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[Zeno Rogue]

Hi,

I have made the first version of this game like three years ago, but I still have not received much feedback about it... and this forum seems a very nice place, where my game might be appreciated. Since I have almost no feedback yet, any kind of feedback will be helpful. Sorry for introducing myself here by asking for help/feedback, but I hope you'll have fun playing my game

Untahris has its roots in many classic games (mostly multi-player ones), like Snake, Tron, Breakout/Pong/Arkanoid, Bomberman/Dynablaster, Worms/Liero, Tetris, Thrust, Rampart/Castle Combat, Xonix... The idea is to take the game mechanics from all these classic games and make them work together, so you can play games similar to all of those, and more -- as when you are playing together with your friends, each of you can play a different kind of character, which hopefully leads to interesting interactions between games of different kinds.



You can get the Windows binary, and source which should be possible to run on other systems, here: http://untahris.sourceforge.net/

Hope you like it And I await for your comments, bug reports, opinions, suggestions, etc.

[Frog]

Introduce yourself!

[Bob Quixote]

I like the idea of multiplayer games that have variety in the characters, but that often leads to players only picking 1 or 2 "powerful" characters rather than enjoying the games variety. How did you balance the different character types against each other for your game?

[William Broom]

This game seems like it would be really fun with multiple players. I'll try it out when I next have a friend over.

One thing that could definitely be improved is the interface. It was annoying to have to look up on your website to discover that the button to reassign controls is 'K'. In a game like this, you're always changing settings, so it would be good to have mouse support.

When I'm controlling the cursor in the game screen, why do I have to tap the arrow keys repeatedly to get it to move? Just let me hold them down.

Once I create balls, there seems to be no way to remove them. Creating too many makes the level completely unplayable and I'm forced to restart.

[cactus]

Those graphics... I just dunno. The game concept actually sounds interesting, but the graphics really keep me from giving it a try

[Zeno Rogue]

Regarding balancing:

Yes, balancing is a problem, and I think it is hard to do. You can do several things to maintain the balance between different kinds of players:

- the ammo bonuses provide different numbers of shots for different players (although the actual numbers won't probably work well for different combinations)

- you can change the speed and number of shots for each player type (although this is possible only by editting the conifg manually)

- play two versus two - such games have to be balanced (but this requires 4 players); or, play in cycles; or, play one combination in both ways and sum the scores

- accept that the game is imbalanced, and consider a kill for one player worth more than for the other player

Regarding menu control:

Right, mouse support in the menu would be nice. When a player is selected, it shots "Change colors (RGB), redefine Keys, Delete", and the capitalized letters correspond to keys you can press; I guess I should make it more clear.

There is a way to remove all the balls (choose 'no balls' when in selection mode).

About graphics: Anything in particular you don't like? (background, colors, etc.)

[William Broom]

The graphics look like placeholders. Since you're imitating retro gameplay, I would recommend that you imitate retro graphics as well. Try to mimic the output of a NES or even an Atari 2600.

To make the keys more obvious, you should write them like this: "[C]hange colours,redefine [K]eys,[D]elete". But it really would be preferable to have a proper menu system.

Another thing is that the options in selection mode (i.e. no balls, create balls, clear and so on) may be useful for setting up different game modes but they make the game feel like it's constantly in dev mode. It's also annoying when you're trying to switch characters and end up delving into the edit options instead. Maybe include a specific button that pauses the game and enables editing options. This would make a clear definition between when the players are editing and when they're playing.

[Zeno Rogue]

I'll try to experiment with different graphics styles...

Having to pause to enable editing options is not necessarily a good thing, because I could imagine a game where one player is playing and the other is creating challenges for him at the same time. But I think I have a good solution: split the list into two pairs, Players and Editing options, make one of the keys toggle between Players and Editing; and also add a global key which pauses the game (only editing is available while paused). Maybe also global keys for other things (like clearing the balls).

[cactus]

As for the graphics, it's just got too many colors, too many gradients, too much saturation, too many different styles clashing.

The background grid is ok, and the tile that is purple, white and teal is ok too. The rest just looks a bit too random. And the background really makes it a lot less appealing (especially if it's static).

The graphics look like placeholders. Since you're imitating retro gameplay, I would recommend that you imitate retro graphics as well. Try to mimic the output of a NES or even an Atari 2600.

This seems like an easy option.

[Zeno Rogue]

Does this look good? I have created several graphics styles (including a style which has no gradients for a more "retro" feel, and another one which draws everything using lines, so it is also kind of retro), but I think this one looks the best (it no longer has the ugly background). If it is acceptable, then I am going to release the new version.

[William Broom]

I still wouldn't describe those graphics as being 'retro' at all. To me, retro graphics have to imitate the limitations of old consoles, not just the general style. Basically you want to make it look like it *could* have existed on a NES/SNES/whatever. That's obviously not the case here because you have so many gradients everywhere.

Take this advice with a pinch of salt, though. I, and most other Tigsource members, have a great fondness for pixel art graphics. You may get an entirely different reaction from a different community.

[shockedfrog]

I think the graphics work quite well, they're not retro in a console style but they are kinda retro in an old freeware/shareware style, more like st/amiga/dos stuff. This obviously won't be to everyone's taste, but I see there's also some kind of support for skinning in there, so when that's expanded hopefully everyone should be able to get their preferred style.

I can't really say much about the gameplay yet without playing with anyone else, the controls and interface do need a bit of work but this does have the potential to be pretty interesting, and I mean that in the good sense.

[Zeno Rogue]

I didn't mean that these were retro graphics; you can now select between several graphics styles, here are the the retro ones:

[Zeno Rogue]

A new version (with these new graphics, ability to pause game, and some other minor interface improvements and bugfixes) is available at the website.

[cactus]

The new retro graphics look a lot more tasteful in my opinion. Gonna give this a go when I get some spare time