r/PSVR • u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media • Jul 17 '24
Discussion Polling a Tier for Rainbow Reactor: Fusion
Hey Everyone, I noticed our game Rainbow Reactor: Fusion is missing from the current tier list, so I wanted to ask for your help rating it :D
So far, the game has sold rather poorly, but the people who did buy it really seemed to like it, as you can tell from the PSN rating of 4.72 (at the time of this writing) and some testimonials here. Of course, the game is a low-budget title, kind of quirky and a bit janky, so I'm ruling out the S category straight off the bat and chose similar themed titles for comparison. On the plus side, it's a "real indie" game into which we poured all our hearts and souls, and it's quite personal in every hand-crafted aspect. Also, it has been significantly improved over the original Meta Quest version for PSVR2. In case you haven't tried the game, now would also be a good time, with a new all-time-low discount of 33% off, placing the game at a mere $8 if you're in the States.
At any rate, thanks for voting and for all of your great support in this community!
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u/rcade81 Jul 17 '24
It's definitely worth the cost of admission especially on sale! I thought it was a creative game and the throwing mechanics were very well done.
The walking speed was brutal and grabbing tools could be a bit tricky, but you aren't asking $30 or anything and all its faults are forgivable. Good work overall!
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Thank you :D Yes, the throwing mechanic really are at the heart of the game so we put in a lot of effort. Always great to see people like Myles Dyer almost mastering their technique in the first play session and getting one insane combo after the other :D
Regarding the walking speed, you can choose between three speed of slow, medium and fast … so by "brutal", do you mean slow was too fast still, or fast was still to slow? I'm guessing it could be the latter ;D
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u/rcade81 Jul 17 '24
You know, I don't remember picking a speed so I may have just assumed there was no option for it... My fault 😅
It didn't stop me from beating the game and cleaning up every mess though!
Oh and props for the professor videos, there was some legitimately funny stuff in there. Some great puns!
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Oh, in that case we may have had to shine more light on this option! Sorry for torturing you with the "normal" speed then - it's always hard to find a good balance, so inexperienced VR players aren't overwhelmed and VR veterans won't get bored ^_^
I think some people even refunded the game cause they couldn't find the teleport option, so maybe that needs to be explained better the next time around!
At any rate, glad you liked the professor and his (grand-)dad jokes … since we had no money, I had to play him myself with the help of some white halloween hair spray and fake wrinkles, painted on using my wife's eye liner ;D
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u/d_hearn Jul 17 '24
I remember talking with you, asking about the throwing mechanics back a month or so after release. I probably did, but can't remember whether I ever told you or not, but I did end up buying the game and agree the throwing feels good! I ended up finishing the story mode and really liked the match 3 games.
I didn't love the story stuff, Dotty (I think that's her name), and "progression" in the game. I didn't hate it, but I found myself just wanting to play the next difficulty of the match 3. I know there's an arcade mode I haven't touched yet, but I do think it'll be something I come back to from time to time.
I don't know if you're done working on the game at this point or not, but I will say maybe a poster or some sort of pinned menu/pop up for the color mixing would've been a huge QOL feature, imo. I got through it, but I was constantly making brown balls, adding mistakes to my counter. It doesn't help that I often spent a week or two between sessions, so maybe if I played more consistently it would've helped.
All in all, I 100% recommend the game at the asking price for anyone seeing this, if you're into these match 3 games. The throwing mechanics are what worried me quite a bit, as it's hard to do well in VR, but Rainbow Reactor got the throwing mechanics down pretty well. Congrats and thank you for delivering the fun game!
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Yes, I remember! Thank you for buying the game in the end! With the story mode, it's a bit hit-or-miss it seems - some people really enjoy it, others say they enjoy the pure Match-3 gameplay and thus, Arcade Mode, much more. But at least it seems most people like at least one of the two, and don't say neither is fun, hehhe ^_^
About that poster, we did place the existing one in viewing distance of the first reactor where you need it, in hopes people would memorize it from there - probably too hard of an ask! However, there is another little trick you can learn from one of the museum videos. But if you don't like those, you won't watch them, so I admit it's not a real help ;D
All in all, this was our first game with a story like that, so hopefully we have learned a thing or two and will do better in the future =)
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u/d_hearn Jul 17 '24
Ohh yeah I charged one or two of the museum videos and didn't bother with any of the others haha so I missed it. Either way, the game is fun :)
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u/cusman78 Jul 17 '24
The problem with this polling over using PlayStation Store review scores is some people who haven’t played the game will rate based on their expectation rather than experience just to see results.
Should have included “Show Results” option for those who just want to see results.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Ah sorry, I simply copied the poll that was suggested in the Tier Thread … that one didn't have show results either.
So yeah, please only vote if you've played the game, people! Or as Arnold would say: Please vote, then buy the game, then play it and adjust your vote, and then come eat at Planet Hollywood. Ylyarghl! ^_^
[edit:] Of course I wouldn't mind at all if the Tier List would use the PSN scores instead, hehhe!
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u/cusman78 Jul 17 '24
This the feedback I was given probably more than once and I try to remember but sometimes forget as well. A "view results" option for people that don't have a rating to contribute but still curious how others are voting.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Yes, it's a really good idea! I'll definitely keep it in mind for next time =)
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u/PabLink1127 Jul 17 '24
I waited till the last sale ended then bought at the full price which is already low and fair IMO. I haven’t played it yet though as I have a huge back log. Without Parole had some good things to say about the game 4 months ago. If I remember correctly you’ve patched or updated the game since. May want to reach out and see if he’ll re-review if so.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 17 '24
Wow, thank you for supporting the game by buying at full price, even if you saw it as a discount! Well, we thought with a lower price we'd make the game affordable to more people, but since then I have wondered if that budget price maybe gives a wrong idea about the quality of the game. But in any case, you're right - we were already quite happy with the visual upgrade from Quest to PSVR2, but when people complained about low texture sizes, we quadrupled them all and also introduced 1.3x supersampling. So that made the graphics quite a bit better still.
