[Non-RPG]

[Awl_ii]

EDIT: I've decided to make this game private.
The feedback provided for this game has been much appreciated!

UPDATE: This page is obviously outdated. Shoo!


Submission Info:

​

Spoiler

UPDATE: Please read below the *** line to learn more about the game. This information has been previously unexplained.


In this brief platformer, a freak glitch gives an unlikely entity the gift of life. Newly born and endlessly curious, the entity dedicates his existence to meet the god who made him.

---INCLUDES BONUS FPS MODE---

Recommended for players who've beaten the game and wondered to themselves what this game would be like if it were a First Person Shooter. (Note that there is no pause menu in this mode-- ESC quits the game.)

CONTROLS:

WASD/ARROW KEYS to move

J/SPACE to jump

Q/E to rotate camera

K to pick up objects/throw physics objects

B to reset level

ESC to pause

You can use the mouse to click, drag, drop and throw enemies and objects, so use this special ability to your advantage, or invite a friend over and have a round of local co-op multiplayer fun!

******************************************************************************************************

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For the mouse controls, "interact" essentially translates to "grab".

The game can be beaten without a mouse.

Physics objects are just as dangerous to you as they are to the enemy, so be careful!

Pausing will reveal the controls for the level. Press ESC to pause and check the controls.

If you die, you cannot pause the game until you reset the level. Hit B to reset.

For four levels/scenes, Q and E have no functions because the camera is fixed.

SPOILER-FREE GUIDE

1- There's a leap of faith here, so just jump off the edge to the right and make sure to avoid the trees. Head left, and jump down the water. Keep heading right and you will see the goal eventually. Just jump to it.

2- Same as before, but you can bypass most of the level by just falling off sideways and aiming your fall.

3-There are four ways to beat this level. You can defeat the big enemy, you can go platforming to the west or to the north, or you could shortcut it by jumping off the bridge to the east and continuing on from there.

4- You will see a big goal. Go to it, and then touch the box in the middle. Keep moving a little bit during the jump, and you should land where you need to.

5- Keep heading right. Use the trees to get up. After the platforming section, drop down to the long goal beneath the rotating triangle. You do not need to reach the triangle to do so---jump down a couple blocks behind so you can land onto the real target on time.

6- Contact the transparent rainbow thingies to get you where you need to go.

7- No action is necessary here, but it's fun to spin around! Wheee!

8-The goal is behind the second door.

9- You should see the goal from where you are.

10. Head forward.

11. Enjoy the ending! (The game doesn't officially end until you manually quit.)

Link:

Spoiler

///

http://contest.rpgmakerweb.com/game/view/id/132 [submission Page]

 

[kartersaint]

I'm going to reply my review on here. Not in the contest entry.

.. changed my mind. Not here, to the entry.

 

[shayoko]

honestly,i did not like it.

normally i would give a reason but...i cant even think of one.

 

[Awl_ii]

I'm sorry to hear that!

Although I would like to know more, I understand where you're coming from. Not every game can engage everyone---even the biggest budget games have this problem! Sometimes there isn't even an identifiable flaw, sometimes a game fails to engage at the surface level. And I understand that the aesthetic and gameplay may be a turn-off for some. I tried to polish it as much as I could and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.

Thanks for giving it a try anyway!

 

[Housekeeping]

Hey, I gave this one a shot last night.  It's TOUGH.  Here are some thoughts:

Spoiler

-I only made it to the third level last night.  I tried to give it my all since you sunk a couple of hours into my game, but I ended up giving up after around the hour and a half mark.  I just couldn't figure out where to go, and it was really easy to get killed early in the level.

-Actually, let's talk about that level in depth.  As far as I can tell, the objective is to click-grab the big rectangle, plop him into the water, avoid a bunch of homicidal black rectangles that move at the speed of light, hop over the stop sign, cross the bridge, and then keep going SOMEWHERE over there.  The problem was the timer: the area was so big that I didn't have time to explore.  The timer worked for the earlier platforming levels since the path was mainly linear and your objective was clear, but, in this stage, the level design didn't mesh with that mechanic.  The end result is kind of disheartening: the player dies several times, and when they make it past the obstacles, they don't know where to go or what to do, and then they eventually die from a time-out.

