Mortar Melon - Web/Desert Beta - Need testers!

Hi All,

As we're getting ready to roll out a major content update, we thought we'd put up a web beta so those of you without Windows 8 get a chance to play, and we can hopefully catch any issues before we go live.

This update contains a new world theme, 24 new levels, multiple mortars and smashable stuff, plus zooming and panning.

This will be taken down when the Windows 8 version goes live!

<font size="5"><strike>Play Mortar Melon Web Beta!</strike> Web build is now offline - thanks to everyone who tested! You can play the update on Windows 8 here: Mortar Melon</font>

Please try and break the game and let us know where you got bored or lost interest.

More info about Mortar Melon since launch:

• Over 300,000 downloads on Windows 8.
• 4-star average user rating.
• Top #5 free game and featured in many countries.
• Recently picked up by a big mobile publisher for multiple platforms.
• Featured in numerous high profile publications including Develop Magazine (print) and PocketGamer.
• 1st-place in the Scirra competition and 2nd-place in the Power-up awards.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know! All feedback welcome!

Thanks again to Ashley again for implementing some of my suggestions, making this next release possible!

Concept:

I really like it, it's a peaceful game, but you still have to interact with it, it is simple to understand too

Controls:

I found the mouse controlling somehow.. strange, I don't know how to describe it, It felt kinda unrealistic when I played, it seems the reference point is the spot where I clicked, and It fell strange in my opinion, but I can't say by myself If it is good or not, more people should try it first

but still, the game is enjoyable, and I hope it will improve

Thanks — We've had a few people mention that the mouse controls feel strange to them on Windows 8. Any idea specifically? Maybe some visual indicator like a line would help?

Comments:

Level 5

<img src="http://blackhornettechnologies.com/Construct2Stuff/MM/PleaseMakeTheMelonStopB-5.png" border="0" />

I sat there for five minutes waiting for the melon to stop rolling and reset (think Angry Birds). It wasn't obvious to a newcomer that we need to click the locks. I know they have little stars coming out of them, but that wasn't enough of a hint for me to realize that that meant they can be interacted with. I saw you had an angle-hint later on when I couldn't get the angle right. Maybe something similar if there is no interaction on that first screen that presents locks. A simple hand-pointer bouncing at the lock would be all that is needed to give that subtle hint.

Level-15

<img src="http://blackhornettechnologies.com/Construct2Stuff/MM/PleaseMakeTheMelonDropB-15.png" border="0" />

I'm actually stuck here. The trap door gets stuck on the banana-bubble. I've tried three times in a row, and it always gets stuck.

Thanks — We've had a few people mention that the mouse controls feel strange to them on Windows 8. Any idea specifically? Maybe some visual indicator like a line would help?

an indicator could help a lot, not a full indicator though, but a simple line to see the tangent to the trajectory, yes, It will help

Also, as I stated, the distance center_pot/Cursor_position don't seems to be used to make the trajectory, it seems more like the position at the beginning of the clic instead of the center, It is how I feel anyway

blackhornet excellent, thanks for the feedback. You can actually tap the bubbles too, so looks like we need to tutorial both those things! Are you getting the mouse cursor change when you hover over?

Aphrodite it is indeed the start click position, I'll definitely look into that - thanks!

amazing game

Hey it's neat to try finally try this one without the need of W8

Now here are my rants:

-same mouse issues as others

-my pc is kinda low spec so I had to resize the frame for decent fps,

but the resizing worked pretty well

-you could eventually replace the planks at the end for the new levels,

because they don't fit the desert as well as the forest

(maybe a more exotic victory sound too)

-in the desert the melon can have some weird fast bounces before it stabilizes into another jar

-with the desert jars also, sometimes the pointer gets stuck in "hand" mode or has no effect the second time with the same jar, unless I click another jar then go back to this one (I may play more later to detail this one...)

Really cool game anyway,

I wouldn't have stopped playing all the level I didn't have to go now :p

Nice, I finally get to play this! Crits mostly as they come up:

• Crashes safari on my ipad 3 when I try to start a level.
• Looks great, art and design all look clean and coordinated.
• I wasn't sure what to do about the locks at first either.
• I didn't realize I could tap the floating fruit until level 13.
• I put the melon up through the rotating parts on level 17, and the lock on that level gets stuck when it opens if I do that. I eventually skipped it and tossed the melon directly into the basket, but I thought the game was broken for a moment and I couldn't progress because of it. Didn't know I could skip levels at that point either. Looking back, it was the floating fruit that had gotten in the way and it didn't occur to me that I could pop the bubbles that the fruit were in to get it to get them out of the way.
• Level 18 seemed a lot more difficult than the ones before it, felt like it was mainly luck rather than skill that was needed to win that one. Didn't feel like there was enough precision with aiming to really pick a spot right ? the previous trajectory is shown, but the aiming sprite is hard to tell exactly what trajectory you're going to get and what speed in comparison to the previous shot. Kind of felt like quitting during that level. Had to retry it quite a few times. Maybe in addition to leaving dots for the trajectory, you could leave a sprite showing the previous location of the aiming sprite to help with comparing to the previous shot?
• At least on my PC, with the browser window as a window and not maximized or full-screen (in chrome on PC), I would need to drag the mouse down off the edge of the window to get the maximum thrust upwards for launching.
• No way to zoom when playing with a mouse (not sure if it matters, if you're only targeting touch devices)?
• I think the level that introduces the breaking blocks should be later, at first I like the idea, then ended up disliking it by the end of the level because I tried over and over again and kept on missing getting the melon into the basket at the end, and I would have to re-break the blocks again and again to try again to get the melon into the basket.
• I shot directly through one of the other cannons I was shooting to once and off the edge of the level.
• There were multiple times when I would've liked to be able to cancel a launch ? I tried to do it by dragging the aiming sprite back into the pot, but it just launched it anyway.
• Most of the way through level 37, had another issue of it shooting through a pot and not catching it, and stopped playing there. I feel like coming back to it later though.

All and all, fun and looks great!

Same as Arima, game loads but when i try to select a level it crashes Safari. It's not the first game to do this so probably nothing you can do unfortunately.

Thanks for the amazing feedback everyone - I'm making changes based on it now.

Arima

o way to zoom when playing with a mouse

Does the mouse scroll wheel not work for you? You can only zoom on larger levels, as the layout boundaries signify a dead zone for the melon.

ost of the way through level 37, had another issue of it shooting through a pot and not catching it, and stopped playing there.

Any chance you can identify the pot in question?

lemo

ou could eventually replace the planks at the end for the new levels,

because they don't fit the desert as well as the forest

Do you mean the planks on the screen that slides down at the end of the level?

Thanks again everyone, this has been super useful already!

Yep that's the planks I'm talking about

I was thinking bamboo instead like in the levels

Or just the same sprite with a yellow-ish tint

I'd like to see a few more tween frames as the melon disforms.

Screenshots of this game, always make me want a smoothie...

I've noticed that if you go to the desert level and then back to the forest level, the desert music keeps playing.

Edit:

Not sure if this is possible, but is there a way you can cancel the firing of the melon. That is, if your finger goes offscreen, the shot is cancelled.

Sometimes, I was preparing my shot, then realized I needed to zoom out.

Zero6 Thanks, we've just picked that up, trying to solve it now!

Hmm finger offscreen cancelling is a good idea. I'll test it out. Cancelling the shot seems like a common request so we'll definitely look at that.