[Feedback Friday #37] - Jan 8, 2016 (New Year's Game Jam!)

Feedback Friday #37 is OPEN - Until Friday, Jan 22!

Game Jam: This FF is special! It's also the Silly New Year's Game Jam, which is also registered at Game Jolt with silly prizes. Have fun!

Theme: Something old, something new

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Want design feedback for your new game? Then you've found the right thread! Post here to get precious player feedback. Discuss until we lock the thread to start the two week break.

How To Ask For Feedback?

• Show - Pics, videos, or best of all, a playable game!
• Be Concise - Who's got time for Wall 'O Text? Less is more

How To Give Feedback?

• Be Positive - Finding redeeming qualities in the worst of games, is in itself a game
• Focus On The Design - Not the designer
• Be Specific - "Your game sucks!" is for nubs

What To Show?

• Minimally Viable Product (MVP) - Core game play >>> everything else
• How To Scope Small (Unity tutorial)

Gigi

[PS - Feedback Friday #36 is here]

 

Okay, here's my submission for the Silly New Years 2015-2016 Jam!

Since I had limited time, I made sure to scope it down to the standard project that every newbie starts with these days, the zombie survival MMO FPS RTS. Darn, I just realized I should have added VR support, too.

Play on Game Jolt​

I regret not taking @tedthebug's advice to grab some of the more ridiculous political sound bites from 2015, but if you listen to the Father Time zombies you'll probably still recognize some of 2015's memes that are long overdue for retirement.

This was mostly an excuse to goof off for a day and see what UnitZ is about. (It's a nice system, btw.) Don't feel obligated to put too much effort into feedback, though I gratefully welcome whatever thoughts you want to share. It's not a particularly groundbreaking design, being a reskin of UnitZ, but recently I've been more into setting, characters, and story than innovative gameplay (not that this game has a lot of setting, characters, or story, though).

I'm looking forward to playing the other entries this weekend!

 

And my effort, still a bit on the alpha side but have fun with Argon.

On Game Jolt (WebGL) http://gamejolt.com/games/argon/118103

On Itch.io (WebGL and PC) http://arowx.itch.io/argon

Made by Hand - with default Unity Assets.

 

The last time I didn't managed to properly expose the game , but now it is ready for some feedback:

Game Jolt (PC) http://gamejolt.com/games/super-leaf-rush-wip/115514

 

Okay heres my game. I used a bunch of assets from the asset store I started off the photon racing game, and used a different kit for the kart handling, we tried syncing it up and adding some weapons to it. You can jump and boost

I was testing with a guy from Argentina

I guess it will really depend on the other players you are playing with. Ill be interested if we can get a game going with 4 players.

Jump is space, Boost is tab. Left mouse button to shoot, WASD/Arrows to drive.
http://gamejolt.com/games/battle-karts/116882

 

When I click on leaves, the xylophone sounds are so pleasing that I played a few more rounds that I had originally planned. Nice polish on the animation, too.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to put a subtle background behind the bigger leaf on top to visually separate it from the gameplay area?

Also, scores didn't seem to be working for me.

 

@Aiursrage2k - I really like the narrator commentary! Would you consider changing the HP readout to a slider bar? It's easier to see how much damage I've taken if it's a graphical bar than a text number. Also, I noticed that the title screen says "Battle Cars" instead of "Battle Karts" -- I like the name "Battle Karts"!

 

Yes the subtle background for the bigger leaf was one of my priorities right now. The sounds also will be changed right now to match C major scale and later on i will add unlockable melodic scales so they can be unlocked. Online server is almost ready so the scores can be posted and the players can compete. Can you tell me what is exactly wrong with the scores?

EDIT: I saw that score bug and where he is coming from, thanks for pointing me out. It's suppose to be fixed now in the new version. Also thanks for the feedback I will check out your game right now

 

I played the unit-z clone and I think the world looks pretty good already even with the unity asset store assets. I think the gameplay could use abit of work, maybe you could level up and "liberate the land from the father times" or whatever.

