Gameplay feedback please!

rooster

Hi all, I'm working on this freebie game at the moment, and I want some playtest feedback.. I was hoping the fine population of polycount could help me out

here's a screen:



Ok so the premise is a challenge to myself to design a game with one-button input, and the method I came up with was you travel around these circular force fields, and change circles by pressing space bar when the character is over the small green 'connecting' circles. Your accuracy in timing these presses will increase a 'score multiplier' bar, and also increase the speed of the character. If you miss, the bar falls and so does the speed.

The aim of the game: destroy the robo-hogs which are advancing and chewing on the force field circles, eating their power. If you let any of the force fields dissapear it's game over. There's one more complication- some of the incoming robo-hogs have shields, and must be destroyed from hitting them on the unguarded side.

powerups
some power ups appear to help you:
heal: this heals whichever force field you are orbiting
slow: slows down the advancing ships
fireball: this allows you to destroy shielded enemies from any direction, and increases your destruction range
explosion: bomb effect

download (9.5 meg or so):
**notice: while i have scanned this file for viruses, and have never had any problems with quest3d exes, I cannot accept any responsibility for data loss or damage resulting from downloading this file**
updated 07/08/2010:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/PlasmaPig_beta08.exe


I would love any feedback you can give, especially on the difficulty curve, as is it so easy to misjudge this playing your own game over and over again. There are currently 5 levels- you need to beat the current level to get to the next one, with infinite retrys. I will be implementing 3 lives and a hi-score table

thanks!

danshewan

Definitely fun, and a little trickier than it initially seems.

It might be fun to space the hogs you're meant to defend out a little bit - as addictive as it is, the restriction of movement feels a little too confining right now. Spacing the hogs out and requiring some simple scrolling map navigation might make it a little more challenging - maybe some kind of priority or alert system to highlight which force fields are in most danger or something.

Incorporating something like lanes and simple gravitational pulls around the hogs to travel between them might make it feel a little more open - think the slingshot manoeuvre they're always talking about on Star Trek.

Also, it'd be cool to maybe be able to repair the shields by performing some kind of special manoeuvre. The game has an almost pinball feel to it, so maybe use this to create some kind of sequential move bonuses to other attributes than speed, like special attacks if you pull off some crazy moves at top speed or something.

Great little game!

rooster

hmm, maybe I could award 'heal' bonuses for stuff like perfect timing 5 times in a row on the circle switches? Or maybe killing one set of enemies in quick succession

I'll have a think about that 'openness' feedback, although I'm conscious of adding new features which will take a while to get right- I'd like to finish and move to the next one soon, so the easier to implement the better on new features!

thanks!

achillesian

wow, all you need is a camera to watch for blinking and stephen hawking can play video games! I love the possibilities this game could enable for the handicapped.

JohnnySix

Fun game, the only thing that could be useful is a way to heal a damaged dome, I get the + , but since the dome is no longer there, you're just watching the slow inexorable death of your pig mothership and unable to save it.

Love the graphics and sound, would be interesting to see some more pig mothership designs, for the different sized bubbles, even if there's no actual gameplay change, it'd keep things fresh looking.

I like how the enemy ships slow when you're on a bigger circle and speed up when you're on a smaller one.

rooster

thanks for the feedback, appreciate it! JohnnySix, will look into that scenario of inevitable death.. the game should actually end if the shield you're on dies

cheers!
PS new version:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/pigs_beta_02.exe
i got some feedback the first level was a bit too long and not challenging enough, so I've shortened it, along with a few other changes:

changes:
first level about half length
difficulty ramps up quicker in later levels
player moves a bit faster
multiplier bar fixed to screen
current multiplier displayed on bar

rooster

wow dado, thanks for the awesome detailed crits and ideas!
I love the mother ship shooting out small ones.. and heal zones on the fields to heal them manually, (maybe really small and hard to hit right)

I think the rhythm stuff, I'm going to put on the backburner for this version at least, as I've worked on a rhythm type game and it was really hard to do right- don't think I have the time to do it justice. thanks again, awesome feedback!

rooster

ok update: I've made a small but significant tweak to the gameplay: I felt that the original idea I concieved had much more timing in it, and that had been lost a little. I wanted something for the player to do even if there was only one ring which the enemies came to, so:

I've made it so the player must tap space to kill an enemy

to compensate for the difficulty increase, there are less enemies in the earlier levels. Personally, I find this version more interesting to play, because I have to concentrate on killing enemies as well as switching circles. This adds dillemas such as: almost killing all the enemies on one circle, but needing to go to another- do you go round another time but leave the other enemies eating a force field, or leave an enemy on there to go kill the others. you need to weigh up the type of enemy, because the big guys do more damage than a little guy.

exe:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/pigs_beta_03.exe

Calabi

I didnt have a clue what was going on at first, I just spammed the spacebar and things seemed to happen, but then I read the instructions here.

