I have been using Unreal for a few years now and have been working on my first mobile game project in my spare time, It is a sewing game inspired by my girlfiend. I wanted to post some updates about it because I don’t get to show my games off to fellow creators often.
The premise is another endless runner for the mobile platform but instead of dodging obstacles the player lowers and raises a needle to sew parts of the track, it can be very satisfying once you get into the rhythm, the player can sew as much of a hole as they want for bonus points but if the needle ever touches the naked floor (like sewing past the are they are meant to sew) they lose a life, it means players can risk how many points they want to earn from each hole, obstacles to avoid such as button bugs and glu pots to slow you down are on the track as well to make it more intresting.
Let me know if you have any thoughts, hoping to finish up by the start of December. I keep trying to make this a small project in my part time but I enjoy adding to it x
I really really like this, and I can easily see potential for this to get quite popular on app stores. Make sure you pay extra attention to the UI/UX though; this is one of those games that will *flourish *with the right aesthetic.
Awww thank you, It’s my first mobile game and I feel unsure now and then if I will do well so this was a really big boost. Since your feedback I have been putting more time into the UI because I want the atmosphere to calm players down and make them feel welcome…part of the wholesome vibe and my UI was a bit out of place for that aha, you really helped thank you.
Getting closer to finishing the game, I’m trying to stay on track to finish early December but I keep doing more shifts and losing time on this project.
I have been focusing a lot more on the art and UI, Up to now the UI had been a quick demonstration but now it’s contributing to the themes I’m trying to achieve, I also threw in some sheep because they are hella cute.
Also I got a new phone this week because my last phone could not run with Unreal, my girlfriend who inspired me to do this project was very proud and understood the game straight away, the only issue I have is my phone doesn’t like the lighting in Unreal so the graphics are out of place. Least it all works though,
Here is my latest game footage:
The next few updates wont be as adventurous but hopefully it will be on the playstore soon.
Got busy doing a lot of hours at work but I got some play testing done now I can package the game to my phone. Sadly what I found was my brother and dad struggled to understand the game, my brother understood it and got a decent score but didn’t know why he was losing lives now and then meanwhile dad had a ‘try now think later approach’ and didn’t get very far.
It was a little frustrating as is most first play tests when people don’t understand it. Sew lovely is a very easy concept and only needs one button to play but the rules aren’t as straight forward and for a casual audience if they don’t get it they wont play it. I pushed my release back by a week to add better tutorial elements and make the game easier to understand for new players. I added some guidelines at the start and some info graphics explaining the game…I shouldn’t throw a wall of text at the player to explain a game but I couldn’t get a gif into unreal to help demonstrate and throwing some pictures at them is easy for them to grasp so I will have to test to see if testers understand it now.
Here is my latest video from youtube
I improved the art for some of the UI and decided to improve the hills, having 3 hills parallax over one another didn’t do the frames any favours so I gave them much prettier sprites and optomised the hills a lot.
I will be rushing to finish the game now because it would be great to have some reviews and a nice launch followed by everyone getting new phones on christmas morning for another wave of downloads but we will have to see. I enjoy this project and way of life at the moment because it’s flexible at work and there is no deadlines for my game projects.