 

Okay thats a cool game I like the idea of a game within a game. Really has some potnetial

 

@TonyLi I played your game now man. The idea is great and hilarious. May I suggest:
* Pressing two times in quick succession the movement keys, the player to do a dash jump in the direction the button is mapped to.
* Using the fire in the spawn point to flame the bottle
* Picking mushrooms and eating them to gain halucionation powers - like picking zombies from a distance with telekinesis and smashing them down
* Using some button to run towards

Rated it great because it's not a finished product

 

Yeah, it reminds me of The Last Starfighter.

 

Thanks, both of you! I haven't spent much time playing zombie survival MMOs, so I'm not sure exactly how gameplay ramps up for players. I suppose I could have made it more dangerous and slower to open up new abilities such as the disco bomb. Something for me to keep in mind for a real game next time.

 

http://gamejolt.com/games/day-of-the-broom/118622

Dropbox mirror:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0eadohtqs8o79gf/DayOfTheBroom-1.0.0-Exes.7z?dl=0

Doesn't have a half of what I wanted, but that's pretty much the best I can do in one week working at maximum throughput.




Controls:
Left/Right/Middle mouse button to attack.
From keyboard that'll be Ctrl, Alt and F key.
WSAD/arraws to walk.

Health regenerates. Slowly.

Game is very short, but if things turn out in certain way, it is very easy to lose. There's infinite continues, if you want them, though.

Max/Windows/Linux versions are included, but I only tested windows version (don't have other computers available).


Not EXACTLY what I had in mind, but... well, time's up.

Modeling and animation took most of the time, as a result there's no sound.

I'm aware of large number issues there, so whether you want to leave feedback or not is up to you.
----

Here's youtube video for it:

 

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! Phoenix the Chicken!​

Phoenix the Chicken v0.1 (Beta, GameJolt)
Requires Internet Explorer. No actual chickens were harmed in the making of this game.

Controls:
WASD - Move the Chicken


​

Phoenix the Chicken is a game about a chicken who is hunted by humans - who eat chicken with wrenches - for food. Of course, he's no mere mortal chicken: after long enough, he grows into a mighty Phoenix that the humans fear, and revives his chicken brethren. Of course, Phoenixes are reborn from the ashes, so when time runs short, he must find a safe place to hide, so that when he is reborn as a Chicken, he can continue the cycle, and pluck Chickenkind back from the brink of extinction.

This game is a beta made for the Silly Game Jam 2015-2016, so it's got some known issues:

1. No match music.
2. Very little visual effects
3. Very few sound effects
4. In my tests of 0.1, I've noticed some rather serious lagspikes.
5. There is no means by which to remap controls, alter in-game sound volumes, change graphics quality, or customize the experience too much in this build. I intend to add those things soon, though, as I feel they'd help this game be more enjoyable.

Is this game at all fun? Where do I improve it? Does this game make too much sense? Is the concept sufficiently ridiculous, or do I need to get more creative?

 

Here's my (very Alpha) version of Unicorns Eat Rainbows for the silly game jam 15/16. This is a web build so won't run in the latest microsoft or chrome browsers.

http://gamejolt.com/games/unicorns-eat-rainbows/117878

latest (& last for this competition) update to Unicorns eat Rainbows.

Based on feedback I have

• amended the controls to work using GetAxisRaw so you can use A & D or arrows to move left & right
• moved the collider from the mouth to the horn
• added buttons so you can select the colours with the mouse (easy) or use the NumPad (slightly harder)
• Made the balls drop slightly quicker
• Moved the score to the top right corner.

I ran out of time to gradually add the colours & ramp up difficulty as suggested, I just made the easier changes & used it as a chance to try out buttons for the first time (I know, pretty slack to be using unity for 18mths & only just getting around to bothering with buttons).

You get 1 point for each correct colour collected & lose a point for any missed. Game ends when you are below 0 or ==20 for score.

(mine definitely is lacking in every aspect compared to those above. Shows how much knowledge/speed I have yet to pick up).

If I was to progress with this it needs a complete rework:

• new art assets I own
• better sound design
• particles/effects
• difficulty curve
• some dangers for difficulty instead of just increasing speed
• layout/design

 

@GarBenjamin I played your FPS & got around. I forgot all the keyboard commands (I'm not a pc gamer so struggle) & gamejolt doesn't let me move the window so I can see underneath it but since there was no death I just pressed buttons until I worked it out. This is all my issue tho.

