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[SmudgedCat]

Hello all, I've just released a demo of my upcoming game, Gateways.  If anyone wants to give it a try I'd really appreciate any feedback.

http://www.smudgedcat.com/gateways/Gateways%20Demo%20Setup.exe

It's a 2D platformer which bears some similarity to Portal but is set in a Metroidvania style map and adds different types of gateway.  The demo lets you play around with the normal and resizing gateway guns but the full game will feature guns that let you walk on walls and travel in time.

There's a gameplay trailer on You Tube that explains the different gateways:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJIn8WoR3M

And here's a pic:



There's more info here:

http://www.smudgedcat.com/gateways.htm

Cheers,

    Dave

[omgnoseat]

I was pretty amazed by a gameplay video on indiegames.com on this game, but this was pretty dissapointing to be honest. I think the demo itself is not interesting enough the first 5 minutes; only being able to jump and not encountering anything exciting. I was about to quit and then I found the portal gun. But the controls we're so incredibly confusing that I quit immediatly after.

I found it incredibly hard to find out why my gun was pointing at the place it was pointing to; I think some sort of visual representation of the mouse would help alot.And the character should also turn around when the mouse passes the character on the x-axis.

I'm sorry if this comes across as a rant, but the game has alot of potential, and I don't think alot of people will see it's brilliance when the first few minitues are not exciting and/or confusing.

[SmudgedCat]

I appreciate you taking the time to look at it.  Sorry you didn't enjoy it, obviously I was hoping you'd get more out of it than you did.

The beginning bit is supposed to be more of an introduction and I thought I'd made it so you get the first gun pretty quickly.  There are a few enemies to jump at and power orbs to collect along the way which I thought might keep people going forward.  Is there anything you thought might make the beginning a bit more interesting?

[omgnoseat]

I think an easy solution would be to give the player access to the gun a bit sooner, after the jumping I guess. I would like to note that this is all just my personal experience, could be that I just have a short attention span haha.

[Cheezmeister]

Um. I got stuck in the options screen. No Esc to exit menus? Or is it me?

[Poya]

The video looks really cool, but the game doesn't really start for me. The process is created but dies after a few seconds.

My computer:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 - 2630QM
- Graphics: I have both an onboard Intel Graphics chip and Radeon 6770M. I tried running with both but neither worked.
- Memory: 8GB
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit

Let me know if want any other information about the system... what's the framework you're using? Do I need to have anything else installed?

[SmudgedCat]

Um. I got stuck in the options screen. No Esc to exit menus? Or is it me?

Backspace took you back in the menus.  I've just changed this and uploaded a new demo though so esc takes you back in v1.01.

Cheers,

    Dave

[SmudgedCat]

The video looks really cool, but the game doesn't really start for me. The process is created but dies after a few seconds.

My computer:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 - 2630QM
- Graphics: I have both an onboard Intel Graphics chip and Radeon 6770M. I tried running with both but neither worked.
- Memory: 8GB
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit

Let me know if want any other information about the system... what's the framework you're using? Do I need to have anything else installed?

It certainly should work given your specs.  The game is built on XNA 4.0 but the installer should check for that and install it if it's missing.  Would you mind having a look to see if it has been installed?

Does the game display anything at all or can you just see that the process is created?

Cheers,

    Dave

[Poya]

Ok finally got it working. I played it for a few minutes and here are just some first impressions:

- Great music. Especially the menu music. Really good!

- Love the setting and the professor...it has a fun look and feel. I have to admit that I found the "jump grunt" kind of funny but it gets a little too much after a while. Maybe have a few softer versions?

- I'm a sucker for good / intriguing stories. Even if it's really really simple. Maybe you already have plans around this, but when at the beginning of the game I read something like "There was a malfunction...can you get the professor out?", it doesn't really grab my attention. But if I read something like "After receiving a strange signal from outer space, things started going a bit crazy around the lab..." it gives a different feel to the whole game. Again maybe you already have plans for this so I'll stop now

- I was a little unsure as to what I need to be doing exactly. Seeing things like "You need something else to finish this puzzle" doesn't help.

- The tutorial text snippets are great. Maybe you can make them stand out a little more from the background.

- The gateway device is awesome! It makes my programmer brain get excited to try and figure out how you did that. Very cool, and fun.

- The control of the gateway gun/device needs some work; it seems a bit erratic as it moves the screen around a lot and sometimes to a position way in the distance. Not quite sure how you can help it though...maybe the screen should just stay stationary?


Anyway great work. It's looking good!

[SuperDisk]

It does look pretty cool! But the gateway placing system is ridiculous. The camera jacks around and follows the gateway even when you're not trying to place one. Perhaps you should press a button to go into 'placing mode' and then press it again to go into 'walking mode' or something.

The story was a bit shallow as well, but that shouldn't matter if you've got great gameplay

[Cheezmeister]

I'll third the erratic gateway control. Would be much better if you could (a) see your cursor and (b) aim behind Ed (or just turn him around while aiming). Unintentional camera panning is also a pain, but not sure how you can get rid of that without dropping the ability to aim way off in the distance, which is kind of cool.

On story--I don't mind a total lack of story, but yours seems kind of half-assed. There's some exposition and environmental hints, but then there are things with no explanation or justification at all, like help points, that just kill any suspension of disbelief.

Gameplay-wise, the help points are a great idea. I just wish they didn't remind me that I'm playing a game. You could probably even get away with giving them NO explicit explanation, and letting the player figure out how they work, in true retro style.

I'm getting codergasms as well at some of the effects in this game, nicely done. Some things could use extra polish, e.g. the pendulum-esque motion of dangling lights isn't very convincing. But I nitpick.

[SmudgedCat]

Thanks for the feedback people.  Looks like the way you place gateways definitely needs to change.  I really wasn't sure what the best way to do it with the mouse was.  I originally designed the game using an XBox pad so you just aim with the right thumbstick which feels a lot more natural.

I'm going to try leaving the aiming controls as they are (ie. mouse up and down to change the direction you aim) but not limit the angle you can aim at so you can aim behind yourself.  I won't pan the camera around while you're positioning a gateway to prevent the erratic movement but if you hold shift then the view will change to look at where you're aiming.  Would that work?

I know the game essentially has no story and I had been wondering if I should try and do something to spice it up.  I think the comments I've had here have convinced me that there needs to be some kind of story going on so I'm going to have a think what kind of story I can add.  With a bit of luck it'll let me make the start of the game a bit more interesting as well.

Thanks again for all the comments!

Cheers,

    Dave

[ham and brie]

Why not have the mouse control a cursor like it normal does and point the aim toward it? The screen can pan when the cursor is moved to the screen edge.

[SmudgedCat]

Why not have the mouse control a cursor like it normal does and point the aim toward it? The screen can pan when the cursor is moved to the screen edge.

I'm just not sure how well that would work if you're aiming at something quite far away.  I then have to decide when the camera should pan back to the player as well.  At the moment it pings back if you start moving but if you've just scrolled the screen to see a wall that your aiming at and then have to adjust position slightly it could be annoying to pan all the back again to re-aim.

I'll certainly look into possibilities with aiming a cursor on-screen and taking the angle between the player and cursor as the angle to aim at.

Cheers,

    Dave

[SuperDisk]

I suggest having 2 modes. Walk mode, fire mode. Walk mode is self explanatory, and in fire mode, you click and a projectile makes a line for the mouse and follows it straight. You could still fire at stuff from far away.

Edit: Just noticed that is what you proposed one post up. Sorry