-I feel like the controls should have been fed to the player as they played.  There are a lot of controls, and it would be nice if the first stage acted as a tutorial for every control.  I didn't know that you could click and grab enemies until the third stage, for example, and that was only after dying a LOT.  I actually managed to get the black rectangle all the way to the stop sign bridge by running in a sort of elliptical pattern.  Once I was on the bridge, he followed me into the water and killed me on the other side.

-Deaths in this game felt like trial and error for the most part.  For example, you don't know that the first black rectangle in the first level is there until you die since he charges so fast.  Once you know he's there, he's easy to deal with, but I found that would happen with each obstacle.  Instead, I would have liked to be able to "solve" obstacles as I ran into them, and then if I failed, I wanted it to feel like my fault instead of the game's.

-The music wasn't bad, but it should probably not reset on death, as deaths can be pretty common.  I ended up hearing the first five/ten seconds of the third level's music over and over again, which got pretty annoying, especially since your music has a tendency to build on itself, which means the simplest part comes at the beginning.

-The camera rotation felt clunky.  Since you put the keys right next to the movement keys, it was difficult to move and rotate the camera.  Considering there's a time limit, I'd want to compact movement as much as possible.

-I don't think obstacles should hurt you.  Floor damage, pits, and black rectangles already provide a pretty big challenge; getting crushed by falling trees felt like a penalty.  The worst was when I crushed myself with the giant ball two or three times by holding it with the mouse as a giant shield and accidentally walking into it.

-Respawn time in the first level was too long.  I died a lot trying to get used to the gameplay, so you'd want to minimize the respawn time so that the player doesn't feel as penalized for losing.

This game felt really difficult--and not in a particularly fair way.  Since I doubt I got close to finishing, I won't write a review for this (unless you want me to, but it'll be pretty unfavorable).  My main tips are that you should try to design more from a player perspective.  If you want to make a challenging game, that's fine, but you need to design it in a way that feels like the player is at fault for their own mistakes.  Super Meat Boy's a great example of how to do this.

 

[Awl_ii]

Hey, I gave this one a shot last night.  It's TOUGH.  Here are some thoughts:

Spoiler

-I only made it to the third level last night.  I tried to give it my all since you sunk a couple of hours into my game, but I ended up giving up after around the hour and a half mark.  I just couldn't figure out where to go, and it was really easy to get killed early in the level.

-Actually, let's talk about that level in depth.  As far as I can tell, the objective is to click-grab the big rectangle, plop him into the water, avoid a bunch of homicidal black rectangles that move at the speed of light, hop over the stop sign, cross the bridge, and then keep going SOMEWHERE over there.  The problem was the timer: the area was so big that I didn't have time to explore.  The timer worked for the earlier platforming levels since the path was mainly linear and your objective was clear, but, in this stage, the level design didn't mesh with that mechanic.  The end result is kind of disheartening: the player dies several times, and when they make it past the obstacles, they don't know where to go or what to do, and then they eventually die from a time-out.

-I feel like the controls should have been fed to the player as they played.  There are a lot of controls, and it would be nice if the first stage acted as a tutorial for every control.  I didn't know that you could click and grab enemies until the third stage, for example, and that was only after dying a LOT.  I actually managed to get the black rectangle all the way to the stop sign bridge by running in a sort of elliptical pattern.  Once I was on the bridge, he followed me into the water and killed me on the other side.

-Deaths in this game felt like trial and error for the most part.  For example, you don't know that the first black rectangle in the first level is there until you die since he charges so fast.  Once you know he's there, he's easy to deal with, but I found that would happen with each obstacle.  Instead, I would have liked to be able to "solve" obstacles as I ran into them, and then if I failed, I wanted it to feel like my fault instead of the game's.

-The music wasn't bad, but it should probably not reset on death, as deaths can be pretty common.  I ended up hearing the first five/ten seconds of the third level's music over and over again, which got pretty annoying, especially since your music has a tendency to build on itself, which means the simplest part comes at the beginning.

