18 replies to this topic

[Dream Cutter]

That is the question...  http://www.farmpeeps.com/fp_volcanorescue_mrc12.html

 

Designer/developer feedback desired.

Edited by Dream Cutter, 14 March 2013 - 03:32 PM.

[cowsarenotevil]

Controls seem to be profoundly broken to the point of making the game completely unplayable. Player character seemed to be responding to the arrow keys but not in an overly predictable fashion. Eventually I got to -20 health but the menu buttons were not clickable so it wasn't clear that I could even restart (or even in fact that I had actually died).

 

It seems like you probably either haven't used any naive play-testers, haven't tested it on a variety of hardware, or both. You should do both of these things rigorously before you even think of selling it in any capacity whatsoever.

[jay_s]

It feels like a failed school project.. that's the best way I can put it.

[jbadams]

No offence intended, but if you can sell that you're a marketing genius the likes of which the world has never seen.

 

You've obviously put in some amount of work, so I wouldn't just give up on the idea out-right, but it needs a lot of work before it'll be release-quality.

[MrDaaark]

Both the web page and the game are a complete eyesore of bad clip-art and clashing colors.

You can't mix photographic and non photographic texturing, it just looks like a a mess. You have no set style in game. It just a bunch of random art styles mixed together.

You can't have shaded stuff and non shaded stuff in the same scene. For instance your fully shaded pig on top of a full bright raft. The color of that raft cannot possibly exist in that scene, unless it happens to be emitting light.

The title of the game, flashing inside the skybox is probably the poorest choice graphically. It should be on a screen aligned quad. The colors in the title clash heavily with everything else in the scene.

Also, the skybox being so close is also a poor choice. It's being used in the absence of a fully finished 3D scene. You can't just have 10 feet of water and then a flat wall with completely out of scale (and non matching) trees.

The main menu and the game HUD bleed into each other.

The game doesn't even work. When I try to walk, I just roll around in the terrain. Arrow keys to move also scrolls the actual web page. The camera is crazy and goes all over the place.

Don't be discouraged though. Keep refining it until you have something nice.

Edited by MrDaaark, 15 March 2013 - 09:47 AM.

[noatom]

How does one get the idea to create something like that? The game concept is weird,and not in a good way.The graphics look like a game from 90s,the website is the same.

 

You obviously have some knowledge since you were able to do this,but I'm really asking myself what kind of games do you play.

[TheChubu]

I have no idea about what's going on, I see a pig and a volcano, can't make something out of that in my mind.

[jbadams]

Didn't mean my original response to come across so harshly -- that's what I get for responding whilst sleep deprived in the middle of the night -- my apologies.

 

You absolutely shouldn't give up!  You've got a good foundation -- the basics required for a game -- and by getting that far you've already done more than a lot of would-be game makers.  It does need more work before I'd call it a complete game however; fix up the input, have a think about the game play and try to make it clearer what's happening, and try to improve the visual style so that it's more consistent (even if you have to go with a simpler style to do so).  You're on the way to what could be a good game, but you're just not quite there yet.

 

 

I'd suggest you keep working at it, try to address some of the concerns people have raised and then get additional feedback.  Don't let the initially negative response discourage you -- use it as a valuable lesson in what you can improve, and keep working till you have a game that people enjoy! 

[Alpha_ProgDes]

The controls are a bit loose. The collision detections is off. The music is entertaining. The camera also is a bit awkward. It behind the hog but lower than the horizon. I drowned about 11 times. And I found one hog but didn't realize that I did. What do the hogs look like? The basics are there. But it needs more polish.

 

In short, you've done more 3D than I ever have. However, it just needs more polish.

Edited by Alpha_ProgDes, 16 March 2013 - 04:30 PM.

[Krohm]

I don't even understand what's going on. Camera is odd. I often don't see where I'm heading.

I went down the isle several times. It appears after I hit the bottom of the ocean the game pulls me back on island. What the hell is going on?

But I have to admit I found the menu screen entertaining. I think I wouldn't actually mind the graphics if the game would work.

[cowsarenotevil]

I think I wouldn't actually mind the graphics if the game would work.

 

I agree with this.

 

The controls are a bit loose. The collision detections is off. The music is entertaining. And I found one hog but didn't realize that I did.

 

Also all of this.

