Zapple!

[rackham]

Hello everyone!

Ive been waiting a long time to be able to finish my site i've been working on, it's my first game and I would love to get some feedback on it!

Its a site where you can win money if you hold the top score at the end of a weekly tournament, money for the prize comes from advertising so if anyone wants some cheap advertising then dont be afraid to use the site!

Let me know what you think (fingers crossed) and if you encounter any bugs or problems then please let me know...

www.thefreecashgame.com

please excuse the name...

ps a screenshot of zapple!

[rackham]

oh, unfortunanly the competition is only open to uk residents only at the moment (im scared of the usa), but whereever you are from please check it out and let me know what you think..

[SimonH]

Good idea and looks nice, but I hate having to register! Can't you let people play unregistered, but they can't submit scores or win any cash unless they do register? It feels a bit hard to just 'dip a toe' ATM.

(BTW why not use googleapps to fill some of the 'advertise here' boxes in the short term? It'd look better & it can pay quite well if you're getting the hits!)

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[rackham]

Thanks for looking.

Feedback taken on board, would be a good idea to let people see what they are signing up for, its a very small reg form though! 

Stupidly i didnt sign up to googleads till a few days ago and they said can take up to a week so waiting at the mo, did try adbrite but the adverts were absolutly terrable, advertising for wigs etc, not very contextually matched!

Thanks for looking!

[h3ckboy]

well adsense should get you some relevant ads .

the website looks very inviting and fun. I didnt sign up though, most ppl wont :/

also, I asume that you are not putting the entir money you make from ads into the pot .

good luck and congratz,
h3ckboy

[SimonH]

It just occurred to me that advertisers won't be pleased to find that your prize money's coming from the ads - they pay per click - so they won't want people clicking their ads just to bump up the prize money on your site...
Hmmm, maybe better to keep quiet about where the prize money comes from!

[rackham]

hello, again thanks for replying.

The ads will just be pay once for the display for a period of time regardless of the clicks, so no chance of anyone clicking just to bump up the pot amount. The smallest ad (10px by 10px) costs 60p for a month, which would on average buy you about one click through using adsense, so if you get more than one click in 30 days, youve saved money!

a proportion of the ad money goes to the pot, depending on how many people / advertisers use the site, but it wont be less than 50%!

Glad you like the look, it's the second site ive ever built, it was a challenge!

Thanks again...

ps i think i may have underestimated the resistance to registration forms!

[rackham]

does the reward of a new java game not justify the registration!

[h3ckboy]

does the reward of a new java game not justify the registration!

yeah everyone here hates registering.

if I am bored at some point I will register, but til then...

[rackham]

ok, ill put a non-registering version up tomorrow, but you wont be able to win prizes!

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[rackham]

Ok! Now you can play the game without registering,  your score wont be logged but it's a taster before deciding if you want to sign up or not!

Hopefully it will all work ok but if it dosent please let me know!

thefreecashgame.com

[rackham]

has anyone had a look?

[h3ckboy]

has anyone had a look?

I opened the webpage but hen forgot to play the gmae .

I will check it out.

[kevglass]

Played it.

Pros:

- Very polished looking
- No bugs
- Progressive difficulty

Cons:

- While poilished there are still some touches that look slightly off (text for messages for instance)
- The game itself isn't intuitive - I had to read the instructions!
- When I did work out how to play it's not massively fun - though obviously thats subjective
    - I spent alot of time waiting for stuff to happen (even with the speed up button)
    - I didn't feel in control of my own destiny, seemed to die through lack of opportunity rather than my own mistakes
    - Didn't feel any bonus to getting longer chains (is there one?)

It might feel better if the blocks pushed back up when they were squeezed against the bottom of the well. Meaning that if you've cleared spaces then it saves your neck until there is one column completely full which jams up the well.

Nice to see another Pulp Core game tho - it just smacks of quality

Kev

[rackham]

excellent, thanks for playing it and taking the time for feedback, some good points to work on, my first game so a lot too learn!

in the game the longer the chains the score exponentially rises, but i havent made that very clear i guess!

i find it very hard to review the game myself as when you write something you become quite blind to the gameplay after a while i feel, its a toughy...when i get time ill try and revise it slightly...

Thanks!

[kappa]

thanks for your request for your game to be featured. The game pretty much hits all the criteria, close to 9-10 out of 10.

I think kevglass's post above is pretty much spot on, as I too had to read instructions to get going. Maybe some sort of in-game hints at the beginning will help.

Also kinda had my spam senses going off, probably just the domain name

but overall good job.

FEATURED.

