Development Dilemma

[Kuliani]

This is the official thread for "Development Dilemma".

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/games/stonking_great/game/13-Development+Dilemma

Please tell us what you think of the game; use of the words "compelling" and "cinematic" are already assumed in your reviews.

 

[Richard Kain]

I guess it's only natural that I should be the first to post here. Thanks a lot to all of the judges, and for their excellent comments. It's nice to finally get some feedback on my title.

I agree with most of the judges' criticisms on my game. The gameplay is too shallow, investing more time on adding some variety to it would have made the title a lot more fun to play. I definitely appreciate the positive marks on the animations and graphics, I definitely put some legwork into those.

To Yahtzee, I did actually provide the ability to skip the long, initial cutscene. You just press the "X" button. (the only action button the game uses) In hindsight, I really should have added a subtle prompt to one corner of the initial cutscene, clueing the player into this ability.

I'm afraid my game got hamstrung badly by time constraints. It was definitely overambitious in its scope. This is also why the end of the game is so abbreviated. The original plan was to have a much more elaborate ending. I even had all of the graphics and half the coding finished, but had to cut it at the last minute. Very sad.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I liked this one a lot, amusing story, good music, variety of play types. And of coarse the nostalgia factor of making the levels based on old Nintendo games.

EDIT: after playing them all I'd personally say this is the best. And I'd like to see the full version Mr.Kain.

 

[hamster mk 4]

It takes guts to add not just multiple game play elements, but multiple game play modes for a game development contest like this. I was truly amazed that you crammed both Zelda, Mario, and Shump style game play into one game in the time provided. That being said none of the game play had much depth, and I noticed the judges reacted poorly to it.

I think you spent too much time on that intro sequence. I remember your development post about how you just finished the intro and were starting on the game play. Your work and dedication really shows in the intro, but not as much in the actual game. If you enter one of these contests again, I suggest you spend most of your time making compelling game play. If you have time at the end, slap together some sort of Intro and Ending animation.

FYI: TIG Source runs these sorts of things all the time.
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=9.0

If you like doing this sort of thing there are plenty of venues for it.

 

[xelubest]

this was really nice.. this would deserve to be in the top 3..

altough... you should included a "press x to skip" button during the begining of the cutscene..


i really loved the controls.. really smooths and nice.. and the story is nice too

and you have som decent coding there and i also liked the fact that you paid attention to the details.. like pausing the game when you click outside of it.... also the imps animation was nice

congrats keep making games

 

[Killer Rabbit]

Great. Unlike the most of the other games in this contest, it had a nice level of polish. The grapjics were crisp, had good controls, had good Music/SFX, and it was funny.
I loved the fact that there were three levels of play types, this was like I was actually playing a medicore game in which the designer couldn'tthink of a style and just made it a Mario/Zelda/Gradius clone

You should of spent less time on the Intro, while pretty, and added more levels and a real ending.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'm guessing the fat mad game developer was characterized very close to home eh? kekekekekeke

Anyway not a bad, but the ending could've used a serious revamp.

 

[JimbobNoPants]

I would've pegged this for a winner, myself.

Not just because some of these other entries are glitchy, buggy messes, but also because I actually enjoyed this game. Very well done, sir!

I have no clue why any of the games in the top 3 are there, especially the winner, which is as shallow as a very shallow thing. That is shallow. And stuff...

 

[Richard Kain]

Thanks for the comments guys. Especially this one from Xelubest...

congrats keep making games

That really made my day!

Although several of you have thrown in a vote of confidence for my entry, I do actually have to agree with the judges on keeping my game out of the top three. I have had a chance to play all three of the top entries more extensively, and I admit that as "games" they stand above my own effort.

A lot of the criticisms leveled against my game have been true. The actual playable sections are a bit shallow. My title is a casualty of my own ambition. The original design document for my game was too extensive, it reached too far. You'll notice that all of the ranking entries focused on a single game/play style. By incorporating three separate sub-games into my title, I gave myself too much work.

Several of you have also commented on the production values of my game. I appreciate this, as I actually put a lot of effort into bug testing and refinement, all through the development process. In all honesty, this was also something that held me back. By keeping my game as clean and bug-free as possible, I sacrificed time that could have been spent on adding more content or personality to the game. The truth is, my game originally featured a fourth stage with ANOTHER type of gameplay. (side-scrolling beat-em-up) I had already created 90% of the graphics and animations for this level, along with over 50% of the coding. But because I wasn't able to get it to the playability standards I had set for myself, I had to cut it at the last minute, in favor of the rather weak epilogue that is currently present.

