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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingProject GearJump - A nontraditional runner
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codoc
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« on: July 16, 2018, 12:47:47 AM »

PROJECT GEARJUMP



Playtesting!
Hello community, this is my game Project GearJump. Im struggling to find people to play my game and give criticism, especially since taking my game to a meet up or something is somewhat out the question now (i live in a tiny town in Japan).
So! I am turning to the good people of TIGSource.

If you have time, please click here to view my game page and play the demo.
when you do, please let me know what you think, i am eager to hear your criticism.

Thank you.

New version



Whats new
  • Bug fixes(specifically with the mineral pickup counter)
  • Parallax scrolling (though Im still tweaking the values)
  • Options menu on title screen
  • Title theme music!

Any playtesting will be appreciated!

Thank you





« Last Edit: August 30, 2018, 05:19:24 PM by codoc » Logged

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vikepic
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« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2018, 01:03:32 AM »

I'd definitely work on some lerp on the camera to avoid the effect that the level is moving instead of the player when he jumps.

Keep up the good work!
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codoc
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« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2018, 01:16:46 AM »

I'd definitely work on some lerp on the camera to avoid the effect that the level is moving instead of the player when he jumps.

Keep up the good work!


ohhhh thank you so much! I will put some time in to that.
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tomgcoleman
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« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2018, 06:48:24 AM »

Loved it, let me share the top 10 reasons why I enjoyed it so much.
1. never die, just get sent back / lower
2. was relieved to not fall, after the opening demo fall and burn I anticipated a burning death. ha ha
3. I get to gather coins / markers, love gathering stuff
4. jump ends more quickly if I release the jump button
5. feedback for jump gear change via color, I like feedback
6. layers, background, foreground, felt complete
7. speed run : if I know what to do the level is over quite quickly
8. challenging : some of the jumps are quite hard
9. possible : as I improved the timing it got easier
10. simple : no need to worry about moving forward / backwards, only when to jump.
11. lower level / fail zone has hidden goodies.  I love levels where I can go back and replay to gather everything, or find hidden stuff.
12. leg pattern changes when jumping up in the air for high or far

Feedback : let me share a few things that came to mind
1. provide option to drop the w, and just use uio.  maybe e = i + w, r = o + w, t = p + w
2. add additional keyboard option for left up right as alternates for uio, and space bar for w
3. there's something satisfying about hitting the space bar to jump. Smiley
4. What is the difference between a jump gear 1 and a short duration jump gear 2 ( long jump )?  seems like I can select gear 2 ( long jump ), and release w quickly after pressing it.  Difference is height right? o is lower than i.  How about the difference between normal jump and tall jump released quickly?  fun to contrast, have tutorial level draw the arc, inviting them to try each.
5. drop the d / s text thing, don't see the point, was distracting
6. explain the d / s thing on the next level, then I can go back to level 1, get the slide goodie and use it.
7. in the intro, I had to click the "continue" three or four times, please support keyboard continue
8. feedback of selected gear : for the first minute, or on the tutorial level, I would prefer to have an icon above Neil's head
9. tutorial : drop the text, just give a very simple world to start with where each jump type is required.
the first level does this pretty well, maybe add some background clues, like clouds shaped with the gear letter to proceed
10. lowest level s entrance, please loop around so I can gather all the gems.
11. please add some permanent power up if I gather all gems on a level, like gathering a D thingy will give me 4 rather than 3.
12. change the walking pattern to match what he will jump.  long stride = longer jump, short prance like stride = tall jump
13. on the tutorial, I like the funny stuff, but make it more off to the side, and less required, maybe add option for intro with an attitude
maybe add the humor as a smaller sub text, so curious people like you and me will look for it, and enjoy it.
when the funny stuff is too large or forced it feels like you are saying "get it? get it? funny right?" .  I think you have some great humor to share, for me I like it more subtle, but probably there are many people that like the large text "get it?" kind of stuff... becomes a percentages game I guess.
14. I found it slightly frustrating to judge how close to the edge I can come before I'm going to drop.  but maybe that's just a learning thing that comes with time.
15. scrolling : have the background scroll at a slower speed than the foreground, this will help give a feeling of depth.
16. depth : make the background a bit more blurry.  The high def clear stars and mountains can be distracting from seeing the platforms

warning : I think you will be tempted to make the following levels get harder quite quickly.  Your casual game audience will want them to stay easy, with more places to explore.  Your serious gamers will want it to get challenging before they get bored.  To support this consider branching the levels, so people can explore several asteroids, figuring out how to get all the gems on all the variation levels.

loved it : I quite liked the demo, the balance of difficulty was just right for me, which kept me going as I felt it was possible.  The visible levels above made me curious to see what was up there, what can I find just beyond my current skill level.  I'm excited to see where the game continues!

mind if I copy your idea to make an android app?
probably it will be just square blocks, like your demo page, and the input as three buttons.  
Will have same feel as my android app : "turn go gold"
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MSThalamus
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« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2018, 11:39:43 AM »

Praise:

* It's a good start on a cute game!
* I liked the music.
* The game really took me back to the old NES days.

