I decided to see if I can make my own game. Can I get some honest opinions about it?

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Cool bro, but you are violating forum rules.

 

[OctopirateGames]

Oh! My bad! Sorry folks!

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh! My bad! Sorry folks!

Not a problem. But Fieldy409 is right. The Forum rules don't allow, for lack of better terms, self-promoting video games.
Still I'll give your game a lookie-loo

 

[OctopirateGames]

Yeah I read that and was wondering if that would be a problem but I figured this was more interactive and personable than simple ads and referral links.

Would it help if I gave away some promo codes to get rid of the ads to prove this is more about getting opinions than it is customers?

Here's 5 codes for the Starter Bundle in the store!

X589SJPHGNRNWY0DAMVQ09S
BU7DECKJM2FWZN6KP9KHRMF
H5ARAN99S0VJ728W1WDURAE
LRBXFA324EC380YUD22WJQL
9TULRMMYW3UZJRUETLZH4LL

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

You should of posted this in Wild West. Thats the section for promotion.

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

I'm writing a book, I certainly do expect people to pay for it to read it. Work is still work and only a chump works for free.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

You should of posted this in Wild West. Thats the section for promotion.

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

I'm writing a book, I certainly do expect people to pay for it to read it. Work is still work and only a chump works for free.

So when asking for constructive criticism from people (which the OP is claiming to be doing) you're first going to make sure they hand over a fiver?

How about when you send it off to a publisher to read? You going to try and make them pay to read it first?

No, you write a book, you send it to a publisher, the publisher tells you it's shit (because everyone's first attempt at writing is shit) and then you throw that manuscript in the drawer and write five more books, and MAYBE one of those people end up paying for.

That's how it works, that's how you LEARN.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

You should of posted this in Wild West. Thats the section for promotion.

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

I'm writing a book, I certainly do expect people to pay for it to read it. Work is still work and only a chump works for free.

So when asking for constructive criticism from people (which the OP is claiming to be doing) you're first going to make sure they hand over a fiver?

How about when you send it off to a publisher to read? You going to try and make them pay to read it first?

No, you write a book, you send it to a publisher, the publisher tells you it's shit (because everyone's first attempt at writing is shit) and then you throw that manuscript in the drawer and write five more books, and MAYBE one of those people end up paying for.

That's how it works, that's how you LEARN.

No, when I'm satisfied with it I will self-publish it on Amazon because...

1. The Publishing Industry and physical media is dying a slow painful death.
2. I don't believe in wasting my time.
3. A single dollar is more than fair enough for a full novel.

 

[OctopirateGames]

First things, it is a free game, there's just ads. I think that's fair for nearly any game anyone enjoys enough to actually play. And if someone were to enjoy it enough to the extent that the ads would bother them, I think a single dollar is more than fair to remove them. That's such an absolutely small amount of money and/or effort that I don't really get the criticism.

Also I got that people may see this as just self promotion which is why I'm willing to give anyone a promo code so they don't have to deal with ads while playing it.

And yeah I know it's a first project and I'm not expecting it to make me rich or even an income whatsoever, but stranger things have gone successful in the past and I think it's best to prepare for it in any case

Anyway your opinions are appreciated. I just feel people lose sight of how little a dollar is in regards to apps these days haha. No one thinks twice about a 6 dollar pint when they're out with a friend but 99 cents for a game!? That's absurd!

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

You should of posted this in Wild West. Thats the section for promotion.

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

I'm writing a book, I certainly do expect people to pay for it to read it. Work is still work and only a chump works for free.

So when asking for constructive criticism from people (which the OP is claiming to be doing) you're first going to make sure they hand over a fiver?

How about when you send it off to a publisher to read? You going to try and make them pay to read it first?

No, you write a book, you send it to a publisher, the publisher tells you it's shit (because everyone's first attempt at writing is shit) and then you throw that manuscript in the drawer and write five more books, and MAYBE one of those people end up paying for.

That's how it works, that's how you LEARN.

Strange argument, anyone has a right to sell a product and the game is free.

Btw I nabbed got the second down code thanks.

Edit: First impression! Im getting easily confused by the symbol to jump also being cactus symbols and making dumb moves where I respond to two cactuses by pressing the 2 jump symbol lol. Also this seems to have had a lot of work in it at a glance so far.

 

[bluegate]

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

Haha, you know something which is even 'more wrong' with today's gaming? People only half reading things and then throwing a tantrum based on their half-truths.

I recently finished work on my first game called Cactus Jumper.

Downloaded it and played one quick round, gotten up to the cave and my first impressions are that the game is pretty fun.

I can't really find any faults or things that irk me as of yet, maybe after a few more rounds.

Also, for a first time game I'm pretty impressed with some of the functions ( google & facebook login, premium items ) and graphics that you have in the game.
How much of those plugins are provided by Unity?

 

[OctopirateGames]

First game? Single developed? Six months?
I call bullshit. It does not look like a first game.

I guess I'll take that as a compliment! But yeah it's my first.

Edit: First impression! Im getting easily confused by the symbol to jump also being cactus symbols and making dumb moves where I respond to two cactuses by pressing the 2 jump symbol lol. Also this seems to have had a lot of work in it at a glance so far.

