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[rckprtr]

Hey guys,

Game Link: https://www.mxlvl.com

Im trying to make an arena style game that is a top down shooter that is played in the browser.

WASD to Move and Click/Space to shoot.  Get Ammo, health, shields on the map.  Collect as many coins as you can and then save them to exit.

The combat is very 1 dimensional right now, Im trying to figure out what to add - Turrets that you can purchase with earned coins or bombs.  I want to make higher end arenas that cost coins to get in and play.  But what? What can I do with the gates and the coins.

The intent is to just make a fun FREE browser gaming experience you can get in and burn some time.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

[xenonii]

I tried it in Chrome, it loaded to the main menu with music. I got to enter my player name, but clicking on Ready didn't do anything.

[RealScaniX]

I played it very briefly (stopped when it looked like being PvP ^^).
 
Some of the visuals are pretty nice and the sounds seem to be cool, too.
 
The movement could be improved. That linear unaccelerated movement seemed a bit boring to me. Maybe add some mass and acceleration to the players.

[xenonii]

Just wanted to let you know it worked now.
Will give better feedback later

[rckprtr]

I played it very briefly (stopped when it looked like being PvP ^^).
 
Some of the visuals are pretty nice and the sounds seem to be cool, too.
 
The movement could be improved. That linear unaccelerated movement seemed a bit boring to me. Maybe add some mass and acceleration to the players.

Thanks for the feedback! I think I can do this accelerated movement.  I made it linear to make interpolation easier, but my algorithm may be robust enough now, thanks!

Also, thanks for the compliment on the visuals, I spend way too much time on it and still not satisfied.

Trying to come up with more game mechanics and a way to use the collected coins.

[xenonii]

Hi,
I played it for a few minutes and I survived a while after being killed immediately the first time round . I enjoyed hunting down other players  which I assumed were real players (not bots) right? Although I had a doubt coz their firing was slower than mine.

My main comments will be on visuals 
- The intro screen looked very promising, but then when logged in the graphics don't continue. It looked like it's going to be scifi retro, but the floor and objects on the floor don't match.
- Why are the avatars circles? They don't show any sense of direction or give any attachment for the player.
- In general the environment graphics put me off. I don't know if it's my old laptop. Attaching a screenshot so you can verify if the rendering is correct.
- Besides the walls which seems to be 3d, everything looks flat and somewhat out of place. Is there some art style you want your game to look like? Try making a mockup in your favorite editor, and see if you can get a better feel. You can start by taking a screenshot of your game, and try make it look better in photoshop/gimp/etc.
- The gradients in the edges of the walls (e.g. look at the pink wall) looks like it's blurry suggesting it's stretching

Some suggestions:
- To add depth, you can fake some shadows by adding a gradient circle/rectangle underneath the objects (like the avatars).
- A trick to see if your visuals are on the right track is taking a screenshot and doing a thumbnail and see if it still looks good
- Another trick is to take a screenshot and take off all saturation to see if it still looks interesting in b&w
- Perhaps add some lighting to improve the mood of the game. Not sure what engine you're using underneath, so the easiness to do this might vary.

Let me know if you need any clarification on some of the points. 

How it looked on my old laptop:

[Red Phantom]

I also played your game briefly.
No enemies spawned.
I actually really like the visual of the floor.
I'm not a fan of the character's visual.
The map is useful.
The visual and spinning animation of the boxes you can collect is also nice.
Animation of the character shooting is great.
The edges of the walls seem a bit too bright to me.
Accessibility of game is a positive!
That's about it for my feedback based on what I've seen. : )

[michaelplzno]

Works great for me, easy to control, intuitive. loaded up right away. For game mechanics I would want more kinds of weapons to make it interesting. Kind of like super crate box, like you spawn the bazooka or the shotgun etc. Also absorbing more of your opponent's health might be a good idea as in those snake.io games where you get bigger and bigger. Anyway, the play of it was the best part.

