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[bulfinb]

Hey guys. Please test my game out and give some feedback if you have time. You can get it for android on the google play store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.brendanbulfin.firstreality&hl=en_GB

Or you can get it on from my website for Windows Linux or Mac - http://brendanbulfin.org/first-reality



This is the first game I ever made and I also learned object oriented coding as part of developing this so go easy on me if you think its really crap. Any feedback with regards to gameplay, style and storyline welcome. Particularly for the android version.

[bigosaur]

Do you have a video of how the game is played?

[bulfinb]

Hey, Eh I don't actually sorry. Are you having trouble playing it or would you just like to see a bit of a demo?

[bigosaur]

Hey, Eh I don't actually sorry. Are you having trouble playing it or would you just like to see a bit of a demo?

There's so many games to try out, I really can't install them all. I like to see the gameplay first and if I like it then I'll install to try it myself.

[bulfinb]

Hey, I will try make a demo video of it tomorrow. Thanks

[wessles]

I can't tell if the lack of polish is intentional (too many satire games go down this road), but nonetheless, you have some things to work on.

• Movement feels stiff and difficult to use. This will turn most players off instantly.
• The art in this game is, no offense, bad. Games don't have to look bad to be satire. I would start by making it at least consistently doodled (some parts are drawn differently than others).
• User interface needs tons of work, as this makes up a good portion of an RPG. It needs at least SOME polish. Maybe also look over the spelling ("moneys", "equiped", etc.). Make sure the control is constant (Mouse, keyboard, or both?). This interface was broken, so I got stuck at an item select screen and gave up.

In the future, I'd stay away from satire games. They are way too easy to get wrong.

[quantumpotato]

In the future, I'd stay away from satire games. They are way too easy to get wrong.

Satirical

[bulfinb]

Most people have praised the artwork so far. It looks different at different parts because there were many different artists. I do appreciate the feedback all the same.

I can't tell if the lack of polish is intentional (too many satire games go down this road), but nonetheless, you have some things to work on.

The lack of polish was not intentional at all. I was learning to code while programming this game. Mostly I started it as a fun way to learn object oriented coding. I used pygame but only for sound, image and font handling. Other than that I wrote the whole engine myself and came up with my own methods for almost everything. That might explain why it is really unpolished.

The interface is a lot better on Android I think so maybe I should stick to that platform. I am working on improving the pc version after a number of suggestions I got.

Oh also I think both moneys and monies are accepted as plurals of money.

[Quicksand-S]

I'm with wessles when it comes to the art. While I like the idea of hand-drawn art in a game, I don't find any of the art on display here appealing in any way, except for maybe some of the color choices. The combination of many different styles (including pixel art for a "shallow puddle" that looks like a blue slime) is very strange. At the very least, I would've expected all the characters to be drawn in the same style.

The term "moneys" (or "monies") is generally used in a formal context, like an account in a large organization. In less formal situations, people normally just say "money" and leave it at that.

Anyway, on to my other comments/observations:

-I kinda like the title-screen music.

-Making the window larger caused graphical issues. First, two copies of the initial logo were shown, then on the main menu there were two copies of the menu and the background image was not resized.

-The movement was a bit annoying. I guess I naturally keep a direction held if I know I'm going to be moving that way again soon, so I'd hold Left, then press Down to go down, then release Down and expect to go left again (since that key is still held). Instead, my character would just stop. On a related note, it was annoying that if my character was blocked by an NPC who then moved out of the way, I had to re-press the movement key. Why doesn't the game just check if the key is being held?

-The animation is really jerky, as if one of the frames is misaligned slightly. I would also suggest setting the origin of the character's sprite so it's aligned with his body. If I turn left/right, his feet shouldn't move to a completely new spot.

-Collisions in the initial area are really imprecise. For example, I can walk through the fence at the upper-right (in the first area), but can't walk up the path above it.

-Enter should probably be an option in the in-game menu.

-I entered the second area and the camera was in the wrong spot. It then moved slowly toward the town.

-The camera movement is really choppy, jerking forward every few steps.

-Mouse-based movement controls are really, really weird. He walks up if I move the mouse up, but then as soon as I stop moving the mouse, he walks sideways endlessly. That seems to be an issue with me playing with the window maximized. I think it threw off the coordinate comparison. I also have issues with toggling the mouse control off. If I turn it off while he's moving, he keeps going.

-In the first area, there are a lot of paths but I'm blocked from going down them. That suggested to me that I needed an interactive object in order to move between areas. The second area, however, completely goes against that. I almost didn't even try walking down the south road because I assumed it would be blocked off like the rest were. On a related note, why are there so many paths that look usable when they aren't? Are they coming later?

