next »

[hmm]

Hey all,

I've a new game in dire need of some playtesting!

PLAY RAKETA

Controls:
z,m - control rocket ship
r - reset level
h - return to level select


About
RAKETA (russian for Rocket) is a super minimal game about space exploration and the beauty of ballistics. Challenging controls, lots of different mechanics added as you play, hopefully an interesting, unique experience.

So please give it a go! Let me know what you think. And if you have time I have a couple of questions:

• How did you find the difficulty?
• An usability issues?
• Do you want to see more levels?
• Were you interested enough to replay levels you'd already completed?
• Any other comments on the experience as a whole?

Enjoy!

[Quicksand-S]

I really liked the first few levels. I'm not usually very good at these sorts of games and so I don't enjoy them, but I found myself liking this. The speed at which the ship rotates, and stops rotating, seems pretty ideal to me.

I wasn't a fan of the level in which the two halves were introduced, though, because suddenly that nice "Hey. I can do this!" feeling disappeared and was replaced by frustration with the controls. Personally, I feel like it would be nice to be able to get used to the mechanic in a more open area before having to steer through holes like that. Actually, the difficulty curve was really weird. The four or five levels after that one were MUCH easier because there was nowhere to get stuck upside down and I had more room to maneuver.

I'm not sure if you are already planning this, but some boundaries and actual failure states might be nice. Having to manually reset every time my ship gets stuck upside down or goes offscreen made the game feel a bit unpolished. Maybe rather than hard boundaries, you could give players a short amount of time to get back on-screen before they "die".

Also on the subject of getting stuck upside down, I kept wishing for a reverse thruster, or a slightly different shape of ship (or different thruster positions) that would allow me to roll it back to the proper rotation if it's upside down. That might make some areas too easy, though.

It would be nice if the game window actually had an outline or something because it's very easy to go off the bottom when it's black because you don't realize how close you are to the edge.

I think the sound should be tied to the thrusters rather than the speed of the ship. It seemed weird to hear a thrust-like sound when my ship was falling and I wasn't pressing anything. Also, the sound can get really loud if you let your ship fall and doesn't loop smoothly.

The grey area was a nice idea, but I just really don't like how most failures in the game come down to either getting lost off-screen or getting stuck upside down. It's just frustrating because I guess I'm used to games where as long as I haven't "died" I'm able to find a way to succeed. In this game, that's not the case.

I didn't finish, but what I played was pretty good. The difficulty curve was really strange, but the gameplay felt great for the most part. Nice work.

[hmm]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Really useful stuff.

Difficulty curve is definitely an issue. I plan to add more levels so I'll hopefully introduce new mechanics in a smoother way. I actually watched someone play the game yesterday and they had the same issues with the first of the 'two halves' levels.

I'm also going to look into adding failure states for falling off the screen and getting stuck. I'd be happy to add this, because it would also reduce the need to teach the player how to use the reset button in the first place. Good call!

Its an interesting point about the nature of the failures in the game. It was deliberately designed from the start to not have deaths. I realise this goes against prevailing design advocating clear fail states.

[Quicksand-S]

It was deliberately designed from the start to not have deaths. I realise this goes against prevailing design advocating clear fail states.

I should clarify my point. I actually really like that I don't die from hitting the ground too hard or flipping. That's what makes this game far more enjoyable to me than most similar games. Maybe a reverse thruster combined with limited health would be good, so you can right your ship when it's upside down but if you scrape against the ground too much while doing it then you'll explode. This would give players a solid failure state (and, like you said, diminish the need for the reset button) while still not being as difficult or unpredictable as some Lunar Lander-style games.

[chromewing]

I like the black and white gravity mechanic, but the one thing I had trouble with was coordinating the controls once you flipped to the other side.  Maybe switching the two thrusters once you go in the black?  Or having an option for it?

[Photon]

I found this strangely entertaining.

It felt quite satisfying to control a rocket by manually controlling two thrusters. It took me awhile just to get past the first level but things moved a LITTLE bit smoother once I got going. The difficulty curve is definitely a bit steep... maybe the game should move just a touch slower/thrusters should have a little less force? It wouldn't surprise me if the difficulty was somewhat intentional, but I feel like I'd want just a bit tighter control over the rocket... even though its already quite amusing to drive in the first place! 

[bornander]

I like these sort of games, and I think your minimalistic graphics are cool.

I recently made a very similar game myself, http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=43833.0, if you're on Android I would love to hear your opinion on it.

Cheers.

