Hi all, I’ve created a demo for my upcoming mobile game, Contagion Z. It’s basically the full game, but with a level cap of 20. Currently, it’s only for Android, but I’ll be releasing it for iOS, and eventually desktop as well. If you try it out, please let me know what you think. I don’t have anyone to beta test, so any feedback you have is important to me.
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Can you post an online version? I don’t think many people will download the apk. You can post both the link and the apk.
Click the share button and choose “gd.games” and generate a link to the game.
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I went ahead and created the online version and swapped the link. Thanks for the heads up!
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I love the look and the concept but it seems to go on forever. It’s a bit like a perpetual motion machine.
IDK if it would still work if you increased the movement speed. I know sometimes an object can move so fast that it skips over other objects. There’s probably a limit. It would be nice to have a button that would fast forward the action for those who might be impatient.
Maybe after so many interactions the nodes or the balls on them could stop responding or break or die off. Maybe they can grow back or reappear before the next round. Or maybe they just keep breaking off. IDK. I’m just trying to think of a way to shorten the rounds unless your concept is for long rounds. Which would be fine. It might not be a game for me but I’m sure others would like it.
I love the concept. It just doesn’t seem to end. Maybe if the board was smaller or broken up into connected areas. Or maybe add a time limit or target score. Or maybe the player needs to be able to do something while the cogs or viruses are colliding. I don’t know what. Maybe every so often a cure like a white blood cell could be randomly released. That would stop cogs from spinning or maybe just change their color back to blue. The player could click or shoot them to prevent them from turning the cogs back to blue. Again, just ideas. Thinking out loud.
IDK. I’m just saying what comes to my mind. Use it, don’t use it. It’s totally up to your vision. All good. I might be seeing it one way and you might be seeing it in another.
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Thanks for the feedback, Keith. I’ve lowered the rotation tween from .7 sec to .5 secs, increasing the rotation speed almost 30%. If I go any faster, it’ll break the scoring due to skipping collision masks. I had thought about adding a button to speed it up, but we get back to the issue of skipping collision masks.
You mentioned needing a target score. The target score for the first round is 80,000,000, then an additional 80,000,000 for each new level. You can track your progress getting to the next level using the mutation meter in the top-right.
The goal is to get to level 100, at which point the virus will have increased enough in strength and efficiency to hit 8,000,000,000 (roughly the current population of Earth).
I’ll think about your ideas. Maybe there’s a new factor I can throw in. I’d like for the nodes to change color in phases instead of immediately from blue to red, but I had trouble making it work before. I know a lot more now, so I’m going to look at that again.
Here’s the demo with the faster speed. I also added an option to mute the sound.
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Yeah, collision testing can be tricky. I wonder if there’s another way to calculate it without using collisions. If I think of anything I’ll let you know.
I’ll take a look at the latest version.
Fixed a couple of bugs and fine-tuned the color change.
Hi again Nicronon
This feedback is for the most recent update, I didn’t play the others.
The color change in phases is really nice, well done.
For the version I played, once the virus ended, nothing happened. I was expecting some kind of info to say game over/try again etc. Or some kind of signal like some visual cloud of disappointment from the virus or something.
I have the same feedback as in your other thread that there are so many nodes that strategising where to start feels impossible. So for one single random click, it’s a lot of waiting around to the finish. I forgot to say this in the other thread, have you considered having a percentage display of how much is infected? For me, it would be more meaningful than huge numbers and would be a greater incentive to reach the magic 100.
Also, maybe just a current version bug but when I clicked the ? button the blue border disappeared but there was no info displayed.
Hi Bubble, thanks for the feedback. You mentioned “a percentage display of how much is infected”, that’s in the top-right corner as the mutation meter. It shows your progress toward the next level, and the meter in the top-left shows your progress toward the end of the game.
When you click the “Z” in the bottom-right corner, that enables Zen Mode, which hides most of the interface. Is that what you were referring to when the blue border disappeared?
Here is the latest (and likely last) version of my game. I may add features in the future, but this will likely be what I launch in a few days.
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Well, I thought I was done, but apparently not. I added zombie sounds and explosions, hehe.
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Hi Nicronon, the zombie sounds and explosions are great. Although the zombie sounds continued after the infections/level ended.
Yes haha, you’re right, the how to play is in the menu and it was a Z, not a ? mark that I clicked on.
About percentages, I mean say there are 500 humans in each map, well if half of them were infected then a display would say 50% infected. But that’s just how my mind works and I realise it may not make sense for the game.
It’s a really nice result, lots of menu options etc, great job!
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Thanks, Bubble! I’ve tweaked the sounds a bit to make them stop and start when appropriate (like when going in and out of menus). I also staggered the sounds so it’s kind of a progression, with the horde first, then zombies eating, then explosions. I still continue the sounds after the level ends unless you either hit the menu button, hit the submit button, or get to the next level. I feel like the zombies haven’t gone anywhere until you start the next level, hehe.
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I made some significant changes to the visuals. I think this is the last version. I’m so freakin’ happy with it now.
And I’ve got my Google Play dev profile page up now.
I’m just getting the ads set up, then I’ll publish.
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I like this game. It leaves me very satisfied just watching the infection go around (which may sound strange now…).
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