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"[iPod Game] iTurn!"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'iTurn!'.
Mon 27/06/11 at 17:00
Regular
"How Ironic"
Posts: 4,312
Be warned, what you read about this App on the App Store is terribly misleading. You would get the impression that it is fun.

To this minute I still don't understand the game's concept. It seems to involve various balls that spin around. The aim of the game is to tap the balls that are turning anti-clockwise. Once the background goes from dark to light, you can proceed to tap the rest of the balls that are turning clockwise. Each level is timed, so you must tap quickly, and you only have a certain amount of lives.

Tap the wrong balls, and you lose a massive 10,000 points. I'm not ashamed to admit that on my first go, I achieved a score of -40,000 because I simply didn't know what to do. I will concede that the game has a help menu which attempts to explain the game, but after reading that, I was even more confused as to what this game was about.

In all honestly, I did not enjoy this App at all. The menu music is some sort of strange chant that seems to be from The Lion King. Stay on the menu long enough, and the music stops. That's right, it's hasn't even been put on a loop which seems like incredibly lazy developing to me. Then again, I shouldn't complain; the music if awful.

Even the graphics don't seem to work. Every single level seems to be designed the same way, with the shapes of the balls being the only thing that changes . "The full version comes with five stunning graphics packs, featuring meditation symbols, fractal balls, time instruments, wheels of death (like the spinning Apple wheel), and hypnotic spirals". This is a quote from the developer, Moon Cow interactive. The general idea behind that sentence is that "In some levels, the balls will have spikes on". To describe several rotating balls on a screen as stunning graphics is just too comical.

There are various game modes, which would be good news if the game itself wasn't so much of a pain to play. Different game modes just mean different ways to get bored for this App. These game modes include Time Mode, Collect Mode, Kids Mode and 4Ever Mode. I can confirm that they are all as bad as each other.

The only thing about this App that is vaguely appealing is the menu itself. It is merely balls that bounce from side to side with the various Menu links written on them. You know that when the best thing about an App is the menu itself, my rating score for the App is going to be low.

Also posted by me on AppGamer.net
Thu 30/06/11 at 22:28
Posts: 2
Hello again,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm about to make some changes that will make it more appealing for new players. Looking back, the penalty in score seems a stupid idea anyways, and is not necessary at all. There also are combo possibilities - and I thought if you play it, you'll find out about them on the go. Of course, it has to be played for that at first - silly me :-).

I'll describe the combo possibilities and make them more apparent, too.

Point taken on the game description - it was our first game, so maybe we were getting over-excited.

Regards,
Matthias
Wed 29/06/11 at 19:21
Regular
"How Ironic"
Posts: 4,312
Hi Matthias,

What I mean by not understanding the concept is not necessarily how it's played, but why it should be played. It seems to me to be a very monotonous game which involves a simplistic idea of 'spotting the odd one out'. There is just nothing to get excited about. I would suggest that the App has been sold as something more than it is. You must agree that to describe it as having 'stunning graphics' is a bit of a overstatement. Even taking the changing backgrounds into consideration, the graphics still aren't anywhere near stunning.

I agree the sound issue may have been some sort of bug, because I experienced silence at the menu after running the app for a few minutes.

I have some recommendations for improvements. I would suggest making the game far more exciting. Change the menu music for a start. Playing or not, it is a fairly drab music track to say the least. I would suggest bringing in some sort of combo for linking several circles at once aswell. A reduction in the penalty (-10000) would also be well recieved.

As you have stated yourself, I don't think this is particularly the App for me. If you want me to be honest with you, there is really nothing about it I enjoy.

I appreciate your feedback on my review though, and for taking the time to respond. I look forward to playing an updated version to see what changes have been made.

Best Regards,

Chris
Wed 29/06/11 at 18:58
Posts: 2
As this review is showing up earlier in Google, I also post the reply here:

Hello Chris,

Thanks for writing this review - I honestly mean it! At least you are the first one writing a review for our iTurn! game.

For you it's a good thing the music stopped after a while, but I still would be interested to know on which hardware you were playing - I just have the iTurn! Lite version running on my iPhone next to me, and it doesn't stop, even after 3 minutes. That is because of course the music is running in a loop - so if it stopped, there must have been some other reason.

The point you made about not knowing what to do is a valid one - we also noticed that a lot of players have massive negative scores at the beginning. We made a new version three days ago which will present the "How to Play" screen before the game starts until a player has reached a positive score. Unfortunately, updates take as long to be approved as the original version, so it will be another 2 to 3 days until the update hits the store.

If you would have played for more levels than the first 5, you would have noticed that the background changes in addition to the ball shapes. Also, after level 3 the graphics of the balls do change randomly in all play modes except 4EVER, where the random balls start in a later level. And the distributio pattern of the balls as well as their number, size and behavior is changing. That might not be enough change in graphics for your taste, of course. But point taken, the background will change earlier in 4EVER mode in the next version.

In the whole, there are about 25 different rotating (or otherwise 'turning') ball graphics, and 5 different backgrounds - any more would not really matter for most casual gamers.

We would also be interested in which part of the game you did not understand. You don't like it - ok, you may. But you stated the principle quite clear at the beginning of the post - what more can we explain? Balls spin around, some spin the other way, go and find them. Period.

You are right about the penalty: The 10,000 points penalty might be a bit harsh for new players, we will reduce that in the next update and make the penalty depending on the level.

Again, thanks for taking the time and writing the review. We'll address some of the points in our updates, but the base principle will not change - so you probably will continue to not like it.

Best Regards,
Matthias
Mon 27/06/11 at 17:00
Regular
"How Ironic"
Posts: 4,312
Be warned, what you read about this App on the App Store is terribly misleading. You would get the impression that it is fun.

To this minute I still don't understand the game's concept. It seems to involve various balls that spin around. The aim of the game is to tap the balls that are turning anti-clockwise. Once the background goes from dark to light, you can proceed to tap the rest of the balls that are turning clockwise. Each level is timed, so you must tap quickly, and you only have a certain amount of lives.

Tap the wrong balls, and you lose a massive 10,000 points. I'm not ashamed to admit that on my first go, I achieved a score of -40,000 because I simply didn't know what to do. I will concede that the game has a help menu which attempts to explain the game, but after reading that, I was even more confused as to what this game was about.

In all honestly, I did not enjoy this App at all. The menu music is some sort of strange chant that seems to be from The Lion King. Stay on the menu long enough, and the music stops. That's right, it's hasn't even been put on a loop which seems like incredibly lazy developing to me. Then again, I shouldn't complain; the music if awful.

Even the graphics don't seem to work. Every single level seems to be designed the same way, with the shapes of the balls being the only thing that changes . "The full version comes with five stunning graphics packs, featuring meditation symbols, fractal balls, time instruments, wheels of death (like the spinning Apple wheel), and hypnotic spirals". This is a quote from the developer, Moon Cow interactive. The general idea behind that sentence is that "In some levels, the balls will have spikes on". To describe several rotating balls on a screen as stunning graphics is just too comical.

There are various game modes, which would be good news if the game itself wasn't so much of a pain to play. Different game modes just mean different ways to get bored for this App. These game modes include Time Mode, Collect Mode, Kids Mode and 4Ever Mode. I can confirm that they are all as bad as each other.

The only thing about this App that is vaguely appealing is the menu itself. It is merely balls that bounce from side to side with the various Menu links written on them. You know that when the best thing about an App is the menu itself, my rating score for the App is going to be low.

Also posted by me on AppGamer.net

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