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[konjak]

I want some feedback on my latest endeavour, called Chalk! Quite fitting, I'd say.

"Chalk is all about drawing your way to all the glory!

Draw lines across shapes to destroy them, turn back bullets at enemies and thwart huge boss enemies by bouncing stuff back in their faces!

It's an arcade-game sized outing with the simple approach of a chalkboard. Because, you know, chalkboards are simpler than pen and paper...? Download it for some different arcade fun!"

Quoted from my website, http://www.konjak.org.

I was trying to come up with something different making this game. It's tiring when you keep making game after game that has some sort of platform movement... 

So, basically, it's a mouse-only game where you draw the lines to beat the levels and get scores. It's clearly marked, but don't forget to read the Help section within the game.

I hope I got the big ones, but of course I want bug reports! Now, thanks to Multimedia Fusion being slow (I should use something else...), the game is forced 2x and can't be made fullscreen. 

Fullscreen would cause the mouse to be proportionally 2x faster in its movement. But I hope it doesn't bother you too much.

I have no idea what the requirements could be... MMF basically works like "the faster the better", but the game worked fine on a laptop I tried. So I'm going to guess on the basic numbers.

Recommended:
1Ghz processor
256 megabyte ram

Yeah, I guess that's it... MMF doesn't support video cards yet...

Thanks for any feedback, beforehand!

[DrDerekDoctors]

I've only played the first level and a bit of the second one but I've enjoyed it so far. An interesting control system and a nice aesthetic which reminds me of Rakugaki Showtime (as I think I told you before). Definitely one I'll be returning to.

[Jimbob]

Apart from what I've already said to you, I'm sure everyone would appreciate a fullscreen mode that makes sure when you click on our outside the border, you don't put yourself off horribly with moving windows and shifting right-click context menus...

[siiseli]

Very nice indeed! Wasn't expecting any games from you in a long while thought :D Great surprise, Konjak! Keep up the good work and make us more great games. I think you should contact some ds-developers. This game was just screaming to be released on the ds! Too bad it doesn't support mmf2, so someone would have to rewrite the game

[konjak]

Okay, I finally added fullscreen, even if it's a bit over-steered. I attached a TXT explaining reasons why fullscreen is problematic.

I hate MMF. 

Thanks for everyone's comments!

[Guert]

Hello there!
Here is what I thought after playing your game...

Technical
Mechanisms
Draw a line: All you have to do is to draw a line. That’s it. Anyone who ever touched a computer understands how to play. You hold down the mouse and you form a line that will execute various tasks. The player can freely created it’s lines but is constrained by time so it must act quickly because time limits the line creation. Quite frankly, I like this idea. Using these lines, you can block, stop, hit, connect and return damage. Good work!

Moving: Moving is a bit frustrating. The control is quite easy to understand, but I feel like we don’t have enough control over the little girl. I felt to me like we couldn’t have her where we wanted at the right time. Perhaps because she’s moving too slowly compared to the action on screen, perhaps she is too big compared to the safe spot we can find or   perhaps we should have more control over her. Right now, we press the right button and she moves to the spot. My first reaction was to think that maybe it could be interesting to control the girl in a drag and drop fashion using the right-click. Since we already are using the same notion for the line, perhaps reusing it for the girl could be interesting.

Take object: This mechanic is interesting but I’m wondering if it could be changed a bit. Right now, when you click a blue element, you control it which means you can’t draw a line until you let it go by pressing the left mouse button again. I’m not sure how it could be done in another way, but I was thinking that, if we move the girl using a drag and drop motion, we could do the same with the blue objects. If you right click on a blue block and hold down the mouse button, you could move the blue block around the map and release it. This way you’d have left-click = line and  Right-click = move something around, all using the same motion. 

Flow
The game flows very well. The only thing I’d change is the new game option. If I have no possibilities of saving/loading a game, I think you should name it “Start game”. Besides that, there’s not much else to say.

One thing about the high score screen: for some reason, I rank first with a 384 points and a c rating while the rest had a 9999 score with a D rating. Is it because a rating is more important than the actual score or is it because the default scores don’t count in the top?

