Eight Mini Shogi Reviews. Mixed, so Fixed!

Mini Shogi, a shrunken Japanese chess game, has been out in the wild for a little over a month now. The reviews started rolling in a couple weeks ago, and I thought I'd summarize and share the insights here. The lesson? Sometimes the littlest thing makes a big difference... but fortunately little things can be fixed easily.



The number one gripe from every review: you could rollover your own pieces to see where they could move, but you couldn't do the same for opponent pieces. While this may seem minor, it had a huge impact. Some folks couldn't keep the Japanese characters straight and needed the rollover for a guide as they learned. As a result, the Shogi newbies felt frustrated. Fortunately, upon reading the reviews, I immediately fixed and uploaded an updated Mini Shogi which now has that feature.

Other than that, the game was praised for its graphics, sound, and originality. Vista users had stability issues. But until I get a Vista machine, my releases are effectively XP-only. Nonetheless, the reviews showed the importance of having a dependable network of testers, both for things like Vista QA and for catching the little things that can make a difference in a gamer's experience. When beta testing for Xeno Versus v2.0 begins, I am committed to having a better system in place to ensure quality feedback pre-release.

And now for the quotes part of the blog. From Harry B

Quote:I really wasn't sure what I was getting into with this game. After having tried it, I will say that creativity and innovation are the strongest points of Mini Shogi. The creators took a game that is generally not known, and made a more accessible version. In short, while similar to other games, this is one that has never been done before.

From Bytten:

Quote:On the positive side, the game is quite aesthetically pleasing with a well designed choice of 4 board styles and accompanying background scenes. The music track that loops in the background is of a traditional Japanese style, and is a relaxing accompaniment to the game. Controls are via the mouse and are intuitive to even a beginner to the genre. Newcomers to shogi (who incidentally will probably enjoy this title a whole lot more than shogi veterans) can view the helpful tutorial, which although doesn't go into great detail, will help the player to learn to identify their pieces and to learn the basics fairly quickly. I also like the shogi and Japanese trivia that makes a comeback in this title, having carried over from the Mini Chess release.

There are also a wide range of opinions about the game on Helium

So, in summary, while the game in many ways was an improvement over Mini Chess, it introduced new issues unique to itself that I didn't foresee. It's amazing how such a small iteration upon a previous game can offer big improvements and yet new problems!