Iphone first - Let's build a wall

[Boemel]

I can understand your decision to release the game on apple devices first but I don't like it.
It is like you are building a big invisible wall. Which I don't like because walls are evil and it is a tool of people which fear they will lose something(most likely money).

Unfortunately or luckily I can still join the wining team (appleusers) that means for me that I need to buy a iphone or ipad.
Which I won't.
Or play other games in the meantime .

Thank you for your time!
I am not mad at you and wish you all the best with "Mini Motorways".

Cheers Boemel

PS: Sorry for my english I am not a native speaker. If you learn some German I will translate it for you.
(this post can contain IRONY)

[Robert]

Hey Boemel,

Totally understandable comment, and thanks for the supportive tone.

Apple Arcade came at a very fortuitous time for us – Mini Motorways was just beginning to come together when Apple approached us about the platform. It was a really big opportunity for us to be part of the launch lineup for Arcade, but as we are a small team we had to dedicate all of our resources to just that platform to hit the deadline. We've hit launch now, so once we've got a few critical updates out of the way we'll be starting work on more content, more game modes, and getting ourselves on the Steam platform! We're very excited about our Steam launch and have one or two things still up our sleeve... :)

Cheers, Robert

[mintyspice]

Great to hear it's still coming to steam! (Play store also?)

[Orcnized]

it sucks. Afaik mini metro was also released on iphone first. remember waiting long time and checking always the forums for new info on android version.

Isnt Android even currently bigger market than apple users?
Wonder why it wasnt steam first, would have reached more people imho. probably money as always in such things.

[FroBodine]

I also think this is a huge bummer, and a hit to your massive Steam audience. It's bad enough that you're releasing on iOS first, but we can't even buy the game if we want. We would have to subscribe to the Apple Arcade. I have zero interest in that, but I would buy your game outright for my iPad.

I also wish you the best, because Mini Metro has given me many hours of enjoyment, both on Steam and my Android phone.

Too bad you're dissing your Steam and Android fanbase for a year.

[aniforprez]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

Too bad you're dissing your Steam and Android fanbase for a year.

What does this even mean? They had the opportunity to release on another platform and be part of the opening wave of games for the Arcade which is a huge boost. It's not like thye made it Epic exclusive, they just chose to launch on PC later. This is such a non-argument

I'm really looking forward to buying this on Steam but having a Mac, I'm definitely going to check it out on Apple Arcade first

[Simon]

I’ve been playing and enjoying it a lot on iOS. I’m a bit bummed that it’s an Arcade exclusive on Apple though as I’d have purchased it instantly, but I’m not sure I’ll subscribe long-term after the free trial ends; and if not I’ll be sad to lose it. I’ll cross that bridge in the next month or two. I played and enjoyed Pilgrims, Neo Cab and Stela (except for the ending), so if quality titles like those keep appearing I’ll have no qualms about being a regular subscriber, but I’m not sure I want to pay $60 per year just to play Mini Motorways. Sadly I don’t have a (working) PC.

The game should see some tweaks and extra features by the time it gets to PC, so consider us Apple users as gamma testers if you will. My impressions so far are as follows:

It has much the same feeling as Mini Metro (a good thing) with a relaxed beginning and escalating tension, coupled with a simple and beautiful aesthetic and similar sounds. I didn’t like the touch controls at first, and perhaps still don’t, but I got used to them. They weren’t familiar or intuitive coming from Mini Metro, and there was much frustration and hair pulling initially, which I don’t recall experiencing with Mini Metro.

There’s perhaps more opportunity for strategy in designing your network; or at least more choice. Road tiles are often in very short supply, leading to expected frustration when you can’t connect stuff (as opposed to Mini Metro where there’s no limit on the length of a line) so you have to use them very wisely. I frequently lost far earlier than I was expecting or wanting to early on ...if you ever like losing that is! I’m still figuring out the strategy however and did manage to score in the top 10 once (11 as of writing)! The game can place things in very awkward positions for your network, so there’s a trade-off between trying to reserve tiles and corridors with road tiles early (and risk separating stuff too much) vs conserving them. I had a building placement in the first week that was impossible to connect with a road once; needless to say I restarted. The initial targets of 250 were quite easy however: I frequently get 500-750 and my best is around 1200 for LA, Munich and Dar es Salaam.

Motorways are awesome: fast and they can act as bridges too. The game sometimes doesn’t feel as elegant as Mini Metro in its simplicity, but that’s because the network often evolves in chaotic and unattractive fashions, much like real life cities, than through any fault in the game. Though roads can be deleted and redrawn, there’s not the same capacity to completely redesign a network as you had in Mini Metro, because unlike in Metro the buildings and houses take up physical space (tiles) that can no longer be used for roads: so early choices matter and really count towards the final shape of your city.

Another change in the strategy is there’s less capacity to recover once things start to go pear-shaped. In Metro you could move trains to temporarily address a station that was about to end the game. I’m pretty sure it was only favourable to do so sparingly and as a last resort, but it could nonetheless help prolong a game in certain circumstances. There’s no equivalent technique in Mini Motorways apart from possibly moving a Motorway, but once the situation reaches the point you’re considering it, it’s almost certainly too late to help because the flow on effects and benefits can take a long time to be realised. This can make the game feel punishing at times. When a building starts ticking, the number of cars rushing to service it can choke the area around the building’s entrance, causing jams and slowdowns. Very often you’ll lose with a queue of cars waiting to access the pickup point inside the building, which doesn’t feel great. The game is so much fun when things are flowing smoothly, especially once you’ve got a decent sized city, so it feels like that middle stage is a bit too short. The game will escalate rapidly (as in Mini Metro but worse because of gridlock) and then it’s all over in very short order thereafter. Perhaps some tweaking could be done to extend that happy middle game.

