Shadō: The Minimal Snake Game

by

Shadō is a modern twist on the classic "snake" game genre featuring dynamic lights and shadows with a minimalist design.

Just swipe to collect all the balls and advance to the next level. The moving balls will "shadow" you (they'll follow your every move), but be careful not to crash into the walls! Each section introduces a new twist, including shadows, switches, portals, and more...
The first twist being that you move slower when you're in the shadows.

Get it here on the Google Play store
Shadō: The Minimal Snake Game

Gamepad/Keyboard support has been added.

Roasts

LushkinR 4 years ago

Mechanics Controls
Hello !
On the paper, your game looked awesome. Here some good points and points to upgrade :)

The good ones :
- I definitively like the mechanics of your game. The way you can pass through the "sanke" itself if dots does not collide is cool.
- I also like the visual Idea of your game with shadow
- The music is very dynamic (but contrasts with the slowness of controls)
- Skip function for levels. Honestly without this one, I think I wouldn't go as far as I did in your game.

Points to improve :
- The menu !!!! Even if you took the GamePlay phase on the menu screen with shadow and the moving snake. You should probably make it a little more beautiful. My first impression was : "What the hell is that ?! Windows 95 menu ?" (no offence
Reply

LushkinR 4 years ago

Game Graphics UI Graphics
(no offence
Reply

LushkinR 4 years ago

Mechanics Controls
Sorry my review failed to appear properly due to emojis. Here the complete text from the beginning.

On the paper, your game looked awesome. Here some good points and points to upgrade :)

The good ones :
- I definitively like the mechanics of your game. The way you can pass through the "sanke" itself if dots does not collide is cool.
- I also like the visual Idea of your game with shadow
- The music is very dynamic (but contrasts with the slowness of controls)
- Skip function for levels. Honestly without this one, I think I wouldn't go as far as I did in your game.

Points to improve :
- The menu !!!! Even if you took the GamePlay phase on the menu screen with shadow and the moving snake. You should probably make it a little more beautiful. My first impression was : "What the hell is that ?! Windows 95 menu ?" (no offence) I am not designer, I juste say what I think
- Controls. OMG so much latency. Have you thought about arrow controls ? I mean swipe is cool, but the latency is very, very, very, VERY, very frustrating. I have spent about 30 seconds turning around a single dot I was not able to collect because when I tried to move , I was always 5 pixels on it side. Or maybe you should try to make it more reactive
- Spawn location: Sometimes A dot spawns on the right upper corner, just behind the counter. So it is a little bit harder to collect.
- No "ingame" menu : I didn't found how to go back from a level to the menu. Until I die and the tap "Back" it seems to be impossible.
- Advertisement : First I was like "Oh cool, this guy allows you to skip the level by watching an Ad, this is not intrusive and a kind of reward. Very nice". Then I discovered the Ad between levels, so I was Ok, why not, If it not every level change, that could be a normal business model, after all, the game is free. But the I have made a very ugly discovery .... You showed me the Ad on "Play" button tap (the one that make you navigate to level selection). I think you should remove this one. The player haven't even started playing the game, you smashes him with an advertisement, nor very cool
- Gameplay a little bit long on first levels. You sell me a game with shadows from the very beginning (your menu) And I had to spend a loooooot of time (due to control latency) to try and finish the first level when I have some points moving in a blue box, And I have to collect 10 of them. (In my case I died so much times, I just skipped the level to see what is next). So probably should make it progressive. Collect 2-3 points on first level and increase it.
And finally I'm not a big fan of the light blue the first dot is colored, too much blue. But this one may not count for the review

Any way your game has a big potential, the main mechanic is here. I think you just need to set it up the right way.
Hope I've helped you with this review !
Reply

defpotecstudios 4 years ago

Hello, Thank you for taking the time to try my game. To your point about the controls, there are several different control methods besides swipe which can be changed in the options. You can even use an external gamepad for even greater control. And what you describe as latency is more than likely the fact that the gameplay happens on a grid.So if you tell the ball to more right it will move right as soon as it fully enters the next row. When people realize this they usually have a much better time controlling it. However, I have yet to come up with a good way of describing this in game.

As far as the title screen, point taken...the overall design is "minimal" but perhaps it's too minimal. I have been thinking of updating it. And you're not the first person to suggest making the first level shorter so I might do that as well.

I would prefer not to have ads, but asking people to pay even 99 cents is asking too much these days. This would literally be the only "snake" game on the play store if I did that. So instead, I actually tried to keep the ads to a minimum. They only happen in between level after at least 40 seconds. So if you crash really soon you won't see them right away. And if you beat a level(s) I have it set so you won't see an ad for at least 3 minutes as sort of a reward. I do occasionally show ads in the menus like you mentioned(also if one hasn't been displayed for a while) because otherwise there would be a way to never see an ad if you went back to the menu and then started a new level. This is in contrast to other games on the Play Store with similar graphical styles that display an ad when you start the app, between every single restart of a level, forcing you watch it for 20 seconds before continuing. I didn't want that. But why do they do it? Greed? Maybe, but with my way I have over 1500 downloads but have only made $4 so far showing ads! So I can certainly see why they do it.

Thank you for the review and the suggestions.



Reply
Roast Em
LINKS

Website
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
SHARE THIS ROAST