I think that the style don't quite match, the landscape is very cartoony/bubble and the ship is much more detailed and sharp. They feel a bit off together.
Good going for three days!
this ^ They don't match, and i like the ship style better, sharper and darker
After doing that reality check, i came to a conclusion that the game was just simply boring. So i did what any sane person would do, i gave up. As soon as i did that, i started watching some cartoons (the same cartoons that inspired me to create this game) and weirdly enough, i got new ideas from them. I watched a lot of Rick n' Morty, Adeventure Time, Bravest Warriors, Felix Colgrave and others.
So the first thing i did was to start sketching the new mechanics, which will require Box2D and a joint mechanic to make it work. It's shortly speaking a "grappling hook" mechanic, in which your Ball (name yet to be given) is now a singular ball that can control monsters and yourself. Allowing for a "dodge" mechanic and heavy physics interaction
After i did that, i started re-designing the graphics, starting by the background, then the bear monster and finally the protagonist. Both the background and the monsters i have shown already, except for the character and his Ball.
The first re-design i did for him wasn't pleasing me, he was looking too "dorkly" so i made him darker and leaner.
And his ball that will follow the taps/cursor
Needless to say, the game will now have a more sci-fi feel to it, aliens, space-ships and maybe even exploration, we'll see. So i would love to hear what you guys think of this shift of themes and if it pleases you. Okay, cheers
I like the art very much. But I have one problem, and that is with the character 'Big Joe'. Isn't an African American who loves basketball and fried chicken somewhat of a racial stereotype?
Also, time for a reality check. The reason why this devlog is not calling so much attention is probably because my theme is bland or just not good enough I mean, lets face it, im not a veteran when it comes to game design, so im probably doing a bunch of things wrong. So, with this being said, i will completely reformulate the mechanics and theme of this game, simply to try to make it more appealing visually and more fun in general.
The alternate style sounds very interesting, are you guys going for pre-rendered graphics-look? Cause it fit a lot with the thematic you're going for. I mean, taking in consideration that this is 3D? Cause i just noticed it looks like its 2D o.O Anyways, best of luck on this man!
Yo, I gave your demo a shot. Frankly, I think you need to re-evaluate the mechanics quite a bit. I saw Weeby one time, spent all my money on the L2 gun, and then was overwhelmed within five seconds of round two starting.
This style of defense game - controlling a single shooter with limited screen/movement space - rarely 'feels' right in my opinion. There's a lot you have to balance to make the game engaging and fun. Most are too hard or too boring. Check out Red Code and Autumn War: Survivor for some good examples (imo).
You have solid art skills and the ability to complete a solo project, so you're doing pretty good, but your game really needs something more than "click left/right until you die due to bad luck".
Thanks a lot for your feedback, means a lot to me. I played both games you listed, they are pretty good, i was impressed by Red Code, they definitely did it right, taking notes as i type.
You were right about the demo, i was too lazy to balance "level progression" because i wasn't very happy with the visual of the game, i apologize if i frustrated you.
Also thanks for the compliments, i just recently learned how to make decent art, its still very hard for me to develop a game all by myself. About the mechanics, the main change i was aiming for was to simply add the option to aim for your opponent, this should remove a little bit of the 'boring' factor the game has right now, and also maybe go for different stages as you progress.
This is nice and simple. You can probably make a bunch of different variation to the basic game play, use different backgrounds, etc... Are you gonna make a mobile version? swinging your finger to fire the things could work.
Also video devlog are cool, I don't think I would be ready to record my voice anytime soon myself
Thanks a lot! Yes this is what im planning for right now, making diferent balls patterns, diferent monsters with diferent behaviors and maybe having stages where you can interact with them, who knows?
Im totally going for a mobile version, already got it working on android
My main goal right now is to finish a simple game as a personal challenge, but also to learn from it. And video devlogs might be a thing right now, just because my gifs sucks, it lowers the game fps to half and this is so annoying But i need to surpass a lot of barriers, including the language one.
Again thanks a lot for the feedback and comments guys, shows me im not completely alone in this journey, cheers!
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