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In Dillo Hills, you play a tiny armadillo whose biggest dream is to fly through the air like a bird. But without any wings, you'll have to improvise! Curl up into a ball and roll along hills to build up speed, then take to the sky and soar!
Dillo Hills features fast-paced physics, a beautiful ever-changing environment, challenging obstacles, and four lovable characters who all dream of reaching the sky! The game is simple to learn, but only the best and the bravest will explore distant lands and dominate the scoreboard!
Dillo Hills will be coming to the Android Marketplace the moment we feel that it is polished and ready to share with the world. After an initial release for the Android market, the game may also be made available for iOS and Blackberry mobile devices.
We are currently in the process of playtesting, and the game's final development hinges on your feedback! We are currently accepting applications for beta test users. We are looking for users with the following qualifications:
Over the age of 18 in the United States, or over the legal age of majority elsewhere.
Access to one or more AIR-capable Android devices
Able to provide honest, useful criticism and feedback - we're not looking for a pat on the back, but useful critique!
Enough free time to participate in extensive testing over the next couple of days
Any skill level, no experience with similar games required
Anyone who is interested in testing should send me a private message with the following information:
I will continue to update this thread with more information about the development of the game, and as soon as we have settled upon an official release date, it will be posted here. Until then, here's a sneak peek!
Last edited by fex; March 21st, 2011 at 08:52 AM.
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well done on the video Fex. Can definitely see that you and your team have come a long way on it. Can't wait to play it. I'll be PMing you shortly.
Once I play the game I may become used to the sound of the Diamonds but it was def a sound I didnt care for. Everything else looked like itd be a lot of fun!
Last edited by Sarrith; March 20th, 2011 at 12:04 AM.
Does hitting the birds flying help you or hurt you? In the beginning of the youtube video it looks like it slows you down but then on the next island it looks like it speeds you up. I see it gives you like 1000+ pts. just curious
Looking at the pics i see it raining. Does that make it easier or harder or just for effects?
Last edited by Sarrith; March 20th, 2011 at 02:00 AM.
I have to apologise for my tone in that YouTube comment, I honestly felt as though we were being attacked for taking too long to develop Pilot Winds (and I'm still not sure why.)
We have never felt any animosity towards Dillo Hills. The only thing that bothered us was being told we had ripped off, or cloned, Tiny Wings. The truth is that the two games have been in development simultaneously.
However Dillo Hills looks like a fantastic game with a very bright and fun art direction. I really do hope it does well.
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So what do you feel about this comment from the Dillo Hills developers: Tiny wings equivelant?
What do you feel about the comments left on your website?
I'm just confused. The comment on our website just appeared out of the blue, and to be honest it made us feel a bit defensive. We have put a lot of love into Pilot Winds and could not understand why we were being confronted about an issue that we thought to be largely irrelevant (development time).
I will restate, regardless of who developed it or what they have said, Dillo Hills looks genuinely impressive, fun, and I hope it does well.
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ok im just gonna say, this will all be deleted tomorrow when a moderator gets on.
I saw your discussion on your youtube video with "vasted couth". So because someone went on there and bashed pilot winds and praised dillo hills, you presumed it was someone here?
The numbers have come and Android has surpassed IOS. Ref: Android becoming U.S.'s most popular OS and many more sites, just google. How many people do you think already know about dillo hills? As soon as it was posted on this site of just the mention of a Tiny Wings game app for android it was all over google in <2 hours. Lets face it your game was compared to Tiny Wings because it isnt your game that IS beating Angry Birds in the IOS sales. That isnt saying your game isnt good, that isnt saying your game didnt take long to make. Thats saying you are being compared to Tiny Wings because it is the new hit game for the type of phone. Now as I sit here on my android phone, I have gone to the marketplace and searched for "pilot winds" and came up with nothing. So please go render your game for android devices and we shall give it a try when it comes. Right now, this thread, its for dillo hills and we'd appreciate it if we can get back to it.
PS: Tiny Wings Equivalent thread, almost 11,000 views on this site alone. thats awesome
Last edited by Sarrith; March 20th, 2011 at 02:22 AM.
ok im just gonna say, this will all be deleted tomorrow when a moderator gets on.
I saw your discussion on your youtube video with "vasted couth". So because someone went on there and bashed pilot winds and praised dillo hills, you presumed it was someone here?
Hi Sarrith
I came here to apologise for making that comment, to apologise for the presumption to which you refer, and to state that Dillo Hills looks like a very fun and exciting game. I certainly don't want to derail this thread! Let's just go back to discussing Dillo Hills?
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Hi fex and TwoLivesLeft and greetings forum members.
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It's unfortunate when zeal of some crosses the boundaries as set forth in our posting guidelines, links in my sig, so you'll note some posts are removed.
In future, we at Android Forums wish both devs the great success you deserve.
