Comments on: Crazybanana: Blood Elf vs. Gear of Metal

By: sk92

sk92 — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:17:20 +0000

Excellent attention to polish. The heavy, machine-like mode is particularly convincing with sound effects, screen shaking, and a new color scheme. The feel for both modes in general is good, but could use a bit of refining. For the elfish mode, I found the long airtime to give an unrealistic sensation of control–though I do imagine this could be mitigated by other factors not yet present in the game. As for the other mode, the slow starting motion is convincing, but very jarring in terms of fluidly flowing gameplay.

By: aatrox54345

aatrox54345 — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:11:18 +0000

The camera shake was really nice added polish, I did the same thing for my game and I think it really enforced the heavy feel of the robot. I also really enjoyed the spinning animation when the elf jumps. The material used for the avatar also made the spinning effect look really cool. The background change on the switch was also a nice touch and that combined with the difference in movement speed reinforced the 2 separate feels of your game. The ability to move in the air also made the game more fun to play at least when playing as the elf. I found it nearly impossible to navigate through the platforms as the robot and I don’t know if this was intentional or if I am just bad at video games.

Nice game overall I really enjoyed it!

By: David Byas-Smith

David Byas-Smith — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:35:47 +0000

I really enjoyed the control of your game. The movement was smooth and the difference between the elf and the robot conveyed the light/heavy feel we were after. Being able to move while in the air was a nice touch that I wish I had implemented in my own game. I also especially loved the screen shake when the heavy robot lands.

One thing I think you could improve is working on the textures and appearance for the environment. I liked the contrast in white/black but you can do so much more. I personally think that the environment can have just as much of an effect on the game feel as the character polish.

Overall though, awesome prototype.

By: bluederby

bluederby — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 23:11:49 +0000

Hey there! I also thought the feel of the heavy guy was excellent. I’m going to do my analysis using the 3 components of game feel: real-time control, simulated space, and polish.

Your real-time control was the star of the show. I’m seeing different movement speeds, different attacks and releases on your movement speeds (heavy guy takes a while to start moving), and different levels of control in the air (the light guy is easy to change direction, heavy guy – not so much). All of these add up to some pretty good game feel differences. I will also agree that the feel of the heavy guy is more successful than the light guy. The light guy actually still feels a little cumbersome, or floaty. I think that’s in part because once you’ve pressed the jump key, you’re forced to jump up to a certain height. If you made it so that you could adjust your jump height by holding down the key for longer or shorter, then the light guy would feel more directly under your control, increasing its nimble-ness. An additional thing I noticed is that both the heavy and light avatars have the same gravity applied to them. The heavy guy would feel heavier if he fell faster than the light guy.

The simulated environment was done well in that both avatars collided with platforms as expected and didn’t clip through anything. However, it acted the same for both feels. In another project I saw the light guy bounce off platforms when hit from the side. Something like that could increase the effectiveness of your simulated environment on your game feel.

Polish. Polish was also really strong here! Sounds emphasized actions and feel (clangy heavy sounds for the heavy guy, lighter sounds for the light guy). A change in texture also emphasized the change in feel. The most awesome thing in polish though was clearly the shaking screen when the heavy guy hits the ground. So great! One improvement you could make would be to differentiate the looks of your avatars: make the heavy one bigger, or squarer or something. Also maybe some different walking animations would help. The spinning animation for the light guy is a neat effect!

By: vander

vander — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 02:18:00 +0000

Cool!

What I liked:
I love your heavy dude. The shaking of the screen as he lands is totally awesome, and I even noticed that the shaking is more intense the further he falls! Taking extra time to change directions and work up speed is excellent as well.

Potential Improvement:
Your elf avatar is good but seems lacking when compared with the awesomeness that is your heavy avatar. Interestingly, I had the opposite problem and feel my elf is way ahead of my heavy guy. Perhaps the elf avatar could do a double jump, or have some sort of animation or particle effect, to bring him to the level of your heavy dude.

The Feel:
Great feel. Love it.

Interaction Effects & Polish:
I notice you added the ability to move even while in the air, which is helpful for landing on platforms. The screen shaking polish is great.

Textures & Sounds:
I think the lack of textures works for your heavy dude; maybe add some textures to the elf dude environment? The footsteps on the elf are good but are outdone by your heavy dude sounds.

Overall its great, I was engulfed with your heavy dude.