Movement was smooth, took me a few goes to get it through my thick skull that A&D turned me & didn't move me sideways but I eventually sorted it out & got well & truly lost, even jumping onto the enemies & jumping up to see over walls didn't help me. I went around the same area A LOT.

Some of the grass textures looked blurred(?) but I'm glad the update to make the illusion panels show up was in to make my life easier.

Do the enemies play cat & mouse with you because they look like a catermouse (1/2 caterpillar, 1/2 mouse)?

 

firstly, should I be concerned that when I went to the game page the banner ads (alternating) were all for mental health services? Did they scan for MMOFPS & put what they thought were the applicable ads?

As usual keyboard controls killed me. The gamepad worked for movement but nothing else. Again, just me.
If that was all done in a day 1) you must work quick & 2) UnitZ must be a fairly flexible package. Nice little world, my hearing wasn't good enough to catch all the sounds & comments but I don't see why this couldn't be cleaned up in another day or 2 at the rate you worked & put out there for a bit of fun, even do an annual reskin.

Gamewise, I'd like to be able to destroy the zombie portal & I found the onscreen tips a bit small to read. Still, it was fun & very impressive for 1 days work.

 

Ha ha. The enemies are basically "dead" at this point. I mean sure they are in there and have their base Patrol state, chase state (when they spot you they rush toward you until they get within a certain range) and battle state. But the battle state is not actually implemented. So they see you, rush forward to close the distance if needed then switch to battle mode and are "dead" at that point.

Ah I just wanted a worm enemy so knocked that out. Maybe I can call these Ratworms. Thanks for that and thanks for playing!

 

Nice job, my son tried it first & didn't find the arcade machine, luckily I opened itch & saw the hint there.
I had issues with the mouse turning my character, I kept having to circle the game area to get it back onscreen so I could complete a turn. Since I don't game on pc I'm not sure if t his is usual.

I also liked the contrast in the graphics between the characters reality & that of the game they play, it was a nice juxtaposition. The real game was difficult, I always get lost in those space games where I can't work out which way is up, down, back or forward, & only noticed the rear view mirror at the end just before I died while trying to work out where they were in relation to which way I was moving. These are all problems with me & pc games though, the actual product was nicely done (excellent according to my son).
Only real issue I had was I couldn't find a way to play the arcade machine again when I died. Is this possible?

 

how about a Rat-erpillar?

 

This is a nice take on the rhythm/match games. I found I tended to get a lot of the whole leaf ones though. It may be an issue only on pc with the bigger screen but I never paid any attention to whatever the icons were at the top of the screen as I was to busy trying to watch the game area. I agree with the previous comments about the top leaf not standing out much.

For some reason it reminded me of the simple simon game from when I was a kid.

 

Sorry, I downloaded it but couldn't get it to run

 

I was the only one in the arena (#2). It took a bit to realise I had to jump up through the colours to get the power ups but I had fun. Personally I would prefer the camera angle lowered as I was trying to see what was ahead but most of it was under the HUD. I think the narrator was saying "eliminated" but it sounded like, & would be appropriate if it did say, "humiliated". This could get a bit crowded with more than 2 players, especially since you die quite quickly driving on the lava.
My son had a go & worked out the green gave mines but the others looked the same colour (pink/purple) to him yet gave different types of shooting powerups.

 

Is this not in the game jam?

Yes, the game was fun. Aesthetically it's fine, tho I had an issue with the rise in the bottom right corner as I couldn't see where I was. I'm starting to suspect it might be me but again I found myself wishing the camera angle was less so I had more field of view. I agree with the thought the first ash period seems overly long. While I was ashing around the little farmers came along bumping me into different spots each time, & a couple of them seemed to get stuck with a chicken rapidly bouncing between them but that isn't a major concern.

My son took over & all I could hear from the study was "Arise! arise my chicken friends, arise!" so I guess it gets his seal of approval as well.