Should there be any present or future issues regarding polite treatment, please do not hesitate to use the !Report button, handily found next to each post (it's our hotline), or freely private message me for personal assistance.
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Fex due to me not having access to printer and scanner im unable to send you the form.
About the gameplay from the video.
It looks great but some sounds are annoying.
1. Sound of dimonds is quite hard to stand I think it should be something like those Japanese wind chimes you hang on doors or windows
2. At the end of an island when you spin/roll armadillo maybe something like a sound of saw spin (similar to sonic the hedgehog but bit more agressive?) I don't know what other animal you used but I think there is a turtle so for him I'd use like a rolling tree/wood? Sound that is quite often used in cartoons
3. Energy bar, in my opinion recharge amount after passing and islands is to high. I think that after a perfect landing there should be a small recharge and less after passing an island.
4. Don't know if it's me being colour blind but I could not see any difference between the islands.
It's all I could spot from the video you posted.
5. Quite a lot of kids are going to play this game and I think that when animals energy is depleted there should be different animation on how the pet stops. Cos right now it looks like it's dying
A part from that game looks fantastic ;-)
Last edited by Firewire; March 20th, 2011 at 02:47 AM.
What are your thoughts on Fex taking your bounce mechanic and putting it into Dillo Hills?
I feel that the bounce mechanic really improves the flow of this style of game - it stops those game-ending crashes that you sometimes feel helpless to avoid.
We came up with this mechanic ourselves, and so are flattered that it's being put into Dillo Hills. It will make it more fun, I think. We often use game mechanics we see in other games, too. And we are currently working on more fun mechanics for Pilot Winds.
Thanks so much to the mods for cleaning things up. Silly bickering doesn't make either one of our games look awesome.
Also, TwoLivesLeft - I just checked out your site to see what comments you were talking about, and it seems you're referring to comments left by someone named "Jabal Kahill"? Someone has also misattributed those comments to me on their Twitter account, and I just want to make it very clear that I am not Jabal Kahill. I'm Justin Smith (and while we're at it, the two other developers are Jason and John).
Either way, before this whole thing turns into something much worse, I'd just like to officially point out that nobody on the Dillo Hills development team has any qualms or problems with Pilot Winds at all. It looks like a fun game, and it's neat to see how another team has taken the concept in a different direction.
I haven't had the chance to play it yet, but how does your bounce mechanic work? I haven't heard anything about it until now.
EDIT: Just looked it up. I'm not sure where Versitility is getting his information, but Dillo Hills does not have any sort of bounce mechanic involved. It would be awfully awkward if our armadillo could bend the entire landscape!
Last edited by fex; March 20th, 2011 at 03:06 AM.
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About the gameplay from the video.
It looks great but some sounds are annoying.
1. Sound of diamonds is quite hard to stand I think it should be something like those Japanese wind chimes you hang on doors or windows
2. At the end of an island when you spin/roll armadillo maybe something like a sound of saw spin (similar to sonic the hedgehog but bit more agressive?) I don't know what other animal you used but I think there is a turtle so for him I'd use like a rolling tree/wood? Sound that is quite often used in cartoons 3. Energy bar, in my opinion recharge amount after passing and islands is to high. I think that after a perfect landing there should be a small recharge and less after passing an island.
4. Don't know if it's me being colour blind but I could not see any difference between the islands.
Yea as I said earlier the sounds of the diamonds are pretty rough. I also dont think they should drown out the music or other sounds...they seem a bit loud.
I like that idea of sonic...if you are spinning, go with it lol
Energy bar looks like it goes up 1/3 of the way. I think thats good and I like the idea of perfect landings getting a tiny bit of energy.
haha I didnt see much of a difference in islands either. I dont think they were going for the different ground colours but different trees and background images. :P
Last edited by Roze; March 20th, 2011 at 11:25 PM.
Thanks so much to the mods for cleaning things up. Silly bickering doesn't make either one of our games look awesome.
Also, TwoLivesLeft - I just checked out your site to see what comments you were talking about, and it seems you're referring to comments left by someone named "Jabal Kahill"? You also misattributed those comments to me on your Twitter account, and I just want to make it very clear that I am not Jabal Kahill.
Thank you for clearing that up. I was indeed under the impression that Jabal Kahill was one of the developers of Dillo Hills. I'm glad that he's not!
I'm not sure about the comments on my Twitter account that you are referring to - do you mean Simeon Nasilowski (TwoLivesLeft) on Twitter ? If so, please rest assured that I haven't tweeted anything from my account that attributes those comments to you.
Regarding our bounce mechanic: we give the player a very small window of time to tap the screen to make their character bounce back up into the air - just before they hit a slope. This lets the player avoid those helpless "crash into the side of a hill" scenarios and allows them to preserve their combos. We find it works really well.
