My new game - Worthy or does it suck?, sell or rot

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17 comments, last by blueshogun96 11 years ago

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.

-~-The Cow of Darkness-~-
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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?

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.

>removed<

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.

The Four Horsemen of Happiness have left.

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.

"You can't say no to waffles" - Toxic Hippo

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

Remember to mark someones post as helpful if you found it so.

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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.

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

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*

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