next »

[kavs]

Hey guys,

A bunch of us at work had a month-long Flixel competition, in which we made games based off of the Flixel example games. All 3 of us picked 'Mode' by coincidence. I'd have loved to put more time into it, but I ran out by the time I hit our deadline of last Friday @ noon.

My game can be found here:
http://bradkav.com/miner/

NOTE: I know the pacing is terrible; you need $500 to upgrade, and once you have the first one it feels a lot better. My source has been nuked in a tragic USB HDD failure, otherwise I'd have added more feedback.



I ran into time issues so I only got to put about 15 hours in. Since publishing the .swf, I actually lost about half of my source due to a flash drive failure (have a backup from a week prior.. but lost my recent source. Sucks!) I've started to remake it from scratch now instead of simply modding Mode, so I'm throwing this out there for a bit of feedback while the remake is still in its infancy.

Things I wanted to add:
-A proper boss/game end
-Give more feedback to the player (to clarify the shop and cash changes)
-Enemies!
-More robust upgrade system (currently is flat rate +2 velocity, +1 damage)
-Have the premade caverns occluded as well
-Simple items (TNT, ropes...)
-Procedural generated levels?

Also, I should give a shout out to a few people: Adam Saltsman for creating Flixel and Mode, Craig Stern for the music track (taken from Assemblee1), and oryx for the innocent dragon.

It would be very helpful if you could spend 5 minutes, 'beat' the game, and let me know what you found compelling (if anything). Anything you hated or would want me to avoid? Suggestions for the remake?

Thanks in advance!  

[Almost]

5 shots to destroy 1 tile? This takes forever to get anywhere; I gave up pretty quickly. (I guess it gets faster later on?) It also wasn't very close that I could destroy the walls at all since shooting them did nothing at first. It should only take 1 or 2 shots to destroy a wall, and upgrades should be stuff like area of effect damage from your shots (for faster mining). You should feel competent at the start and upgrade to feeling powerful; not begin feeling useless and work up to feeling average.

[Falmil]

So slow at the beginning, I was going to quit for a second. Gold should be closer to surface for first upgrade or something.
Also, if you fall down a vertical shaft, you're kinda screwed and will have to slowly build steps back up.
The "innocent" dragon gave me an idea for a game where you have to dig down to the bottom, and rescue some large creature from a cave-in by digging a path out for him.

Things I wanted to add:
-A proper boss/game end
-Enemies!
-Simple items (TNT, ropes...)
-Procedural generated levels?

So, more like Spelunky?

[kavs]

5 shots to destroy 1 tile? This takes forever to get anywhere; I gave up pretty quickly. (I guess it gets faster later on?) It also wasn't very close that I could destroy the walls at all since shooting them did nothing at first. It should only take 1 or 2 shots to destroy a wall, and upgrades should be stuff like area of effect damage from your shots (for faster mining). You should feel competent at the start and upgrade to feeling powerful; not begin feeling useless and work up to feeling average.

I just played through it again and you're totally right; it's brutal, and any decent tiles are quite a ways away... I tried to leave some visible ones as goals to work toward, but the gold is actually pretty worthless compared to the gems (25, I think? I intended it to be more common.)

I think it would help if the base dirt wasn't consistent throughout the whole game; maybe dirt is 2 shots with no upgrades, then it moves to clay around depth 20, rock at depth 40, etc etc... there is no real pacing in regards to that. It's too hard early game, and way too easy late game.

Things I wanted to add:
-A proper boss/game end
-Enemies!
-Simple items (TNT, ropes...)
-Procedural generated levels?

So, more like Spelunky?

I actually haven't put a ton of time into spelunky (waiting for XBLA), but I had a friend make reference to it as well. I guess the procedural generation and items would make it feel that way, but that's not the inspiration. If anything is inspiring this, it's Miner Dig Deep on XBLIG. I played that a bunch and found it to be super fun (but lacking in a lot of ways, at least for me). I've always liked the idea of a roguelike digging game. <o/

Realling wishing my source was still intact; I'd patch up the tilemap to add a bit more valuables to the early stages, and double the initial laser damage. Easy changes, just no .as files to change. :D

[Sean A.]

I tried it and got to like 30 depth but I don't understand the buy menu. I went to the blue flashy thing and pressed B but nothing happened. It had a cool feel to it but it's too hard to enjoy.

[deathtotheweird]

it wont let me buy anything? I press b to buy and nothing happens. I have 350 dollars but I have no patience to obtain more...so I gave up.

[kavs]

I had to add the item shop last minute (on the bus on the way in to work on submission day), so I opted for the blue buying zone. All I could do for feedback was added a line in the MenuState, where it says you need $500 to buy. Once you get $500 (if your patience holds up due to bad item placement), you get increased damage and rate of fire. Each level increments that linearly as I didn't have time to get a proper shop in.

The game is 500% more enjoyable if you get the first upgrade. Pro-tip; look at my screenshot, follow a similar path, and you'll get enough for the first upgrade. It feels a lot better from there..

[Sean A.]

Alright I'll try again in the morning but you should add a little note somewhere on the post or in the game that you need 500.

[Falmil]

Shop worked for me.

[TwilightVulpine]

NOTE: I know the pacing is terrible; you need $500 to upgrade, and once you have the first one it feels a lot better.

It would be nice if the upgrade price was in the store message and to show a message when you buy the upgrade. To have the upgrade price start lower and increase gradually would be better too.

[deathtotheweird]

Got the upgrade and killed the boss. If you expanded it more including the ideas in your first post it could be fun.

Ever try Excavatorrr? http://hempuli.com/EX/

[kavs]

Got the upgrade and killed the boss. If you expanded it more including the ideas in your first post it could be fun.

Ever try Excavatorrr? http://hempuli.com/EX/

I hadn't tried Excavatorrr actually, so thanks for the link! I like how the gems drop in little pieces when you break the block, and how you can smack the enemies around.

[Jefftronic]

This reminds me a lot of an old game I played back in the DOS days called Miner VGA.  It might be worth tracking that game down and trying it in DOSBox.

Miner VGA didn't have gravity so falling down a pit wasn't an issue as it is in this game, but I think this aspect gives your game a unique feel.  It takes more planning to progress through the level to ensure that you can still get back up to the shop.  Maybe you could emphasize this aspect more by making the shop more essential to success.  I think having more things that you can buy at the shop and more things to do in general would make the game much more engaging.  You mentioned ropes, which is a great idea.  Right now you never really need to buy anything if you have patience.

I am going to disagree a bit with some of the other posters about the amount of time it takes to dig at the beginning.  I think the number of hits it requires is fine.  It doesn't take too long to get $500 and you need somewhere to upgrade to.  What might work better is increasing the rate of fire.  You still end up feeling like you have to do a lot of digging but it won't take as long to do.  I also think that if you make it clear to the player that they can upgrade their digging rate you will have fewer people giving up.

I did enjoy the exploration aspect of the game and it controls, looks, and sounds nice.  I definitely think it is worth expanding on.

Also, you almost have the beginnings of an art game here.  I felt really bad about killing that innocent monster.