Yeah I used to have the jump buttons simply saying 1, 2, 3 to avoid that but it just didn't look as graphically pleasing, I like the look of the icons but I have some other people get a little confused by it too.

I wonder if it's something I should change back or not bother since people would likely get used to it after a couple rounds anyway

And yeah I always heard that actually finishing products is the hard part people never get around to so I figured if I want to try and learn this the right way I should make a product I'm proud to release.

I can't really find any faults or things that irk me as of yet, maybe after a few more rounds.

Also, for a first time game I'm pretty impressed with some of the functions ( google & facebook login, premium items ) and graphics that you have in the game.
How much of those plugins are provided by Unity?

And thanks! The Google saving I found a decent Unity asset called Cloudonce that helped a lot, but the Facebook is all through Facebook's official SDK, and definitely took a bit of tinkering to figure out. Premium In-App Purchases are kinda part of Unity, not built into the engine but they do have an official asset that wasn't too tough to get going actually.

And I think the only reason I got away with my art even being as good as it is is I used Inkscape for vector art, so it's a lot less like actual drawing and more like arranging shapes and tweaking lines until I don't hate what they look like I'm not the most artistic guy so I'd recommend vector art for anyone else who feels that way.

 

[Fox12]

You should of posted this in Wild West. Thats the section for promotion.

So...you're completely new to making video games, you've literally only had 6 months of experience, before which time you knew nothing about coding or game development, you've created your first game and you post it in a store and actually expect people to pay for it?

REALLY?!

This kind of attitude is you're everything that's wrong with mobile gaming and steam right now.

If you were looking for feedback and learning to grow and develop better games you wouldn't put your first attempt at a game up for sale.

Then again, why I am even typing this? This thread is clearly just self-promotion of your game, you don't actually care about feedback.

I'm writing a book, I certainly do expect people to pay for it to read it. Work is still work and only a chump works for free.

To be fair, if someone asked me for feedback, I'd probably want a copy of the manuscript, or at least a sample chapter.

 

[OctopirateGames]

technically speaking, there's nothing wrong with doing that. But for a hobby project that took very little time to complete, it comes across as very impolite. Especially when there are so many others who offer better things for free. Also, it's not work. It's his hobby. You're not paying his rent, you're buying him some knick-knacks.

And where do you draw the line? I could spend 5 minutes whipping something up in Unity or Unreal. By your logic, I should be allowed to flood the appstore with "games" because "work is still work".

True in a lot of cases, but I'd like to think my game has enough content and is fun enough to compete with other popular casual gaming apps out there. And so far the only difference between this being my 'work' and my 'hobby' is I'm most likely not going to make much money off this, but I'd definitely like it to be my work. I think if this were met with any level of success I'd probably buckle down for a longer less casual project, or get a bit more education and reach out to other studios.

All in all I still think people react to money about apps/games in a weird way. It's the same as tipping a busker on the street a dollar. That dollar means nothing to you but you do it because you got brief enjoyment out of what you saw/heard/played.

Seems kinda weird to disregard someones 6 months of effort as a hobby and call it impolite to put ads in it, or charge a dollar as an alternative, then buy a buddy a 20 dollar case of beer for helping you move for one afternoon and not think twice about it

 

[OctopirateGames]

True in a lot of cases, but I'd like to think my game has enough content and is fun enough to compete with other popular casual gaming apps out there. And so far the only difference between this being my 'work' and my 'hobby' is I'm most likely not going to make much money off this, but I'd definitely like it to be my work. I think if this were met with any level of success I'd probably buckle down for a longer less casual project, or get a bit more education and reach out to other studios.

All in all I still think people react to money about apps/games in a weird way. It's the same as tipping a busker on the street a dollar. That dollar means nothing to you but you do it because you got brief enjoyment out of what you saw/heard/played.

Seems kinda weird to disregard someones 6 months of effort as a hobby and call it impolite to put ads in it, or charge a dollar as an alternative, then buy a buddy a 20 dollar case of beer for helping you move for one afternoon and not think twice about it

But that busker spent a long time to build up their talent, and is now spending their whole day performing.

You said you only have 6 months experience in using Unity, and you've been working on it casually. It's not an overnight process to do it for a living, just work on casual projects, try and get feedback, work some more, get experience under your belt, maybe consider going to college for it.

Spending 6 months learning, creating a singular game, and then saying "well, I'm going professional now". Doesn't really seem like much work. And generally, considering that at this point you should be looking for feedback rather than money, it's just downright rude to also ask those people to give you money.

I worked on it/learned pretty much full time for the 6 months actually, and nah, don't consider myself going professional. But why not build it as if I was? Isn't that the best way to learn? And yeah I am looking for feedback.

I think people are still misunderstanding that I've given out promo codes and will post more to anyone who wants them, that's for a game that is -free-, but just in case anyone thinks that I'm greedily trying to cash in on that sweet few cents the ad revenue of this forum post will generate.

This is a post for feedback/discussion about the game I swear I'm not after all your dollarz.