 

Like jbadams I feel that I may have been needlessly blunt, but it's clear that there are some issues with the game's functionality. The graphics are kind of weird, as has been mentioned, but I really don't think this is a devastating problem. If the game were imminently playable, people would look past the graphics; likewise, if the graphics (and interface as a whole) seemed extremely polished, people might be more inclined to struggle with the controls rather than giving up. This is unfortunate, but true: if a game "seems" really professional, the player will probably be more inclined to deal with a steeper learning curve, awkward controls, and numerous glitches, at least to a point (see Skyrim). I'm guessing this has something to do with the fact that a well-presented game makes the player feel like their problems are their fault rather than the game's fault, whereas if the game is less polished, they'll be more quick to dismiss the game as broken and give up. I don't have anything to back that claim up, though.

 

Anyway, my thinking is that the most efficient route to taking this game from pretty much broken to something that people will actually play for fun will involve making the controls (including character/camera movement, menus, etc.) work as well as possible and making it clearer what the player is actually supposed to do. This will probably involve a great deal of playtesting and a lot of tweaking that probably doesn't seem necessary, because you already know how the game is "supposed" to work. The graphics probably shouldn't be a priority at this point. Spectacular graphics can help to hook the player, as I mentioned, but so will having a game that actually works, and you'll need that no matter what else you want to include.

 

I think using Coppercube might be limiting you a bit, but I've never actually used it. Still, it has some weird "features" that I've noticed in other things made with Coppercube.

 

As for selling the game, in the traditional sense I don't recommend it. That doesn't mean you can't try to monetize it, but you'll be much better off putting it on something like Kongregate. People will play a free game as long as it's not terrible and other people seem to like it; getting people to actually pay money to play a game requires quite a bit more.

[Lode]

This game looks broken to me. What I see is I'm walking on a volcano (as a mouse??), there is a raft, when trying to step on the raft suddenly I fall below the ground and see the volcano above me, I sort of fly up, end up on the volcane again, suddenly fall through the ground and am back below ground, go up again, try to go to the raft again, sink in the ground again, etc... what is this?

[Sock5]

This game is actually deeper than you think.I managed to go underwater and ride a stingray trough some underwater tunnels.Obviously the maker put a lot of effort into it, he just has to fix the skybox, the collision detection and get new models.

[jms bc]

And if you get under the island and head straight up, 4 or 5 stingrays will shoot out from under you towards the sky.  Actually enjoyed the malfunction here, reminds me of some engine jamming, kind of fun for a few minutes.

[BladeOfWraith]

The first thing you need to do is work on the basic functionality. The camera needs to be improved, badly. I *think* collision detection is extremely wrong... but due to the camera, I'm not %100 sure. I can't even understand what you're doing to orient the camera. Just out the gate, I tried running straight forward, the camera started shifting right, then jumped forward, and down into the ground itself. It then turned up, so that I was looking through a partially transparent ground at the pigs underside. Then the camera started rolling back and forth in a crescent motion like it was in a barrel or something. Then it suddenly snapped up in the sky, well behind the pig looking down on him.

[XXChester]

Kind of wondering if we all got trolled since the OP hasn't said a peep since posting looking for "feedback"

[GeneralQuery]

I'm at a loss for words describing my game experience. I left the island a few times, shot into the air turned black for a bit and then was textured in the lava texture. I'm still struggling to comprehend what happened. After I got stuck spinning around on -10 health for a while gave up. The overall experience reminded me of fever dreams I've had when very ill.

[boolean]

I've never seen more realistic facial expressions on a pig

[blueshogun96]

I'm not sure what perspective to use without sounding like a douchebag, so I'd give my experiences with the game.

 

The first thing I noticed was the frame rate on my macbook.  It was only about 18fps on average, which felt like less (and I probably need to restart because I have too much stuff running in the background giving me lower framerates for HTML5 games).  The gfx feels broken to me because of the various artifacts I see when viewing the island.  The controls also felt unbalanced because steering the pig felt rather difficult.  The collision detection isn't all that bad, but it's bad enough to the point where the average user would get frustrated and give up.  I got stuck at the top of the volcano at least twice, maybe 3 times.  Taking damage was too easy.

 

Well, the game works but just isn't refined.  It's a diamond in the rough and could work once it's polished up.

 

Shogun.

 

*I'm trying SO hard not to laugh at other comments*