Review and comments help needed.

Comments

• quantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188

  May 2011

  Firstly, thank you for the promo code!
  
  I did like the game, and it certainly looks lovely - some nice effects, especially the rain!
  
  Some feedback (and take what you will from it!)
  
  1. Sound could do with some work - there's no title screen music, for example, to set the mood. Also, there are no sound effects in-game. The gun has no sound. The enemies being hit has no sound. The enemies dying, has no sound. The character walking, has no sound. The shield effect has no sound.
  
  2. There's no way to protect yourself from the bullet shooting plants. You can use the shield once, and then have to wait for the cool-down to use it again. This means that while you're shooting at the plants, you can't avoid getting shot yourself. It makes the game seem a little unfair.
  
  3. A visual (and audio preferably) cue to show you your armour is very low - to serve as a warning. It could be something as simple as having the number flash if it gets to less than 20, for example.
  
  4. Recharging the player's armour each round, even by a small amount, will give the player the feeling that they *can* continue, if they can just beat the level. It may give them 'breathing room', as it were.
  
  I think that's it for now, and these suggestions could easily be implemented in GameSalad, so it's not the tool. I've only managed to get to level 2, because the plants just make progress a pain I'm afraid.
  
  This is where 'game design' comes into its own. It obviously looks lovely, and I hope you get some success off it from the visuals. But with a little more thought, it could be something really special!
  
  Hope that doesn't come across as arrogant or anything. I like the game, and *want* to like it! I just find it a little frustrating at times.
  
  Cheers, and good luck!
  
  QS
• E3 Member Posts: 20

  May 2011

  Thanks Quantumsheep, your review is just what we are looking for.
  
  The sounds issue is one of the reason we are still in .9 We are unable to add the Sound FX files without crashing the game by level 6 or so. W/O the sounds the game runs just fine it seems. We are doing a fresh build to see if this fixes the issue. We have also tried multiple sound files to see but any we use seems to crash the game.
  
  We will balance the plants attack to make sure they coincide with the cool down.
  
  We will also look into putting up the armor cue you mentioned. Perhaps light it up and have an alarm or something. Thanks for the tip.
  
  The Armor recharge at the start of the mission was something we struggled with. As it is we are all able to beat the game in under an hour with out any deaths but then again we are the ones who made it. This type of feedback is exactly what we need to judge the difficulty of the game. Thank you.
  
  Also did you know that you can tap the score to exchange 10 points into 10 health? It is mentioned at the start of the game in the explanation screen. I think we need to add more of a tutorial because some feedback on our fan forums has been that people do not know all the functions.
  
  Thanks again QS it is very kind of you to take the time to write up such a great and helpful review.
  
  PS anyone else want to check the game out?
• quantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188

  May 2011

  Hello E3 - glad I could be of help!
  
  The sounds issue - there really shouldn't be one. I always use .ogg files for sounds and have never had a problem. One trick is to play all the sounds that will be used in a scene at the start of a scene, but at volume 0. I usually put them in the control actor in a group, and label this 'startup sounds'.
  
  Essentially this makes sure the game already plays the sounds. Otherwise... well, in Air Supply, the UFO would make the game 'stall' for a second, as it appeared later in the scene and had to load in the sound it made. By making sure the sound has *already* played, at volume 0 at the start, I got round that.
  
  I'm not sure the plants shooting at intervals that coincide with the shield recharge is the answer. Here are some more suggestions:
  *Put in a 'jump' button - a lot more work to get right, really, but you could put in flying enemies that drop bombs and can only be shot while jumping.
  *Let the user use the shield button whenever they like (with no 'repulse' feature). This gives them more control over when they get hit and when there's a window to shoot.
  
  Well, you could add something very simple to the armour that might help. For example, in Air Supply - SOS (out soon!) I'm thinking of including a bonus for the amount of air you have left at the end of a level. Then the air is recharged to full for the next level and you carry on.
  
  GameCentre is coming VERY soon, and making this simple change to your game would mean that, even if a player *does* get through the game in an hour, the onus is on them keeping their armour as high as possible in each level to score more points.
  
  I didn't know that you could exchange points for health - it's a nice idea, but I had no clue about it! Sorry!
  
  Glad I could help, and I look forward to the updates!
  
  QS
• butterbean Member Posts: 4,315

  May 2011

  @E3: looks like a very nice game! Can you message me a promo and I'll send some feedback your way too?
• quantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188

  May 2011

  I went back and played the game actually as I was curious about the 'score for health' mechanic.
  
  It works nicely - I just didn't know about it! Certainly eases the frustration a little, so much so that I'm on level 4 now
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  QS