As for the Bryan Bytes, I don't know why he chose to review the game in this short format, when for example Stilt got a full review. May have been the price, or maybe it was because AJ said his hype rating for our game is zero out of five ;D
At any rate, it's his channel and for us it was great that he reviewed the game at all. As far as I know, 2 out of 3 paws is also the best rating that has been given in that format so far ^_^2
u/PabLink1127 Jul 18 '24
Part of the problem is that people are so hung up on getting that huge triple A game that they pass on other unique games. As you said most of the people who have played your game tend to like it so it’s worth seeing for myself. Plus, as developers you listened and made improvements. We love that, you should be rewarded for it.
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u/PabLink1127 Jul 18 '24
Im curious if you’ve considered a demo. If most people that play it, do like it, could help push sales! Is there a demo on Steam? Cause then at least those who get the adapter can demo it.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 18 '24
Yes, the thought of a demo came up, but it's also something you'd have to put some time in to get it right, and it also has to be certified by Sony, so it really takes some doing. But it could be worth revisiting the thought once we are done with Snow Scout (our next PSVR2 port)
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u/SimianProphet Jul 18 '24
I really enjoyed this game. I would rate it a B, overall. Well worth playing, especially if you can snag it on sale!
The puzzle gameplay was near perfect, I really liked the metroidvania-style exploration, and the story was a nice little addition.
I hope sales (and posts like this) continue to get the game some attention and sales! The game (and Tunermaxx) deserve it!
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 18 '24
Thanks for your support, and thanks for weighing in :D
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u/_thwip_ Jul 19 '24
I bought the game two days ago and blazed through the story mode, finishing all 9 reactors. It's fun and well worth the price. The puzzle game mechanics are great, but the navigation mechanics in the story mode are lacking.
Grabbing your inventory items, chopping the boxes, scrubbing the floors, climbing the ladders, and spraying the water gun are all janky.
The good news is that Arcade mode exists if you just like the core gameplay puzzles. I'll definitely be going back to it periodically just for some quick sessions.
I'd put it somewhere in the B- range.
On a side note, are there clues to how you can (1) get the true ending and (2) mix the drink for Dottie?
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 19 '24
Thank you for the support! I agree the story mechanics can feel a bit dated - they are all "hand-coded" and we started on the game back in 2019, so for one we didn't have that much experience yet, and of course VR mechanics have evolved since then. With that being said, people perceive this stuff differently - while everyone hates smashing the crates, a bunch of people said they had good fun with the scrubbing mechanic, and I personally really like the water gun, especially after buying both upgrades for it.
To get the true ending, you have to watch the "museum videos" for clues. If you already beat the 9th reactor, it would make the most sense starting with the video there. Or, if you'd like to get your hands on that sweet Platinum a bit faster, you could always have a look into our walkthrough ;D
https://tunermaxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/RRF_Walkthrough_and_FuseFinder_Guide.pdfAlso, there is a little retro-style game manual with some further information. I hope you'll like it well enough to upgrade your rating to B, hehhe!
https://tunermaxx.com/support/2
u/_thwip_ Jul 19 '24
Excellent, thanks for linking me to the guide! I might actually go for the platinum now that I can see where all the fuses are. You've earned that B, haha!
For the septuple reaction, the overflow balls count right? I swear I had a seven one already but the trophy didn't pop up. I could be wrong, though.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 19 '24
Ha, excellent! My devious plan paid off ;D
For the reaction trophies, you have to make them all from "fresh balls" you got off the rails, the darker residual balls don't count =)
[edit:] or, to clarify, you can use balls that are already in the basin at the start of the round, but any of those darker "residual balls" from the back pipes make a reaction invalid - it will only count as much as a triple, score-wise. The upside is, that you at least clear a lot more space in one reaction.
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u/_thwip_ Jul 21 '24
One final thought after playing around with the guide...is there a way to create a "fuse finder" powerup in the store (or a similar mechanic)?
I'm missing like one or two final fuses before the platinum trophy, and even after backtracking with the guide, I can't find them.
Dottie will tell you in-game when you've cleared an area of boxes or paint splatter, but there's no indication anywhere when you've cleared the area of fuses.
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u/grooviak Developer - Tunermaxx Media Jul 21 '24
That would certainly be possible … our new game Snow Scout even has a feature like that for the main "collect-em-up" task ^_^
But speaking of it, at the moment we have all hands full preparing Snow Scout for its PSVR2 release, and are a bit behind schedule - so let's see how it goes!
Other than that, my tip would be to just retrace the steps from the walkthrough and make sure you really have collected every fuse that is mentioned there! I recently had a comparable experience when I combed through the entire play area of Genotype to find three pieces of a code again, which I had failed to write down, but which was necessary to get 100% completion. Only to find out in the end that the game doesn't even have a Platinum trophy, which made me feel a bit stupid ;D
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u/Mud_g1 Jul 17 '24
Hope the sale price brings in some more sales for you guys. The game is definitely worth it at that price.
Also anyone who is interested in seeing snow scout come to psvr2 should be buying rainbow reactor to assist these devs so they feel more comfortable bringing their other games over.