Depending how far you want to take it & how ridiculous you want you could have a cost for not finding a safe place to ash out by having bits of ash fly away when farmers bump into it so that the chicken spawns a bit smaller/slower & the phoenix is a bit smaller so it takes a bit longer to revive chickens. Not sure how you would counter this? maybe by reviving a set # of chickens based on how small you are? or finding some grain & sitting still to eat it while a chicken? Just some dumb ideas i thought of to heighten the risk.

Definitely worth following through with this, maybe implement a leaderboard &/or use the gamejolt api for a leaderboard so people can compete against each other.

Edit: is your screenshot from the editor? looks like the farmer waypoints are showing?

 

@tedthebug Thank you for taking your time for giving me your feedback!

As for the whole leaf part it is intended to be dropped more than the others, because it gives the lowest amount of score (1). Each other leaf has it's own higher unique score and it's dropped depending on it's value.

As for the bigger leaf not being prominent enough, I also got this feedback from other players and will fix this today.

As for the top icons, which are power and time indicators, you are also right that they can't be seen.It's not the big screen issue, but rather the fast gaming phase - not having time to look up.The game is intended for mobile devices, but still when i try it on iPhone and iPad the indicators just can't be seen, but are core mechanics in the game..

The power indicator basically empowers the scores. Depending on how full it is, it multiplies the base leaf scores by the current power.
The time indicator on the right side tells how much time you have. A hidden mechanic to keep the game longer is when the player matches fast enough correct leafs it gives small amount of time bonus depending on how long the player continues to combo.

And right now as I write this i got the feeling that the time indicator just can stress the players out. Maybe I can think of some other end game logic or hide the timer don't really know right now. What do you think?

 

No worries. It seems that they are important to the game (the hud stuff) & I certainly wouldn't get rid of the timer unless you find another way for the game to not be endless. Personally if you can think of a way to not have the timer I would consider that as an extra game mode instead.

I can't think of a way to show it better, sorry. I'm sure others will have some good ideas though, & if I can think of something I'll post it up for consideration.

Good luck with it.

 

Couldn't get it to run... how?
Error message/OS?

 

I downloaded it & when I tried to run it it wanted a program to associate with it

 

The file uploaded on gamejolt is 7z archive. You need 7zip or something similar to extract it. Inside there are several folders with different binaries for major platform.

 

Ok, I'll try to have another look at it in the morning

 

@tedthebug - I included the hashtag for the game jam, but I think the reason it's not showing up is I have it 'In Development' and not 'Complete.' Really, In Development is more accurate because there's a lot that can be done to polish this game to a mirror shine. In other words: for the first time, I think I've actually managed to nail making a MVP of a game.

With the ash phase, I'll definently patch the ash phase to be shorter - I left it running way too long. I'm not going to have any interaction between AIs and the ash state, though - the point of the ash state is to give the player a short break from the action, but also provide a weakness to the Phoenix form. Also, all levels will have safe places, but it's up to the player to find those safe places - I like to think of it as a contract in my design of this game with the player that it's up to me to fulfill.

And the screenshot does indeed show AI waypoints. Resurrected chickens use those as well, though usually they're busy running from farmers. The AI could use some work to make it more interesting - having the 'run away!' AI be influenced by waypoints a bit seems like it would make those chases look more legit. Also, having AI with 'Tags that cause death' (that's the actual name of the variable) would help, as AI chickens don't die when touched by farmers. Ideally the game should reinforce to the player that everything is playing by the same rules.

 

Instead of #unitynewyears2015jam gamejolt game thread actually checks for #sillynewyears2015jam .
That has not been reflected in the first unity post about the jam.

 

My game is also in development in gamejolt but its still showing up in the game list

 

Then, I'd bet I'm excluded due to being the Jam "owner". Oh well.

 

I only see 6 games in the jam not teds.

 

That's on gamejolt, filtered by the hashtag. If you look at it through the Jam itself, you'll only see six games, including Ted's, but excluding mine.

However...@TonyLi - I think I should do my C&C thing with your game.

What Works
Visually the game is stunning - of course, you got everything from the asset store, but it's still an achievement because different artists can have radically different styles. You chose very consistent assets, which makes your game work visually.

