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1076107 Posts in 44164 Topics- by 36129 Members - Latest Member: UmmagummaGames

December 30, 2014, 11:05:02 AM
TIGSource ForumsFeedbackPlaytestingMy First game: Videogame Game. Come to Critique.
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Author Topic: My First game: Videogame Game. Come to Critique.  (Read 2181 times)
KingZak
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« on: March 27, 2009, 12:44:39 PM »

A platformer.
Controls are Up, Left, Right, and space can jump as well.
Press 0 to restart room.

There's a way to skip rooms but I'm not going to post that here. Press 1 to go backward and two to go forward.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Long time reader, first time poster.

I was showing this off at the TSTC booth at screenburn@SXSW, and someone recommended I post my game here, so here it is:

http://www.designerofgames.com/kylesmith/Videogame%20game%201.0.exe

It was originally made at the IGDA Global Game Jam(48 hour game competition(which was actually made in 18 hours, a certain heavy dispute lead me to break off from my team with 19 hours to go)), and then I put some time in over the next four weeks to spruce it up.

I'm aiming for a job in the industry as a game designer so PLEASE CRITIQUE AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

Here's some promotional shots I made back then for the global game jam:





« Last Edit: March 27, 2009, 06:57:29 PM by KingZak » Logged
Captain_404
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« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2009, 02:31:45 PM »

Neat game, it has strong level design and a fun concept.

One thing that did irritate me a bit though is that LOVE INTEREST floats in mid air while PLAYER is flat against the ground. It feels a bit inconsistent to me. Perhaps either the player could float (doesn't seem like it would work with the way your level are designed) or LOVE INTEREST could stand on the ground like all us normal people do.

A lot of your levels have neat little twists to them that are used once and them never used again. If you were to add more levels later you might think about reusing expanding on some of these twists and maybe even combining them with other mechanics.

I hope you do expand it, as it's well worth it.
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lokijki
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« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2009, 03:27:01 PM »

Very fun. I pretty much agree with the previous statements.
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My games - Only at GameJolt.com
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« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2009, 04:00:44 PM »

Nat bad at all.
It's simple, but handles the simplicity well for what it is.

And I like the Alisia Dragoon remix.
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William Broom
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« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2009, 06:20:34 PM »

I didn't really get the point of this game. None of the parts meshed together. Was it just a floaty platformer? A commentary on videogames? An artgame on the themes of 'devotion' and 'perseverance'?

In the end it seemed like the placeholder graphics were just a way to get around drawing real graphics.

Also I thought it was too hard but I'm a whinger like that.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை
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« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2009, 06:42:07 PM »

Ha, this reminds me of a game where instead of an enemy graphic I just chose a menacing font and wrote CLOWN there, and that was the enemy:



I also called the attack "Vlad's Hit" instead of just "Hit", etc.
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The North
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« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2009, 01:14:20 PM »

Pointing out that your game is a stereotypical and boring platformer doesn't make it any less of one.  The platform engine was terrible, the levels mostly boring, and the "art" was unfunny and poorly drawn.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை
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« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2009, 01:17:40 PM »

Pointing out that your game is a stereotypical and boring platformer doesn't make it any less of one.  The platform engine was terrible, the levels mostly boring, and the "art" was unfunny and poorly drawn.

Hahah, whatever happened to TIGSource being a positive place to get constructive criticism :D

I think it's an achievement even to make a stereotypical boring platformer, at least for practice/learning purposes. Everyone's first few games are going to be bad.
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Zaphos
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« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2009, 03:23:43 PM »

Pointing out that your game is a stereotypical and boring platformer doesn't make it any less of one.  The platform engine was terrible, the levels mostly boring, and the "art" was unfunny and poorly drawn.
... there's a difference between hard critique and just being obnoxious.  It's fine to dislike something but try to be constructive.

Anyway, some comments about the game:

The platform engine feels sloppy specifically around corners -- as you fall off a ledge, if you press in to the ledge immediately afterward you 'snap' downwards in an awkward way.  And as you're coming up to a ledge, if you hold up you insta-jump off the ledge in a surprising way.

The jump-after-falling mechanic also feels like sloppy work, even though you use it in the level design so after a bit I accept it as intentional.  I don't recall it being in the games you're referencing so it seems like an odd choice.

The levels have a lot of cheap elements to their design, in that you hit a word bubble and the level suddenly changes, but you have no way of knowing how it will change and often this means that you *have* to replay to succeed.  When you have an area with three or four different 'changes,' this starts to really emphasize rote learning.

You've written CASTE instead of CASTLE, which looks like a typo.  'Love interest' is also misspelled.

The use of abstraction seems potentially interesting, but you don't go far enough with it to push it beyond the realm of the "oh, he just didn't have an artist ..." reaction.  It's worth thinking about whether the visual style can be tied more strongly in to the gameplay.  One thing that the simple directness would enable you to do quite well is to switch points of view: as an example, perhaps for our hero character the labels are as you've written, but for another character they are entirely different.  Another thought is that the abstract style gives it the feel a level editor, and you could play around with giving the player level editing control.  Or, as a third possible direction, you could have several different art styles which you can swap in on top of the tiles you have now, each of which matches the description but gives a very different view of the environment and what you're doing.

Overall -- for a game jam game I think this is definitely a solid effort!  And I think there's some potential in the underlying ideas, but currently it seems under-explored to me.
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The North
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« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2009, 07:48:54 PM »

Honestly, I would have been much more receptive of it if it wasn't full of pretentious post-modern wankery.

I guess my "constructive" criticism was supposed to be this:  Start with something simple and solid before you start deconstructing the medium.  Da Vinci came before Picasso, man.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2009, 07:52:12 PM by The North » Logged
Noyb
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« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2009, 09:07:44 PM »

The levels have a lot of cheap elements to their design, in that you hit a word bubble and the level suddenly changes, but you have no way of knowing how it will change and often this means that you *have* to replay to succeed.  When you have an area with three or four different 'changes,' this starts to really emphasize rote learning.
Each abstract concept disappears when you reach the word bubble, leaving only the "solid" blocks.

You've written CASTE instead of CASTLE, which looks like a typo.
Or a clever pun about the different social classes of a princess and a lowly plumber.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2009, 09:11:22 PM by Noyb » Logged

Zaphos
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« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2009, 11:32:04 PM »

Ah, I wasn't paying attention to the block titles really.  That makes sense.

About the pun thing -- I thought about it being a pun, but still it *looks like* a typo, especially when it's next to another spelling mistake that I couldn't see a similar explanation for.
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Fuzz
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« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2009, 12:12:42 AM »

The game's pretty good, but "love intrest"? Come on.
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Seth
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« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2009, 09:09:28 AM »

Ah, I wasn't paying attention to the block titles really.  That makes sense.

About the pun thing -- I thought about it being a pun, but still it *looks like* a typo, especially when it's next to another spelling mistake that I couldn't see a similar explanation for.

I think it's supposed to look like a typo that also becomes a pun, it was effective for me
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