I'm not sure about the comments on my Twitter account that you are referring to - do you mean Simeon Nasilowski (TwoLivesLeft) on Twitter ? If so, please rest assured that I haven't tweeted anything from my account that attributes those comments to you.
Ah, no, sorry, the account I found was Invictus1All (EDIT: it appears that this account has been deleted, thank goodness), who is attributing all of Jamal's quotes to me, and forwarding those misattributed quotes to @PocketGamer. This is obviously not a good thing, and I'll see if I can contact whoever that person is. I'm beginning to think there may be rotten apples in both of our fanbases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwoLivesLeft
Regarding our bounce mechanic: we give the player a very small window of time to tap the screen to make their character bounce back up into the air - just before they hit a slope. This lets the player avoid those helpless "crash into the side of a hill" scenarios and allows them to preserve their combos. We find it works really well.
Ah, cool stuff, that makes sense. Just to correct the misinformation provided by Versitility, Dillo Hills does not have any sort of bounce mechanic - but it sounds like fun!
Last edited by fex; March 21st, 2011 at 09:33 AM.
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haha I didnt see much of a difference in islands either. I dont think they were going for the different ground colours but different trees and background images. :P
Our artist is currently in the process of revamping all of our landscape textures - we plan to have a decent variety of both landscape textures and foliage to give every zone its own charming appeal.
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Ah, I hadn't seen those comments, thanks for making me aware of them.
I must apologize on behalf of Dylan. However, while it doesn't excuse those comments, it does seem like whoever it was that posted the initial comment was looking for an inflammatory reaction.
This isn't the wild west. Everyone that signed up here agreed to follow our rules, as I stated previously.
The devs are free to discuss pertinent issues among themselves until the cows come home.
The rest of you may discuss the games politely with the devs.
Anyone stirring up trouble or attack people instead of the issue is up for mod wrath.
The issue here is the game called Dillo Hills.
And further lack of courtesy will be regrettable.
And devs, your fan bases may not be too out of control - it seems we've had one malcontent who has been the subject of serial bans here, and creating sock puppets to avoid the bans.
He won't be back any time soon.
I can't wait to see how this thread goes...
Last edited by EarlyMon; March 20th, 2011 at 09:25 AM.
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That said, I am here now and am interested to talk with both developers about these games.
I don't see what the big deal is. They are three different games (Tiny Wings, Pilot Winds and Dillo Hills) with similar gameplay. The only thing relevent here is Dillo Hills since it is the only one in development on the Android OS. Although there have been cases of 100% copy right infringed games, that is not the case here. Developers on other platforms, such as iOS complaining about "clones" being made, particularly on Android, is laughable when they say they have no plans or intentions of porting their game directly (not to say any of the developers here guilty of that).
Here is a good example:
Quote:
Originally Posted by fex
I just wanted to stop by and let you know that since Andreas isn't planning on making a port to Android, I've actually decided to work on my own game inspired by Tiny Wings.
Games inspired by others and games that are cloned are two different things. I do give credit to Fex from the get go coming out and saying that his game was inspired by another.
I'd like to see all three on the platform, but as they are not all of the arguments here have been pretty rediculous, thankfully we have active mods though.
__________________ "The only easy day was yesterday! Hooyah!"
Last edited by Vanquished; March 20th, 2011 at 09:42 AM.
This looks awesome! Can't wait! I'd be willing to beta test, but I don't have access to a printer or a scanner right now so I'll just wait for the release.
And devs, your fan bases may not be too out of control - it seems we've had one malcontent who has been the subject of serial bans here, and creating sock puppets to avoid the bans.
He won't be back any time soon.
I was beginning to think that maybe it really was just one guy stirring up all this trouble. I'm not so sure he isn't still doing it: these latest posts from "AndreasIlliger" and "Nathan McCoy" are both awfully suspicious.
I find it highly unlikely that the real Andreas Illiger would refer to our artwork as a "Chinese factory", and even less likely that Microsoft would send a blanket C&D to four unnamed developers over a web forum. ;D
Clearly, someone is having too much fun trolling.
Last edited by fex; March 20th, 2011 at 08:56 AM.
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Didn't even have to google that Jerry Orbach played Det. Lenny Briscoe on Law & Order - we watch the reruns from time to time.
Lenny was our favorite.
Mod staff is available to play whack-a-troll, 24/7.
I guess some people are just in love with getting their home IP addresses blacklisted across the entire internet. Takes just a little time for that to ripple through...
Last edited by EarlyMon; March 20th, 2011 at 09:19 AM.
haha I go to sleep for a few hours and look what I miss out on. can we get back to the topic of this thread please . Have you started sending out the betas?
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Fex, no beta for me since I'd rather enjoy a finished polished version. The latest videos and screenshots look extremely promising and fun. Can't wait!!
The first wave of beta APKs is going out before lunch - if you don't make the first round, hang in there: the testing groups will get larger as we get closer to done.
