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[jwalton]

A unique flash puzzle/action game. Drop bombs to create chain reactions and defend human colonies on a distant planet!

You can play the "in progress" version here: http://www.superscience.us/fungibombr/






PS. I originally posted about this here, along with another game I'm working on. I created a this topic because I'm focusing on just this game for now

[jwalton]

I kinda re-started working on this over the weekend. In hopes to have at least a set of levels complete, and playable by mid June.

Started working on terrain art. This is not a "level" just a collection of assets to use in creating levels. you can see a colony building also:

[moi]

This game has a fun atmosphere, I think it will be much better with the new art for the grounds.
also, the face of the girl is sad in a weird way , she almost looks like a zombie or something.

[jwalton]

yeah, i know what you mean, haha! Some of that is due to the downscaling of the original illustration. I don't think she looks quite so gimped at 100%:

[Guert]

Hello there!
Ok, I'll make it snapy...

First thing that bothers me is that you are not told very clearly the condition of the fungus. I'd make them grow smaller as you hit them, making it a bit harder over time. Or maybe a more elaborated feedback to tell how much hits left before blowing up? Anyway, the point is, I didn't know exactly how much dmaage I amde and how much I might need to get rid of the fungus.

Anothe rthing is that I feel like it takes too much time before the bomb hits the fungus. I like how you have the feeling like you are flying high in the air but I feel like it's too high. I'd logicaly think that a bomber would be closer to its target in order to be more precise. Anyway, I like how the game is played and how you have to deal with the wind but I still feel like it takes too much time before you touch the target (about 4 seconds from click to boom)

Anyway, very nice game! I love the boom and the overall concept!
Later!
Guert

[jwalton]

Thanks, the fungi produce "bubbles" as they take damage... from all the pressure building up inside... or something. That was my attempt at hinting at the amount of damage. Maybe I need to make it more obvious...

On the first level, I set some of the fungi to have a huge amount of hit points... while others, take far less... so that is confusing for sure.. I was kinda testing the hit points setting.

Hope to have a new version up soon.

[lowpoly]

really fun game, took forever to beat 3 then 4 never loaded... prob cause I sucked so many times on 3.

anyway, maybe some slight visual notification of when one is just about to pop would be helpful. Love the overall look and feel of the game, can't wait to see it progress.

[jwalton]

Some more updates:
http://www.superscience.us/fungibombr/enemy_art.html

the baddies!
from left to right:

absorbo fungus: absorbs your bombs and grows larger. Dont let it touch the colony! Can only be destroyed by explosions from other enemies, colonies. the bigger it is, the bigger/more powerful the boom (this is a general rule for all units).

soldier fungus: marches toward the colony, and if it comes in contact will damage it until its destroyed. Your bombs reverse its direction for a time. Can only be killed by explosions from other enemies, colonies.

basic fungus: drop bombs on it to destroy it. the bigger it is, the bigger the boom. If left alone will eventually catapult a bomb of its own to the colony and destroy it.



I'm planning on changing a couple mechanics around. Instead of limiting the number of bombs, I want to make it a race against time with unlimited bombs. so I need to make the basic fungus create and catapult something... ug more animation. I also need to make the soldiers reverse direction when you bomb them. currently. they esplode

that said, you can play the old test levels. but with some new art: http://www.superscience.us/fungibombr/

[jwalton]

I think I have a lot of the artwork in, and some initial levels designed:
http://www.schemestudio.com/fungibombr/

I'd really appreciate feeback on the levels - any too hard? any too easy? Are any concepts confusing?

let me know! thanks!

[Guert]

Hey there!
Nice to see an update. The game is looking real good!
I like how you give us a little tutorial without holding our hand along the way.

I'd check the bug you get when you press skip in cinematics. All the scense roll real fast and it looks weird. I also had a little bug at some point. I couldn't stop bombing even when I wasn't clicking. Couldn't reproduce it so I can't help you more on that.

Pressing the reste butotn should reset the level instead of sending us back to the level select menu. Perhaps you could lable it "Quit" or "Return to base" or anything else so we don't confuse it. A confirmation message would be very helpfull to eliminate the miss-click factor.

