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[JpFo]

Roller/bounce/spin your way through a short ten level game. The goal is to use the NPC to bounce onto tiles while trying to find the correct portal to the next level. Some portals bring the player to alternative levels or bring the player back to previous levels. All tiles and actors are custom made in Abobe Illustrator. Background animations are scanned in abstract drawings made during a boring lecture! Enjoy!

http://www.stencyl.com/users/index/36391

[dishmoth]

I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing.  I couldn't tell if I was making progress or not.  I couldn't work out the purpose of the enemies/NPCs/whatever they were.  I could barely control the character.  I could hardly even see the platforms some of the time.

But I did quite like the background drawings.

[Squid Party]

It was quite confusing and even though you have some nice art in the background it makes the game feel very cluttered and makes it hard to see, also the level design was pretty bad

[Jcup]

Pretty much made me rage along with a side of seizures.

This game has potential but things like he cant roll all the way over and sometimes the jump does nothing was frustrating. Work on the actual game play and how it feels and a good game will arise

[TheAdam]

It feels like you were in the middle of prototyping something playable then decided to build levels before the gameplay was refined. Based on the level design you have, you might as well have a smaller character that doesn't roll around and fall down all the time. If you really like the roller idea, make it easier and more satisfying to control and make the levels much much much more open with stuff that really takes advantage of the roller concept. Like ramps, conveyor belts, loops, that kind of stuff.

But yeah, first thing you need to do is fix the core gameplay.

[JpFo]

Thanks for all the advice! The project isn't close to complete. I just released an updated version of the game.
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/11200

[capn.lee]

I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing.  I couldn't tell if I was making progress or not.  I couldn't work out the purpose of the enemies/NPCs/whatever they were.  I could barely control the character.

things like he cant roll all the way over and sometimes the jump does nothing was frustrating. Work on the actual game play and how it feels

If you really like the roller idea, make it easier and more satisfying to control and make the levels much much much more open with stuff that really takes advantage of the roller concept. Like ramps, conveyor belts, loops, that kind of stuff.

But yeah, first thing you need to do is fix the core gameplay.

I played both versions and I think all of this feedback still applies. the character doesn't move by rolling, he just rolls when he collides with a platform, I'd recommend either disabling the rolling or programming in some kind of roll mechanic, look into 'rotate with force' and have him wobble like a weeble, or just 'rotate by n degrees' and add that as part of the movement code.

In the 2nd version, I couldn't even figure out where I was supposed to be going. The only path I felt I had available to me was to head down and I just fell off the bottom of the level.

In building a platformer, I would really recommend you first build a prototype level, some bits with jumps, some claustrophobic areas, add any major mechanic you plan for the game and see how it plays out. find a problem? iron it out, make the character fun to navigate on his own. Once you have that exactly as you want it, then start building the levels around what is fun to do with the character. Thats what people mean by 'work on the core gameplay'