Hey Gang,

We and Proper Games are curious to get your direct feedback on what you might change or improve for FLOCK!, and would appreciate it if you could give us a tip or two... Please be constructive and detailed!

Thanks

-Kraig

I have a couple of suggestions to make:

(1) make a key to toggle the predator on or off. That way, those people who like playing "ARCADE" games can do their thing, and those of us who don't....can appreciate a true  "PUZZLE" game. Your own advertisements label this as a puzzle game, where you can "TAKE YOUR TIME", and , and find hidden items and power-ups". Now you tell me  how you can do this, when you have to watch your back and keep the animals from spreading out and getting picked off, even as you are trying desparately to group them back together again???!!!

(2) Don't short-change the people who buy your game....expecting a "ROBUST" editor, only to find that it has a lot of things still unlocked...even after all levels have been completed.

The above two things, indicate to me that you are advertising one thing and delivering quite another. (i.e. a "take your time" "PUZZLE" (not arcade) game and a robust editor(and I don't think that an incomplete one fits the bill.)

Apr 14, 2009 -- 4:42AM, Andrew J Smith wrote:

- just a quick note... if you have actually completed all levels in both singleplayer and co-op then you should have unlocked every element in the editor. I hope that's the case :)

IDEA: It would be nice if we could actually see what parts were locked and how to unlock them.

Possible bugs or unlock requirements aside (mostly, since the topic is for ideas)...

Perhaps add an editor/item graphic with a superimposed lock icon over it (like costume parts in Super Bomberman on the Xbox360) saying LOCKED underneath it when highlighted/selected and perhaps a hint function for reading what we need to do to unlock it when we try to use the locked part. Note: Super Bomberman seems to do unlocks at random when you find special items in the game, a different method than Flock! :P

Editing levels is where the fun is at for a lot of people. They can make what's fun for them and share it with the world. :) More info to assist with this goal can only improve the experience. :)

I would add though that requiring gamers to play co-op to unlock items might make a full unlock nigh impossible if they don't have anyone to co-op with...unless they can simply run the game in co-op mode and use only one UFO. :P

If the items to be unlocked are strictly for co-op style play, it would make sense to require co-op gameplay for the unlocking. But we wouldn't know this unless the game/editor told us. ;)

Edit (again): Hah! Co-op items for co-op play seems to be what I'm unlocking after completing the single player campaign (with locked editor items remaining)! :) Kudos to the developers for this sensible way of doing things (I didn't know, honest)! *cheers*  My new challenge will test my dexterity as I attempt to play through co-op by myself with a controller and a mouse. :P

So much to learn about Flock! (Flockology!?) :)

Apr 14, 2009 -- 7:12AM, Andrew J Smith wrote:

Funny you should mention that - if you scroll a long any of the toolsets enough, you'll come to a 'lock' icon. It will display in the info about the object how many items are left to unlock in that category.

It's this kinda thing that gets left out of 'how to play' dialogs I suppose, but at least now you know

Yes, this is what I see now. The lock and a note telling me how many items are still locked. It doesn't show me each item and it's locked status which is what my suggestion was heading toward (after much editing and rethinking). :p

The main goal of my idea...show us *what* we are missing instead of simply that we are missing and help us to learn how to gain it. :)

I apologize for the the massive/frequent editing of my posts/ideas, I keep having thoughts on how to refine them.

Yes, it's tough to find ways to improve an already very well done game. It's the little things, given time, that keep poking us in the rear that get our attention eventually. I haven't played a lot to really notice things but I've suggested some things that I feel would make Flock! even more awesome (some little things that I noticed due to my lack of knowledge)! :) If they aren't implemented, it's no biggie.

Online multi-player is almost always a plus in any co-op game! :) Add in VOIP (Xbox360 and Steam™ support voice comms, not sure about the PS3) and you're all set!

Aside from some bugs and issues (many with work-arounds until fixes are available), the game is very playable and fun as it is stands. I find it amazing that there are so many launch options that allow for these work-arounds! These guys plan ahead! I'll definitely add Proper Games to my watch list. :)