Economics
Points: Points is our primary reward. Well, a score is a score and there’s not much to say about that. It’s a good thing that you keep high scores so that we can compare who did it’s best.  One little thing: I’d had an option somewhere to add our name next to the high score. This way, players who play on the same computer can see who’s the best.
 
Health: This is also pretty standard. You loose health when you collide with enemies. Is there a way to get replenish our health or make our little girl take more hits?

Life: Same point raised like with the health. We can loose lives but can we get some bonuses?

Time: Well, time here seems to affect our rating only. We are not stressed by time, but I’m not sure how someone can go faster than the rate of the scrolling screen. I feel like there are not much difference between someone who finishes a level rapidly or one that takes its time.

Rating: The rating are an interesting way to reward the player but I’d put more details on how they are attributed. Just to give us a hint on what to focus next time we play. Do we need to perform a lot of overkills or multiple shots or do we have to dodge more enemies, etc… Just a little idea on what you are judging us.

Are there some continues? If so, can we learn more continues along the game?

Ergonomics
The software seems very well built. I’d only make it so that the player can adjust the volume of both music and sound effects instead of simply turning the music on or off. I’d also add a confirmation message on quitting. It’s interesting that you have inserted a delay before quitting but I’d still make sure the player really wants to quit.

Stability
The game seems very stable but every time we load up the game, it’s like we’ve never played. Perhaps a bug or maybe the feature is not completed yet, you’re the one who knows. The game did not crash and I did not experience any troubles with it.

Emotional
Intuitivism
The game is very intuitive. We know what to do and where to go. We have certain elements of puzzle the first time we have an enemy but we always know that using the line will answer our problem so it’s not confusing. I felt like moving and picking up blocks were less intuitive but it’s not critical. A little note: I’d make the scrolling blackboard in the very first level a bit different because, at first, I thought that I couldn’t go over them. Perhaps putting some equations on them would be a small touch that would tell us that those are in the background. I believe the reason why I thought they were limits was the fact that they are black on a grey background.

Immersion
The game is very immersive and well represented. The chalk theme is very well used but the second level felt less like a chalkboard to me. The music is catchy and fits the atmosphere.
The game is easy to pick up and use and the action rate is pretty fast so we easily loose ourselves to the game. I feel like the only thing missing is a quick explanation of where we are. The title suggests a space game and we turn out to be with a sun icon and controlling a girl who is dodging circles and flying monkeys. I’m not saying that I want an elaborated story, just a little bit to tell us why you are showing a space theme and then we are floating over equations. The moving chalk effect used as a texture in all the game is a very nice touch!

Experimentation level
Experimentation seems a bit short. We have to use many possible line movements during the first level and starting with the second, we have to deal with blue squares. Are there more moves as we play through level 2? Do we have something more to learn? If not, it may be a good idea to find alternate ways to use your mechanism to deepen the experimentation, especially with an interesting concept like the one you have here.

Are there multiple paths to the levels? Maybe it would be interesting to have this somewhere in the game. How about different upgrades?

Motivation
The rush given by the game and the score system are two good motivators but the game’s difficulty is a bit too hard. I feel like you should make it easier during the first level. I’ve tried two times to go passed the 2nd level but never could. I felt overwhelmed by the game a bit too fast. There were too many things to do at once and I hadn’t even finished to learn the basics. I suggest that you tone down the first levels so players are kept motivated. If you burn them out too quickly, they won’t want to see what is going to happen in harder levels when they are having a hard time with the easier ones.  And those who master these high level of difficulty will just ask for tougher levels too fast, leaving them bored too quickly I guess it’s just some balancing issues in the end. .

Conclusion
Quite frankly, I really like the game and I will play some more. I feel like I’m repeating myself but tell us when you have an update. I’m looking forward to take another shot at this!

Take care!
Guert

[Xion]

Nice, just beat it (with scores CBCCCD I'm supposed to be a straight A (read: B) student!)

A bit tough at first but after a couple more go-throughs it should be breezy.

