that makes sense. I didn't consider the business side of things.

That's great news, I like your games and your style and it appears some folks on my forum like your games as well. Keep up the good work! I saw the video of Archibald's Adventure 1, looks awesome. Will give it a try when I get the chance.

Archibald 2? U've just made my day. Bring it on!

Just some thoughts:

No guns! I hate violent, 'shoot em up' type games and love Archibald's Adventures because it isn't like that. It's just a wholesome, family-friendly game that is a ton of fun for anyone to play..

And I like the idea of another character. Perhaps 'Annabelle's Adventures', introducing Archie's Girl Friend. You could maybe have Archie playing some levels, and Annabelle playing others-and the plot is having them making their way through different parts of the factory/lab or wherever they are, trying to find each other. The game could conclude with them finally meeting up somewhere in the middle. Each character would have different capabilities, which would make the game interesting and fun as you alternate between the two. Sort of like the Professor, only she would have a larger part in the game and different functions. Maybe for AA 3?

I loved that there were so many levels on the original Archibald's Adventures. I had so much fun playing the original game levels 2 or 3 times, that it was a huge treat to get a couple of expansions to play another 2 or 3 times. I like having some harder, and some easier levels. So I hope AA 2 does grow to be as big as AA 1...but anything is appreciated! Then again, I am on a Mac with a 20" LCD screen, so I am not the typical market. I personally don't like the levels to be TOO hard as in almost impossible, I would prefer to have more levels as long as they aren't Kindergarten easy..

Nice to know AA 2 will be even less expensive than AA 1. I think I paid $9.95, and the best investment I have ever made for a game! I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved having levels added.

Just some thoughts..

PS: Pavel told me they hoped to have AA 2 out by this Fall. It's September now, and I was wondering if you have any sort of general time frame in which we might reasonably be able to expect a release? And is there a separate date for Macs?

Thanks;

Barbara

I agree with the "no weapons" idea. The charm of Archibald's Adventures was partly the monsters-avoiding part, thinking how to do it, reacting fast and so on. Mostly intelligent game and no shooter.

We don't have any release date estimate. We had to overcome some technical problems in a few last weeks, so there may be some delay.

We know that it won't be released this year, sorry. Many new ideas we have tried didn't work as expected, some because of the internal implementation of the game's logic, which was based on the aa1 and had some limitations - so right now I'm rewriting the internals from scratch. To be honest one time I was almost decided to cancel the game, but things now looks better so we will see...

Oh dear-almost cancelled AA2! And there's such a nice Blog entry about it..

Well thanks for the info. Sorry for the technical problems, and hopefully will have the game to look forward to next year.

If AA2 doesn't work out, you could always go back and add more levels or expansion packs to AA1 and charge for them.