Maze Slider

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Maze Slider is a puzzle game where you have to slide a ball to a yellow portal by rotating blocks around it.

* Plan your moves carefully to get the full stars reward and unlock next levels.
* Use teleport portals, show/hide blocks and duplicate the ball to solve the puzzle in each level.
* Build custom levels and share them with your friends.

Features:

- Easy controls: Use the two buttons on the bottom left/right corners of the screen or swipe the screen to the right/left in order to rotate blocks.

- Solve different puzzles: In each level, there will be blocks to rotate, spikes to avoid, portals to go through, buttons to hide/show certain objects and one destination to go to. Mazes also come in different sizes. Whenever a new element is introduced, you will go through a simple tutorial to show you the effect of this new element.

- Custom level editor: You have the ability to create your own custom maze level inside the game by arranging the objects in the way you like. Then, the editor will generate a code that you can share with your friends so they can play the level you've created or you can play their custom levels by entering the code they have.

- Choose your style: The game comes with 3 different UI colors so you can choose whatever feels comfortable for you.

 

Nice job!

 

Thank you! Glad you like it.

 

You're welcome

 

This game caught my attention, mainly because its named exactly like mine no biggy, i'm sure tons of games are like that on the stores.

I watched the video, and I really like the mechanics of your game. Great job!

-Raiden

 

I guess we share the same name but totally different games and mechanics. I've taken a look at your games, great stuff you have there. Love the "Critter Run" one!

 

Thank you!

 

I found a bug that causes dead tiles in the level editor, like this:



To reproduce it, first place a few blocks. Then place a red switch and assign it to one of the blocks. Place another red switch and assign it to the next block, it'll delete the previous switch but the block stays greyed out and you can't delete it anymore

 

Thanks for reporting that bug, I'll fix it amd update the game ASAP.

 

Pretty interesting puzzle game albeit a bit easy to beat. I played for about 30-45mins and beat it without much of a problem, only not getting 3 stars on 3 of the levels. The inclusion of a level editor is really smart and easy to use. The only issue that I had gameplay wise was that the game felt slow. Not from a framerate perspective, but whenever I rotated the board I felt like it to way too long for the "ball" to actually start falling down. Maybe speeding up that part will help the flow of the game.

Most of my issues with the game come from the presentation of it rather than the gameplay. While the graphics are very nice and clean, the attention to detail is lacking (These following things are really nitpicky, you don't have to worry too much about these they are just things that I noticed). The first thing that I noticed is that the instruction/help box is stretched out so the shape doesn't look clean, this goes for anything else that isn't a square. To fix this try slicing your sprite and using the new UI system to make sure all of your edges are clean and flexible. Other random things I noticed are UI elements that don't do anything at a certain point in time (the arrows in the level select and you are all the way to one side or when the instructions are up and the rest of the UI is still visible) still look like you can press them. Again, if you are using the new UI system, try using the disable/interactable feature of the button to disable them or just hide them completely.

A less nitpicky thing is that the ads are really annoying. Having a fullscreen ad show up right after you beat a level every time is really annoying and discouraging to continue to play. Maybe try using banners rather than fullscreen ads or try using Unity Ads, I haven't used it myself but I have heard from others that it really is useful and looks better than most ad services.

My biggest problem with the game is the lack of clarity that some of the mechanics have. Most notably the hidden blocks and the clone mechanic. I have no idea what any of the buttons will effect just by looking at the level. If there are multiple green or red circles that I need to interact with I don't know which one I need to use. This is especially bad in the later levels when it isn't obvious which one goes with one block. The green blocks and the clone mechanic is really bad because there is absolutely no indication of where the block/extra player will show up. The worst offender is level 29 where I spend a long time just trying to figure out where each of the object would show up and how they relate to the other objects in the level. If there was some line to where the box/clone will show up that would make some of the puzzle a lot less tedious.

Again, overall it was a pleasant experience for the most part, but those last two things that I mentioned really bothered me when I was playing the game. But in the end it I have some fun playing it. Nice work.

 

Thanks for this detailed review, I really appreciate the time you took to play the game and post your thoughts about it.

