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Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

D

David Kalina

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
2
0
Hello!

My company's first game for the iPhone and iPod Touch -- Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor -- was released this past Monday.

Early reviews have been incredibly positive. We were lucky to receive wonderful coverage from the folks at toucharcade.com and offworld.com, and so far our app has an incredible 107 / 107 5-star user ratings in the US App Store.

Check out our trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MaK-shoqU

For more information, and to purchase, follow this link to the AppStore:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=325954996&mt=8

Please check it out and let us know what you think!

David Kalina
Tiger Style
www.tigerstylegames.com
 
The ratings/reviews and forum comments speak for themselves, I bought it a few days ago and it certainly lives up to what everyone is saying.

It's very original, great artwork, animation, sound, this will be high up the charts guaranteed.

One of the best games I've seen in many years.
 
Looks good!!! Looks like its worth 2.99 just because of originality. Now if I could just get rid of this damn Arachnophobia, you'd have one more sale.

Got any silk worms? :D
 
rKunda said:
Wow. 112 reviews and 111 are 5 stars.

Looks pretty neat.
Click to expand...

Last night when I checked it had 100% 5-star reviews. I've never seen that before. I have it and I started playing it yesterday and it is completely original and really fun. Awesome game.

I hope the Devs do something like this with other insects/animals/fish next.
 
Bought it. Have been playing it for the past hour. My hand hurts.

It. Is. Fabulous.
 
I got this game and it is fantastic. I can already tell it is among my favorite iPhone games along with Real Racing, Tiger Woods, Peggle, & Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

If you don't mind me asking, how big is your dev team David? Your end product is amazing and easily competes with offerings from big name developers like EA.
 
Well done!

I love it. Hoping to see more apps like this in the near future. You have done well David :)
 
Just an update. This game is indeed great, but not without its shortcomings.

1. The game is short. There are a couple of arcade modes, but they feel like afterthoughts. The story mode ends rather abruptly, and quite anti-climactically. Still, for less than the price of a movie, I got over 2-3 hours of solid entertainment.

2. The game was too easy. Given the basic parameters...you are a spider, you spin webs and catch bugs...there could be endless variations. Instead, we're given pretty much the same level of difficulty (not very) and basically the same method of clearing each level, with a couple of slight variations. I wanted more of a challenge...more puzzle-like ways in which to spin the webs, increasingly difficult/different bugs to catch. World of Goo, which has a similar look, feel, and attitude, is a great example of well thought out and increasingly difficult levels based on the same premise.

3. The big "mystery" seems non existent. There are hidden secrets, but unless I missed something big, they amount to not much more than nice artwork surrounded by slightly more bugs. There are also lightswitches, handles, knobs, etc. that have interactivity, but ultimately seem to do nothing.

More levels in future updates would be nice, but only if they bring more to the table than pretty renders to walk around on and the same bugs to eat. We need something we can sink our mandibles into. How about a room with a big crack in the floor that we have to cross? How about a flooded basement with minimal places to web onto, and lots of bugs hovering over the water? How about some tried and true enemies...a bird...a snake...a bug zapper...a pacing night watchman who can step on the spider.

I could easily see Spider II taking place in the woods...

Ultimately, while very pretty to look at and satisfying to play, this game reminded me of listening to the home demo tape of a great band...good basic ideas not quite fleshed out, but lots of promise. A playable proof of concept. Looking forward to see what if anything else the devs have up their sleeves for this game.
 
mcdj said:
Just an update. This game is indeed great, but not without its shortcomings.

1. The game is short. There are a couple of arcade modes, but they feel like afterthoughts. The story mode ends rather abruptly, and quite anti-climactically. Still, for less than the price of a movie, I got over 2-3 hours of solid entertainment.

2. The game was too easy. Given the basic parameters...you are a spider, you spin webs and catch bugs...there could be endless variations. Instead, we're given pretty much the same level of difficulty (not very) and basically the same method of clearing each level, with a couple of slight variations. I wanted more of a challenge...more puzzle-like ways in which to spin the webs, increasingly difficult/different bugs to catch. World of Goo, which has a similar look, feel, and attitude, is a great example of well thought out and increasingly difficult levels based on the same premise.

3. The big "mystery" seems non existent. There are hidden secrets, but unless I missed something big, they amount to not much more than nice artwork surrounded by slightly more bugs. There are also lightswitches, handles, knobs, etc. that have interactivity, but ultimately seem to do nothing.

More levels in future updates would be nice, but only if they bring more to the table than pretty renders to walk around on and the same bugs to eat. We need something we can sink our mandibles into. How about a room with a big crack in the floor that we have to cross? How about a flooded basement with minimal places to web onto, and lots of bugs hovering over the water? How about some tried and true enemies...a bird...a snake...a bug zapper...a pacing night watchman who can step on the spider.

I could easily see Spider II taking place in the woods...

Ultimately, while very pretty to look at and satisfying to play, this game reminded me of listening to the home demo tape of a great band...good basic ideas not quite fleshed out, but lots of promise. A playable proof of concept. Looking forward to see what if anything else the devs have up their sleeves for this game.
Click to expand...

mcdj,

Thanks for the thoughtful, critical review.

A couple of comments:

1. Regarding difficulty/challenge. We made a lot of intentional design decisions to keep the game accessible and fun and challenging without exploiting player death. We knew that some of these decisions were risky because players expect there to be predators or environmental threats in platformer games. Ultimately, we went this direction because we wanted a mellow, contemplative vibe in our game. And because the Spider is King of his universe, in a sense.

In my mind, the best way to play the game for challenge is to play for high score. The scoring system promotes a very deliberate style of play whereby you intentionally set up networks of webs to trap as many insects as possible of the highest value possible before chowing down for the big combo, making daring jumps between webs, and calculating risk vs reward when it comes to using and obtaining silk.

2. Regarding the Secret of Bryce Manor. It's in there. Again, there was an intentional decision to keep the story in the background; it is there for the actively engaged, detail-obsessed player to take note of and decipher, but for many of us (myself included) it is mostly an atmospheric framework.

Glad you enjoyed the game in spite of its flaws, and I really appreciate the feedback and the smart suggestions.

cheers,
dave
 
Dave, seriously, kudos to you.
This is one fine app and game and really, out of the tens of thousands available in the app store ranks in my opinion among the top five ever.

Imaginative and what is striking as 'simplistic play' is complex when what looks at what is all around you.
 
Just finished playing this through the first time and started right again. There's something very compelling about it.

Couple of things - can you explain the scoring and the screen numbers top left x2 etc. Also is it deliberate to not show the number of bugs at the start of each round and how many are left? Perhaps the info screen or set as an option?
 
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