Comments on: mbradley36: elf vs metal game feel

By: jkkl135

jkkl135 — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:33:59 +0000

The characters are very polished and definitely provide a good feel to meet the project criteria. I liked how they tilted with the player controls.

The elf being energetic and jumping up and down was a good touch but it can be pretty annoying with the sound effects. Maybe dial them down some or have the jumping up and down be part of an idle action that’s activated every once in awhile instead of constantly. I thought the gliding effect for when the elf falls was a great idea though and liked the implementation. It would be nice if you could control the elf during the jump though.

The heavy player had great sounds and was definitely heavier in his fall. Besides the feel though, he was pretty useless in that he couldn’t jump up to reach any of the platforms. If he could reach the platforms, even if just barely, I think it would add a lot to the heavy character.

I’d like to see how the level can be changed up to really utilize both the players abilities/weights.

By: Force Ives

Force Ives — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 06:26:45 +0000

I do very much like your polish effects. The fun and constant bounce of the orange guy is a great little touch and the sparks that fly behind the heavy guy make me not frustrated to be so slow!

The best feel in the game I think is the nimble falling control. I wish I had that kind of control during his whole jump, as it takes quite a while for something I can’t control real-time. But I found myself jumping up into ceilings just to get at that slippery, floaty control that I could get when falling. One thing I’d like to note! The falling state was the one with the most minimal animation. Those sort of polish effects, in my book, can only work when they reinforce some tangible feel to the character that’s achieved through the specifics of the real-time control.

The heavy guy has good feel. He’s slow, grindy, and can’t jump very high, but he’s too heavy to do anything with. I didn’t play much as him because there was so little to do as him. Perhaps he could have had some ability, like breaking platforms maybe, then perhaps you could have built some interesting challenges that used both forms to get around. I was a little disappointed to see you use the “default” platform layout.

I’d love to see more of that fun floatiness show up in your later submissions!

By: Radical Capitalist

Radical Capitalist — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 01:44:17 +0000

The effects applied to both the elf and the metal avatar were effective and definitely augmented their assigned game feel. The constant bouncing of the elf was a little annoying. One thing I found strange–which I’ve also seen in others’ games–is that the elf can only control its motion while falling and not while rising. I personally would suggest all or nothing, in terms of mid-air movement.

My final bit of criticism is on the limited motion of the heavy avatar. While it is more or less realistic, there is no way to navigate the stage with him. Being heavy in a platformer usually isn’t ideal, and other students added input to allow jepacks/thrusters/etc. to compensate. This might not have necessarily been the only way to accomplish it, but I get the feeling that the level needed to be in most ways accessible to both avatars. Perhaps keep that in mind if any of your future games will have two types of characters.

Otherwise, this assignment is well done. Good job.

By: gosu

gosu — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 18:35:14 +0000

I really liked the visual effects of the elf bouncing and floating and also the effect of metal guy grinding against the ground. The sound effects were also good and help with the game feel especially the sound of the metal guy when it falls and slides against a wall. One thing that bothered me was the bouncing sound when the elf was idle. That sound got a little annoying and I found that I had to switch to the metal guy in order to write this comment. Good job though!

By: vicky

vicky — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 03:18:38 +0000

The elf part is more appealing to me. I like the way it bounces constantly. I also liked the particle effect for metal. Every essential element of game feel was there in the demo. Collisions and other actions have sounds.
However, I found somethings to be a bit problematic. The elf for instance its cube size and orientation depends on the instance its moved. If it would have been something intuitive say for example oriented to a particular direction for a left and right, then it would have been better.
Metal version lack the ability to jump properly, one can’t climb up with only metal version. I found unusual.

There could have been background sounds, camera motions for character switching, etc.

The demo have essentials but it lagged ecstasy.