-"Dukes letter" should say "Duke's" and "Defibulator" is misspelled (Should be "defibrillator").

-He owes many months of "maintenance" for the kids. Normally, that word is used for non-organic things. You could say "child support" or...I feel like there's another term, but I can't think of it right now. For the most part, the writing is pretty good, though.

-Menu controls feel delayed and sometimes pressing Up or Down doesn't do anything at all.

-If I press Z in a cut-scene, the menu pops up after it. That just seemed a bit weird, although I guess it's unlikely a real player would do that.

-I entered the Items inventory and then pressed Escape, but I couldn't select Continue. Pressing Spacebar only used the selected item. Pressing Z got me out of that situation, but it wasn't good that the pop-up menu didn't work in that situation.

-Combat feels pointless. If I don't have any attack/defense options, then it's just a waste of time. I do like that I can move around enemies, though.

I stopped in the second part of the game, with all those demons coming at me constantly. It was just boring and annoying. The game seemed to have potential. The writing is decent enough that it could've maybe kept me going, despite all the above issues, if I didn't hate the combat so much. The game has some problems, but most of them are pretty small and likely easy to fix if you feel so inclined and I'm kinda curious to see what happens so I hope that you'll do that. If so, I'll likely try it again at a later date.

[wessles]

The lack of polish was not intentional at all. I was learning to code while programming this game. Mostly I started it as a fun way to learn object oriented coding. I used pygame but only for sound, image and font handling. Other than that I wrote the whole engine myself and came up with my own methods for almost everything. That might explain why it is really unpolished.

In that case, good job. Writing an entire engine for this must have been hard work, especially for a beginner. Sorry if the lack of polish part came off as an insult, it's just that a lot of people think satire means making a dysfunctional game on purpose. Since you made this in your own engine, it's understandable that there'd be some problems.

I can't say I support making your own engine, though. You would learn a lot more about game development at a faster pace using a game library / engine. There's really no need to reinvent the wheel.

[gimymblert]

I love that art style

[bulfinb]

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback Quicksand. I am trying to improve it a bit now by improving the navigation as you mentioned for when the player holds down keys. I have removed the mouse controls on the PC version as they are really bad and only add confusion. I also improved the menu by making [Esc] move up a menu or exit rather than bring up the Quit Game menu. The Quit game menu can also be closed now using [Esc].

For the initial area, those roads open up later but do involve interacting with an icon to travel. I may change the starting area to the pub or something to avoid the initial confusion caused by this.

I know the fighting is dull. I'm not sure if you played the latest version. In this one using abilities can temporarily freeze enemies meaning you can then attack them without getting hit. It means that running around more and trying to freeze them is better. Slightly less boring.

Do you have any basic suggestions for how to improve the fighting further?

[Quicksand-S]

Do you have any basic suggestions for how to improve the fighting further?

Being able to get through it faster would be nice. There's a slight delay between the enemy's actions and mine, so the pacing feels off when I try to go fast.

Dropping the turn-based feeling would probably help me, personally. I know it's not technically turn-based, but there's still a timer arbitrarily limiting my attack speed. I've never really liked having to wait in battles just because a timer says so. It would probably make it easier to make combat feel more dynamic.

Blocking could play a role. Movement could also be more important if enemies didn't react to things instantly. You could try to dodge attacks.

Having different attacks would be nice, each with pros and cons that could potentially depend on the enemy being fought. Maybe some attacks could be weaker but affect all enemies nearby (ex. a spin attack, assuming you're not going for realism). Controls could just involve holding the attack button for a while, and maybe pressing a direction when you want to pull off a type of special attack.

Enemies could also have different attacks which they could telegraph briefly beforehand so the player knows to dodge or counter. I realize you're doing this all yourself. This doesn't have to be anything crazy. In Zelda: ALttP, for example, enemies just run in place for a second before charging.

One thing that is generally really important in combat is feedback. Right now, hits don't feel powerful. I'm just watching numbers go down, but neither my character nor the enemy actually reacts to being hit (ex. getting pushed backward, getting briefly stunned by a good hit, etc.).

If you do want to keep the timer-based combat, then maybe position should play more of a role. The player could get around behind an enemy and hit them from there for more damage, for example.

Enemies should probably also have a more limited view distance. Having them instantly run at me from a distance when I enter an area isn't great.

Anyway, you've got tons of options, and many of them shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.


...You know, I'm so used to auto-saves these days that I just assumed that my game yesterday had saved at some point (at least after the bar scene). Oops. Maybe that would be a good thing to add. Being able to skip cutscenes would be nice too, since I have to go through them all again.

