[Feedback Friday #1] - October 17, 2014

Want design feedback for your new game? Then you've found the right thread! Post your game, and let us know which parts of the design need feedback. Discuss as much as you want until Friday, when we'll lock the old thread and create a new one.

How To Encourage Feedback On Your Game?

• Show - Be Interesting! Which means - pics, videos, or best of all, a playable game!
• Be Concise - Who's got time for a wall of text? Be concise and interesting.
• Be Specific - What do you need feedback on?
• Read This - More great guidance is here in @superpig's post here.

How To Give Good Feedback?

• Be Positive - Offer at least one thing you like.
• Be Respectful - They want to improve, and they want your thoughts, as long as it's respectful.
• Focus On The Work - Not the developer.
• Be Specific - "Your game sucks!" is for nubs.

Good luck!
Gigi

 

But.... it's Tuesday!

 

I know, right? People will want feedback on the design of their games. So, they'll need a place to go. Short week or no ....

Gigi

 

While I'm not yet posting a prototype for feedback, I want to applaud @Gigiwoo for creating this. I think we can use this thread to consolidate all of the 'What can I do to make my game better?' topics - at least a few of which I'd normally be posting - into a single, easy-to-digest place.

Additionally, can we sticky these weekly feedback topics, then unsticky at the end of the week, to ensure they stay on top, for convenience and ease of access to the newcomers?

 

Yes, we can! Great idea.
Gigi

 

You can only give positive feedback? What about criticism?

 

I think he's saying, find one good thing about the given game/prototype, at least. Everyone does something right. I don't think he's even saying when it should come; some people will give the high points before laying into the work, other people will lay into it first, then say what worked.

 

Ok, since no one else is posting, I'll go ahead and be the first guy to try this weekly design feedback topic out. Here goes:

I've got a prototype of my current project, Sara the Shieldmage. I've been tuning the physics, working with animations, and adding some artistic details to this test scene.

Prototype Webplayer

Controls:
A/D - Move
Space - Jump
Left Mouse - Cast Spell
Z - Interact

The goal of this test level is for the player to cross the Hall of Spikes and get the treasure chest at the end.

I'm still looking for feedback on:

1. The control interface for magic. I reduced the number of controls necessary to cast spells; it's now just the left mouse button. Do I need to make any additional changes to the magic interface to make it seamless? Does the icon for the Summon Block spell give you enough information to feel confident with knowing how to use it?
2. The physics. Does the motion in the game feel right? Do you feel that, while playing, you can improvise on the fly and adapt to new challenges, or mistakes in judgement?
3. The environment itself. Does the Hall of Spikes pose a great enough challenge, in the context of an early-game minidungeon? Does the reward feel appropriate given the level of challenge? Does the level provide you enough tools to manage, but not enough to make the challenge feel easy and unsatisfying?

 

1.) Interface is good and well organized. Make the boxes not have to click and hold to make them work well. Make them appear only and follow the mouse.
2.) A bit too fast to jump, but it works well.
3.) Yes, they are a bit difficult to get across, meaning, they're well done.

But tell the player more of what the boxes do.

 

Is the GUI button to open the chest redundant? Would a message like "press Z to open" be better? It would also clue the player in that Z is the "use" button.

The icon didn't make the purpose immediately obvious to me, but I think that's a good thing. It was fun to cast the spell the first time, run into the block as a solid object, and realize, "hey, I can jump onto this! I wonder how I can put that to use...." For a first level, it hits a good balance between being quickly obvious and yet letting the player figure out what it's for. Besides, I think most players don't look at the HUD when they first start a game. They focus only on the PC and her immediate surroundings and play around with moving and clicking things. Then their focus gradually expands to notice the rest of the screen. In fact, you might consider moving the icon a little more to the edge of the screen. I tried clicking on it at first, thinking it was some kind of dialog button.

The movement and controls felt right. Personally, I like the speed of the jump. It feels very Mario.

Maybe I'm jumping past the point that you wanted feedback on, but the short bit after opening the chest felt anticlimactic. I wanted to be able to use my new ability right away, to see how it might be helpful in the future, even if it wasn't in the context of solving another problem right away.

(Also, I liked the little animation when Sara opened the chest. It gives her character.)

 

And so it begins...
Gigi

 

Before I comment on the game, I think that this is a great idea to help developers out on various design problems that they may face. Thanks for maintaining this @Gigiwoo!

As for feedback for @Asvarduil, I think so far it is an interesting idea and premise in general and would love to see more of this and where you take it.

1. I think that the interface doesn't clearly illustrate what the spell does just by looking at it. I found that I learnt what was going on by experimenting with the controls rather than looking at the HUD. That being said after I figured out what the spell did, that icon is a great way for me to figure out which spell I am using because I feel like it would standout, especially if there's going to be a large variety of spells at the player's disposal. I agree with @TonyLi on moving the icon over (maybe to the upper right hand corner?) to help show that it is a HUD icon and not a dialog option or menu pop up. I also found that I didn't get enough feedback when I could cast another box. The icons seems small as well as the effect around the player.
   
   
2. The motion of the character while moving left or right feels good. The jumping on the other hand is a bit off. I like the tightness of the jumping, but it just feels like I am teleporting upward and then dropping down. This could be a problem with the camera jittering at the start of every jump. It feels fine, however, when I press and hold the jump button for the entire duration of the jump. Maybe experiment with moving the camera slightly (very slightly) when moving and jumping to help smooth out the jitter.
   
   
3. The Hall of Spikes is a cool concept and great as an introductory puzzle/test of your skills, it just seems a little tedious in my eyes. The length of the hall is pretty long so you have to do this for a while. I also think that the player can also feel like they are going the wrong way because there is a point during this where you don't see any platform to go towards. When this happens to me in games I feel like I am either doing something the developer doesn't want me to do or I am not yet ready to tackle this problem. Try shortening the length a bit so the player can see safety at all times (of course, this is a suggestion for the beginning levels of the game. After the player is introduced to this idea, you can be more lenient with how you present this puzzle).

Other "non-game design" specific things that I wanted to mention was I like how you are blending 2D sprites with a 3D world. I also think that the current music (while a bit "in your face") help establish a explorative vibe to the level. But that is not what this thread is about! It is about game design! Which looks really promising from this short prototype. Good work!

 

Week #1 is closed. Week #2 is here (and yes, it's okay to repost your game).
Gigi