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[handCraftedRadio]

The Six is a game I've been working on for a couple of months now. Its written in c++ using directx. You play as the number six who has broken out of a computer program and is now fighting against the system he was in. I finally have a demo version available that contains all of the first level. I'm posting this up so I can get some feedback to improve the game in its final version, so please post any thoughts you have about the game. Hope you enjoy!

Controls: Z-Jump, X-Shoot, Esc-Exit Game, Enter-Pause/Select
Gamepad:  button 1 - shoot, button 2-jump

Blue powerups restore your health, red powerups increase your maximum health, and green powerups increase your firing speed.

Download
Alt. Download

Screen Shots:


 

[Alex]

Nice game! I found it fairly hard but fun (could be cause I'm bad ). Only thing I'd suggest is some kind of explanation of how to play, some people might not guess Z and X. Also, I would've appreciated some checkpoints nearer to the start, I redid that section quite a lot...

[Zaphos]

Is everything supposed to look like it's going in slow motion?

[Drew]

Overall, the game is pretty cool.  I like the style and I think it has a lot of potential.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the other levels.

But I agree about the difficulty.  A lot of the enemies, especially the 8's that ride in little cars, will rush onto the screen without giving the player a chance to react at all.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the game more about memorization.

[Zaphos]

Is everything supposed to look like it's going in slow motion?

Okay, I played through on a different (much older!) computer, and it ran fine.

Notes:
* It's a fun style for a game!
* The game itself is pretty vanilla, though, and the level you've done so far doesn't seem to reward exploration much, so it's kind of a slog.
* I'm pretty sure I've fought that boss pattern quite a few times before?
* The text during conversations seems to clash stylistically with the super-large pixel style of most of the graphics.
* The explosion animations are nice
* I didn't realize I could double jump for a while; perhaps putting the player in a situation where they're forced to double jump right away would ensure people know about the ability from the start.
* Overall the game didn't seem too hard to me, though the really fast guys who rush on to the screen definitely feel unfair when they hit.
* As the game gets longer, some explicit way to save will be nice.

Overall I wonder if there isn't something more you can do with the number theme of the game ... the visual style is original and interesting, and the rest of the game doesn't seem to hold up well next to that.

[handCraftedRadio]

@Alex: Oops, forgot to mention the controls in the original post, i'll add them in. The final version will allow you to set your own controls.

@Drew: I'll try to fix the problem with the fast guys, maybe I'll make them a bit slower, or add some kind of sound to alert you that they are coming.

@Zaphos: I'm aware of the problem with it running slow on some systems, but I don't know why. My computer is windows xp with service pack 1 and it runs fine. I tested it on a computer with service pack 2 and it seems to run slow, so I think that may be the problem. Do you mind telling me the specs of each computer you ran it on? Forcing the player to double  jump at the begining is a good idea, I'll add something like that in. I am planning on making a saving system when there is more than 1 level.

The rest of the game is going to look more like the jungle part at the end. I'm planning on having desert levels and ice levels and that kind of thing. I know that just plain white looks very dull, but I wanted to have the first level look more like it was computer code.

Thanks for the feedback. 

[Jimbob]

Did you ever play the Mac puzzle game Three in Three? Visual style reminds me of that, but obviously it looks to play completely differently... Downloading.

[Zaphos]

@Zaphos: I'm aware of the problem with it running slow on some systems, but I don't know why. My computer is windows xp with service pack 1 and it runs fine. I tested it on a computer with service pack 2 and it seems to run slow, so I think that may be the problem. Do you mind telling me the specs of each computer you ran it on?

Both machines are Windows XP with SP2, so I don't think that's the problem.  The one that runs well is a 2Ghz Pentium M, the one that runs poorly is a 2.66GHz dual-quad core Intel Xeon (crazy work machine ) ... so perhaps it's some weird issue tied to having multiple cores?

[handCraftedRadio]

That isn't the problem either because my computer is dual core also. I still have no clue what the problem could be, the only computer that I have seen the problem on is one that has the exact same hardware as mine. Seems to be running fine on most computers though. If anyone else is having this problem too, please let me know.

[handCraftedRadio]

Alright I'm pretty sure I fixed the problem. It isn't running slow on the computer that it was before for me, but does somebody that was having the problem mind testing it out on their computer?

[Zaphos]

Alright I'm pretty sure I fixed the problem. It isn't running slow on the computer that it was before for me, but does somebody that was having the problem mind testing it out on their computer?

Tested it again ... it still seems to be a bit in slow motion.