TIGSource Forums

Hey guys!

We've just completed a Flash puzzle game called Critter Crossing (which I've done the music and sfx for), which is now up at FlashGameLicense for feedback.

(http://www.yamagames.com/images/temp/game_2.jpg)


Please take the time to check it out here:
http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_game.php?from=dev&game_id=14263

Please post either here or in the FGL feedback thread, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Muchos gracias! :beer:

Added trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smJl9Tn-0LA

No one wants to try it? Am I doing it wrong? :panda:

You can try it here as well without logging into FGL:
http://public.yamagames.com/hilights_redux/

Please test it out if you have a minute, we really need some feedback on this release! :gentleman:

Okayyyyyyy
I tried it. It takes a lot of time to load. How big in size is the game, I think flash games that are huge need to be really good or else they won't become viral.
Your game is not hugely addictive, so you should see how you can reduce the size(don't hesitate to get rid of additionnal musics for examle). Honestly, unless there is a lot of hidden content, I don't see what's taking so much space in this game.
As for the game itself it lacks a little bit of polish (ex: the penguin has no anims for up and down)
And the gameplay itself is a bit more brainy than fun.I stopped playing at level 4 because of that.

I'd say this game is not too hot, but you could still find a sponsor if you work on reducing the filesize.

[EDIT] by looking at your screenshot, I see that there are different animals and levels. But alot of players will probably not play enough to unlock these unfortunately. And still no excuse for such a big (or slow?) download

It didn't take very long to startup for me, just a couple of seconds. I found the game itself fairly mundane. The levels are extremely easy unless you are going for the maximum score. I played it a little longer than moi, but the game still didn't grab me. From what I played it didn't seem to add anything to an old and tired puzzle genre. Sorry I haven't got more positive feedback.

okay so maybe it was due to slow connection.
I played more and saw more levels, but globally the game still suffers from a deficit of fun.

Thank you very much for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

So the main negative issue is basically that the game is not fun enough? Did you get beyond the antarctica level? The first levels are extremely easy so it gets more interesting after a while, but yea I agree that the game is more of a brainiac game than simple fun (for good and bad!).

Thanks again for testing!

I played a few of the levels. Got up to level 10.

I kind of agree with the other guys. The game looks nice although there are a couple of things like no up / down walk animations and not being able to click directly on the monkeys to switch between them. These are not really big problems though. It just is a bit boring the mechanic is not particularly exciting and doesn't feel very interesting.

It also seems too easy as it's possible to walk along and erase your tracks as you go by going forward forward back forward. I never really felt like I had to give any forethought to the puzzles. You said it gets trickier in Antartica, maybe you should make the difficulty curve steeper because it seems like a lot of people won't get that far.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the feedback adam, much appreciated!

I meant that it gets trickier after the Antarctica levels, when you get to play with more than one character in a puzzle and such. Maybe the difficulty curve is not steep enough as you say, it's a bit of a hard balance as you guys are hardcore gamers whereas this game is mostly targeted towards children and people without a lot of experience playing games. :)

Basically the game is intended to be easy to finish the levels, but difficult to get an A+ ranking. Though the first levels are very easy, it gets quite difficult around the N.America region. Though as you say, if people get tired of the game before getting there (or not feeling motivated to get a higher ranking) then it is not of much use.

I think the real mechanic in this game isn't demonstrated early enough. The game started getting fun when I was given two monkeys to use and until then it was 6 or 7 levels of the same, dull idea. The game definitely picks up there and you should get people navigating that as early as possible.

I didn't play with sound (wasn't able to) so i'm not able to comment on the work you did for this game, unfortunately.

The game got quite fun but it's learning curve is too shallow, if I had stumbled onto this game from a flash site, I likely would have backed out and played something else before I got to the games real mechanic.

Quite professionally done (missing animation aside) and I did enjoy the art style.

The art is very cute and looks pretty polished.  The walking animation looks good for the one direction that the animal is always facing. I would say you could get away with mirroring the side view, but you should also consider using a graphic for when the animal is moving up or down.  It is a little strange that there are extra animations for animals when they are idle, (the bear stands on a ball when he gets bored), but there are no animations for changing the direction the animal is facing.  It is kind of like putting a chandelier inside of a shanty, it is a nice little decoration... there are probably more important things that should have taken priority.  Aside from the walking animations this game looks very graphically polished.

The music was very catchy and pretty enjoyable.  It may have been my favorite part! Awesome job!

The Gameplay: Was super easy.  I think I got a perfect score on every level up until I reached the forest level with the bears.  I reset a few puzzles, but also by the time I got to this point in the game I just stopped caring about the score and used as many moves as I wanted.  I only played using as many moves as I wanted for about 3 levels before I just stopped caring.  I think there needs to be a few things to make this gameplay a little more fun.

-Where is the danger?  There is nothing preventing a player from using as many turns as they like to pass a level.  Consider your intended audience, if it is young children then I think it is ok to have no penalty for this.  But if you are interested in targeting puzzle gamers you should think of a way that the player can ruin lose the level.  Maybe set a "par" for each level and if the player cannot pass under par they need to replay it.  Maybe create some levels that have holes or someway that if a player does the puzzle wrong they will get stuck or blocked from moving at all.
-Increase complexity faster.  I think you can probably cut out the most of the Antarctica levels.  Try to measure when these puzzles actually get interesting.  This is basically the hardest thing to do.  Come up with good puzzles that are going to be hard enough to be fun, but also easy enough to keep people playing and not get frustrated.
-This game kind of reminds me of Chocolate Castle, you might want to consider give that a play through and see how they structure some of their puzzles. http://www.lexaloffle.com/choc.php  The mechanic in chocolate castle is slightly different since you are just eating chocolate and not potentially flipping floor tiles.  But it does have cooperative puzzles similar to yours.

Once I got to the harder levels the game became much more enjoyable.  I would say more, but I am at work and should probably get back to it.

Thank you for the extensive and detailed feedback guys, it is very valuable! :gentleman:

It seems that pretty much all of you think that the difficulty/variation in the first levels is not good enough, that it is easy to lose interest quickly before getting to the fun parts of the game.

Great ideas there tylerjhutchison! Though the game is targeted for kids so we can't add too much penalties or increase the difficulty too much. But it's definitely something to think about there.. Gonna check out the Chocolate Castle! Thanks for spending some of your precious work hours playing the game! :beer:

I found the game pretty enjoyable! I don't like the majority of puzzle games but the controls felt really responsive, the puzzles were... unintimidating but on occasion I felt the desire to go back and get perfect on the few that I didn't get perfect on right away.

Most puzzle games I just find annoying but this one was pretty decent :shrug2:

Perhaps I just don't enjoy thinking too much about puzzle games.


I would definitely never use the mouse for this, though.

Thanks for the positive feedback Droqen! :beer:

Updated with a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smJl9Tn-0LA