The controls also feel good - it feels like a FPS; motion makes sense, and the level itself does not have anything that gets in the way of controlling your character.

What Doesn't Work
First, the reticule is way too small - the dot reticule is easily missed, and makes aiming hard. I wasted a number of shots because I wasn't aiming where I thought I was.

Second, these conjoined assets don't always play as nicely together as they might. I had some issues when I ran out of the Champagne weapon - I was able to pick up bottles, but for some reason I couldn't reload for a while. Eventually I was able to fire again. The secondary weapons like the firecrackers could be picked up, but didn't appear in the list of available weapons if I had ran out, then picked up another one.

The way Zombies spawn are an issue - pretty much, there are two static spawn points which endlessly stream Zombies. While it makes sense (they're usually graveyards), I think it might make a bit more sense to have a few spawn points distributed through the map, and have zombies randomly spawn at them, so that you're never totally safe. That would make this much more engaging.

Lastly - and this isn't a bad thing - I'd like to see more in general. More types of zombies; a bigger level; more weapons when they work properly.

The TL;DR
This game is fun, and the snafus in execution are minor things, easily repaired. This is a good foundation for a fun game. The entire day you spent on this was well-placed; if you were to do something crazy and spend six more on this, holy heck you might have a really neat game on your hands...

 

@Asvarduil
Yeah, sorry about the tag being incorrect. I'll update the op when I log onto the PC.
My game is in development as well so not sure why yours isn't showing but as long as we all know we can still count it, I was just curious as to why I couldn't see it in the screen.

 

@Asvarduil

Saw your way of giving a constructive feedback to Tony so i will try and give you mine.

What I do like is:

• The message of the game - brings good intentions.
• The boundaries of the game terrain - they feel just right for this simple design.
• The 3D models of the game - they appear consistent from my POV.
• The camera's positioning - can easy track the chicken

What I don't like is:

• The unpredictable instant farmer spawning - sometimes it happens just as close enough to kill me without giving me a chance to evade it. Maybe you can indicate for a small amount of time the spawning position and after that perform the spawnage.
• That I don't have any focused goal before the chicken turns into a phoenix - most of the time I just move around trying to search for something interesting which isn't there. Maybe you can spawn randomly some phoenix food so it can be collected in order to turn into a Phoenix bird.
• The AI rotation jitter - where the farmers sometimes turn around very fast in random directions for some small amount of time.

What I will love to see:

• Non linear NPC and AI movement - dashing, running
• Phoenix health - right now it feels like it's kind of a cheat turning into a Phoenix
• Fatter farmers -
• More stats

Well that's about it from me now. Also It seems like your intentions after the Phoenix filling bar depletes is to turn it again into a chicken, but there seems to be a bug where i can't control the chicken no more and it starts the jitter rotation along with the farmers. Voted it 4 start because I love the idea.

 

Thanks again! The general takeaways seem to be:

• Polish up the UI and controls. UnitZ does a pretty good job with this, and is a good system in general. There's no way I could've put something like this together in one day without a prewritten framework. (BTW, it uses legacy networking, so it can't do WebGL.) While I swapped out many of the UI fonts and textures, spending a little more time would have been worthwhile. Changing crosshair textures would've been a quick one. I didn't even look into controls; if UnitZ uses Input.GetButtonDown instead of Input.GetKeyDown, it should be easy to support gamepads.
  
• Most important: Add a sense of progress -- Give a reason to traverse the map, unlock new abilities or item recipes, add harder spawnpoints further out (there's one on the other side of the map, but it doesn't add much), destroy spawnpoints or otherwise give the players tangible markers of progress, etc.

In all, it was a nice breather from my regular development, and it satisfied my ulterior motive of seeing how UnitZ works so I can add Dialogue System integration in response to a few customer requests.

I love the graphics. They're perfect for the style of game.

I also had a problem with the occasional farmer spawning almost on top the chicken.

The camera and controls feel really good. I agree with @sysameca that a dash ability would be fun, maybe with a frantic chicken squawk and a particle effect of loose feathers. I think the game in general is prime for more visual and sound effects (especially sound) as your development time allows of course, as well as a very simple menu and leaderboard. Great job! I hope you continue to work on Phoenix the Chicken and post the next version to the next Feedback Friday!

