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[hmm]

Hey all,

I've made a new, super simple one button browser game called electrobe.

play it here

The main questions I have for you, my esteemed peers, are;

• is it obvious how to play?
• is it fun?
• do you have any other comments?

Thanks!

[Udderdude]

is it obvious how to play?

It became obvious what the goal was rather quickly, although the flickering graphics were distracting me from figuring it out.

is it fun?

Subjective of course, but to me it got boring rather quickly.

do you have any other comments?

The random position of the dots could easily leave you with a scenario where it's impossible to survive.

[hmm]

Thanks for the feedback Udderdude. Just one point.

The random position of the dots could easily leave you with a scenario where it's impossible to survive.

It may seem that way, but it is never impossible to survive. In fact, I feel that navigating these "impossible" scenarios is the key to really enjoying the game.

I hope you have another go and see what I mean. Perhaps the game is too unclear.

[zoq]

Hey all,

I've made a new, super simple one button browser game called electrobe.

play it here

The main questions I have for you, my esteemed peers, are;

• is it obvious how to play?
• is it fun?
• do you have any other comments?

Thanks!

After maybe 2 seconds it was obvious how to play. Now that I think, one might mistakenly believe that the objective is to collect the circles, not avoid them. Perhaps making them more dangerous looking could help.

It was (very) fun for a few minutes, but even though the challenge level was constantly increasing, I got bored quite fast. I played only 1 round, got 550 or so points. Maybe the problem was that a big part of each cycle was exactly the same as during the previous cycle.

The flickering was unpleasant, even though otherwise I liked the minimalistic style. Also, I don't like java in web games. Third, a high score cookie or something like that would probably be a good idea. What I mean is that if a player closes the browser and comes back later, the previous high score is still there. This is standard in all the flash games in the world, and many people will expect this.

[Udderdude]

Thanks for the feedback Udderdude. Just one point.

The random position of the dots could easily leave you with a scenario where it's impossible to survive.

It may seem that way, but it is never impossible to survive. In fact, I feel that navigating these "impossible" scenarios is the key to really enjoying the game.

I hope you have another go and see what I mean. Perhaps the game is too unclear.

I see what you mean now, you can slowly tap a key to stay in the center of the line and never be in danger.  Although that poses another problem, in that it's trivially easy to never be in any danger at any point, as you can stay in the center as long as you want.

I'd consider adding something where you can only be in the center away from danger for a certian amount of time, or if you spend too much time there you start losing points.

[senorbarborito]

hi

I always try to give honest feedback, so here it goes.

the problem for me is that there's a total lack of variety.  I played a couple times, got to 665 points and thought "right, that's that".

there's no reason to keep playing beyond improving my score, but I didn't feel there was much point in that.  in my opinion you need more powerups, or a strong twist to the gameplay of some type.

the game doesn't make me think "I wonder what will happen next".  I find this is what keeps me playing in most cases.

I'd try putting some powerups in there (speed, rebound, multiball?) and different types of enemies, as well as making the shape of the line change in much more interesting ways.  also note that these variations need to be introduced gradually, so the player is enterntained, not overwhelmed.

but, to answer your questions:

-is it obvious how to play?
yes

-is it fun?
I'd say it's not fun beyond the initial "figuring out the game" stage

[hmm]

Okay all, thanks for the feedback.

Overall it seems the lack of moving parts makes the experience short lived and uninteresting? Whilst my aim was to focus the design by keeping it as simple as possible, this seems to be holding the game back.

So, a couple of potential remedies:

• introducing multiple 'electrobes' to step up the difficulty and provide some variety
• altering the behaviour of the line
• reversal of controls (and colour scheme)

I'll hopefully add these to the mix in the next day or two. I hope you have the time to come back and check it out!

Thanks again!