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[lobstersteve]

Hey there

So here i am, with my first attempt to make a game.

It's a vertical platformer about a cat, that has to climb a cat tree. It's pretty basic, but i still enjoy platformers even if they have basic mechanics, if the level design is somehow original.

I also really have to satisfy my need to make a platformer, as i played around with this idea since an early age.  

It's my first game, so it surely won't be on the same level with some games here, but i would like to hear some opinions before releasing it and redo some stuff.  

So..some things that would be of interest:

1) Is it too hard?

2) Would the game need more easy - get to know the controls - sections?

3) How do the controls feel like?

4) Is it too short?


 



http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/99d64f0aed7768b1d44918de9b4fefa6


..also i really suck at art

[williamkwan]

Got stuck at the part where you have to jump three platforms over the spikes while the trios of balls are falling down. I kept getting returned to that area, and it was frustrating because it seemed like the timing of the the first trio of balls seems to change? As in at first, I there was a gap between the 1st and 2nd balls but as I played longer, this gap would get smaller.

But overall, it's a good game. Definitely prefer this over randomly generated vertical platformers like Doodle jump. But also much more challenging.

[LionsYardGames]

I have to say, the loading time on the game was pretty ridiculous but it may have just been Newgrounds or my internet being slow right now. If you do know that it is you please try to optimize it a little bit more because trust me, I wouldn't want to wait 3 minutes for this game to load up like I did.

The first thing that I noticed when I got into the actual game was that the controls seemed to be a little bit slippery, when moving the character he keeps on going for a short period of time after you let go of the key. This may have been on purpose but I don't find this sort of thing very ideal for platform type games as it gets quite annoying. The balls did seem to be offset little by little like the person above me mentioned. I think that new spawn/checkpoints should be started from the grey blocks because sometimes I was feeling as if I had beaten a section just to be returned to a different spawn point other than the one I thought that I was at. Or at least make the spawn blocks a different color.

Overall the game is pretty fun and time killing though, it's really great.

[Ancient Account]

The loading times were fine for me...

The controls are slippery. And the there truly needs to be more checkpoints.
Most of the things are already said by the two guys above me.

Other than that, the game is pretty good. "Super Meat Cat Boy"

[Cognative]

Pretty nice timewaster.

I thought the game was okay in terms of difficulty, it didn't take me long but if you were to make it harder chances are it would get frustrating.  Although I thought the last couple of obstacles were significantly easier than what had come before so it felt a bit limp there.

The controls felt a bit slippery but largely okay for the most part, the fact that the game mainly relies on jumping rather than running meant that this didn't matter too much.

For the length I felt it was about right.

I would note that some of the spike seems to jut out from the walls meaning that if you're sliding down you end up dying which is annoying.

[lobstersteve]

Thanks a lot for the feedback everyone

Stuff i'll definitely improve:

- make controls less slippery

- add some checkpoints and maybe make it more obvious where they are

- synchronize balls (which is really weird, because they are just offset, when playing online, must be some timer thing)

@ LionsYardGames
I can't do anything about loading though, it must have been your internet or newgrounds.

@ Cognative
Thanks. The ending feels a bit easy in comparisson indeed, i might do something there also.

 

[pladmi]

Hey there!

I actually enjoyed it quite a lot! It has some cool levels and concepts and it is pretty fun!

1) Sometimes! My main concern is that hitboxes feel bigger than they should be in my opinion. More than once I've thought to myself "Oh, that's bullshit, I shouldn't have died there!". Also, sometimes the game would revert me more than one checkpoint backwards, so I had to redo older sections, which is a bit silly. Oh, and timings are too tight to my taste. The main problem with beating a lot of puzzles is not to control the character perfectly, but to pick the right time to do it (and picking the right time has a degree of randomness to it).

2, 3) No, not really, controls were totally okay for me. Easy to grasp and easy to use.

4) Well, I haven't beaten it, I gave up after it reverted me a checkpoint or two back, so I don't know the entire length.

Just out of curiosity: how long did it take you to make this game?

[nibelheim]

I liked it.  Addictive a bit, feels a little like the newgrounds meat boy (original) for some reason, guess maybe that's a style.  It'd be nice if there was a little more... kick (or umph) to it.  Can't really articulate my meaning, but it lacks a little... something.

[William Chyr]

I just gave this game a go. It was actually really fun, and pretty good for what it is.

A few thoughts:

1) The controls are fine, but I'm not a big fan of the little bit of momentum that the character has after you release the arrow keys. Especially since there are quite a lot of really tight spots in the game, that extra bit of momentum really throws me off. The part where this really frustrated me was the section where you have to run through three saws, and you have to hide in the area between the saws. I would release the keys to stop, but then the character would continue to slide forward, hit the saw, and die.

2) The checkpoint system could use a little work. I would definitely make them more frequent. Also, I noticed in a few areas, if I fell down a few levels before dying, I'd end up at an earlier checkpoint than the latest one I was supposed to be at. With a game like this, where it's difficult enough to get past obstacles once, it was frustrating to have to solve them multiple times.

3) Love the rotation turning the jump. Nice touch.

All in all, a great first game. Really impressed with the work you've done. Just a few tweaks here and there to improve the experience for the player.  

[lobstersteve]

Hey everyone, thx again for the feedback  

I released the game by now, seems it doesn't get much positive reaction, but hey, it's my first game, i'll know what to do better next time.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/629876

I improved the checkpoint system by making visible flags as an indicator where you'll respawn - there are also more checkpoints and you don't fall back to a previous one.

The momentum after releasing the arrow keys is also smaller now (but maybe still not small enough)

@pladmi: It actually took quite long to make it, as i learned a lot of stuff in the process of making it. I've made a platform engine before, but small things like moving platforms were new to me, so you could say around one and a half months.

The one thing i will surely treat differently next time is art: i will keep it more minimalistic as it blocked me the most in creating the game, unless i will find someone who'll help me out with it.


Thanks again for the support, until next time