 

So many entrees! Played Day of the Broom, Unicorns Eat Rainbows, Super Leaf Rush, and the Zombie, Survival, MMO. Argon and BattleKarts had trouble, either failing to load or not doing anything for me.

These are fun - excellent entrees.

Gigi

 

I totally forgot about Silly Game Jam!

I'll try to set aside some time tonight to play and judge for my category (Best use of Space). I don't know if I made it clear when I "announced" the category, but that could mean outer space, the space bar, or just physical space.

 

Did Argon, work or fail to load?
If failed what browser/platform?

 

The page at http://d-triforce.gamejolt.net says: An error occured running the Unity content on this page. See your browser's JavaScript console for more info. The error was: TypeError: er[a & 8191] is not a function

I could just see the Unity logo in the background with the words, Unity Web GL. Maybe something to do with WebGL. I used Firefox 16.0.2.

Gigi

 

If you're on Windows your browser is way outdated. Currently I use Firefox 43.0.4 and it still runs Unity Webplayer games fine plus WebGL.

 

Updated and it worked! I was able to walk around. The mouse wasn't trapped, so it kept flying out of hte browser, making movement really difficult. Thanks for the suggestion.
Gigi

 

Try the full screen mode, blue button, bottom right corner.

 

@GarBenjamin - I gave your game a spin...here's what I got from it:

What Works
FPS Action Adventure (working title?) is good, because it feels like a lovingly-crafted retro game. The textures, the obvious polygons, the antiquated GUI, the musical selection...this reeks of the 90s. One can tell that you really like mid-90s FPS gaming (possibly.)

The lock-and-key mechanics are classic, and instantly make sense - you're exploring the level in hopes of finding keys to gain access to new areas, which let you see new mobs and find other keys to get other things. It's engaging, and I spent a while just navigating the maze, looking for whatever I could find.

Illusionary walls are something I haven't seen for a long time - fire a spell at them and they open up! I noticed an odd flicker. When I figured out the controls a bit better, I found the flickering wall and tossed a fireball at it, and it opened up! That just adds more to the main conceit of your game, which is exploration.

What Doesn't Work
The controls are a bit wonky, especially in the context of playing on GameJolt. The Alt key fires your spell, but in an IE window, even if I set the webplayer to full screen, pressing Alt twice drops the player back into window mode. This is more annoying because IE interprets the Alt key as the first key of a 'chord' to do something (Alt + F = Open the file menu, for instance.) Also, the firing key is decidedly non-standard - I suggest either supporting remappable controls, or defaulting firing your current ability to LMB.

Also on the subject of controls, turning the character - it's too slow. If something jumped me, there's no way I could respond in time. I think that turn speed needs to be bumped up a bit.

There are these odd safe-looking things scattered about. I could never figure out how to open them. I am left utterly confused by them. I eventually just jumped on them and used them to reach bits of level that I couldn't easily reach before.

The illusionary walls, while a mechanic I like, are also something I think don't work as well as they could. Right now there's an infrequent flash that's the 'tell' that something's different with them...but it can easily also be dismissed as a graphics artifact! I suggest being slightly more overt - in addition to a flash, maybe have that segment of wall become slightly transparent for a moment, before the illusion re-establishes itself? The subtlety of the illusionary wall is the point, but you might have done too good of a job of being subtle with it.

I suspect enemies are not done yet - I encountered some caterpillars a few times, but no matter how I threw fireballs at them, they just sort of stood there, staring. Clearly, caterpillar carapaces conduct conflagrations cooly.

What I'd Like To See
@sysameca - I really like this section, I hope you don't mind if I borrow the idea of a 'what I'd like to see' section? I can't believe I've never thought to do this, and it seems a reasonable way to talk about ways to improve the game, once praises and problems are noted.