One thing though; since full-screen is so screwed up, could you make it so that when the game window is de-...um...clicked...the game like, automatically pauses or something? 'Cuz I was just WASD'ing all over the place and, since the games is "always on top" I'd clicked outside the window on multiple occasions and DIED because it wasn't immediately evident to me as to why my li'l charakter weren't movin' no mo'.

But really awesome. I bit on the hard (and short) side, but challenges are good, and the brevity makes it less intimidating to do it again. I found controlling with the keyboard much more natural than with the mouse, though it may've just been me.

Oh yeah, I liked the clock.

Catchy tunes throughout.

Is the character a guy or a grrl? I kept thinking it was a girl until I saw the red thing as a tie...

...

On the last boss, when he does the thing with the white balls goin' up an' down, the evasion technique isn't that obvious since it wasn't introduced anywhere in previous levels, nor did the same situation arise in any previous levels, foreshadowing its recurrence.

Mmmm...yeeeaaahhh...

[konjak]

Well, I don't know what you did for the white balls any other time, but they're always best avoided by drawing a line somehow covering you. Especially on Level 5 with the white ball RAIN.

Also, MMF2 sucks for having poor window/mouse control. ALSO, it's a girl character,

Guert, the Help section states what matters for end-of-level ratings. This just shows how many people skip that part...

[Guert]

Hey there!

I re-played the game and I must say that this game is great! :D
I feel like my previous post doesn't present the game correctly. I really feel like I sould've played alot more before posting.

There is A LOT of variety and the game is a lot of fun. A bit short but at the same time it did got me playing for a couple of hours straight. You really have included alot of experimentation elements in your game so whatever I said about experimentation before is a big truck load of junk. There's a lot to learn in this game. Also, I forgot to mention, I love the warning arrows. Really helps without being too helpfull.

Still, as mentionned before, the game is a bit too hard and at the same time too easy. The levels can be overwhelming but you have plenty of lives and conitnues so the "fear of death" fades away too fast. Perhaps you should start with one continue and you get some along the way. I like how you can earn lives along the way too. 

I'd simply love to see this game on the DS. With a couple more levels and a balanced dificulty, even if it the game cost 100$, I'd buy it on the spot.

Really good job!
Sorry for the inacuracy of the last post... Shame on me! 
Take care
Guert

[Robotacon]

Great game, I like it a lot.
It's got both a puzzle-feel and a shoot-em-up-feel.

The graphics are clear, cute and does it's thing well.

I liked the boss fights as well.

I'll play it some more and get back to you if I find any flaws.

[DrPetter]

Played through the game with a Wacom tablet and it was mostly very enjoyable. Biggest problem was right-clicking for moving, as really only left-clicking is intuitive with the pen (touching it to the tablet) - for right-click you need to use some combination of modifier keys and it's hard to pull off in the middle of frantic gameplay.
I was thinking keyboard movement would be better, but someone in this thread mentioned drag-and-drop for moving the player and that could be interesting if done with the left button just like drawing, only that you'd move the player if the click-drag starts on the actual sprite instead of empty space (kind of like the blue elements I suppose). It might lead to accidental moves instead of lines, but I don't think it would be a problem if it was a core mechanic that you'd be very aware of.
I suppose it would still have to use some lag/speed-regulated movement to prevent instant "teleportation" out of sticky spots with quick mouse swipes. Maybe you'd just click-drag the target and the girl moves just like she does currently, or maybe you could trace a path with the target (click-drag) and the girl would follow that path in her own pace while you take out enemies.

Very cool game at any rate. Refreshing and well done

[fish]

you're getting a lot of press for this.
nice.

maybe id have something more constructive to say if maybe...lets say...there was a mac version available? maybe? yes.

[Outer God]

it's awesome!  my only complaint is that the game's too short.  it'd be awesome if you could build more on the idea to extend the gameplay further.  but wat you got now is still pretty good.

[siiseli]

Oh, great, DoctorDerekDoctors reviewed this game on his arsecast website

[DrDerekDoctors]

Yeeees, spread my little PR-minions.

Oddly enough I left out a bit about having a nagging feeling I'd seen something similar somewhere before and then realised it was Kirby on the DS when someone mentioned that. D'oh!

Although obviously it's very different to Kirby, it's just reminiscent.