-The camera rotation felt clunky.  Since you put the keys right next to the movement keys, it was difficult to move and rotate the camera.  Considering there's a time limit, I'd want to compact movement as much as possible.

-I don't think obstacles should hurt you.  Floor damage, pits, and black rectangles already provide a pretty big challenge; getting crushed by falling trees felt like a penalty.  The worst was when I crushed myself with the giant ball two or three times by holding it with the mouse as a giant shield and accidentally walking into it.

-Respawn time in the first level was too long.  I died a lot trying to get used to the gameplay, so you'd want to minimize the respawn time so that the player doesn't feel as penalized for losing.

This game felt really difficult--and not in a particularly fair way.  Since I doubt I got close to finishing, I won't write a review for this (unless you want me to, but it'll be pretty unfavorable).  My main tips are that you should try to design more from a player perspective.  If you want to make a challenging game, that's fine, but you need to design it in a way that feels like the player is at fault for their own mistakes.  Super Meat Boy's a great example of how to do this.

Spoiler

Thanks for playing. This is very helpful!

I guess I didn't realize how difficult the 3rd level really was. Actually, I was originally going to delete it, but since I put the time in, I just kept it in there and made it bigger. In any case, there's a "secret exit" near the start point--- to the right there should be a bridge with no stop sign. Jump off that anyway and you'll land on an almost-invisible ice ground. You should see a sphere, go to that and that'll end the level.

As for the music, I actually couldn't implement that due to how the reset button works. I wasn't sure how to utilize cross-scene audio playing in Unity. Good to know it's an issue, though! My next game doesn't have this problem, and good to know that quirk won't be missed.

I'll keep in mind the other things you've mentioned as well!

Oh, and out of curiosity, how fast does the first enemy charge? If he charges you literally at the speed of light, there's a big issue on my end. If he goes that fast, technically he's working correctly---however, when I play it on my computer, his speed is relatively normal. I had to make him super fast to make him move at all, but maybe that problem is unique to my computer and the game everyone else is playing is far more difficult than the game I actually designed.

 

Spoiler

Also, since I'm here, I might as well tell you what's in store for the other levels.

The level after the one you're stuck on has floating enemies, and hitting a certain spot will kill you. Also, the level is over 3 minutes long. There is technically no timer, but it's not difficult to die near the end.

The level after that has you jumping pretty small platforms as you're being chased. You have to leap at a certain time for this one, and if you did a particularly good job you'll have a few seconds to spare when you hit the girl.

The level after that one will be familiar.

Beyond that point, the experience is gravy, because there are no more enemies. 

Have you played the "bonus" game yet? There's no timer in that one. Even though it's completely lacking in context, maybe I should have switched the bonus game with the main game because I'm beginning to feel that one is actually the far superior of the two. 

 

[Housekeeping]

The guy I was playing with tried the bonus game and didn't particularly like it, so I didn't try it.  The enemy moves at, like, three/four times the player's speed?  It made it difficult to dodge them in general.

 

[Awl_ii]

Oh, really? That's unfortunate. I suppose it makes sense though, neither game was designed with the other in mind. As for the enemy speed, that sounds too fast so maybe there's  an important glitch that I wasn't aware of this whole time!

In any case, I've pulled the game because I don't want it to affect opinion on future releases. I don't regret making the game, and as far as entering the contest goes I've already won in other ways. I really do appreciate the feedback, because now I know what to look out for in the future!

EDIT: Oh, and do you do reviews of games usually posted on the regular RPG Maker forums? Once I finally make an RPG Maker game, I'd love to hear your feedback on that!

 

[Housekeeping]

I kind of went a little crazy with the reviews for this contest; normally I don't play/review games that often.  I do on occasion, though, and if you ask me for feedback I'd probably make time.

 

[Awl_ii]

Alright, cool! What I might do is send you the game before I post it up, I feel like that would be the best way to handle playtesting. I admit that the overall reception of my entry is leaving me pretty depressed at the moment, but that's my fault because I went against my better judgement and didn't have anyone else review or test my game before submitting it. Next time will be different, and although I don't expect glitches with RPG Maker, it's always good to have a second opinion on hand!