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[mlpcode]

Hello all,

I made this little retro/pixel art online boxing game and now I'm trying to promote it a bit.
It's nothing I plan to make any money off, it's more like a hobby and it's just something I enjoy to do.

I'm trying to find sites where to showcase it, anyone have some links?

Some background, I made this game WAY back on the Commodore 64, well it was never completely finished since C64 kind of went out of fashion. A few years back I decided to make an online version of this game. Luckily I still had the C64 version on an emulator, and was able to transfer the graphics.

Made everything in my sparetime, of which there is almost nothing, so that's why it took so long.


Features include:
1) Online play. The goal is to compete for rankings and become champ
2) Single player mode (I stole some bg graphics off another c64 boxing game, I hope they dont mind, if they do, I'll just take it off)
3) Audience mode
4) All fights are recorded, and can be viewed later
5) Hall of fame

The game is made in Javascript (of course), using Flow for type checking. Game engine is Phaser, and the website is made in Elm.
 
Would be glad for any feedback you can give me. Thanks for reading!

Website:
http://boxinggamer.com

Vid of online game




Vid of singleplayer gameplay

[DarkGran]

At first I wanted to say "interesting! i'd just make the animations smoother!". Then I watched the videos and I see now the game runs like 10 times slower when I play it. :/
But otherwise, good job! Very retro.
(only thing i'd rly change is the placement of the "back" button when picking boxer, starting a match etc. - it's too close to the "continue" (or whatever is there) so I misclicked it a lot)

[mlpcode]

At first I wanted to say "interesting! i'd just make the animations smoother!". Then I watched the videos and I see now the game runs like 10 times slower when I play it. :/
But otherwise, good job! Very retro.
(only thing i'd rly change is the placement of the "back" button when picking boxer, starting a match etc. - it's too close to the "continue" (or whatever is there) so I misclicked it a lot)

Hey thanks for the feedback! Yes the back button is a bit confusing, I will try to do something about that.
Regarding speed (I assume you played singleplayer), when you start low in the ratings you don't have enough points to train for speed so that's why your slow at that time. When you rise in the ranks you will gain more speed, punching power etc.

[Dubbelrum]

This is just awesome!

C64 game with a good gameplay!

I only played single player. Liked it a lot. I'll play it more when I have the time.

Some notes:

- I didn't use block that much
- Controls page is awful (sorry . I know it's not very c64, but tutorial or some other help to get into the game would do good.
- Punches feel very good
- I liked training + ranking system. Good progression hook (got me at least)
- I'm definitely too old to even think about playing against humans

But, Great work!

Question: Is this the same gameplay as it was with c64 ver? You had all those meta games and AI in it as it is now?

[DarkGran]

Regarding speed (I assume you played singleplayer), when you start low in the ratings you don't have enough points to train for speed so that's why your slow at that time. When you rise in the ranks you will gain more speed, punching power etc.

Ooooooooooooooooo ok. :D Cool!

[mlpcode]

This is just awesome!

C64 game with a good gameplay!

I only played single player. Liked it a lot. I'll play it more when I have the time.

Some notes:

- I didn't use block that much
- Controls page is awful (sorry . I know it's not very c64, but tutorial or some other help to get into the game would do good.
- Punches feel very good
- I liked training + ranking system. Good progression hook (got me at least)
- I'm definitely too old to even think about playing against humans

But, Great work!

Question: Is this the same gameplay as it was with c64 ver? You had all those meta games and AI in it as it is now?

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated!

Yea the game play is pretty much the same, the energy system is a bit different though. The bots are a bit more intelligent as well, but I wouldn't exactly call it AI in the modern sense of the word.

You are definitely right about the instructions page, I have to write a better tutorial.

[Dubbelrum]

No problem,

I think it's awesome how much performance c64 devs could get out of the machine in the end era of the machine. If you compare games made early and late in the lifecycle of c64, the difference is huge.

It's also crazy how c64 just refuses to die. I'm from Finland and I read in the news maybe ten years ago how some football (hobby) club had to replace their score display software, because their c64 finally broke down. They were running their software on c64 for some 30 years!

I think you should go and still release this on c64.

Keep it up! 

[mlpcode]

Yea C64 is awesome and it got me started with programming. Well actually it was C16  first followed by C64, but they are very similar. People today think that those machines were primitive, but they would be surprised if they knew about the awesome development tools, and software and general, already available back then.

Of course I would like to release this to C64 also, but it would just be a huge task and it's difficult to find time for it.

[jbarrios]

Hi mlpcode,

I played your game and recorded it.

[mlpcode]

Thanks that was a good review, that was very nice of you. Kind of strange to see your game reviewed but also really informative.

The main complaint as I understand it was the controls and the amount of information. Also you said that some buttons didn't do anything.
If you take a look at the controls page you can see that some controls are mapped to two buttons, like z+numpad8 for example, right cross. I don't think you noticed that so you just changed the first button, and forgot there was a second, hence that button alone won't activate the desired move. Concerning memorizing, that is a problem of course. But if you click "controls" during the fight, the game will pause, and you can take a look at your controls again, or even change them mid fight.

Of course all this is only obvious to me since I made the game I realize now that much more help is required to allow players to get started easily. I will do much more in this regard in the future.

Also there is an online part, which you also might want to review in the future. Actually the online part is the "main game" if one could say that. Not many people online yet though, but I hope that will change.

Thanks for this great review, it really gave me some useful advice on how to improve this game.

PS I posted this as a comment on the video also, perhaps this could help others when struggling with the controls.