Home Forums General Discussion Ludum Dare 13

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    • #7060
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi all,

      I entered Ludum Dare 13 over the weekend.
      http://www.ludumdare.com

      Here’s what I made:
      http://blahwebstorage.googlepages.com/game.html
      It’s in flash so should just run from your browser, if you want to give it a go.

      There’s a fairly complex little game in there, for a 48 hour contest. I’d even go so far as to say it’s can be fun to play!
      The graphics are obviously not the best (my paint skillz are a bit rusty ;) ) the website I’m hosting it on looks awful, and it needs more levels, and a bit more tuning (may be a bit difficult for casual gamers – a few more levels to ramp up the difficulty, and introduce some of the more unorthodox concepts might have been better, and expand on the tower defense gameplay).

      But I’m pretty happy with how much I got done in the weekend overall, built ability to load levels in from a bitmap, tweak the physics enough so it’s a bit of fun, and make 6 levels with varying gameplay (the gameplay proper doesn’t really start till level 4 or 5, the first 3 levels are mainly to introduce the player to my slightly unusual world setup).
      I think there’s actually the origins of a reasonably cohesive gameplay experience in there (feel free to disagree!) which I’m happy with for a weekend’s work.

      Any comments welcome :)

    • #43092
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hey, any chance of some feedback?

      I see from the analytics that a good few people from gd.ie have looked at the game. So please make a comment, even if it’s as simple as "It’s crap"*
      I made it in 48 hours; I’m not too attached to it :)

      One thing I’ve noticed from some, er, hallway usability tests, is that some people find it hard to get past the first level or two.

      This isn’t too surprising, as I pitched the difficulty at game developers – the other entrants, and hence judges, of ludum dare – as opposed to casual gamers. Although it does mean these people don’t get to play the proper game.

      The gameplay is also complex for a casual title – there’s a lot to manage quite quickly, with the 2 halves of the screen, the physics, control shot strength with mouse, collecting and deploying turrets, managing the bad guys, killing the eggs, using the sword etc. Ideally, I’d probably ramp the difficulty/complexity over 20 levels rather than 6, but only had time to put together a few levels in the competition.

      So, please give me some feedback :)
      Too hard too soon?
      Over too quickly?
      Takes too long to get to the good bits?
      Frustrating?
      Game mechanics suck?
      Graphics are so offputtingly bad programmer-does-mspaint that it offends your aesthetic sensibility even to look at?

      Thanks!

      *note, if do actually just say "its crap" please give me some details too :)

    • #43094
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Its not crap.

      It does look a little like a train wreck visually though.. but all the little mechanics in there are rather quite nice… dodging the bullets mid air "matrix style" and such. I think the simple abstract art style could work for it, just the edges and colour palette need polishing. The gravity switch road mid way needs a different, snazzier design.
      If your not art skilled here is an art palette website http://www.colourlovers.com

      Trying to get people to test or critique your game properly is actually quite hard. Most people won’t play something until they think it’s worth playing and even if they do the effort to word the criticisms is off putting to Joe public.

      Have to say though.. your game has a fair bit of nuance though.. good job & well done!

    • #43095
      Anonymous
      Inactive
    • #43097
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Its not crap.
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      Wahey!
      Thanks :)

      It does look a little like a train wreck visually though..
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      Yes, I accept that – I’m not an artist, but fundamentally I chose to spend the time on programming gameplay and level design rather than on graphical work. With a bit of time I could improve the graphics a lot, but there’s only so much can be done in a weekend.

      but all the little mechanics in there are rather quite nice… dodging the bullets mid air "matrix style" and such.
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      Thanks!
      Did you get to the later levels?
      I was going for a tower defense style feel in the later levels – only got to the point where you had one style of turret which could be deployed, and no economy – I didn’t think I’d make it all the way to a full tower defense game.
      On the other hand, protecting moving convoys through a world like that while trying to play a tower defense game is way off the scale for a casual game – but I was trying to break/mix genres as a gameplay experiment.

      I think the simple abstract art style could work for it, just the edges and colour palette need polishing. The gravity switch road mid way needs a different, snazzier design.
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      The monsters, particularly the queen monsters in the later levels need a lot of work graphically. I was somewhat torn between a completely abstract design – like for the enemy turrets – vs more spritey, like for the monsters. I didn’t really think too long about anything though, the enemy turrets probably took about 3 minutes to make, the trucks 5 minutes, etc.

      If your not art skilled here is an art palette website http://www.colourlovers.com
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      Cool, good to know, thanks.

      Trying to get people to test or critique your game properly is actually quite hard. Most people won’t play something until they think it’s worth playing and even if they do the effort to word the criticisms is off putting to Joe public.
      [/quote:53f5f3088f]
      I got two pieces of feedback that were interesting. One was with a casual gamer over the phone. I had her talk me through what she was doing, and that was very interesting. It highlighted both the difficulty of grasping traditional game mechanics for casual gamers – for example, I’ve been playing Mario since I was a kid, I know what a platform game looks like, so when I see 4 platforms, I instantly connect that I’m supposed to jump over them to get to the goal – the goal is self evident just because I see the platforms.
      That doesn’t necessarily hold with a new gamer.

      Also, I discovered quickly that the difficulty of the tutorial levels was much further above casual gamer level than I would have guessed – I knew the complexity/difficulty curve was always going to be too steep for a casual gamer, but the difficulty experienced with even the first level surprised me.