Constructive Feedback:

* The opening banter feels a bit hostile. It would be fine if it was an NPC interacting with the player character, but it's the game interacting with the player, so it comes across personally. Smiley
* You might want to use a serifed font, like Times New Roman, for you control instructions (just the letters). Your "I" looked like an "l", and that tripped me up for a bit.
* I never pressed "O" but it still let me pass that part of the tutorial.
* Then I fell to my death in the tutorial and couldn't figure out why. I wanted to redo the tutorial, but it dumped me in the game.
* Pause would be helpful.
* Why W to jump instead of Space?
* I liked the scrolling by "Press D to Pick up" kind of instruction in the actual game better than the discrete tutorial. But it wasn't clear what was picked up or what id did.
* Would benefit from adversaries.
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codoc
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« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2018, 03:43:09 AM »

Loved it, let me share the top 10 reasons why I enjoyed it so much.
1. never die, just get sent back / lower
2. was relieved to not fall, after the opening demo fall and burn I anticipated a burning death. ha ha
3. I get to gather coins / markers, love gathering stuff
4. jump ends more quickly if I release the jump button
5. feedback for jump gear change via color, I like feedback
6. layers, background, foreground, felt complete
7. speed run : if I know what to do the level is over quite quickly
8. challenging : some of the jumps are quite hard
9. possible : as I improved the timing it got easier
10. simple : no need to worry about moving forward / backwards, only when to jump.
11. lower level / fail zone has hidden goodies.  I love levels where I can go back and replay to gather everything, or find hidden stuff.
12. leg pattern changes when jumping up in the air for high or far

Feedback : let me share a few things that came to mind
1. provide option to drop the w, and just use uio.  maybe e = i + w, r = o + w, t = p + w
2. add additional keyboard option for left up right as alternates for uio, and space bar for w
3. there's something satisfying about hitting the space bar to jump. Smiley
4. What is the difference between a jump gear 1 and a short duration jump gear 2 ( long jump )?  seems like I can select gear 2 ( long jump ), and release w quickly after pressing it.  Difference is height right? o is lower than i.  How about the difference between normal jump and tall jump released quickly?  fun to contrast, have tutorial level draw the arc, inviting them to try each.
5. drop the d / s text thing, don't see the point, was distracting
6. explain the d / s thing on the next level, then I can go back to level 1, get the slide goodie and use it.
7. in the intro, I had to click the "continue" three or four times, please support keyboard continue
8. feedback of selected gear : for the first minute, or on the tutorial level, I would prefer to have an icon above Neil's head
9. tutorial : drop the text, just give a very simple world to start with where each jump type is required.
the first level does this pretty well, maybe add some background clues, like clouds shaped with the gear letter to proceed
10. lowest level s entrance, please loop around so I can gather all the gems.
11. please add some permanent power up if I gather all gems on a level, like gathering a D thingy will give me 4 rather than 3.
12. change the walking pattern to match what he will jump.  long stride = longer jump, short prance like stride = tall jump
13. on the tutorial, I like the funny stuff, but make it more off to the side, and less required, maybe add option for intro with an attitude
maybe add the humor as a smaller sub text, so curious people like you and me will look for it, and enjoy it.
when the funny stuff is too large or forced it feels like you are saying "get it? get it? funny right?" .  I think you have some great humor to share, for me I like it more subtle, but probably there are many people that like the large text "get it?" kind of stuff... becomes a percentages game I guess.
14. I found it slightly frustrating to judge how close to the edge I can come before I'm going to drop.  but maybe that's just a learning thing that comes with time.
15. scrolling : have the background scroll at a slower speed than the foreground, this will help give a feeling of depth.
16. depth : make the background a bit more blurry.  The high def clear stars and mountains can be distracting from seeing the platforms

warning : I think you will be tempted to make the following levels get harder quite quickly.  Your casual game audience will want them to stay easy, with more places to explore.  Your serious gamers will want it to get challenging before they get bored.  To support this consider branching the levels, so people can explore several asteroids, figuring out how to get all the gems on all the variation levels.

loved it : I quite liked the demo, the balance of difficulty was just right for me, which kept me going as I felt it was possible.  The visible levels above made me curious to see what was up there, what can I find just beyond my current skill level.  I'm excited to see where the game continues!

mind if I copy your idea to make an android app?
probably it will be just square blocks, like your demo page, and the input as three buttons.  
Will have same feel as my android app : "turn go gold"



First of all thank you so much fro your valuable feedback i appreciate that!

Hmm i agree yes adding alternate controll shemes is a good idea.

Gear 1 is actually the only jump that allows you to hold down the button for a bigger jump arch the other jumps allow for consecutive jumps when you hold down there jump buttons, but this is all stuff i want the player to figure out

Keyboard continue is a good idea.