As Hamster pointed out, I should have focsued more on the actual game, and making it fun and entertaining. The premise for my story was good, and it seemed to resonate with some of the industry judges. But people don't have as much patience for that sort of thing in a Flash game. Adhering to that premise, and building the gameplay elements around it, was probably a design mistake. I could have probably focused on just one control type, and spoofed off of sub-genres within that control type. For instance, the first level could have been a Mario spoof, the second level could have been a Contra Spoof, and the third level could have been a Castlevania spoof. They are all essentially platformers, so the core gameplay would have been the same, and I could have focused more heavily on the content. (greater variety of enemies, more in-jokes presented in the background graphics, etc...)

 

[dubious_wolf]

You know I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's simple and straight forward, controls are a little loose, and I didn't care for the music, but both of these are my opinions. For example at one point i nearly fell to my death only to escape doom by quickly pressing one of the arrow keys and I was instantly back on the ledge. Otherwise this is a great little platformer.

 

[Taern]

Well, it's defineately better then the other entries I've played. I actually played it to the end, unlike the other entries.

It could use some work on the gameplay, sure, but it seems like you spent some time on it, and used that time fairly well.

 

[-Drifter-]

Probably my favorite entry, thanks to the amusing concept and level of polish. Like you and others have already stated, however, there just wasn't enough depth. I really wish you'd made the Mario level and Zelda levels longer, and made the scenery in the shooter level actually physical, instead of just being a background. Still, nicely done.

 

[loophole]

best game so far enjoyed it alot but i would suggest sticking with the end game improving it adding a leveling up system etc and add different types of enemies that require various numbers of hits to destroy. then your game would rule

 

[The Random One]

This is one of the best games, but just because most of them are really bad and this one isn't. It could be polished into something awesome, but wasn't.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Rainboq]

Why not finish the game and post to somewhere like Newgrounds?

 

[Chunko]

This one is by far my favorite

 

[Richard Kain]

Why not finish the game and post to somewhere like Newgrounds?

Though not a bad idea, there is one sizeable problem with that. The game is based entirely around Zero Punctuation, as are all the graphics and characters. Since I don't own the Zero Punctuation liscence, I don't have the legal permissions to use this game anywhere else. And I certainly can't be making money off of it.

So the only way to do what you are describing is to re-create ALL of the graphics and characters in the game. This is possible, but time consuming and more than a little annoying. I would also have to re-do the story, since that is also based on Zero Punctuation. This isn't quite as big of an issue, since a re-make of this game would definitely require a re-write of the scripting system used in the cutscenes. (a "skip-to-next-line" function was in high demand in all of the comments so far) There are ways to change up the story. I could have the game developer be lamenting his own mediocre success, and use the machine to kidnap a well-known game designer instead. (I'm thinking Miyamoto) Then I could incorporate some sort of gameplay where the player would "fix" obviously broken levels.

It's a good suggestion, but it would require a considerable time investment. I'm currently looking into developing a lip-syncing system using the same game engine that I created this title with, developing an iPhone app, and developing an indie game using Unity. I think I'd rather pursue those first.

 

[Rainboq]

wait you would make money if you posted to Newgrounds? Why not ask Yahtzee for permission, he makes games himself, I'm sure he would be understanding.

 

[dfcrackhead]

Why not finish the game and post to somewhere like Newgrounds?

Though not a bad idea, there is one sizeable problem with that. The game is based entirely around Zero Punctuation, as are all the graphics and characters. Since I don't own the Zero Punctuation liscence, I don't have the legal permissions to use this game anywhere else. And I certainly can't be making money off of it.

So the only way to do what you are describing is to re-create ALL of the graphics and characters in the game. This is possible, but time consuming and more than a little annoying. I would also have to re-do the story, since that is also based on Zero Punctuation. This isn't quite as big of an issue, since a re-make of this game would definitely require a re-write of the scripting system used in the cutscenes. (a "skip-to-next-line" function was in high demand in all of the comments so far) There are ways to change up the story. I could have the game developer be lamenting his own mediocre success, and use the machine to kidnap a well-known game designer instead. (I'm thinking Miyamoto) Then I could incorporate some sort of gameplay where the player would "fix" obviously broken levels.

It's a good suggestion, but it would require a considerable time investment. I'm currently looking into developing a lip-syncing system using the same game engine that I created this title with, developing an iPhone app, and developing an indie game using Unity. I think I'd rather pursue those first.

I'm sure if you credited Yahtzee or the escapist with the graphics no one would have a problem with it, I like the others would love to see a finished product here, it was my favorite.

But if given extra time to do more with it, I hope you do some real construction on the ending, that and a little bit of the zelda spoof were all that really bugged me(the invisible boundaries confused me and the movement controls were a little bugged).

If you do make a finished product, let me know so I can check it out