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Indie Game Demo - Feedback Needed

Hadrian

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Hi Fastlaners,

Hoping for a little feedback on my reworking of an 80's Classic...

Our first Unity based Indie Game is scheduled for a Christmas release. If successful I hope it will spawn a range of sequels.

We've a two level demo available on iOS and Android. It's pure 80's retro so if anyone wants to give it a bash and give me some feedback on what might be cool in the full release.
Bonus points if you can spot the 80's game we're ripping off... and improving! :bullseye:

 
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Last edited:

Beebop27

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Hi Fastlaners,

Posted this on the INSIDERS but got no traction. Hoping for a little feedback...

My first Unity based Indie Game is scheduled for a Christmas release. If successful I hope it will spawn a range of sequels.
We've a two level demo available on iOS and Android. It's pure 80's retro so if anyone wants to give it a bash and give me some feedback on what might be cool in the full release.
Bonus points if you can spot the 80's game I'm ripping off... and improving! :bullseye:

Looks a bit like Operation Wolf
 

Kid

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Not into such games but bumping it while i'm here.
 

BellaPippin

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Let's see I'll brb. Rainy Sunday and I don't feel like facing Anor Londo yet.
 
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BellaPippin

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Ok let's see.... I liked the music, but I had a bad experience overall.

I played on my iPad bc my phone is in the bedroom and I'm lazy. I was using it w/the case at 45 degree angle and I was immediately put off by the fact that the game started upside down and didn't turn, given that my orientation is probably the landscape orientation everyone has when using the folding cases.

Second, not sure about on the phone, but on the iPad, your sprites get blown up and look pixelated:

IMG_0537.PNG

That turned me off.

I was thrown in the game immediately and had 3 seconds to figure out what the game was about. The voice saying "tap left to run, tap right to jump" was good, but for a person that downloaded for the first time I didn't know what to expect from the game as a whole. I was like ok, but what? Is this a race track? What am I doing? I think a screen with a screenshot previous to the game starting showing the mechanics and giving the person a moment to say "ok I got it, let's go" would help.

Now for more technical stuff. I don't develop and my knowledge is limited to what I've heard my developer friends say but the physics are iffy.

Again haven't checked the phone version but on the iPad, the taps weren't sensitive enough, and/or the hit box was inconsistent. Sometimes I tapped and it ran, sometimes he didn't even though I tapped in the same place. The tapping barely makes him run so you need to tap like a MF. I understand that the tapping is supposed to be happening but that was excessive. At one point I'm like playing my 5 fingers on the left like a piano as fast as I can, or using my arm strength to try to tap faster, and he barely moved. My arm and my fingers gave up at half the level.

Same with jumping. The jump is too slow, it bothered me. In this kind of game you sort of get in the zone, everything happens fast and you're tapping without thinking much, but I found myself getting frustrated because the dude would float in the air for what seemed like a thousand seconds. I also had to figure out how to go over the wall that is taller than your jump.

I feel that for each tap he needs to advance much faster, as in, you just need to get in a rhythm going to get him to a consistent speed, and then focus on jumping on time. And the jump physics also need a revision.

I wish I could explain it better, I'm sure these have names but that's how far my limited knowledge allows me to go.

I'd also recommend making the score appear and fill in the screen one by one rather than the whole full screen appear at once. I was just looking around the screen trying to find the relevant information. What am I trying to beat? Score? The time? You know how there's games where you get say, up to 5 starts so ah, based on your score in this run you got 4 so you replay the game to try to get the 5 stars.

I think it has great commuting-game potential if you fix the physics to make it more fast-paced, give the CPU a name, make him Hitler, idk. Or just like, don't show me the VS screen, he's not important. I already know I gotta beat the CPU, or just don't put the CPU in there. I just need to beat a specific time.

Edit:

Oh yeah look at the physics in this one


Well, it looks like Combat School.

I played it in the '90 on Commodore C-64. : )

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJOpyLqCKA&ab_channel=Zeusdaz-TheUnemulatedRetroGameChannel

That's what I was referring to.


Also was that on purpose??? Are you trying to make the same game to practice or???
 

Hadrian

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Well, it looks like Combat School.

I played it in the '90 on Commodore C-64. : )

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJOpyLqCKA&ab_channel=Zeusdaz-TheUnemulatedRetroGameChannel
Well Spotted my good man... Guess we're showing our Vintage :D

First Free Promo Code goes to you!

We're hoping to recreate this, replace the shitty levels with better ones, make it more varied i.e. new features for each insiginia/ranking, and if it proves a hit we'll move to 2 player (Bluetooth/Wifi) and then for the mission we'll actually try to copy the old Platoon game if you remember that and pretend its in the jungles of Columbia instead... Basically I would love to go the full productocracy route and give users two games for one... but it all takes blood, time and treasure... #MicroprogressMacropatience
 
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Hadrian

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Ok let's see.... I liked the music, but I had a bad experience overall.

I played on my iPad bc my phone is in the bedroom and I'm lazy. I was using it w/the case at 45 degree angle and I was immediately put off by the fact that the game started upside down and didn't turn, given that my orientation is probably the landscape orientation everyone has when using the folding cases.