[ActionGamemaster]

Скорее всего это у меня плохо с компьютером, так как такое раньше случалось в html играх. Я начинаю игру после экрана загрузки Unity, появляется черное белое лого "Ракета", уходит. Дальше был лист русских ракет в хронологическом порядке, светилась "Лайка". Я нажимаю на все кнопки, на r,z,m,h, на английской и русской клавиатуре, ничего не происходит. Что я делаю не правильно?
Пока русский плохо знаю, но думал, что ты лучше поймешь проблему на русском.
Мой компьютер Mac OS X 10.9.5.

[Quicksand-S]

Скорее всего это у меня плохо с компьютером, так как такое раньше случалось в html играх. Я начинаю игру после экрана загрузки Unity, появляется черное белое лого "Ракета", уходит. Дальше был лист русских ракет в хронологическом порядке, светилась "Лайка". Я нажимаю на все кнопки, на r,z,m,h, на английской и русской клавиатуре, ничего не происходит. Что я делаю не правильно?
Пока русский плохо знаю, но думал, что ты лучше поймешь проблему на русском.
Мой компьютер Mac OS X 10.9.5.

It's a bit weird, since there's no visual indication, but you actually use the mouse on that screen.

[Jupitron]

Hi!

First impression:
-Controls felt inverted to me, ill swap them.
-Difficulty its ok, i have an issue trying to master ships control.
-I wont play a level again.
-Definitely worth the effort to finish it. Its an awesome idea.

[FritziJay]

Just wanted to drop in and give some feedback.
- At first I didn't like the controls, but that period lasted for like 30 seconds then I got the hang of it
- The controls turned out to be really good (as long as I didn't have to flip at the halved level)
- I think the game could benefit from better graphics (just from a selling-it or getting-people-to-play-it point of view), that said I think the visual design as it is supports the gameplay very well
- Although everything is black/white the sizes of things were a clear indicator to me (of where I had to go)
- I really like that there's no "losing"/"death" condition when touching the ground
- However I was often times confused when my rocket was off-screen

All in all I like it and think you've got something cool here
Best of luck!

[Rastrelly]

I reeeeeally liked this stuff, though with my awfully awful reaction it was too hard for me to control the rocket. Но вообще офигенчик полный, категорический одобрямс! I liked minimalistic design, and as some people here I was confused when I got to level select screen - there's no indication of that you need to use mouse XD I think I'll retry again and maybe push at least a little deeper into the game )

[CrispyVitamin]

Just tried few levels and here are some thoughts:
-Control is easy to learn and challenging, which is a good thing
-black/white gravity area is a good design
-I can accept the visual, be others might want a better graphic representation

And here are some ideas if you want to make a more advanced/difficult mode:
-Fuel meter: rocket movement consumes fuel in advanced mode
-Fuel cell: rocket can replenish fuel by acquiring fuel cells
-Gravity blocks: just like the black/white area, but in smaller shape and different gravity directions
-Weapon system/guided misssle/hostile AI UFOs: nah I'm just kidding 

[FelineArts]

i had some fun minutes with this game, here are my toughs.

-control is easy to lear but hard to master, i was all the time like "oh stupid hands"
-i had some problems in some levels when i did not knew in which side was the goal, i tough "oh maybe this is still a demo and this level cant be cleared" then i hit the other side by mistake and i went to the next level, maybe some indication of which side is the is the correct for the goal.
-also i think that the level should restart automatically, maybe after some seconds of being outside the screen.
-i could not understand the first menu xD

everything else is amazing, i think the idea is great =3. thanks for sharing!

[tjcbs]

Could not adapt to the inverted controls. Looking forward to trying again when you fix that!

[hmm]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

There definitely seems to be some clear points for me to address, such as resetting automatically, and perhaps tidying up or removing the level selection screen.

I've noticed that a few people have had issues with the controls as soon as gravity is inverted. I will play around with this and see what works best. I'm so used to the way it is that I don't think I could deal with inverting the controls, but I'll try it out anyway!

I'll also add a few more levels to smooth out the learning curve, and hopefully introduce some fun variations. I like the fuel meter idea.

Cheers!

[Ooops]

I basically agree with everything that has been said. The inverted controls are OK, inho. Sure, it's a challenge, but it can be adapted to.

I would maybe use keys other than z and m, as it doesn't make much sense for azerty keyboards (but is still manageable).

[tjcbs]

I didn't mean the gravity inversion was a problem. I felt the keys were reversed, and I really couldn't get used to it. I think that should really be an option you can toggle.

[hmm]

Yeah, I gotcha! Had the same problem with some playtests I did in person. Its strange, because the controls do the same thing they always did, but inverting the gravity causes some serious brain backflippery.

[hmm]

Hi all,

I've updated the game with a couple of the changes. Let me know what you think!
PLAY RAKETA

Cheers,

Luke