A game with amazing art and detail. a great way to pass time and have fun while doing so. I can't wait to see the game grow and become it's ultimate final goal. During the time that I played I found a lot of things that could be improved on and also somethings that could be added to benefit the player and the game. Below are the things I'd like to be seen added and improved on.
- Introduce an objective tracker. This will allow the player to keep track of what needs to be done, or what to do after finding all friends on a level. For example after finding all the bees you will be told to return to the bee keeper to make him your friend. or a reminder to return to Alan after all friends are found.
- While playing if the player runs or walks for a long time, you will reach very fast speeds. During this time once you reach these speeds you can run from on end of the map to the other in the matter of seconds. This can be very annoying for a player if they are trying to reach a desired location but keeps passing it because they are going super fast.
- During my first play though. When the first cut scenes appear introducing the game and the plot, I did not know how to continue. After a while I had figured out that you must left click to progress. During these cut scenes I would appreciate an indicator to click when the player is finished reading.
Over all the game is extremely fun and can go in any direction, as it has limit less possibility. I hope you understand my concerns and wishes. I can not wait to see where this goes and I will be returning to the game here and there to see what new fun friends I can make.
RE: Objective Tracker. Code for this actually exists, but I decided against implementing. To me, the game became too linear and devoid of challenge/exploration. IMO, as long as the solutions are intuitive, we shouldn't have to give away things too easily. If aspects of the game are too hard to progress, my preference is to introduce more hints within the context of the game - from characters, objects, etc. For instance, with respect to progressing to next level after making 21 friends, I agree that there needs to be something else there.
RE: Running at fast speed. Believe it or not, this game started as sort of a 'Sonic The Hedgehog' clone - fully 2D with loop de loops and all. That is part of the reason for the fast speeds - the code is there to support it. Personally, I think there is fun to be had ripping around at super fast speed and using the double jump in combination with the boardwalk ramps to see how much ground you can cover. ie. can you jump on top of the building? That said, I've had enough comments about this that it warrants consideration.
RE: Prompt to click during cut scenes. I agree and will implement.
I could play this game for hours because i'm not very good at video games. BUT this one was fun, challenging and super interactive too. The drawings and music are the best and who doesn't want a few more friends? I liked helping the beekeeper out and getting to play basketball too. This is really for anyone that loves classic games with a new twist. Looking forward to more Gordon City!
Found 21 friends, and my first thoughts are that add a button (perhaps the SHIFT key) to make him sprint instead of him speeding up over time because this gives more control to the player.
-Consider creating an up and down walking animation as I think it would give more life to the protagonist.
-Consider setting up a menu screen where you can Play game and Quit the game too (it can be that minimal) + it could set the mood.
-I liked the introduction with the images but unlike the last few pictures depicting the boss of the Gordon City Bank they're aren't coloured, consider doing so but thats entirely up to you :) you might be going to a black and white theme to reflect a depressive state. (If so then maybe as they get more friends the colours of the town become more vibrant. OR people who you aren't friends with are colourless but when you become friends they become coloured, just an idea that popped into my head.)
-Also consider adding a town theme song which plays everywhere there isn't a music box (if you want to be thematic you can make it a dummed down version of the music box tune so when you find it, it sounds more invigorating).
-Whenever I get to the edge of each side of town I run into the wall and are teleported to the middle of the screen. This feels a little jarring so just set up some normal collisions there and consider having something physical in the way so this barrier is more believable in the game world.
-As with all game of a similar style, such as Castle Crashers its hard to perform certain tasks from that perspective. For instance putting in the basketball was quite hard due to the nature of the style of game you've used. So consider thinking of other approaches that rather than show weaknesses of the style embrace their strengths. Every game style has weaknesses and advantages.
- Finally think of what you could say with this artwork (game), friendship is a pretty important part of all our lives. Does something happen and he has to rely on his friends for help? Do they all disappear the next day and you have to find out what happened and save them? etc.
Apart from all that I think these are the humble begginings of something really cool. I'm glad you've posted your game here because player feedback is arguably the most important aspect of learning how to make your games better. But make sure to get more than just one opinion because unfortuantly some people won't like your finished game, while others will you have to focus on this group. As long as you make it engaging (it doesn't have to be just fun) you'll make the most out of what you've made.
