Comments on: Squarehelius Game Feel P1

By: hedgehog

hedgehog — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 12:28:02 +0000

I really like your implementation of how the game feel changes from in the castle to out. It does feel a bit more fluid than pressing buttons to two completely different modes. I like the textures and avatar a lot, and the music choices I think fit the overall style very well. I was definitely able to tell the two different modes apart, with the creepy music and lighting playing a big part for when I enter the castle. The polish was very good, small things like having a hat on since it’s sunny outside for when the avatar goes out is nice.

One thing I did not like too much was the controls. Having to click down and rotate just to turn is a bit cumbersome and not too intuitive. Maybe still having mouse input but no click down to turn would be better.

By: npai

npai — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 04:23:50 +0000

This was an interesting implementation of the assignment.

I thought that your decision to base the feels on the location of the character was a cool touch, since I also agree that using “1” and “2” is a bit disconnected.

For your first mode (nimble/joyful), I liked the increased speed and the happy arm movements. The character did feel rather joyful, wearing that hat and moving around freely. The higher jumps also added to the feel. And the environment is all bright and happy, which helps set the mood and works well. Your character makes me think of Cartman from South Park for whatever reason, haha.

As for the second mode, having a slower movement speed and a lower jump definitely does add to the more reserved feeling of being in a scary castle. The setting is a cool idea, and the fact that it is scary and gloomy just emphasizes that scary feeling of being in an unknown place.

For some suggestions, I would recommend that you increase the sideways-movement speed of the joyful/nimble character, just because it feels a bit off compared to the quick forward movement. And for your weak/scared character I would suggest adding some kinds of animation to visually show that the character is scared. The movement speed does add to this “weak” feel, and the castle’s dark walls contribute to the “scared” feeling, but it would be cool to see the character shake a bit, or just animate in some scared fashion, too.

But overall it was pretty cool.

By: stonewall

stonewall — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 02:04:59 +0000

Firstly, I like your overall style choices. I like your textures and your avatar. Your sound is also understated, which I like.
The first feel is pretty good. I like the joyful animation and the speed is fun. I wish the strafing was a bit faster though; it makes me feel less nimble.
I’m really feeling the “scared” in the castle, but I’m not so sure about the weak. I guess I could could the weaker jump, but overall it just seems to feel “not nimble” rather than weak.
In total, I like your polish, but I think a bit more time could have been spent fleshing out your feels.

By: lion

lion — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 20:13:02 +0000

Also, I noticed that the sound is wierd when you move backwards. I recommend updating your sound objects position to the characters position in update so sound will follow you along the game 🙂

By: shyp

shyp — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:20:53 +0000

I liked the fact that instead of using 1 and 2 to change between characters, the location of the character decides the mood. The music matches each mood very well and the movement of the character shows the mood too. I believe you could have improved the game by adding a little bit more characteristic to the character depending on its mood, since removing the hat doesn’t really show the emotion change of the character (but the arms are fitting for each mood so that was nice). I like how you used the textures. The character has a unique look with a rope-like texture and the castle walls and the grass look realistic as well.

By: lion

lion — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 21:28:56 +0000

Sorry Helius, I did not realize clicking would turn the character (I know its in the post instructions)! That feels much better 🙂

By: lion

lion — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 21:26:11 +0000

Hi SqaureHelius!

The polish on your game is quite good, and you clearly spent a fair amount of time making the castle. The background music is very well suited to the game feel. The change in character motion (hat and wavy arms) are a little minimalistic. I wish you had focused more on programming two different characters as opposed to the level.
If you keep working on this game, I think it would be great to be able to rotate instead of sliding left and right very slowly. This game has a lot of potential, but the two character personalities are simply too similar.
Making it so that area instead of ‘1’ or ‘2’ is very unique! I like the thought 🙂 Keep up the good work

NOTE TO OTHER TESTERS: To explore the castle faster, jump while moving left or right for a speed boost.