Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Johnson
Namco keeps telling me that they will have a bill acceptor installed "today" but days turn to weeks and still nothing.
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We saw a few sales disappear to the games around it that took dollars. The kids were confused that it didn't have one and quickly lost interest. When we told them there was a change machine clear across the bar, a few of them gave it a shot.
I watched a father play with his two sons (probably 6-8 years old). It brought forth a few "issues" that may help you iron some things out. The first issue was that it was confusing how to start a single player game. The kid was mashing buttons while the dad was inserting quarters and all of a sudden they were blue when they wanted to be red. The second was that the kid was mashing the arm button and wasn't getting a full lift. Once we told them that's how it worked he was able to get the hang of it. The third was that the kid expected it to drive arcade style and didn't know there were turn buttons until we told them and the dad helped out. From watching this it was pretty obvious that kids expect the machine to react like things they're familiar with.
It definitely took a round to get used to the controls. We were talking and a 15 second warm up/tutorial period (optional for advanced players?) might help that out. One idea that was presented was to isolate the robots on their sides of the field during this period.
Another thing that is needed is autonomous movement during the attract mode. A lot of people walked by and casually looked at it. You may draw more attention if robots are moving around. Maybe fighting. Maybe dancing. Maybe just driving. Something to catch the eye. Thinking about it now, maybe you could show control instructions on the screen and have the robots act them out.
All in all, I think you guys have a pretty good game there. We definitely had a lot of fun playing it. It was fun to think about all that went into a simple looking game that most people wouldn't even consider.