Second, not sure about on the phone, but on the iPad, your sprites get blown up and look pixelated:

View attachment 35333

That turned me off.

I was thrown in the game immediately and had 3 seconds to figure out what the game was about. The voice saying "tap left to run, tap right to jump" was good, but for a person that downloaded for the first time I didn't know what to expect from the game as a whole. I was like ok, but what? Is this a race track? What am I doing? I think a screen with a screenshot previous to the game starting showing the mechanics and giving the person a moment to say "ok I got it, let's go" would help.

Now for more technical stuff. I don't develop and my knowledge is limited to what I've heard my developer friends say but the physics are iffy.

Again haven't checked the phone version but on the iPad, the taps weren't sensitive enough, and/or the hit box was inconsistent. Sometimes I tapped and it ran, sometimes he didn't even though I tapped in the same place. The tapping barely makes him run so you need to tap like a MF. I understand that the tapping is supposed to be happening but that was excessive. At one point I'm like playing my 5 fingers on the left like a piano as fast as I can, or using my arm strength to try to tap faster, and he barely moved. My arm and my fingers gave up at half the level.

Same with jumping. The jump is too slow, it bothered me. In this kind of game you sort of get in the zone, everything happens fast and you're tapping without thinking much, but I found myself getting frustrated because the dude would float in the air for what seemed like a thousand seconds. I also had to figure out how to go over the wall that is taller than your jump.

I feel that for each tap he needs to advance much faster, as in, you just need to get in a rhythm going to get him to a consistent speed, and then focus on jumping on time. And the jump physics also need a revision.

I wish I could explain it better, I'm sure these have names but that's how far my limited knowledge allows me to go.

I'd also recommend making the score appear and fill in the screen one by one rather than the whole full screen appear at once. I was just looking around the screen trying to find the relevant information. What am I trying to beat? Score? The time? You know how there's games where you get say, up to 5 starts so ah, based on your score in this run you got 4 so you replay the game to try to get the 5 stars.

I think it has great commuting-game potential if you fix the physics to make it more fast-paced, give the CPU a name, make him Hitler, idk. Or just like, don't show me the VS screen, he's not important. I already know I gotta beat the CPU, or just don't put the CPU in there. I just need to beat a specific time.

Edit:

Oh yeah look at the physics in this one




That's what I was referring to.


Also was that on purpose??? Are you trying to make the same game to practice or???

Terrific Feedback. If you see my post to Damien above you'll see the overall strategy we're aiming for. :)

I'll have to think about making it available on iphone only as it looks way more crisp there. 10% of our app users are on iPad currently. The pixellated old school graphics is an on purpose and is designed to try to win over a younger and older demographic. I tested this with my 9 year old female cousin an she couldn't put it down and got her dad help to her so it was a fun team experience. I also tested it on a 5 year old and it was too complex, he preferred our Fruit Ninja kids game: ‎Luigi's Pizza by da Slice

If you get a chance to test it on the iPhone do let me know as I think the buttons will work much better there... I like the physics feedback and the jump feedback and we'll def. do more work there! The other issues you raised are ironically exactly what we're trying to do... the difficulty is its charm as it was a game as teenagers we'd stay up all night playing and broke many a joystick... I'm actually hoping for a few reviews saying users cracked their screens....that means the games as frentic and fast paced as the original and more engaging than any of the better looking games out there! I downloaded ALL of the competitors and they're usually made with Unity 3D and they suck.
An Army Bootcmap is meant to make you sweat.. this game actually does! lol

However based on Unscripted Principles I'm conscious that my own retro game bias may be clouding my judgement so I hope I can get more feedback and from more age groups as well..... If it turns out people want an easier ride I'll have to bite my tongue and do it... Anyone out there with kids please let them test it! :)

We'll take another look at the scorecard as the game has two ways to play... win the level and go for a higher score on repeat plays... The Player select screen is a throw back to the old arcade days and will be needed when we have a 2 player version as well... and we'd like to include characters from each of the other military branches....

All in all that was some terrific feedback.... please keep it coming! :)

Anyone else wanna jump in?
 

sparechange

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thanks alot, im trying to stop video games.......

:rofl: try it tomorrow
 

BellaPippin

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The pixellated old school graphics is an on purpose and is designed to try to win over a younger and older demographic


By pixelated I don't mean pixel art 8-bit, I mean the sprite actually blew up from the resizing. Just clarifying :p
 
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sparechange

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Well I liked it, although the last sniper mission is pretty difficult as the sensitivity of the mousepad thingy seems a bit low, and the up and down is kinda irritating (I understand what your trying to do) but maybe the movements could be a bit smaller? And possibly add a circular motion aswell with smaller movements.

I'm guessing in the full version I'd have the ability to challenge friends?

The shooting is a bit dicey on the range, maybe you could swap it for the sniper thumbpad aiming instead? Might be a bit better, when I shot the drones it was kinda hard. Overall I liked it and thought it was good.

Favorite part was the running course with the sliding, those seem pretty fun and addictive if you make longer courses.

YOU FAILED MORON :rofl:

Good morning laugh
 

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