Its too quiet needs some sort of trashy techno tune, and when your multiplier goes up some sort of over top effects like screen shake and particle effects.

Its a bit hard to understand the abstraction of things. These things are they space ships, why am I defending them, why should I care? Perhaps make it clearer that these incoming robots are damaging the ships.

About the rythm thing people(their brains) match up things themselves even if they dont exactly match in game. So a sense of a rythm might help rather than an actual real rythm.

I wouldnt recommend doing the lives thing, its a hang over from arcade machines, done on the home consoles, because no one cared to question or try any different.

Just my thoughts.

ZacD

I didn't under stand the shields until I played it 3 times (almost winning each time), it might be a good idea to put a circle around the enemies when they are in range.

rooster

thanks calabi, I'll have a think how to communicate the whole setup more clearly. Definately planning on a trashy techno tune dont worry

ZacD: any ideas how to make the shield functionality more obvious to the player?

I've since added a little sort of 'nudge' anim when the player tries to hit a shielded player, but it might need more

rooster

love the diminishing inner shield idea! I also will add some 'target' graphics for when an enemy can be killed or not (in range, going the right direction to kill him)

thanks for putting this much effort into critique!

rooster

hi Dado, I've tried to implement a few of your suggestions: I think it works great!
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/pigs_beta_04a.exe



main changes:
-player now slowly heals 'current circle' all the time
-new 'inner forcefield' to help represent health
-enemies have indicators when in range, and crosshair when you're over them (this doesnt indicate if you can kill shield enemies yet)
-enemies fire ray beams at the stations to indicate attacks

rooster

awesome feedback again man! appreciate it!

ok, I think some of this might be solved by a simple tutorial intro screen. But I hear you about liking the old version. I'm trying to figure out if there can be some kind of compromise between the two, to that timing stays in the picture a bit more.

maybe damage to enemy ships can be linked to speed? so if you're going slow, it takes 3-4 orbits to destroy a ship, but if you're going fast it takes 1? then this puts high focus on hitting the transition circles on time and not missing (slowing down)

what do you think? I'll try it out if I get time

about the aesthetics: hmm, I thought it was apparent it was kind of cute pigs vs evil machine warthogs. is the theme not obvious enough? maybe once I have an intro screen graphic illustrating the conflict it might help?

thanks so much for documenting the playtest with your brother!

edit: btw, i dont think i can have other shapes in this version. if I make a sequel it will!

rooster

how do! sorry to spam the thread so much, but there's a new version:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/pigs_beta_06.exe

changes:
this version is back to the pinball mechanic, with one key change:

- hitting the 'switcher' circles builds a 'fuel' bar
- hold the space bar to use fuel and accellerate your ship, and increase your multiplier
- baddies now have health and you only damage them a little when moving slowly. charge up to max speed to kill them in one hit!

additional changes:
exclamation mark warning sign when station health goes below 50%
new coloured trail and effects dependant on your current 'level' of speed

thanks!

edit: link should work now

ZacD

I can't beat the 2nd level now, I don't like having 2 controls on one key, and I can't attack anymore

rooster

Update time!
latest exe:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/PlasmaPig_beta07.exe







Main change stuff:
- graphical improvements
- difficulty curve adjustments
- can press and hold to boost even when triggering switcher circles
- music
- err, lots of game tweaks I can't remember to list

thanks!

rooster

Beta 8 is up:
http://www.redprodukt.com/testing/PlasmaPig_beta08.exe

changes:
various menu updates, useful stats, updated graphics
balancing changes including:
more enemies
enemies have less health
enemies do less damage

which should make for more franetic but not more difficult gameplay (i hope)

This is probably my last test version before release, so if anyone has any last feedback, get it in now! I really want to hear how you find the difficulty curve and general experience, and what could use the final polish

thanks to everyone who tried out the game, particularly Dado for the superb input here and on msn
any suggestions that were made and didn't make it in, it's mainly so I could release it and move on to the next one, but if there's a sequel you can be sure I'll be taking everything on board for potential features!

cheers,
roo