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[EdTheEidolon]

UPDATE 5/30
Based on some feedback, I have added a custom cursor that changes when mousing over objects that you can interact with. In addition, particle effects triggered by the left mouse click only appear when interacting with certain objects. Hopefully this helps clarify the mechanics a bit!

Hey all!

My name is Ryan and I am working on a new game called Tar (my second game). It has kind of been my pet project to help me learn Unity and to also get another game in my portfolio. At the moment, I have no plans to sell it since I don't think I am up to that level, but I still want to make it the best game that I can, so any feedback you all can give me would be super helpful.

HERE IS THE LINK: http://www.edtheeidolon.com/tar/
The page has a breakdown of the controls, but try to avoid reading those until you play the game. I want to see if the tutorial screens I include in some of the levels are effective at teaching you how to play. Also, the game saves after you beat every level so you can play it over multiple sessions.

A brief overview: Tar is a 2d puzzle/platformer where you play a tarsier (that doesn't look anything like an actual tarsier) who must navigate through treacherous obstacles in a laboratory. The mechanical twist is that there are certain object that you can interact with using the mouse (move blocks, link teleports, slow time). I also tried something a little different with the level selection layout, breaking up the level trees into two paths (platformer stuff/puzzle stuff). Once you unlock both chains, you can go back and forth and beat them in tandem, or knock out one branch before moving on to the other.

And now, PICTURES!









As far as feedback goes, I would love to hear any and everything you guys have to say about it. If you want specific things to look for, there are a few areas of critique that I would especially like to get some opinions on:

• Controls:
• How did the player control (movement/jumping)?
• What did you think of the added mouse controls (moving blocks/connecting teleports)?
• How did the two sets of controls function together?
• Level Variety:
• What did you think of the levels being split into two paths?
• Did you have a preference between either branch (platform/puzzle)?
• Did any levels feel repetitive/redundant of previous sections?
• Difficulty:
• Were there any levels where you got stuck/were unable to complete? If so, what obstacles prevented you from progressing?
• Also, what was the level name (you can see this by hovering over the level icon in the level selection menu)?
• Art:
• Did any of the art serve to negatively impact your experience (ex: levels too cluttered)?
• Did the tutorial screens effectively teach you how to play the game?
• Misc:
• Was there anything you tried/thought you would be able to do when playing that you were unable to (ex: interacting with the mechanics in a certain way/alternate solutions to obstacles)?
• Did you notice that you could play during the title screen (not really a big deal, I just thought it was cool)?
• How awesome are you for helping me with my game (on a scale of Liam Neeson to Ian McKellan)?

So that is enough talking from me! Again, if any of you can find the time to try out my game and give me some feedback/pointers, I would be extremely grateful. Also, I am going to try and sort through the feedback section and do my part to keep good critiques going. If you need an extra set of eyes on your project, just drop a link and I will check it out as soon as I can!

[Quicksand-S]

I didn't play through the entire thing, but that was only because I was in the middle of other stuff when I decided to take a break and try it.

Controls were pretty good. I'm not sure why there's a run button. Walking slowly seems almost entirely useless. The mouse control works well, but I would've liked some more feedback. Maybe a mouseover effect, in addition to the selection glow. I did get stuck briefly at the first teleporter because I was standing in front of it and that kept the connection from working.

From the short bit I played, level design seemed fine. I may play more later.

The only "big" gameplay-related issue I had with the art was the particle effect when I clicked on things. It seemed to suggest that my click was having an effect, when it really wasn't. I also feel like the enabled/disabled blocks could show their state a little more clearly (ex. become more transparent when disabled). I found the tutorials sufficient, although the slow-time one was a bit weird. Some of the animation is a bit disappointing or strange (ex. the falling animation, where the character just sticks out a foot for some reason). Deaths lacked impact. A damage flash seems to work better when you have health. For a one-hit death, I would've expected an animation.

I noticed right away that the title screen was playable. It was accidental. I just started clicking on things, wondering if there was a way to activate that object (which I didn't know was a teleporter). The title screen actually taught me much of what I needed to know, before I even got into the game.

I don't think I encountered any bugs, except maybe a moving block that went into a wall slightly before snapping to the proper position. From what I played, it seems like a pretty good game.

[EdTheEidolon]

Thanks so much for the feedback!

I haven't experimented with it yet, but I will look into Unity's mouse GUI features and see about making a custom mouse cursor. When you highlight over certain objects, it's sprite can change to indicate that you can interact with it.

That is a really good point about the run button. I actually like having a toggle between walk/run so you can get more precision when lining up to land on blocks and stuff. But now that you mention it, I will see about making "run" the default movement speed and have shift hold trigger your walk speed.

I understand what you mean about the damage flash for dying. That is currently just a placeholder for an actual animation, so I will work on getting one in there. I will see if I can tweak the falling sprite to make it look better as well. I wanted distinct poses for jumping/falling, but maybe it looks a bit too wonky.

[The_Flying_Walrus]

As the previous poster indicates, the particles that appear on a mouse click are confusing. I never know if I've clicked correctly or not, and the particles seemed to indicate that I have, when I clearly have not. Also, the character sprite tends to clip through other sprites. I'm not sure what you used for collision detection, but the character sprite doesn't always match the (Theoretical) hit-box; this makes platforming a bit more challenging than it needs to be. 

 Other than those issues, you've made a very nice game. Looking forward to what you create in the future.

[EdTheEidolon]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, based on what you and Quicksand said, I went ahead and touched up all the left click stuff. Now there is a custom cursor. I also fixed the particles that show up when clicking. Now they only show up when clicking on objects that can actually be interacted with instead of just all the time.

I will look into the hitbox stuff too. I purposefully made it a little smaller than the actual character sprite because I thought it fit better to have the hitbox be the main body of the character. Otherwise the left and right borders would be the points of his ears, which stretch out a little past the rest of his body. I will fiddle around with it though and see if I can make it work better. Thanks again for the awesome pointers, and let me know if you think of anything else!