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[feglk]

UPDATE - A new version of the game has just been uploaded. Check it out below!

I'm making a prototype for a space exploration game, currently titled Hello World.

For me, it's about a lot of things, a culmination of ideas that have been building for some time.

For you, it's about flying a rocket around aimlessly and seeing what happens. It's an experience, hopefully leaving you feeling happily lost. I don't want to say too much as I want to see what you guys think of it without an influence in your opinions.

Influences include Proteus, anything by Amanita Design, and Fly Guy.

Massive thanks to:
Adam Wickens for the music/sound
Emma Shepherd for the animation
Sam Iles for the portals
Laurie Dix for additional writing and voice
Everyone who has played, tested, and fed back about the game so far

Controls are WASD or arrow keys

This is my first proper game attempt, and it's going pretty well. Steep learning curve, but it's been great to do. It isn't as populated with "stuff" as I would have liked, but it gets the concept across

The rocket is placeholder at the moment, but any other assets should be final.

As for the feedback, anything you think of would be great, but off the top of my head-

How are the controls?
How is the mood? How does it make you feel? What does it make you think of?
Do you feel like experience itself is enough to motivate the player?
What would you add in to the game? this is a prototype after all!
What other gameplay features (If any) would you like to see?



Thanks!

Play the game here http://gamejolt.com/games/other/hello-world/26658/

[Upside Down Bird]

Hi. Nice start to a game. I like the "enemies" that you find in space.

How are the controls?
Controls are ok once I got use to them. But that might be because I don't play a lot of computer games.

How is the mood? How does it make you feel? What does it make you think of?
The mood feels like adventure time really. The music and the huge octopi that are all happy and smiling. Really strange but I like it!

Do you feel like experience itself is enough to motivate the player?
Ummmm it did not necessarily make motivate me to keep flying around to explore. Maybe add something to interact with?

What would you add in to the game? this is a prototype after all!
Ha. I would add something to interact with!

What other gameplay features (If any) would you like to see?
I would like to see the ship make some friends that follow you around! That would make you feel happy i suppose.

Well I like the game and where it is heading. Are you planning on keeping this a web game?

You should check out my game. Its also set in space
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=39756.0

[feglk]

Thanks for the reply! I agree that it needs some more stuff to interact with. Its been harder than I thought to get people to animate for it. When I have the time to work on this seriously I might get somebody to work on it full time with me!

 I don't know if you found any of the things other than the octopi, but there are a couple of interactive bits around. Maybe a bit too hard to find... I like the idea of finding friends to follow you! I think I'll try add that in.

[danda]

Hey, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

I think the spinning movement at the beginning works well in setting the desired tone of the experience (by making direction a little irrelevant). This led to more aimless wandering rather than attempting to map out a space. Having objects appearing and disappearing later on helps with this as well I think. The only landmark I felt was the large nebula-type space near my starting point (I will say that I only played through one time).

Controls felt about as expected, although there did seem to be a little bit of an awkward transition from sitting still to moving. I wonder if the spinning star field could continue while moving, rather than stabalizing. Not sure how this would work/feel, just a thought.

I do feel like the experience was motivation enough for me, but part of that was driven by a nice unfolding of surprise (and the timing of this was actually really good). I also felt like there was some nice subtlety in the way the music and sound was evolving - this motivated me to continue as well. I felt like you, as the designer, were paying attention to the right kinds of things, and that made me want to continue. I actually ended up moving outside of the star field rather quickly (into solid black space), and I thought I had reached the edge of the experience you had intended, but I could continue flying. And just then I saw one of the (really nice) kaleidoscope looking objects. I found myself drifting around those objects and it felt nice. Taking a break and getting swallowed by one of the objects was also a nice surprise, especially because the game kept running without my ship (and without any text). I watched the screen for probably another 2 minutes. That was actually kind of a nice moment. I left the game not knowing if I had experienced everything that was out there (and this is a good thing as well).

What would I add? I really like the things that surprise the player. So, maybe this could be expanded in unexpected ways. A player may imagine that they will continue to encounter more strange and beautiful objects. But like the kaleidoscope objects, the relationship of those objects to the player may be unclear and give the game some interesting tension. There may also the potential to have new or unexpected mechanics. Like the previous reply said there could be meaningful interactions with other objects. But this could also change the current direction of the game, opening up narrative or goal oriented play. Whatever these things may be I would make sure they support the "happily lost" feeling you are going for because right now I think that feeling is actually coming across rather well. I'm also curious if you are okay with the game being a short experience. Maybe a (nicely polished) game experience that lasts about the same time as a long walk in the park would be fitting here.

[feglk]

Thanks man, the best kind of feedback I could hope for! It seems you have hit the nail on the head with what it's about, and brought up a few helpful points.

I think you are right about the jarring from the still-moving transition... I'll have a play with what I can do to make it nicer. I also agree about the length - I think a short, crafted experience has much more value than a 30 hour one that gets tiresome.

I have a lot of ideas of things I could add to the game, including elements of narrative (be it in a more disjointed, ideas based narrative as opposed to a sequence of events), puzzles, or even ground-based planet exploration. but these are things for another time, another iteration, when I have the skills and much more time...

I really want to be able to experiment more with the mechanics. Can't wait until I finish uni and actually have more time for working on stuff!

[feglk]

A new version has been uploaded. Have a look!

[feglk]

Ah ok. The last version was missing the music. Re-uploaded it with it back in!