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[Farbs]

I made a... thing. Except I haven't finished making it. In fact, I hope never to finish. That's actually the point. I should probably try again to explain. First though, here are some pictures:

Swears!



Skateboards



Space Rockets!

If any of these things tickle your fancy, please check it out here. It's in flash by the way, so you really have no excuse

Now I'll to try to explain what I'm doing. Are you ready? Then we'll begin.

Little Shit Planet is my attempt to fuse Golds' brilliant The Shit Game with the hyperepisodic medium of the blog. It's a Game & Blog, and it's a bit shit. The game world will grow, and the protagonist Crap Boy will blog to the player about it.

Under the hood, LSP is a collection of smaller flash games which connect to each other through a launcher app. These small games represent areas in the world, each with their own gameplay and internal logic. By teleporting the player into the other game spaces I effectively sew the game spaces together. In time I hope it'll all become one big organic muck of game, with every odd gameplay idea I have squeezed in somewhere.

Webcomics also provided a lot of inspiration for this, as I'm always amazed at how far the artist's drawing, writing, and fiction develop as they keep working on the same project. I want to do that with game development, and Little Shit Planet is how I'm going to try. This of course brings us to the (non spammy) reason for my post: Feedback. Since this game is supposed to continually grow and transform, it'll really help if I know what players think about it. Really, I want to know everything. Anything. Tell me about the sound, the gameplay, the art, the web layout, your first impressions, your last impressions, this guy on the bus who reminds you of Crap Boy... anything and everything is incredibly useful.

Oh, and bonus points go to whoever can recognize the rocket ship 

[reetva]

Maybe it's just me, but I found the half-pipe to be one of the most annoying things in Flash game history. I must be missing something because I just spent fifteen minutes trying to get past the damned thing and I never actually managed to do so. It certainly looks like it could be a lot of fun, but it's hard to tell right now. If you could make that part a tad less punishing (increase the speed a bit?) I think that more people (or just me, who knows?) would be able to fully enjoy the game.

[Alex May]

Without having tried the game (still at work) I think it's a really really great idea that's ruined by its name. I'll try the game itself out later, I like your games

[Renton]

Maybe it's just me, but I found the half-pipe to be one of the most annoying things in Flash game history. I must be missing something because I just spent fifteen minutes trying to get past the damned thing and I never actually managed to do so. It certainly looks like it could be a lot of fun, but it's hard to tell right now. If you could make that part a tad less punishing (increase the speed a bit?) I think that more people (or just me, who knows?) would be able to fully enjoy the game.

Seconded

[KennEH!]

Nothing after the spaceship?

I enjoyed a good bit, once I figured out what I was supposed to do.

[Renton]

I also have to say that blog-game concept is brilliant. But I have to agree with Haowan on the fact that the name is a ruiner.

[policedanceclub]

But I have to agree with Haowan on the fact that the name is a ruiner.

yes.


Also, I think the idea is awesome!

[deadeye]

I think the name is fine.  And the game is pretty slick once you get used to the movement.  It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out the trick to gaining speed quickly on the half-pipe, and once you get it down it's a breeze.  Here's how to do it for those of you having trouble:

1. Start off by jumping where it says "Jump," exactly on the arrows.  You can get a little speed that way.

2.  Once you've built it up enough to get partway up the wall of the half-pipe, wait until you're moving down the wall, then jump at about the middle of the bend.  You will launch yourself at the floor at a really shallow angle and pick up huge amounts of speed really quickly.  Jump right away when you hit the floor a couple of times to launch yourself further up the opposite wall.

3. Once you do that a couple times, you should have enough speed to jump from one bend in the half-pipe to the other without touching the floor.  Jump immediately at just the right moment when you hit the bend and it will launch you all the way to the top and bounce you into the ladder area to the cockpit.

Hope this helps.

I would like to see more levels, though

[Zaphos]

I think the name is fine.  And the game is pretty slick once you get used to the movement.  It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out the trick to gaining speed quickly on the half-pipe, and once you get it down it's a breeze.  Here's how to do it for those of you having trouble:

1. Start off by jumping where it says "Jump," exactly on the arrows.  You can get a little speed that way.

2.  Once you've built it up enough to get partway up the wall of the half-pipe, wait until you're moving down the wall, then jump at about the middle of the bend.  You will launch yourself at the floor at a really shallow angle and pick up huge amounts of speed really quickly.  Jump right away when you hit the floor a couple of times to launch yourself further up the opposite wall.

3. Once you do that a couple times, you should have enough speed to jump from one bend in the half-pipe to the other without touching the floor.  Jump immediately at just the right moment when you hit the bend and it will launch you all the way to the top and bounce you into the ladder area to the cockpit.

