Eddie's Ouya Alpha Playtest

[Harry Sunderland]

Hi Matt,

I just played through the Alpha on Ouya and a few notes:

1.) The game looks freaking awesome on a huge TV and coming from stereo speakers. My wife and I were terrified killing all the lights in the apartment. I forgot how amazing the art was for this game, so it was nice to relive it on a 60 inch plasma.

I encountered a few issues while I was playing. I'm not sure which of these are related to your game, and which are related to Ouya's Beta test of external storage.

That being said:

Earlier this week, I downloaded NN and saved it to my 64 GB USB stick I use for external storage on my Ouya. Tonight, I activated my Ouya download code to enable NN Alpha. However, I didn't have my USB flash drive in when I activated. Therefore, I was forced to re-download NN after I activated (a minor inconvience, but worth nothing).

Initially, I was playing Ouya using a PS3 dual shock controller (btw, nice touch making the on screen buttons reflect the control being used to play ). I immediately booted up the run demo, and everything worked fine.

However,

2.) I then switched the TV to Xbox to watch tv while I ate dinner. When I returned to Ouya, it wasn't letting me boot up the Run-Alpha of NN. I got to the screen that told me I needed to buy it, and I hit the 'X' key to purchase, but for some reason this wasn't registering anything. Instead of wrestling with Ouya, I instead tried to play the original Non-Run demo. The whole thing played perfectly without a hitch, except one small exception.

3.) At one point, I was playing and my PS3 controller shut off (battery death? I'm not sure...). I had the Ouya controller also Sync'd to the console at this point (as Player 2), and when I turned the PS3 controller back on, the game was still only accepting input from the Ouya controller (despite the fact the PS3 controller was on and Sync'd ).

Other than these issues, the game ran perfectly.

4.) Now, I tried putting my console into sleep mode and booting it back up to try to play the Run-Alpha. At this point, the game was still telling me I needed to buy Alpha, and when I hit the 'O' button to buy (mind you I've switched from the PS3 controller to the Ouya controller at this point), I was taken to a pure black screen.

So basically, I just did a hard shut-down of my Ouya and re-booted. Once I did this, I was once against asked to buy Alpha, but once I hit the 'O' button to purchase, it took me directly to the game (which was good, as I had re-deemed a code and should not need to purchase).

5.) The very first thing I did in game was begin running. I held down run and ran through the bedroom door on the Ouya controller. Only after this, the main character would never STOP running. I tried hitting R-Trigger to toggle off, but the game was forcing me to auto-run everywhere (which was quite cumbersome since I kept getting out of breath in-game :p).

I wondered if maybe this was a classic Ouya controller input issue, so I turned off the controller. When I did so, I couldn't get the controller to re-sync with the console (I personally think this was the Ouya's problem, not your games ). So, I switched to the PS3 controller, which again worked without a hitch.

6.) Playing through with the PS3 controller, I found that I could just hold-release-hold-release the run button to effectively have infinite run. While I didn't mind, as it was quite fun running through your haunted mansion, I think this was not as you'd intended.

7.) There were some crazy animations when I was running, like my hands would glitch and become disembodied, and the candle/axe would lag behind me as I ran, and float in the air. Maybe you were going for a Disney's Haunted Mansion like feel, but I have a feeling you're aware of these animation glitches.

Overall, the experience was awesome on Ouya, and I think it's going to be my default platform once the full version releases.

Thanks for keeping us updated Matt. If you want me to help you try anything on Ouya out, let me know. I know not many people have them, and I'm very willing to give feedback!

[matt]

Hmmm... That is a lot of issues!

Point 2 - I'm not sure about this. Was the problem that it didn't register that you entered your key or that it didn't respond to the buy button?

Point 3 - This is a difficult one. This is one of the TRC things that console manufacturers are really anal about. I think the way our input system works is that the first controller is the one we take input from. If that goes away, it goes to the next controller, and I don't think it will leave that controller until it is disconnected... I'm not sure if we can identify whether the same controller is connected after it was disconnected... The Android input stuff is a complete mess... :-/

Point 4 - Hmmm.. Maybe that is the same issue as point 2? I've actually never tested with vouchers. I wonder if it takes longer to validate or something?

Point 5 - I'd like to blame the Ouya controller, but that may be because I'm lazy. I'll be on the look out for any dropped inputs, but in my own experience, I've had these only with the Ouya controller and with pretty much every game. (This was when my Ouya was next to my wireless router, which made the controller pretty much unusable...)

Point 6 - I may tweak the run parameters, but I am okay with gaming if you really want to. At that point, you aren't moving through the world much faster than walking. Once there are enemies in the game, you'll have to make sure your stamina is full, so you can flee from the enemy.

Point 7 - The run animations are prototype. We didn't want to spend too much time on the animations until I was convinced we wanted the run in the game. I'm convinced, so we are working on improving the animations.

Thank you for your feedback! I really appreciate it. I'll be on the look out for these Ouya issues.

[Harry Sunderland]

Point 2 - I'm not sure about this. Was the problem that it didn't register that you entered your key or that it didn't respond to the buy button?

The issue was it wasn't responding to the buy button at all. Pressing "Buy" wasn't asking me to re-buy the game...it was not doing anything at all.

Point 4 - Hmmm.. Maybe that is the same issue as point 2? I've actually never tested with vouchers. I wonder if it takes longer to validate or something?

I have a feeling I won't encounter this issue again (and it might be something on Ouya's side, as I've had other games that I've purchased the full version before "forget" that I've bought them too, only to fix the probably upon a console-reboot.)

I'll let you know if it becomes a persistent problem.

Point 5 - I'd like to blame the Ouya controller, but that may be because I'm lazy. I'll be on the look out for any dropped inputs, but in my own experience, I've had these only with the Ouya controller and with pretty much every game. (This was when my Ouya was next to my wireless router, which made the controller pretty much unusable...)

Once I switched back to using PS3, this issue stopped occurring, so you're probably right. However I just wanted to bring it to your attention, in case there was some work-around on your end.

Once there are enemies in the game, you'll have to make sure your stamina is full, so you can flee from the enemy.

Ah, game balance as a way to counter this exploit...I like it .

Thanks for responding Matt! On the whole, the game was awesome to play on Ouya, minus these little issues.

[matt]

They do sound like an Ouya store issue. We just call the buy function when you press the button, so it doesn't seem like it could be on our fault. If you encounter any more weirdness, let me know!

I'm glad you enjoyed the game!