Though the game often feels harder, the tension of constantly mounting passengers is balanced by the soothing effect of the flowing traffic, especially when you have lots of cars zooming about on motorways. Overall it’s more involved and engaging and I prefer it to Mini Metro, which is high praise considering how much I love that game. I can see a lot of thought went in to designing a successor/sequel that offers something new and different yet still respects what we love about that game and what made it so great. I’m sure or I hope there’ll be some tweaks to the routing and placement to avoid the most annoying or frustrating aspects, and with the new features already hinted, the game will only get even better.

My biggest requests are an Endless mode; more achievements (including some not limited to just higher passenger counts); the ability to save an image of your city from the end screen and view the final image of the top five scorers for each city!; and possibly a bit more generous with tiles and stuff so you can make larger cities, or a resource that increases the capacity of buildings like there is for stations in Mini Metro; or I could just get better at the game maybe! I’m sure I’ll think of some other suggestions, but more cities are always welcome. I’m in Sydney so I’d love to see that make it.

[Robert]

Thanks for the replies and thoughts everyone. A few points:

Mini Metro was available on Steam Early Access on 11th of August 2014. The mobile release was on 17th October 2016. So over two years on Steam before the App Store and Google Play! We're a larger team than we were then so I promise it'll take a much shorter period this time.

We haven't intentionally neglected any of our audiences, I'm sorry if the order of our release had given any impression of that. We are still a fairly small team so we can't do everything at once. This means our choices for a game like Mini Motorways are to sit on a finished game for 6-12 months while we get all platforms ready for simultaneous release, or to release the game one platform at a time to gain some revenue to keep the company going and finally start getting crucial player feedback. For a team like ours we will always prefer a staggered release. We hadn't decided on release order until we were offered a spot in the Apple Arcade launch lineup.

We aren't a platform-exclusive (except for mobile), so the reason for the delay is only due to us wanting to make sure the game is as ready for the Steam audience as it can be when it launches. Just like Mini Metro we'll be aiming for consoles after mobile and desktop.

Thanks very much for the post Simon - we're taking all player feedback on board for what we do with the game in the next few months. We're really excited for the future of Mini Motorways and we're really looking forward to the Steam launch!

[David Bowman]

Don't you guys have phones?

[Buntkreuz]

i have and use it to phone people. You know, what its meant to be used for (hence its name).
I play games on my PC.
However, the game being on an apple store only, means its limited to that platform.
Not every person has an apple device (which is why exclusivity is stupid).

[Unsaid]

Playing such a nice game on a phone is sacrelige, the screen size would need to be somewhat in the vicinity of a decent tablet, like 10 inches, to really appreciate it.

However, I can totally understand releasing it on apple, the consumers there are a) paying b) non-pirating c) not spoiled by actually good games.

[axios2006]

Originally posted by Unƨaid 🐱:

Playing such a nice game on a phone is sacrelige, the screen size would need to be somewhat in the vicinity of a decent tablet, like 10 inches, to really appreciate it.

However, I can totally understand releasing it on apple, the consumers there are a) paying b) non-pirating c) not spoiled by actually good games.

So, I'm an Android user. All my transactions on Google Play Store are valid. All my apps are regularly purchased. And I think to know what good games are.

I purchased Mini Metro on Steam and even on Google Play Store. Legally.

Now I read that "because it's a small team" they prefer to develop for a small mobile os. Because iOS has only the 14% of the mobile market share.

Now I see this thread and I read that Android users are considered pirates...

I'm sorry for having an Android phone. I'm sorry for purchasing apps and games on Google Play Store. I don't even imagined that these 2 personal choices are so criticables.

I have 2 pc, 1 Android phone, 1 Android tablet, Xbox One, Google Stadia. And I have quite 300 games. All legally purchased on Steam, Gog, Humble Store, Microsoft Store, Google Play Store. Not in cd key shops or other gray markets.

Anyway, seems that money from iOS users are better than Android users money. Good to know.

I understand that Android phones are all different. But this game will never arrive on Android. Not even in 10 years.

[TTV-Esty8nine]

People that think releasing on one platform is Ditching their fan base on another platform LUL they are coming to steam guys, relaxxxxx

cant wait for the game dudes !

[Someguy12121]

I have reached out to the dev team and pretty much stated that they screwed them selves by having the game tied to a subscription service instead of just allowing someone to just flat out buy it. Its giant F*** YOU to causal players who dont play much and/or do not want to be tied to yet another subscription service.

DEVS if you read this, for the love of god, make the game purchasable and not tied to stupid subscription services >:(

[Someguy12121]

Originally posted by vizualartist:

Don't you guys have phones?

Phones yes, but not everyone has an iPhone or iOS device

[David Bowman]

Originally posted by Someguy12121:

Originally posted by vizualartist:

Don't you guys have phones?

Phones yes, but not everyone has an iPhone or iOS device

I was kidding with the Diablo Immortal quote. I don't game on mobile. Bring it to Steam where I buy games.