Hope this helps.

I would like to see more levels, though

Still, it's pretty annoying when every mistake forces you back in to a tedious minute of half piping, especially when you're just learning the controls and figuring out what's going on.

Especially since I'm so used to 'hold the button down longer to jump higher' controls, so when I'm getting in to the half piping, I end up holding the key down too long and accidentally end up immediately jumping on landing, which often means I have to restart the half pipe.  Perhaps it should only give on jump per key-down?

[deadeye]

I'm not usually a fan of pogo-jumping, but I think in this game it's probably necessary.  Otherwise it might be difficult to get the timing down on launching yourself really high because you'd bounce off of the half-pipe before you could launch yourself.  Yeah, it did get in the way a bunch at first when I was trying to get the controls down, but it was helpful in the end.

[skaldicpoet9]

I love the concept of this game but I have to agree with Haowan on the name. I think it deserves something a little less...shittier (pun intended). The half-pipe is a bit annoying and it seems like the jump mechanics are a little too finicky as I would gain speed and for whatever reason I would automatically jump off of the side of the half-pipe without pressing anything. I haven't made it to the rocket yet but I think it would be a perfect way to get to the other parts of the game instead of launching from a menu. If you could think of different ways to gain access to other areas in the game I think it would make the game more "organic". The only thing that I would add right now is to be able to grind on the skateboard, I don't think there should be any tricks as they would just complicate things but I think that being able to grind off of objects and gain speed would make the skating feel more complete. The idea of an evolving game is quite enticing to me, I'll be keeping my eye on this one for sure.

[medieval]

Once you get the hang of it you can beat it in like fifteen seconds.

[Alex May]

I enjoyed the halfpiping immensely. I liked the blog format too. Good stuff

[Farbs]

Cheers everyone!

It sounds like the feedback falls roughly into three categories:

1. The name is a turnoff
Whoops. It was only ever meant to be a working title, but I grew attached to it. I'll spend some time trying to think of a new one. Suggestions are most welcome.

2. The halfpipe is really hard, and isn't fun until you get the hang of it
Yep. Sorry about that. For some reason I thought I wouldn't need to focus test this. I was wrong. I'll rectify this by moving the player start area as the gameworld expands. I'll also give the player a chance to play with the skateboard in a more forgiving environment first.

3. The game is really short.
It is, but then that's kinda the point. As I keep working on the game the world will expand, so this shouldn't stay true for too long. I do plan to adjust and remove areas of the game as well though, so a player who waits for the game to be "finished" is going to miss a lot.

Thanks again for all the feedback. Hopefully we'll see the game grow and change quite soon.

[Bennett]

It's genius. Don't make it easier. These kids won't be happy until you've implemented quicksave, or a rewind button, or some other kind of 'impossible to lose' mode.

I think the name should reflect the fact that you're trying something new - a game blog. Something like 'The Neverending Game'. 'Little Shit Planet' doesn't do it justice.

[Terry]

I'm not really taken with the name either, but I love the concept. This has a lot of potential! I'm going to be following it closely, I think.

[moi]

Is the name picking on "little big planet" ?
Because that's all I can think of when reading that name.

[Xion]

I thought the halfpipe was really fun, once I got the hang of it.
It was actually harder getting out of the area at the top than getting to it. It doesn't help that when the cutscene spits you back out it puts you in this weird position with hardly any speed. I once stopped completely up there and had to refresh and hit continue.

[Zaphos]

I thought the halfpipe was really fun, once I got the hang of it.
It was actually harder getting out of the area at the top than getting to it. It doesn't help that when the cutscene spits you back out it puts you in this weird position with hardly any speed. I once stopped completely up there and had to refresh and hit continue.

I noticed this too ... maybe it would help if the character gave himself a little push if he's going 'too slowly' on a relatively flat surface?  That could go a ways toward keeping frustration down, since it's fun as long as the character is moving at a decent speed.

Is the name picking on "little big planet" ?
Because that's all I can think of when reading that name.

It's a cross between that and Gold's 'Shit Game,' I think.  It doesn't really evoke either for me, though, so it is still a bit confusing ...

[Farbs]

It's a cross between that and Gold's 'Shit Game,' I think.  It doesn't really evoke either for me, though, so it is still a bit confusing ...

Yep, that's correct.
It also relates in a multitude of ways to the game fiction, but that's not readily apparent yet. Still, I think the mob has spoken and it's time for me to come up with something else.

I had planned to post the name to the game name rating thread. I really wish I'd done that now.