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[airman4]

Hi !
I would love some gameplay feedback here  for this prototype :

It's a physic/puzzle game , where you drive a ball through some stages by rotating platforms , also you can Jump with the ball with Space bar
The Goal is to get the crystal

There is 2 level , those are test level , they are fast and easy , the game will be minimalistic , black and white  mostly.

If you love ,i'll go through and try to make a little version with some more levels.

The game



http://www.kongregate.com/games/airman4/cataball-proto-1-0

[Indievelopper]

Do you use a library for the physics or is it homemade?

[airman4]

what do you mean ?
I'm mostly an artist and game designer so i'd say , i use an library ?
Stencyl is developped to help people programming games!

I know it could be better , but first i want to know if people find it worth to make 30 levels etc...

[mamoniem]

it was just two levels, but i enjoyed playing it. the prototype looks intersting so far..and am woundering which library as well;
 
m;

[airman4]

Good then!

Well , the framework is stencyl
http://www.stencyl.com/
It's a bit complex but you have many kits and stuff to do it so.


Okay i'll start thinking to other levels , a update soon!

[eyeliner]

Cool concept, but I think that unless you add some very cool extras, 30 levels using this concept will become boring really fast.

Gameplay is refreshingly simple, but please zoom out the view and make it so that the movements are a bit slower, because the ball enters the platform on rapid moves.

Keep it up, young padawan.

[airman4]

Cool concept, but I think that unless you add some very cool extras, 30 levels using this concept will become boring really fast.

Gameplay is refreshingly simple, but please zoom out the view and make it so that the movements are a bit slower, because the ball enters the platform on rapid moves.

Keep it up, young padawan.

I see , i'll go for 10 levels then
It will be probably a free game without ads and things. total free to begin with.

Zoom out , humm , you mean more little elements in the screen ? i was thinking to that too .
I'll do it , the ball is a bit big.

The ball is fast ? i think is the ball is too slow , it could get borring , i like fast paced gameplays.
I'll tweak it and see how it goes.

[eyeliner]

Movements of the platform. that should be solved by making the objects smaller, though.

[TertiumQuid]

Nice! A fun, simple mechanic. After playing a few times I found that I can trigger the endgame somehow without the ball actually dropping off the platform by rotating back and forth as fast as possible; It's as if the collision detection fails in the logic but not in the UI or something. Otherwise, perhaps adding a very slight inertia to the paddle could feel satisfying.

[airman4]

eyeliner

I see

I changed many things , i'm not a great coder so it's not that easy (harder than it seems)

TertiumQuid
Yeah there is some weird collision detection stuff

Some platforms are rotatable and limited in rotation now.
But rotating at 360 is actually a move ,the player must use it sometimes

I have hard times with inspirations and such , maybe i'm exhausted
If you have some video games i could watch to get some some inspiration and motivations
Despite this , i started adding official levels , sound , and the story

For the story , you can skipp it as my previous games.
My english is not the best , so please forgive if it's sound stupid.

The story is about you(the player) helping a space navigate Pod through the space .
It's an human expedition to the end of the Universe , a journey towards Saturn where God is Hidden according to the Race human breed.

If my game is complete , the player will discover in the end if the expedition will find God or no.

The final game will be 10/12 levels only and strongly gameplay based.  It will be very very very short , sorry for that.

So the update !
http://www.kongregate.com/games/airman4/cataball-proto-1-0
Important Note , the blue orb are optionnal for the moment , the Blue circle is the device to touch to go next level. The game is not that realistic since the inertia and the way the Pod is Moved.
Still It will be minimalistic sound-wise.

Tell me how you feel with the new stages please.

[MooCowG]

This is a fantastic concept. It was really fun and stage 3 in particular was very engaging. The overall shape of the level lent the feeling that I was scooping the ball up at times like a hand reaching into a pool of water. It also gave some really good tension while the ball was descending. There was an uncertainty about whether I was going to catch it or not.

A couple thoughts about design:

Not sure if there is a necessity for a jump mechanic. In these levels, anyway, I only used it in the 2nd due to no other way around the red box (which wasn't immediately apparent that I shouldn't touch, but no biggie). I actually had more fun not using jump and a jump mechanic mixed in with the rotation and inertia driving the ball can get a bit too confusing. That is, unless you did a lot to exploit it, but I'm thinking you don't need it.

An alternative to the jump might be switching between elements in the level to rotate. Example: You get the ball rolling with one platform, send it sailing across the level, then switch your selection to a different platform that the ball is approaching to catch the ball, etc.

Just a suggestion. There is a lot of potential that I'm seeing in here. Good luck!

Gerald

[airman4]

Thanks
This is a little game tough , the last update could be the last

Glad you enjoyed the stage 3.

Yeah , the jump is not necesserary but you'll have to use for getting blue orb

For the suggestion , you probably talk about this ,(my very first game)



Unfortunetly the game was canned , so i tried back alone now and since i'm not a coder , i changed things to accomodate to my skills.

Maybe one day, the game will be back in its full form.

thanks for the comment!!

[MooCowG]

If you've got the time, I really recommend learning to program. Even some basic level programming knowledge will help A LOT. There are a lot of engines out there that don't require too much programming knowledge. I myself am not a very advanced programmer, but I was able to make my own game with Unity and a lot of Google searching.

Hoping to see more,
Gerald

[louroboros]

This is totally my cup of tea. Were you inspired by these sorts of "puzzles" by any chance?

With some love and polish this could be a hit puzzle game. Experiment with more puzzle designs to see if you can find any especially-neat tricks afforded by the central mechanic, and once you've found a few solid ones, try adding new mechanics until you find a few that work well with the existing tricks you discovered.

Then, like I said, just polish and try to get as many people to playtest it as possible.

Great work! Stencyl must really have something going for it, because I keep seeing (alleged) newbie/non-programmers/foremost-designers diving in with it and producing excellent stuff.