[rackham]

Excellent, much appreciated!

I agree with the feedback, i will work on it when time allows, it's very useful to hear so thanks

When you say span senses is that in your browser or in your mind (like spidy-sense)?!

Thanks for checking it out, very grateful.

[Eli Delventhal]

21,642 points. This game is definitely fun, and a great idea.

Looks like kapta beat me to the punch, but...

+1 point if the game installs and uninstalls correctly
+1 point if the game doesn't crash ever
+1 point if the game is slickly presented
+1 point if the game has "good" graphics that suit the game
+1 point if the game has "good" sound that suit the game
+1 point if the game's overall style is "good"
+1 point if the game is original or brings a great new original twist
+1 point if your judge enjoyed playing the game
+1 point if the game is complete enough that doesn't feel anything is missing
+1 point if you don't whine and you demand nothing of the mods (simply saying "can you rate my game please" is fine)

I think this satisfies everything, so it gets 10/10, although I think you could improve the presentation just a bit. And change your domain name, maybe.

[h3ckboy]

hehe, congratz on getting featured.
is this really your first game?

[rackham]

Thanks to you both. Im glad you said it's fun, as I mentioned I find it hard to tell! Thanks for rating the game also.

I agree and Im going to work on a few bits presentation wise soon, just need the time. I understand your comment on the domain name, it's quite tacky, I was trying to come up with something that might grab peoples attention, but maybe i went to far!

In answer to your question, it is my first game but it went through a lot of iterations and changes before it got like it is now, it took me a while

Thanks again for feedback, really useful and i appreciate you taking the time to do it.

[teletubo]

hey rackham .
Definitely the game is funny, and does look professional .
When I was playing my girlfriend even told me to send the link to her sister .

I can't think of anything yet to improve, but why the prize restriction to UK ?

[rackham]

Hiya, glad you think the game is fun!

Re the prize restriction, im not sure about the laws internationally regarding giving money away, the game dosent count as gambling or anything in the UK and most of the US (minus a couple of states i think) but i cant afford to get a lawer to tell me the international situation, maybe i will post a question in the biz section!

Thanks for the feedback.

[ManaSink]

IANAL, but you should be good in most of the US, as long as you don't require the player to provide anything of value to enter.  If they have pay for the game, give food to your favorite charity, whatever.... then they are paying for the chance to win, and that puts it under the gambling laws.

[dishmoth]

Very polished, and rather good fun!  It did take me a while to figure out how to play though.  Even after reading the instructions twice, I didn't realise that you could 'swap' blocks when dragging them left and right.  (The game's a lot harder without that!)

Just out of curiosity, does anything stop someone writing a program to play the game automatically?  Not something I'm planning to do of course, and I imagine it would be rather a lot of work, but when prize money's on offer...

Simon

[rackham]

Hiya, ive heard that one a few times, i will update the instructions to make them clearer, a lot of people having touble with the swapping element!

Nothing to stop someone to write a program to emulate  the users actions, the code is (well should be) obfuscated so it would have to either invovle un-obfuscating it or writing a program to read the visual state of the game and play it, which would be a lot of effort when it comes down to it. Im relying on the same premise that trys to stop forging money, ie if it costs more to make it than what you will gain what's the point! The amount of time it would take someone to write a program like that just wouldnt be worth the bother!

[ManaSink]

Nothing to stop someone to write a program to emulate  the users actions, the code is (well should be) obfuscated so it would have to either invovle un-obfuscating it or writing a program to read the visual state of the game and play it, which would be a lot of effort when it comes down to it.

If you're super paranoid, you'll also want to secure network communication between your applet and the score server.  Otherwise someone with a packet sniffer can just pick apart the packets for the high score submission.  At very least I'd use ssl for everything, since $$$ is involved.   

[rackham]

I have thought of that! Whilst not using SSL it should be fine, if anyone wants to try and submit a false score let me know, be a good test of my solution (to see if it works or not!), sniff away!

[rackham]

Ive changed the instructions on the game, if anyone could have a look and let me know if its any clearer that would be great, thanks!

[h3ckboy]

doy ou sue mysql database with php for the highscore.

and if so. Make sure taht you dont have the password in the source code. Just ahve it hardcoded into teh php script.

only problem is taht someone can decompile your game, get the php url. And the send false urls.

It aint too hard to fake it.

[rackham]

No php, pure Java/JSP on my server (Tomcat), there are a few things going on behind the scenes so false submission of scores by the manner of packetsniffing or decompiling of any client-side code should  be easily differentiated from real score submission. Thanks for the tips though!