JKSSN 2014-06-17 11:48:50

Whoa! Full inbox! ._.

krozzus 2014-06-19 09:09:34

B..b..but I thought I was special. I thought I was the chosen one. 0_0

Grimrider 2014-06-20 12:13:22

Reporting for duty. I've played the game a couple of times, I'd like to collect my thoughts and get them to you in the form of coherent and useful feedback. So.. this is just an announcement that I found the right place to post stuff, I guess <_<

LethalElephantForce 2014-06-23 18:05:48

First thought: In many ways the "Easy" levels form a tutorial in terms of how the game mechanic works, in particular the way the different explosions interact. It's nice not to have everything spelled out, enhances the game as a learning experience. I made the mistake of trying "normal" first, and there the learning gradient is not so nice! Perhaps some of the "easy" levels should be brought forward into the introductory tutorial. Or it might help if the game automatically starts in "easy" mode, or users are somehow shepherded into it by other means, so that more stuff makes sense.

Second thought: even so there were quite a few moments where "what is going on?" overwhelmed game enjoyment. Things that puzzled me included: What is the character glowing, or the lighting effects, all about? How do the green blocks with the Greek pattern design work? I don't think that those bits had as adequate a "tutorial" introduction as the explosions did.

I liked the look and feel of the game (except invisible bombs on blacked out levels, that is evil) and loved the music which was sufficiently hyperactive! If anything the art is probably too flashy and throbby for my taste, made it difficult to play for extended periods. The bright/dark throbbing of the bombs could be too distracting, I think I'd have felt more comfortable if they only oscillated between a narrower range. The explosions were good fun though, suitably rewarding.

Grimrider 2014-06-29 06:21:36

Apologies for the delay. I'm back in business.

Having played through the game a handful of times, I found a few points that I think might need a bit of work.

The opening tutorial covered a few basic points (move towards the exit, falling is safe) but never really explained the bomb mechanics or the different types of bombs. I'm not sure if player placement of bombs is going to be a feature in the final release, but if it is, I never actually figured that out until I reread the command list in the description.

My thoughts are that it might be better to roll the tutorial into some kind of "Super Easy Mode" or "Start Here" section. Have a series of levels that introduce the different mechanics in slow steady stages. One or two levels for simply navigating to an exit, one or two levels for each type of bomb individually to show how they work, then maybe a level or two of mixed bombs and other features to get the hang of how they interact with each other. Slowly layering the complexity so the player can learn as they go.

In terms of the game itself, there were some levels where the layout seemed more complex than they needed to be, and I skipped whole corridors or sections and flew to the exit in seconds. A lot of the levels in Normal seemed to be "run down a corridor or bombs and keep moving before they explode", and never got more complex than that.

The Puzzle levels were a lot more engaging and made me think a little harder, forced me to use timing, and I liked that. Although one level in particular I remember simply bombing through the dirt to get to the exit, skipping about 90% of the rest of the screen.

In summary, I think a tutorial stretched out in stages to introduce/explain all the mechanics would be great, and a bit better telegraphing and signposting of what the player is supposed to do, and where they're supposed to go, would be very welcome. The core idea and the mechanics seem otherwise solid.

LethalElephantForce 2014-06-29 19:53:10

Adding a new comment because I don't think it's possible to reply to a reply!

I agree with Grimrider about a lot of stuff; one point they make but I didn't was about puzzle mode being most engaging. I agree! I didn't mind the fact that some puzzles could be sold in a "straightforward" way, once you realised half what was going on was just a red herring that you didn't need. I quite liked that actually. A lot of puzzle game writers forget how pleasing it is for a player to discover a simple, elegant solution, rather than a convoluted one! (I can appreciate, on the other hand, that some players may consider such a puzzle as a "trick" which they may not enjoy if they keep going for the red herring. But in the case the puzzle was solvable easily enough for this not to be a big issue. I might have different thoughts if I'd got stuck!)

I never did quite get my head around the "dirt breaking" mechanics. Also that level where the "that move vertically up and down (if you don't know the one I mean I will have a go at finding the level code!). I remain unsure whether the player glowing has any influence on gameplay; I get the impression that setting off certain events (jumping to break those patterned green blocks?) makes the player glow more and it *feels* like a glowing player jumps slightly higher, but that may simply be illusory!

The visual effect I didn't like wasn't the explosions, they were cool (distracting but also entertaining) but the way, even if you're just standing still and nothing is happening, the unexploded bombs glow brighter then dimmer in a throbbing kinda way. That's distracting but not entertaining. I think I'd prefer it if their brightness varied through a narrower range, perhaps so they appear to merely "twinkle" rather than "throb"?

In terms of how far you are... in some sense it's obviously 90%. I mean it is playable and pretty fun! The art and music is pretty much all there, certainly I play worse quality stuff on NG. But the 10% of polishing that is remaining, has perhaps 30-40% impact on gamer experience. Particularly level design and "shepherding" new players to picking an appropriate challenge.