      If I was building a polished game for web release, I would definitely have more introduction levels.

      The other thing I would do is to put a metering package in the actual flash app itself, to record UI input, for analysis and playback. There’s no real reason not to do this on a web based game, and it’d be a great way of getting feedback during your beta, to just watch players go through the game.

      Have to say though.. your game has a fair bit of nuance though.. good job & well done![/quote:53f5f3088f]
      Thanks, that’s the one thing I’m happy with – especially the later levels where the gameplay changes. It was a lot of gameplay code to right and tune to an anyway playable state in 48 hours.
      I used box2d for the physics, which has a very nice user interface, that helped save a lot of time – physics gets you a lot of quality gameplay almost for free in a short timespan competition, although you of course have to spend a bit more time tuning as a result.

    • #43098
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hey, any chance of some feedback?
      [/quote:09edb4d398]

      Hiya Feral,

      Gave it a go this evening. Very impressive for 48hrs work. I didn’t find the visual style that off putting – it’s only a few pixels short of N+ (which the game reminded me of) anyway – a few hours work from a good artist and you’d be fine.

      For slightly greying gamers (SGGs) like me, I just found it too hard. The reverse gravity mechanic in the 2nd level was as far as I got, and gave up after a few poor attempts. You definitely need to introduce more of the good stuff (like the turrets you mention and firing etc.) earlier in the game so that the player gets a sense for what they miss out on later.

      Controls felt good, though I think just the tiniest bit more damping on the direction control would help. Being able to turn in mid-air is not realistic but a well-advised mechanic. A game like this also calls out for a double jump mechanic, and with the additional damping could allow for some fine tuning of jump distances etc.

      Steve

    • #43099
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Gave it a go this evening. Very impressive for 48hrs work. I didn’t find the visual style that off putting – it’s only a few pixels short of N+ (which the game reminded me of) anyway – a few hours work from a good artist and you’d be fine. [/quote:cc1890e541]
      Thanks very much for the feedback.

      I played N a few times 3 or 4 years ago, so it was in the back of my mind as the laid out the first few levels.
      I only made the first few levels in the last hour or two of the competition, after I wrote something to generate/load levels from bitmaps, because I wanted to ease the player gradually into the game. Up to that point, there was just one level, which contained all the gameplay features.
      In hindsight, the easing in was not gradual enough!

      For slightly greying gamers (SGGs) like me, I just found it too hard. The reverse gravity mechanic in the 2nd level was as far as I got, and gave up after a few poor attempts. You definitely need to introduce more of the good stuff (like the turrets you mention and firing etc.) earlier in the game so that the player gets a sense for what they miss out on later. [/quote:cc1890e541]

      You can fire at any stage [mouse1], or use the ‘sword’ [space], but it’s not until the second level – with the enemy turrets – that I have instructions on the wall telling the player that.

      In view of the feedback I’m getting, I’m feeling the simplest thing to do to make this easier fast, if I’d realized this in the competition, would be to drop the physics tick by 10% or so, or drop the gravity on the player slightly.

      You’re completely right in that it’d be a lot better to show more of the cool stuff earlier. I don’t think I’ll do very well in the competition, as most people are probably going to judge the game on the first level or two – whoops!
      There’s a definite lesson to be learned – not that I hadn’t heard this before – about making sure players see the impressive parts of the game you make, but hey, 48hours is my excuse :)

      Controls felt good, though I think just the tiniest bit more damping on the direction control would help. Being able to turn in mid-air is not realistic but a well-advised mechanic. A game like this also calls out for a double jump mechanic, and with the additional damping could allow for some fine tuning of jump distances etc.
      [/quote:cc1890e541]
      I hear you on the double jump!
      That crossed my mind during the competition, but I discarded it as the levels were a bit small – I’d have to rebalance everything to put in a double jump mechanic, and didn’t have time – definitely something to add in in a future version.
      You can actually wall jump though – if you touch the side of a platform and hold down the jump key (either W or S depending on what side of the screen) you can jump again, and jump your way up around onto a platform, which allows some subtlety to the jumping mechanic.
      There’s also a trick you can do, but it requires extremely precise timing, where you launch off a spring, and just skim a platform as you pass it, wall jumping off the platform, for extra height… but anyway :)

      If I was to try and make a proper game of this, I’d have to get an artist to redo the graphics, and also make 20 odd levels.

      I’d spend the first 10 or so in easier N style gameplay, but gradually introducing the more fun and complex game elements, as you say, before raising the platforming difficulty. Might try make a better version yet, we’ll see :)

    • #43100
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Screenshot of more advanced features (am not making this up :-)
      :)

    • #43117
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Reminds me of the story about the company that made the platformer, couldn’t get it finished on time, so on one of the later levels they just made a hole that was one pixel further than you could jump across[/quote:8afa9e74d0]

      Jet Set Willy when originally released on the C64 was impossible to complete because of such an error in one of the lower levels (I can remember it well). They re-released the game later with the fix made.

      Steve

    • #43120
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Jet Set Willy when originally released on the C64 was impossible to complete because of such an error in one of the lower levels (I can remember it well). They re-released the game later with the fix made.

      Steve[/quote:d222b6e1eb]
      No wonder I could never finish it! Or maybe I just wasn’t good enough…

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