Stay Determined :)
Just a side note, THANKYOU for making it playable on browser. I think what really stops people from playing demos of games on any website if if they have to download to play anything. So always have a demo online linking people to your full game if you make one :) Good work.
Thank you for the thorough feedback! Here are my thoughts.
Re: 21 friends. Once you make 21 friends, talking to one of the characters will open up a new scene in the same environment and allow you to make more. We will look into adding an additional hint about this as it is not terribly intuitive at the moment.
Re: Friendship themes, there is a bit of an arc that progresses as you go from scene to scene that kind of touches on what you describe (ie. the reliance on friends). But we have to make sure it's not too hard to reach this and that ties into my comment above.
Re: Black/white transitioning color. There are some additional things we can do with this within the context of the still images (there are more in subsequent scenes). There are also things we can do within the core gameplay as you suggested, but at the moment I am inclined to leave that for a future episode.
Re: Up/Down animation. Others have made this comment too. I've always thought it wouldn't look natural and therefore haven't had the motivation to try. Maybe I am just being stubborn. I will give it shot.
Re: Player falling off the edge and re-spawning. I agree with this 100%. I think the approach I will try is to put ground/wall outside the view of the camera on either end of the level. This way, the player can leave the screen and then re-emerge without running into an imaginary barrier which I think may also be a bit jarring.
Re: Town theme song. We've gone back/forth on this and for a long period of time there was more constant music. My concern has been that it could be an immediate turn-off for some if they don't like the song. A constant song could also conflict with things that occur in later scenes. We'll give it some thought.
Re: Basketball. This is the first comment we've heard about it being tricky. As a basketball player, I am probably biased, but will likely keep it in unless many report similar to you. I will say that we have had positive feedback about the basketball portion too.
Re: Shift key to run. Our goal has been make the controls as simple as possible. This ties into supporting mobile and also general accessibility for non-expert gamers. That said, this suggestion has been made before, so we do not want to completely disregard. We'll give it some thought.
Lastly, I am happy to hear you think releasing on itch was a good choice as we evaluated a bunch of different options and this seemed like the best for what we are trying to accomplish.
Thanks again for the comment. We will stay determined!
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A game with amazing art and detail. a great way to pass time and have fun while doing so. I can't wait to see the game grow and become it's ultimate final goal. During the time that I played I found a lot of things that could be improved on and also somethings that could be added to benefit the player and the game. Below are the things I'd like to be seen added and improved on.
- Introduce an objective tracker. This will allow the player to keep track of what needs to be done, or what to do after finding all friends on a level. For example after finding all the bees you will be told to return to the bee keeper to make him your friend. or a reminder to return to Alan after all friends are found.
- While playing if the player runs or walks for a long time, you will reach very fast speeds. During this time once you reach these speeds you can run from on end of the map to the other in the matter of seconds. This can be very annoying for a player if they are trying to reach a desired location but keeps passing it because they are going super fast.
- During my first play though. When the first cut scenes appear introducing the game and the plot, I did not know how to continue. After a while I had figured out that you must left click to progress. During these cut scenes I would appreciate an indicator to click when the player is finished reading.
Over all the game is extremely fun and can go in any direction, as it has limit less possibility. I hope you understand my concerns and wishes. I can not wait to see where this goes and I will be returning to the game here and there to see what new fun friends I can make.
Thank you for the feedback! My thoughts.
RE: Objective Tracker. Code for this actually exists, but I decided against implementing. To me, the game became too linear and devoid of challenge/exploration. IMO, as long as the solutions are intuitive, we shouldn't have to give away things too easily. If aspects of the game are too hard to progress, my preference is to introduce more hints within the context of the game - from characters, objects, etc. For instance, with respect to progressing to next level after making 21 friends, I agree that there needs to be something else there.
RE: Running at fast speed. Believe it or not, this game started as sort of a 'Sonic The Hedgehog' clone - fully 2D with loop de loops and all. That is part of the reason for the fast speeds - the code is there to support it. Personally, I think there is fun to be had ripping around at super fast speed and using the double jump in combination with the boardwalk ramps to see how much ground you can cover. ie. can you jump on top of the building? That said, I've had enough comments about this that it warrants consideration.
RE: Prompt to click during cut scenes. I agree and will implement.