Grimrider 2014-07-01 09:10:25

On the subject of tutorials and not wanting to railroad players through one, it brings to mind Egoraptor's "Sequelitis" episode about Megaman Classic vs Megaman X, in particular his take on how to use gameplay and level design to teach the player without making it blatantly be A Tutorial Level. Perhaps setting the game up so that you can't unlock "Normal" until you finish "Easy", but in this case make "Easy" a series of levels that teach the game mechanic without explicitly SAYING that you're teaching the mechanic. Just set the level up so that it's impossible to pass until you've discovered, used, and internalized the mechanic key to that level. Kind of like Valve's philosophy of "Watch, Use, Innovate" when introducing game mechanics in games like HL2. Just some thoughts.

Shenlongsama 2014-07-07 11:26:07

Okay, I played all the different modes and here's what I think about the game so far.

It's odd. There are some good ideas, and there are a lot of levels, but I think it needs a bit of polish.

The first thing that jumps to my mind is the artwork. It just doesn't feel very engaging. It's like there are many objects from many different games that don't really fit together. The result is that it feels like some kind of patchwork without a real identity of its own. This is a shame because the fast pace gameplay is rather pleasant (I played it for last couple of days, and I felt an improvement in the movements compared to a few weeks ago, so that was great).

Another thing that bothers me is that I don't really feel there's much difference in the various modes. I mean, okay, "easy" levels are really easy, and puzzle levels require slightly more reflection, but It didn't seem like much of a difference to me (except for "easy" which is really, really easy).

The level design sometimes seems gratuitous to me, with a pretty simple path to the goal and entire portions of the level wich serves no purpose (I have understood that the debug controls won't be available to players, I'm playing the game normally). I also thing the chain explosions are so frequent they sometimes end up being repetitive. Everything is blowing up all the time. It's fun at first, but not so much after a while. On the same note, the music is pretty good, but it's the only music in the game, so after a while, you just get a bit sick of it and turn it off.

For the puzzle levels, the first levels are not so good, I feel. You basically have a choice between two buttons and one is good and one is bad. I mean, it might be okay for the first level, but there's no reflection involved. You push one button and if it doesn't work you push the other one and voila.

A minor problem is, during the tutorial, the letters craved into the dirt can be really hard to read. I'd prefer simple text boxes or something. I get the idea, and it's a good one, but I don't think it's done right.

And yeah, the different modes are a bit weird. Rush, Hell, Normal, Easy, Puzzle and Start. Why is there a "Normal" and "Start" when they're the same thing ?

Now, this isn't a bad game by any means, it's fun, pretty fast and some levels are really good. One level I really, really liked was "Hell" 14. I generally liked the "Normal"

Shenlongsama 2014-07-07 11:37:28

I'm not quite done, so here's the rest :

I think a lot of the problems of this game would be ness noticeable with a better artwork. If things in the levels could be less patchwork-like, the everything would be clearer and the screen would feel less crowded with useless things. It could also be a good idea to give more graphic identity to different batches of levels (for example, the different modes).

Frankly, the game isn't bad, but I feel the artwork kind of draws attention on the details that can be problematic. A better, smoother artwork would make everything smoother and give an overall better experience.

Shenlongsama 2014-07-12 08:11:27

Well, I am an art student and I draw a lot, but I've never done graphics for games and I use pens more than digital tools, so it's difficult for me to explain exactly what might improve the visuals. I have a general feel, but to say precisely how you could improve it is not so simple.

Maybe less interior details could be a good idea actually, at least for dirt or things like that.

I think a simpler design might also help tell what is what (like the light blocks). It's not so simple because everything is quite small in the game, but it could be interesting to try.

For now, I'd give it a 3 (or 2.5 if I want to be a bit harsher) out of 5. I really think there are good elements, but the visuals are a bit of a mess and makes things unclear. You might also want to think the order in which the levels will go, in order to alternate the quiet levels with the really loud ones with lots of explosions.

Yes, getting rid of a few levels might be a good idea. The "choose a switch" levels are not a bad idea, but there shouldn't be too many of them. On the other hand, don't delete too many, because it is a good point for the game to have many levels. If it's long, it will keep the player coming back if he hasn't finished it before.

Actually, will there be anything when the game is over ? Is there a completion percentage, credits or something like that. It's not much, but personally, I like the feeling of having beaten a game and the game having an ending (which is why I don't like highscoring survival games because I never really feel like I've won, but that's just my personal view).

A secondary centerpiece for the game could potentially be very interesting, depending on what it is and how it is exploited. Obviously, this is a bit delicate, because you're very far into this game already, and adding an entirely new aspect to it could double the time you'll spend on it. If you want to find something else, it should be something that's a counterpoint to the bombs or is related to that theme one way or another (a fuse ?). It should be designed in a way that it can work with the bombs or independently. If it's poorly done or rushed, it won't feel right and might ruin the game. If it's done really well, it'll give new depth to it. It's risky to try to add something like that at this point.

That's all I can think of right now.