Interesting, comments on the dialog i don't think its perfect yet, but its plot attitude, if that makes sense? but the thing talking to you doesn't actually like you very much but this will get explored throughout the game.
However its not supposed to come across as trying to be funny.

Its a shame actually because i fear that the demo is setting up a few things which would make sense in the context of the whole game. i have to think about that one.

This level is very basic for what i actually have planned. i fear for the difficulty so i was planning on having a scaled back easy mode but i don't think that would be perfect. I need more people to play it to see where i should go with it.

I like your ideas on the tutorial and such, i actually wouldn't mind making it streamlined and shorter.

Yeah sure make an android app. I actually want to make this in to an app too what do you use to do android apps?  are you using an engine or a coding library?

Are you working on anything? would you like me to play or look at anything?
« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 04:08:23 AM by codoc » Logged

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codoc
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« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2018, 04:08:01 AM »

Praise:

* It's a good start on a cute game!
* I liked the music.
* The game really took me back to the old NES days.

Constructive Feedback:

* The opening banter feels a bit hostile. It would be fine if it was an NPC interacting with the player character, but it's the game interacting with the player, so it comes across personally. Smiley
* You might want to use a serifed font, like Times New Roman, for you control instructions (just the letters). Your "I" looked like an "l", and that tripped me up for a bit.
* I never pressed "O" but it still let me pass that part of the tutorial.
* Then I fell to my death in the tutorial and couldn't figure out why. I wanted to redo the tutorial, but it dumped me in the game.
* Pause would be helpful.
* Why W to jump instead of Space?
* I liked the scrolling by "Press D to Pick up" kind of instruction in the actual game better than the discrete tutorial. But it wasn't clear what was picked up or what id did.
* Would benefit from adversaries.



Thank you for your feedback too, im supper happy!

I love that the banter felt a bit hostile, i wouldn't imagine i would get that response. I don't think its perfect yet but as you play you will continue to be able to chose how you respond to the thing talking to you. There aren't any major story splits  but you kind of control your relationship with it. Its a thing that i hope will make sense in the context of the full game, even though it doesn't come across in the demo but that might be a problem.

serifed font! thank you that's valuable info.

Yeah thinking about it, that O section in the tutorial is a little tricky because i cant force you to jump that large gap with the "O" jump and i don't want to kill the payer at that point...maybe i should...hmmmmm

Ahh! it shouldn't have dumped you in to the level because that actually leads to the level select, where you mashing "W"?

"W" because you will be using the whole WASD cluster of keys to complete jump sections.

hmmmm....i know its not clear what is picked up immediately but i didn't want to spell it out, and have it more of a discovery. maybe i can signpost it better or something.


Yeah there will be a pause with options and such latter on in development.

ahh yes! on the point of no adversaries this level is super basic just to see how people get on with the jumping without any extras. I guess maybe this falls in to the problem of not having the rest of the game as context.

Are you working on anything? would you like me to play or look at anything?
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MSThalamus
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« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2018, 06:03:42 AM »

Hi codoc. Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my feedback!

I am working on something, and you're definitely welcome to test it if you'd like. Thanks for asking! I haven't posted it here officially yet because I feel I'm a year from it being ready to try to draw much more attention to. But if you're interested, here's a link to the announce page for the last pre-alpha I released: http://www.dawnofthefel.com/blogs/game-progress/pre-alpha-milestone-2.93-for-the-win. The first paragraph should tell you, in a tongue-in-cheek way, what to expect (along with the fact that it's a pre-alpha).
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codoc
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« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2018, 05:15:09 PM »

Hi codoc. Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my feedback!

I am working on something, and you're definitely welcome to test it if you'd like. Thanks for asking! I haven't posted it here officially yet because I feel I'm a year from it being ready to try to draw much more attention to. But if you're interested, here's a link to the announce page for the last pre-alpha I released: http://www.dawnofthefel.com/blogs/game-progress/pre-alpha-milestone-2.93-for-the-win. The first paragraph should tell you, in a tongue-in-cheek way, what to expect (along with the fact that it's a pre-alpha).


:D dude! good stuff, Im sorry it took me a while to play it. I really like the music and the pot opening animation and all the cannon balls didn't land in the exact same place so that's good too. I even did the quest, swam in the water and jumped of the edge. I guess your too early to give any criticism but overall it was a joy to run around.

(This is on my game page but i want to make it clear with you.)
I always hear that the Indie scene is full of supportive people willing to help, though understandable, this has not necessarily been my experience.

So i want to build up a network of nice people willing to help each other with whatever they can but to do that I figured I have to honestly put myself out there first without expecting anything in return.

If you have anything you need checking or need help with let me know and I will help if I can. I respect you and your work so please stay in contact.

(That was a long but it's as honest and transparent as I can be!)

Ohhh i almost forgot about the camo hat, that was awesome.
There looked like there was some text written on the back of one of the doors but it was too low res for me to make out, what does it say?
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codoc
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« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2018, 09:46:28 AM »

So far everything has been a big help,
so any comments are appreciated.
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