The presentation both SFX and visuals need a lick of paint imo. You might want to bring on someone to give it a visual upgrade (keeping the same tecno-noir rad 80's direction, there is a LOT to do in that direction)

Good luck!

[jbarrios]

Hey rckprtr,

I played your game.  I recorded it and my thoughts:

[rckprtr]

Hi,
I played it for a few minutes and I survived a while after being killed immediately the first time round . I enjoyed hunting down other players  which I assumed were real players (not bots) right? Although I had a doubt coz their firing was slower than mine.

My main comments will be on visuals 
- The intro screen looked very promising, but then when logged in the graphics don't continue. It looked like it's going to be scifi retro, but the floor and objects on the floor don't match.
- Why are the avatars circles? They don't show any sense of direction or give any attachment for the player.
- In general the environment graphics put me off. I don't know if it's my old laptop. Attaching a screenshot so you can verify if the rendering is correct.
- Besides the walls which seems to be 3d, everything looks flat and somewhat out of place. Is there some art style you want your game to look like? Try making a mockup in your favorite editor, and see if you can get a better feel. You can start by taking a screenshot of your game, and try make it look better in photoshop/gimp/etc.
- The gradients in the edges of the walls (e.g. look at the pink wall) looks like it's blurry suggesting it's stretching

Some suggestions:
- To add depth, you can fake some shadows by adding a gradient circle/rectangle underneath the objects (like the avatars).
- A trick to see if your visuals are on the right track is taking a screenshot and doing a thumbnail and see if it still looks good
- Another trick is to take a screenshot and take off all saturation to see if it still looks interesting in b&w
- Perhaps add some lighting to improve the mood of the game. Not sure what engine you're using underneath, so the easiness to do this might vary.

Let me know if you need any clarification on some of the points. 

How it looked on my old laptop:

Really good feedback!  I spent the weekend trying to fiddle with lighting, to make the objects on the terrain pop and I believe with baked lighting I can get a real 3d effect going, but need to learn more.


Right now its abstractly what I want it to look like.  I want it to run in the browser first, so I need to get tricky with how do I things.  The fake shadows is a technique I think that fits this, going to try some things out.  Thank you for the thumbnail and B&W trick, I actually would like to make things look interesting, but Im not certain I have the eye for it.

I can't figure out what I want the character to look like, i want it to be be highly customized, but also keeping in mind the lower vertex count.

[rckprtr]

I also played your game briefly.
No enemies spawned.
I actually really like the visual of the floor.
I'm not a fan of the character's visual.
The map is useful.
The visual and spinning animation of the boxes you can collect is also nice.
Animation of the character shooting is great.
The edges of the walls seem a bit too bright to me.
Accessibility of game is a positive!
That's about it for my feedback based on what I've seen. : )

Yeah, its supposed to pad servers as the game is growing, they may of crashed.  They run on a separated client, as Im testing up time and performance.

What game mechanic would you like to see?

Works great for me, easy to control, intuitive. loaded up right away. For game mechanics I would want more kinds of weapons to make it interesting. Kind of like super crate box, like you spawn the bazooka or the shotgun etc. Also absorbing more of your opponent's health might be a good idea as in those snake.io games where you get bigger and bigger. Anyway, the play of it was the best part.

The presentation both SFX and visuals need a lick of paint imo. You might want to bring on someone to give it a visual upgrade (keeping the same tecno-noir rad 80's direction, there is a LOT to do in that direction)

Good luck!

Thanks! I puzzle on the game mechanic all the time. I want to add the abilities to the game, but can't land on the first 3.  Also make it so you can only carry 2... not sure.  What would you want to see?

[rckprtr]

Hey rckprtr,

I played your game.  I recorded it and my thoughts:

Ha, wow I was pretty surprised to see this, I watched the video a couple times.  It helped a lot with understanding what the player is thinking.  I think im going to add a How To Play on the game screen.  'Player' was your character name, its a input box.  Going to make that stand out more and rename it to Username...

I've been playing with this concept of abilities or power ups, something about this video gave me a couple concepts I want to try.  Thank you!