Retro Maze is now published!

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Btw, ads. Urgh! :D
 
Looks quite good, but the movement completely threw me. Rather than the Dungeon Master style of turn and move, I see you have fixed positions in each tile and direction buttons are which way to move. This means you lose orientation, as a 'back' can have the path you just came back from being on the right. Are the mazes 3D models? If so it shouldn't be too hard to re-jig the controls for forwards, backwards, rotate left/right 90 degrees, which would be a lot more intuitive. I could absolutely speed around that way in Captive.
 
Looks quite good, but the movement completely threw me. Rather than the Dungeon Master style of turn and move, I see you have fixed positions in each tile and direction buttons are which way to move. This means you lose orientation, as a 'back' can have the path you just came back from being on the right. Are the mazes 3D models? If so it shouldn't be too hard to re-jig the controls for forwards, backwards, rotate left/right 90 degrees, which would be a lot more intuitive. I could absolutely speed around that way in Captive.

No, they are not 3D models. Regarding the "back", I'm not sure if I understood you correctly, but the "back" button does not make you walk back all the way, it is a 180 degree turn on the spot. Example: say you just turned left. If you press back, you will see the a "turn right". At some point I actually considered changing the icon on the "back button" to a kind of 180 degree circle because of that, but thought it would be fugly xD

Since this was not based on an actual 3D space, I did not go full Dungeon Master as that would increase the number of assets to include exponentially, with the necessary effect on file size. I used Xamarin, so one of my objectives was to have as much shared code and assets inside the project as possible between Android and iOS, so I did not want to have to deal with expansion files on both platforms (which obviously would need additional code for each platform, plus duplication of assets).

In the end, I did it for fun and to learn cross-platform development through Xamarin. I'm not too worried if it has a lot of commercial success, but more on the learning bit (including what unforeseen problems might arise from shared code).

For my next project, which wont be a game, I'll be trying to use Xamarin.Forms (if suitable) and the Azure mobile app platform.
 
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Yes, that's what I mean. Your orientation is fixed for each tile and doesn't align with your motion. If you're facing North and press Right, you'll be facing East. If you then press 'back', you'll move West but be facing North as that's the view for that tile. If the scenery isn't 3D then you'd have to draw four directional images for each tile.

Just my personal two-pennies.
 
Yes, that's what I mean. Your orientation is fixed for each tile and doesn't align with your motion. If you're facing North and press Right, you'll be facing East. If you then press 'back', you'll move West but be facing North as that's the view for that tile. If the scenery isn't 3D then you'd have to draw four directional images for each tile.

Just my personal two-pennies.

No, that is not what happens. If you go back you will definitely be facing West. If you buy the compass you will see that clearly.

Yes, I would have to draw four directional images, but I decided very early on not to. But the perspective is not fixed. It changes according to the your orientation in the tile (e.g. if you are at an intersection you see different screens if you are on the left, center or right paths). The only thing you cannot do is turn to face a wall. Hope that clears it up.
 
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Ah, yes. With the corridors looking the same, it's easy to muddle. Certainly the expectation of behaviour makes it hard for me to adapt to. The traditional interface separated turning and moving with visual feedback so it was a lot easier to keep track.
 
Ah, yes. With the corridors looking the same, it's easy to muddle. Certainly the expectation of behaviour makes it hard for me to adapt to. The traditional interface separated turning and moving with visual feedback so it was a lot easier to keep track.

Yes, I understand that and that was the original idea. It turned out very asset intensive (especially when there are 10 levels, all with different environments!) and I didn't want to exceed the 100 MB limit on the APK :)
Thanks for trying and commenting! :)
 
Daft question, but what are the pros/cons compared to, say, Eric Haines' "RealMaze 3D" ?

(Those in 3D R&D should recognise his name).
 
Daft question, but what are the pros/cons compared to, say, Eric Haines' "RealMaze 3D" ?

(Those in 3D R&D should recognise his name).

It is a bit of weird question because I did not built it in comparison to that game, neither I actually knew that app existed. The most straightforward way to look at it is: "I did it because I could and wanted to." Plus the "Retro" in the name is there for a reason. Its not supposed to be "real 3d", but inspired by old games.
 
It is a bit of weird question because I did not built it in comparison to that game, neither I actually knew that app existed. The most straightforward way to look at it is: "I did it because I could and wanted to." Plus the "Retro" in the name is there for a reason. Its not supposed to be "real 3d", but inspired by old games.
No worries. Was just curious.
 
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