[bulfinb]

Ok so I still have to upload the updated version but so far I have made a few changes as per your suggestions.

• Fixed key controls so that holding a key results in the player resuming that direction when another key is lifted
• Introduced auto saves
• Improved the menu
• This is a bit cheap but I put in a randomness into the attack timing so it at least feels a bit less Turned based
• Slightly updated the effect of abilities and the duration of the time they freeze enemies for. Added a gasping sound for freezed enemies

Futher Plans (I don't want to go too complicated as I have worked on this for too long already)

• Add a circular attack

• Delay enemy reactions

The real reason for players to want to play this game has got to be the storyline at the moment I guess. I probably won't pimp out the fighting enough to make it very enjoyable, but atleast make it bearable. I would reccomend the Android version as the vibration does give you a little bit more feedback during the fighting. Makes it seem like there is more going on maybe.[/list]

[Quicksand-S]

Slightly updated the effect of abilities and the duration of the time they freeze enemies for.

By the way, when does the character get that ability? Or how do I use it? I don't remember seeing any messages about it in-game.

I would reccomend the Android version as the vibration does give you a little bit more feedback during the fighting. Makes it seem like there is more going on maybe.

That does sound like it would make things slightly better, but I don't have access to an Android device. Hopefully someone else around here does.

[bulfinb]

You have abilities right from the start. The first one is Fear and it is automatically equipped at the start. If you talk to 'Helpful Dan' at the start he explains the fighting.

Basically you can learn 3 new abilities each with a wider range. To use an abilities you have to press 'spacebar' when an enemy is within range BUT no enemies can be within Melee range so you have to keep your distance. A Halo will appear around Norman which encompasses the ability range so any enemy in that halo is hit and can be potentially frozen (Added a gasping noise for when they unfreeze so its more obvious what is happening).

This might all work a bit nicer if I delay the enemy tracking so they react a bit slower and you can move around them a bit easier.

The abilities you learn are Gloom, Depression and Doom. The reason for freezing the enemies is given as the ability forces them to empathise with Norman.

I am off on a cycling trip tomorrow and for a few days so I won't get time to put this up for a while.

[Quicksand-S]

You have abilities right from the start. The first one is Fear and it is automatically equipped at the start. If you talk to 'Helpful Dan' at the start he explains the fighting.

I never spoke with Helpful Dan. It seems weird that it's so easy to miss such important info.

Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to slow down the enemy movement a little bit, and maybe to make the halo pop up every time the player presses Space (or always be there in combat) so it's easy to see what the range is. I had a lot of trouble getting enemies into the proper spot. Either they were too close or too far. I only managed to hit them with my ability once in every five or so attempts.

I'd also recommend not letting people start conversations in the middle of battle. I tried to use my ability but was too close to Helpful Dan and had to go through that whole conversation again.

There's something weird going on with NPC movements. I can't normally walk through an NPC, but Dan can walk through me. He's also drawn below my character's sprite even when he shouldn't be.

Just noticed that "Equipped" is missing the second "p" both when I equip things and in the list of equipped items.

Anyway, have fun on your cycling trip.

[bulfinb]

Hey. So I have made many changes now as per all the suggestions. Updated windows linux and android versions but not OS X.

I improved the  interface a good bit.

• Resizing window during intro should now be fine
• Improved controls and interface
• Pressing Esc instead of space bar allows cut scenes to be accelerated(not skipped just jumped through faster)

I improved fighting.

• Abilities cast automatically but take time to charge up. Temporarily freezes any enemies hit. Enemies must still be in the correct range but it happens very easily as you don't have to hit space-bar at the right time
• Enemies have a delay in there reaction time meaning you can move around them better
• Holding space-bar charges up a frenzy/circular attch hits multiple enemies
• SOme other minor touches

All this means you be more tactical in the fighting. Moving around enemies can allow ou to freeze them and kill them taking less damage and the circular attack makes multiple enemy fights a bit easier. The fighting is still not amazing by any means but the main focus of the game is the story line(music and art too) and hopefully now the fighting is not so dull that people with stop playing immediatly.

For now I am going to stop with this project for a bit. If it gains any popularity I will update it as necessary. Instead I am going to start another much smaller project with kivy - http://kivy.org/#home. I have followed some tutorials and it seems pretty easy especially as I am very comfortable with python.

Thanks for all the feedback Quicksand and Wessles, was very helpful and you guys put game developing into perspective for me in terms of what areas to concentrate on. (Interface, Consistency, Conventional controls etc.)