TIGSource Forums

Hello,

I am looking for feedback on my game Battle City (http://battlecity.looble.com). The game is complete, but I still want to improve it. It's a free multiplayer action/strategy game. Player characters are tanks. Players build a city or join a city built by someone else. They then attempt to destroy enemy cities in order to gain points and rank.

My main problem is that I am having trouble getting players to keep playing the game. I am getting over 200 downloads a week, but still rarely have more than 3 or 4 players online at a time. It seems that most new players are unsure what to do and quit the game before ever really playing or experiencing it.

I have a nice community of players who do love the game. These are players who took the time to figure the game out and now enjoy it. This tells me the game has potential, but needs improvement. I'm looking for feedback and first impressions from people that could help me figure out how to reduce the learning curve. How can I make things more intuitive, so that people don't just download the game, but actually play it before quitting and never coming back ;)


What is Battle City?
It's a mix of Sim City and Risk in a 2D world with lots of tanks. Battle City is a free online multiplayer tank wars game.

Players build, defend and attack cities in an endless quest for control and dominance.

To win you must drop the Orb on the enemy cities Command Center. The Command Center is always heavily guarded so teamwork will be essential. Bomb buildings and destroy defensive infrastructure using your cities weapons!

You begin ranked as a Private and earn promotions based on how many points you gain. Work your way up to the rank of General by Orbing cities and blowing up tanks!

Download Battle City to join the battle now! (http://battlecity.looble.com)


System Requirements

Battle City is a 2D game created using C++. Any PC running Windows XP should be able to play without difficulty. If you have trouble, please visit the Help & Support Forums (http://battlecity.looble.com/viewforum.php?f=12).

Screenshots

(http://www.looble.com/bcweb/screenshots/action/compucomp.jpg)

(http://www.looble.com/bcweb/screenshots/events/ctfEvent.png)

(http://www.looble.com/bcweb/screenshots/action/battlecityUtrecht.jpg)

(http://www.looble.com/bcweb/screenshots/action/battlecityDuel.jpg)


Download Battle City

To download the latest version of Battle City, please visit: http://battlecity.looble.com/ (http://battlecity.looble.com/)

this looks really interesting, i'll try and check it out this evening. i would say that the graphics could use some work, theyre pretty abrasive. part of it may be the fact that the screens are jpgs, over all the artistic design is very busy and awkward. i'll try and give a better critique when i try it out.

I gave this a look tonight, unfortunately I was the only one on. Hung out for 15 minutes or so. I think it's cool and has a lot of potential, but to be honest, it's not something I would play right now. What I would like to see to make this game something I would want to play regularly:

* unify the visual style. Right now the tanks are really cute, but the buildings kind of clash, and don't blend well with the terrain, it's hard to explain (maybe because they have such a hard defined edge against the terrain tiles?)...it seems like the buildings are just a little more aggressive visually than the tanks would lead one to think.

* it's hard to tell where you can place buildings. There seems to be definitely places you can't put them, but then it's trial and error where you can put them, and once they're down, they're down.

* blend the UI (the right hand column) more into the overal display, maybe with a kind of HUD that's more in-game; sorry if this is possible and I just didn't see it.

* some of the tank movement controls are a little odd, for example sometimes pressing up moves you straight up, but sometimes it moves you up and to the side a little? This seems to happen after you've rotated the tank a few times.

* the laser fire at least was hard to see against the basic ground tile color. Maybe just beef up the laser fire?

* update the dialog boxes and meta-UI, so it's not just square white boxes with a lot of small plain text. In general make the help and readme more concise and easier to find how to do things.


I want to emphasize that this game looks like it could be fun, and updating the visuals and interface right now could really make it shine. Hopefully I'll catch some more people on and get a better feel for the mechanics too.

Thanks for the feedback! Definitely keep it coming ;)

@george - When you say unify the visual style, do you think I should go with the more aggressive look, or try to match the look to the cuter, rounder tanks? Also, the current default graphics are on the more aggressive/darker side. As you can see from the above screenshots, there is also a more happy-looking theme with a brighter, green-grass look. Do you, or others, think that might be more welcoming? I've tried both, and users can download and switch themes. I'm just undecided as to which would be the best default look.

About building placement, thats a really important point I hadn't considered before. When you build, it must be within a certain distance of your command center (the 1 building you start with that can't be moved). Of course, while I may know this, its not obvious to a new player. Thanks!

Hey I remember playing this online in 97! The sound effects bring back memories even :)
No one ever plays though, perhaps that full name requirement on sign up is a big turnaway for potential players.

and the cannon sound effect reminds me of the pirate ship in that one 1997 directplay test game I forgot the name of... but it involved a red car that transforms into one!

will try this game out when i go home.
But looking at the screenshots, I feel that the font needs to be changed as well as improve the graphics.

I agree. The buildings are just wierd and big and they almost all look the same.
But other than that it looks good.