I also like the approach of being more puzzle oriented. Instead of just bombing away, you have to plan before making a move. I'll go through it level per level.

Level 1:
I think it's okay that way, Simple, and easy to understand. Don't touch it.

Level 2: Ditto

Level 3:
Since this is the first time we deal with wind and the absorbing fungus, you should take it a tad bit easier by being able to kill off the absorball with only one medium size fungi. This way, if you try to blast of a fungi and it doesn't hurt the absorball, you,ll be able to win by blowing up the second fungi. The wind is a bit strong but we have more than enough bombs to take care of the job so it's ok.

Level 4:
I'd make the absorball of a slightly different color. The artwork is pretty clear when they're big but when we start off the level, we don't see them easily. The fourth level is just right. You have to deal with a colony and 2 absorball, which is a good difficulty. One thing tho, maybe you could add 10-20 more bombs, just a tad bit more.

Level 5:
The difficulty is ok in level 5, unless you still concider this one easy, because it offers a really good challenge. I concider it like "medium". It's really hard to figure out how not to destroy your colony. Also, I find it a bit dispaointing if you can't walk out without any damage made to the colony.

Level 6:
I like this one. it's fairly easy but we're delaing with a new enemy so I wouldn't touch it.

Level 7
Not bad, I like it, but a bit too easy compared to level 5. Again, I didn't spot the absorball at the beginning. The spider seems to be abit easy to kill off. Perhaps some tweaking would be needed. Perhaps making it walk a little slow, have more hp but have a shorter paused time. Also, you could give us less bombs in this level. Still, if it's meant to be easy, it is easy but perhaps just a tad too easy.

Level 8
This one is interesting. it feels alot like level 5. I'm still not 100% sure howthe spider wokks but it's nice to see some difference between the two spiders (the small one is a total b*tch, I keep loosing because of this one! ). Perhaps the spiders are moving overall too fast. You should test to see how it plays. Still can't finish it and my lunch break is over. Worst part is that if I keep playing for a couple more minutes, I,m sure I'm going to do it, I'm so close! :D

I like the humour found in the cutscene. Good job!
Well, that's it for now!
I hope it helped!
Take care!

[Pigbuster]

[Guert posted while I was writing, so I might repeat what he says a bit.]

Very nice! I love the dialogue and the failure screen. The levels are fine, not too hard and not too easy, and the learning curve seems just right.

I hope you keep adding more and more fungus types. There's a lot of potential for creative designs here.
I suggest a fungus that blows all bombs away from it (the blowing power getting weaker the further away the bomb is), so it protects all of the fungus near it, and it would have to be destroyed with other fungus explosions.

It's kinda hard to tell how much bombing a soldier fungus needs to make it flee. While bombing it, it is stunned, and when it gets over that, it either flees or keeps going. The only solution is to bomb one a lot and hope that it was enough.
A visual cue of when it passes the flee-level while it was stunned would solve that.

The music cuts out as soon as a fungus explodes, even if it doesn't end the level. It's good for levels in which one explosion will kill everything, but it's kinda odd for levels that require multiple explosions.

The "submit score" input text box should have a 3 character limit.
And the player should only submit the score if they want to (Rather than putting up 3 blanks on the score board, which seems to be what it does now).

The options button doesn't do anything. I know it's a WIP, but at least you could have a notice saying that the options aren't available yet.

Right now the "reset" button in a level goes back to the selection screen. I think it would be better for the reset button to just restart the level (and not back to the dialogue, either. Just to when the level starts), and there should be a "back" button that goes back to the selection screen.

I know you said you might change this to an infinite bombs/time limit type of game, but I MUCH prefer it the way it is, with a bomb limit and infinite time.
That concept just seems to work better for a tactical game like this. You need to think about where and what to bomb. Infinite bombs would just lead to "hold down the mouse button and blow everything up!" gameplay, I think.
And there is already a "time bonus" that gives you points. I think that's enough.

You could always make a time-attack mode, though.

There should be a "bombs left over" bonus, which would really discourage the "bomb everything and hope you win" gameplay.

[jwalton]

Thanks! Really good feedback.I'm going to try to incorporate a lot of this...