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Few, I hope you see this message as I feel it could improve your game greatly. The only thing that I think needs to be changed is the energy. It looks as though your energy is decreasing at a constant rate, when really, it should be decreasing based on how well you are playing at the moment (doing well, energy stays the same or rises, and doing poorly energy drops.) Just like Tiny Wings how the night catches up to you but it is also possible to stay in front of the night. Instead of having energy, why not have a coyote or "bad" bird or even a sand storm that is catching up to you, but if you keep playing really well, you can get farther and farther away. And in between every island it gets a little farther away, similar to your energy increase. Please +1 this or quote it so he can see this idea if you like it
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it should be decreasing based on how well you are playing at the moment (doing well, energy stays the same or rises, and doing poorly energy drops.) Just like Tiny Wings how the night catches up to you but it is also possible to stay in front of the night. Instead of having energy, why not have a coyote or "bad" bird or even a sand storm that is catching up to you, but if you keep playing really well, you can get farther and farther away. And in between every island it gets a little farther away, similar to your energy increase. Please +1 this or quote it so he can see this idea if you like it
very good ideas! esp like the sandstorm idea. It is true, if you are doing good your energy shouldnt be going down.
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very good ideas! esp like the sandstorm idea. It is true, if you are doing good your energy shouldnt be going down.
Yeah the idea of a sandstorm catching up to the dillo is really awesome I think. I think every time you finish an island the storm should get a little further behind you but on every island, the storm speed increases so it makes it harder to stay away. Just like how the night speeds up on Tiny Wings! Keep supporting this idea so Fex sees it and considers it
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the game looks a little easy (this is only judging by the video). but can you be sure that the game has a bit of a challenge or maybe different difficulty levels with more obstacles
the game looks a little easy (this is only judging by the video). but can you be sure that the game has a bit of a challenge or maybe different difficulty levels with more obstacles
Absolutely - difficulty is one of the things we'll be balancing today, after we finish performance testing on a handful of devices. One thing not shown in that video are some of the obstacles that appear in later levels (although you can see some of them in the screenshots). The first few zones are designed to be intentionally forgiving, to give the player plenty of time to get used to the game, but once you start adventuring deeper and deeper into the wild, you'll find that it's not as easy as it seems!
Absolutely - difficulty is one of the things we'll be balancing today, after we finish performance testing on a handful of devices. One thing not shown in that video are some of the obstacles that appear in later levels (although you can see some of them in the screenshots). The first few zones are designed to be intentionally forgiving, to give the player plenty of time to get used to the game, but once you start adventuring deeper and deeper into the wild, you'll find that it's not as easy as it seems!
Fex did you see my idea? I'm telling you this will make the game much much better and I think taking the extra time to add/change this would benefit you greatly.
Fex did you see my idea? I'm telling you this will make the game much much better and I think taking the extra time to add/change this would benefit you greatly.
I sure did. One of the things we're playtesting right now are some adjustments to how the energy system works, and while I can't make any promises, we've heard everyone's feedback and we're taking it all into consideration.
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And why the energy is going so fast? In the video it seems that you're playing pretty well but the energy drops very fast.
I agree with both, in my opinion energy isn't the best way of 'losing'. I just don't feel like I can help it... At Tiny Wings I blame myself everytime I lose, here I guess I will blame the energy.
About the camera, I also agree with this. In my opinion it shouldn't get out of the camera (ever), this will make it more fun (besides, now as it comes back in the screen I get the feeling that it is teleporting everytime it comes to a new level, or is that just me? ).
ok, so "I don't see what the big deal is. They are three different games (Tiny Wings, Pilot Winds and Dillo Hills) with similar gameplay."
Ok, so what are the differences between the games? I'm not trying to flame, I just genuinely want to know what the differences are, so I know what to pick up (since I own iOS and Android devices). i wasn't terribly impressed with tiny wings, either, but I think armadillos are much cuter, haha. I thought the art style of tiny wings was too similar to angry birds.
Our first day of beta testing went really well, and I give mad props to all of our awesome beta testers! (If you haven't received an invitation yet, don't worry - we'll be expanding to allow more people in as we get closer and closer to finished.)
In addition to helping me pinpoint some ways to optimize the rendering code, a lot of the testers also had some great ideas for gameplay. Many of them agreed with you guys here that the energy system feels clunky and awkward, and a few of them suggested some ideas that I'm really excited to try out.
Oh, and one of our testers also offered to take a video of the game running on his tablet, check it out!
hmmm I'm hoping the lag was on that guys camera lol. Also will you be sending us an email for the beta or PM? I have been watching for a PM and not an email =\
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Are we any closer to knowing when this will be available? The videos look awesome, gameplay looks smooth and to be able to choose the character makes all the difference. Please release it soon!
'Dillo Hills [Development]