Thanks again,
Donny
I could play this game for hours because i'm not very good at video games. BUT this one was fun, challenging and super interactive too. The drawings and music are the best and who doesn't want a few more friends? I liked helping the beekeeper out and getting to play basketball too. This is really for anyone that loves classic games with a new twist. Looking forward to more Gordon City!
My Thoughts :)
Found 21 friends, and my first thoughts are that add a button (perhaps the SHIFT key) to make him sprint instead of him speeding up over time because this gives more control to the player.
-Consider creating an up and down walking animation as I think it would give more life to the protagonist.
-Consider setting up a menu screen where you can Play game and Quit the game too (it can be that minimal) + it could set the mood.
-I liked the introduction with the images but unlike the last few pictures depicting the boss of the Gordon City Bank they're aren't coloured, consider doing so but thats entirely up to you :) you might be going to a black and white theme to reflect a depressive state. (If so then maybe as they get more friends the colours of the town become more vibrant. OR people who you aren't friends with are colourless but when you become friends they become coloured, just an idea that popped into my head.)
-Also consider adding a town theme song which plays everywhere there isn't a music box (if you want to be thematic you can make it a dummed down version of the music box tune so when you find it, it sounds more invigorating).
-Whenever I get to the edge of each side of town I run into the wall and are teleported to the middle of the screen. This feels a little jarring so just set up some normal collisions there and consider having something physical in the way so this barrier is more believable in the game world.
-As with all game of a similar style, such as Castle Crashers its hard to perform certain tasks from that perspective. For instance putting in the basketball was quite hard due to the nature of the style of game you've used. So consider thinking of other approaches that rather than show weaknesses of the style embrace their strengths. Every game style has weaknesses and advantages.
- Finally think of what you could say with this artwork (game), friendship is a pretty important part of all our lives. Does something happen and he has to rely on his friends for help? Do they all disappear the next day and you have to find out what happened and save them? etc.
Apart from all that I think these are the humble begginings of something really cool. I'm glad you've posted your game here because player feedback is arguably the most important aspect of learning how to make your games better. But make sure to get more than just one opinion because unfortuantly some people won't like your finished game, while others will you have to focus on this group. As long as you make it engaging (it doesn't have to be just fun) you'll make the most out of what you've made.
Stay Determined :)
Just a side note, THANKYOU for making it playable on browser. I think what really stops people from playing demos of games on any website if if they have to download to play anything. So always have a demo online linking people to your full game if you make one :) Good work.
Thank you for the thorough feedback! Here are my thoughts.
Re: 21 friends. Once you make 21 friends, talking to one of the characters will open up a new scene in the same environment and allow you to make more. We will look into adding an additional hint about this as it is not terribly intuitive at the moment.
Re: Friendship themes, there is a bit of an arc that progresses as you go from scene to scene that kind of touches on what you describe (ie. the reliance on friends). But we have to make sure it's not too hard to reach this and that ties into my comment above.
Re: Black/white transitioning color. There are some additional things we can do with this within the context of the still images (there are more in subsequent scenes). There are also things we can do within the core gameplay as you suggested, but at the moment I am inclined to leave that for a future episode.
Re: Up/Down animation. Others have made this comment too. I've always thought it wouldn't look natural and therefore haven't had the motivation to try. Maybe I am just being stubborn. I will give it shot.
Re: Player falling off the edge and re-spawning. I agree with this 100%. I think the approach I will try is to put ground/wall outside the view of the camera on either end of the level. This way, the player can leave the screen and then re-emerge without running into an imaginary barrier which I think may also be a bit jarring.
Re: Town theme song. We've gone back/forth on this and for a long period of time there was more constant music. My concern has been that it could be an immediate turn-off for some if they don't like the song. A constant song could also conflict with things that occur in later scenes. We'll give it some thought.
Re: Basketball. This is the first comment we've heard about it being tricky. As a basketball player, I am probably biased, but will likely keep it in unless many report similar to you. I will say that we have had positive feedback about the basketball portion too.
Re: Shift key to run. Our goal has been make the controls as simple as possible. This ties into supporting mobile and also general accessibility for non-expert gamers. That said, this suggestion has been made before, so we do not want to completely disregard. We'll give it some thought.
Lastly, I am happy to hear you think releasing on itch was a good choice as we evaluated a bunch of different options and this seemed like the best for what we are trying to accomplish.
Thanks again for the comment. We will stay determined!
Donny