You put a lot of work into your visuals, but I think you might have actually gone overboard in certain respects. Go back and take a look at the Virtua Fighter-like trees and rocks. Those are good! Could you figure out a way, to make the entire level look like the trees and the rocks? The solid edges - not at all unlike the game from @Arowx - can be made to work, provided your visuals are consistent, and you can use that to reaffirm the mid-90s feel in a way that looks measured and composed, but without getting away from the mid-90s aesthetic you've put so much work into establishing. TL;DR - choose a visual direction!

I think where I see this game expanding is a much larger labyrynth, with more natural formations like fake lakes, maybe some mid-90s 'huts' to add character. I see a game with more and more interesting treasures - in addition to keys and safes that one apparently opens through telekinesis, how about being able to find new spells (for instance, telekinesis?) A wild wandering wizard wants wonders of wisdom to withdraw, witfully. I've got to stop doing that.

Right now the point of the game is intrinsic - to explore the map. When you're done, though, there's not much left to do. This held my attention for about 20 minutes, and affirmed that the idea can work, but ultimately I think the biggest point of improvement for the game is figuring out how to extend the amount of time the player remains interested. New content as above can help with that, but having task(s) to do would be useful ways to focus a player's energy on the work. Additionally, new mechanics would make players go back and look at places they've been differently (as figuring out how to fire my fireball did with the illusionary wall.)

TL;DR
It's not Skyrim; it's not Sword Art Online; but it's a strong start to a cool, retro adventure game. Keep expanding on the ideas here. Finish your enemies. Make bigger levels - some procedural generation might be a good idea, even. Most importantly, find ways to keep players wanting to explore. I think that FPS Action Adventure (Working title?) has significant potential to grow into something well worthy of notice, provided that potential can be realized. I think given your knowledge and love of mid-90s gaming, you can make it happen.

 

@Asvarduil

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!

On the controls there are at least two different keys for every action.
I stuck the alt in just because I remember playing many games long ago that used Ctrl and Alt as the primary combination for jumping and shooting. And because really I see this as a desktop game more than a web game.

Anyway, the full list of available controls are:

Move with WASD or Arrow Keys
Jump with Left Ctrl, Space, X or Right Shift
Cast Magic (shoot) with Left Alt, C, / or \

If there are any particular key combos you would prefer for jump & fire let me know and I will add them.

Although this is still very early on with very little to it I am glad you enjoyed exploring and found the environment inviting for exploration. As you guessed that is a primary design goal for this game.

Ha ha! That's funny when you say "You put a lot of work into your visuals" because honestly I have put the least amount of work into visuals for this game of any of my projects in the past two years. It's just the difference of going to 3D in Unity. There is a lot of 3D content on the asset store and 3D models are so much simpler to create than 2D graphics at least for me. Probably because 3D modeling I see as being a technical skill and 2D graphics as being more of an art skill. Like the spellbook for example, I would have spent way more time drawing that in 2D and probably still wouldn't have been as effective as communicating "hey this is a book of some kind" as the model I made in just a few minutes.

I got some stuff from the asset store and made some other stuff. And this is likely the difference you see in the graphics. Those rocks and trees I agree I really like their style and I bought those on the asset store to help fill out the map with a bit of variety.

I'll have to bring one of the trees and rocks into Blender and see exactly what they are doing. I think it is probably the shader. No idea really but I liked them too!

I am glad you mentioned the turning speed. I actually had it turning faster and thought "man, people are going to flip out and tell me the turning made them dizzy!" so I dropped the turn rate down to the current level. Now I know I can bump it back up. So thanks!

I have a lot to add in there still (version 0.2.3 currently so a lot of iterations left to reach the first real 1.0 release) and my hope is to stay on target with the exploration as well as get some good combat going on. Basically I'd like for there to be areas more focused on exploring and other areas more focused on combat. A balance and sort of rhythm to the game play.

Thanks again for trying it out and sharing your feedback!

 

Hey @Asvarduil just an FYI here that I found a quick n easy (my favorite) way to give the rest of the models the flat-shaded look.

In the import settings for the models just set Normals to Calculate and change the Smoothing Angle to 0.

Now the keys and stuff actually look the way I wanted them to. I just don't spend much time at all messing with graphics stuff. I always think "I can come back to playing around with that stuff at the end when the game is done!" but this was quick n easy and works.