I'll speed up the game a little bit so that you won't feel you're waiting too much time for the ball to rotate and fall and I'll work on improving the UI by making the UI buttons semi-transparent when you're going through a tutorial to show that the player can't use them at that time.

As for the ads, I'm using interstitial ads because banner ads will cover a required space in the game especially if I put the banner ad at the bottom of the screen. As for UnityAds, I'm currently using it on Android as a way to earn keys that unlock levels so that player can choose to watch those ads or not. But If I force them at the end of each game then a video ad will be more annoying than the interstitial one.

Would it be better for the player clone to be semi-transparent in the level till the player unlocks it? You will be able to know where the clone will spawn and it will become more clear. As for the green push button, I'm still not sure about how to make the block associated to it more clear for the player. I already made the blocks associated with the red push button flashing but I apply it to both types of blocks then it will remain confusing on the presence of both types of buttons. I'll figure something else.

Glad you had fun playing the game and thanks again for the review. It seems that some people find it extremely hard and others find it quite easy. I have few ideas about new levels but I'm kind of discouraged from the amount of downloads that the game has received from its release. Any suggestions on how to get better exposure?

 

Glad I could help! I guess I have played a lot of puzzle games so that has a major factor in difficulty.

At the time of writing that post, I wasn't too sure on how Unity Ads worked. I looked into it some more and studied on some of the best practices for ads as well. I might have been a bit misguided with the banner ad. My reasoning was that at the end of the level you could then show the banner ad during the results screen. But it sounds like those aren't the most effective ones out there. Maybe it is best to place an interstitial one after the player decides to go back to the menu/level select rather than after each level.

Having the player clone be semi-transparent definitely would help. But I understand your problem. I think that it would be best if you stayed consistent with the "invisible items" (the player clone and the hidden blocks) buy just having an outline of the sprite rather than a silhouette like you do with the red buttons. This way it is clear that the object doesn't exist because it isn't filled in but it still gives you an idea of where it exists. Though I really think that it is crucial to include some sort of line connecting each button to the effected object. That really will help out with the planning phase as you are providing all of the information up front.

As for getting exposure, I have to agree that I find it hard find an audience, especially on mobile platforms. While I am in no means an expert on the topic what I found is that social media really is a great way to gain exposure. After I did some research on how to best use social media and maintaining an online presence I noticed that I was getting a lot more views and interactions than I previously had. I also found a lot more enjoyment doing social media as well since I knew better practices.

Another thing that I know has helped other was actively seeking out reviewers to try out your game. Search for websites that review mobile games, Android games, Windows Phone games, basically if your game fits some part of the criteria for them to review it seek them out. I have tried this and while I didn't find anyone who wanted to review my game, the experience of writing up a summary for your game helps so when you do find a reviewer or someone who want to talk about your game you are prepared to answer questions.

 

The outline idea is brilliant. Thank you. As for linking the red/green button with their correspondent blocks, it will make the level very messy since there are quite a few levels that include 3+ of these buttons. However, how about showing this lining between the button and the block when the player taps on one of these buttons? I guess that's the best solution.

Thanks for marketing tips, I've already reached reviewers with my other two games but some of them asked money to cover my game while other didn't respond at all. However, I don't think that my other two games were as good and as polished as this one so I'm going to give it another try, who knows. I'll see what I can do about the ads.

Thanks again for your comments. I really appreciate it.

 

Check out Maze Slider on Slide DB:

 

I think that having the lines visible to the player before they touch the buttons is important, it would be busy work and inconvenient for the player to tap each individual button. Though you make a good point with it messing up the clean look of the game. Maybe you don't need to show the lines 100% of the time? The lines could pulse in and out slowly, long enough to show the connections but brief enough to not clutter the screen with a bunch of lines.

At any rate, I'm glad that the outline idea could work.

 

I'll see what I can do about the green buttons, thanks for the suggestions again!

 

It's been quite some time but the first update for Maze Slider is finally available on both Google Play and Windows Phone.

Update list:
- Disabled swapping the screen to move the ball when a tutorial is active.
- Fixed Level 22 perfect moves.
- The clone player object will be semi-transparent till it gets activated.
- Rotating blocks is now a lot faster.
- Fixed a bug when adding red and green buttons in the custom editor.
- Added text in each level that indicates your current moves count and perfect moves for that level.

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