Making a Video Game...

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  • mantrakid

    Been wanting to do this all my life. Finally buckled down and started learning one of those game development studio things (Construct 2).

    I'd love to get your feedback on my game... Just FYI this is intentionally left as a vague exploration type game... one of those shoe gazer indie types. For that reason I don't want to explain too much of what you're supposed to be doing, because I think a huge part of the enjoyment comes from figuring it out for yourself the first time, and all the little victories you get while learning the nuances of the game and developing a strategy.

    I present: Sprout

    Go here to play: http://www.3030.ca/Sprout_066/

  • ETM0

    Well... I can spin, I can shoot and when I hit 'S' it looks like I can try to take a dump. Beyond that, what am I doing? I don't have time to figure stuff out. Spoon feed it to me, man!

  • ukit20

    Hey it looks nice but like ETM said I have no idea what to do.

    What did you use to make this out of curiosity?

    • He said Construct 2 in his post.ETM
    • Oh I see. Lots of these new game engines these days it seems.ukit2
  • i_monk0

    Why are all the WYSIWYG game creators for Windows only?!

    • I know. I've been running it in Parallels with decent success.mantrakid
    • Enough to put in 180 on this game so far haha.mantrakid
    • 180 hours.mantrakid
    • been seeing you concept art on IG, keep at it man! I need to start prototyping my idea,BabySnakes
    • thanks homie!! :Dmantrakid
  • mantrakid0

    ETM - sorry for not explaining - it's meant to be a bit of an exploratory situation at first... I dont want to give away too much because half the fun is discovering the 'next thing' you can do.. That being said, it's good feedback to know you feel lost right off the bat. I do want you to feel lost, but not enough that you dont want to try getting un-lost. ;) I'll figure out nice graphical way to tell you what to do without giving too much away. so for now... fly around until you find a planet. If you land on a planet, imagine a little icon appears above your head telling you to crouch down with the S key on your keyboard. ;)

    • Problem was I didn't get that mouse button 2 was the jetpack. I see the icons now. At first I thought they were some sort of score keeping.ETM
    • sort of score or inventory keeping element as the scroll wheel looked like a '0'.ETM
    • But I was also rushed on a Friday afternoon. All seems more clear today.ETM
  • BabySnakes0

    I get what to do, seems like you should have character start on a planet and teach how to plant and why. I was trying to plant and then mass enemies started attacking me and I felt it need for responsiveness when i hit an enemy.

  • monNom0

    Honestly, it feels broken. Why does W do nothing? I am stuck in the center of the screen with the ability to spin and squat and shoot at nothing? Add some rocket boosters so I can actually travel and maybe you have a game.

    Win7/Chrome 31.0.1650.63 m by the way

    • right click is boosters, w jumps when on a planet.BabySnakes
    • u didnt right click like the big instruction screen tells u. :Dmantrakid
    • oh, ha ha! I totally did not see that first time around. Agree there are too many aliens.monNom
    • Maybe a mode switch where you fight off a larger invasion less regularly so you can focus on exploring?monNom
    • yeah im thinking of spacing out the main alien attacks so they come in waves actually.mantrakid
  • BabySnakes0

    Also the enemies are kind of annoying,make either less of them or easier to take them out. Hard to populate a planet with planets when 3 ships attacking me and tentacles are molesting me. haha

  • mantrakid0

    Thats what bases (pyramids) are for. :) You can buy them on the main screen with coins u earned in your last unsuccessful trial.

    • plant them and they will destroy the enemies while you dodge & plantmantrakid
  • mantrakid0

    thank you so much to all who have tried it so far, i love the feedback. :D

  • fadein110

    Wow - something really lovely about this. Well done.
    Just needs clearer instructions and perhaps more intuitive gameplay - I didn't really get it 1st game isn't that vital in this type of game? But in terms of style, mood, feel etc. love it.

    • thanks so much man - yeah it's meant to take a few plays to 'get it' i think, but i know what u mean.mantrakid
    • no problem - my gripes were v.small - its really good.fadein11
  • cruddlebub0

    i like it. its a bit puzzling at first but that makes it interesting. its hard when you have 6 UFO's shooting at you...

  • coldarchon0

    my figure landed on a planet and did not stop humping it, get a delay for gravity or something ..

    • hmmm, like was he just glitching up and down or was he actually crouching / animation changing...?mantrakid
  • set0

    Looks very cool. As already stated - definitely needs instructions !

    • thanks man, im getting some ideas from the feedback - some clearer direction for the first little bit is coming for sure.mantrakid
  • Poochie0

    Looks great and works well. I don't think it needs more instructions. I think discovering how to play it on your own is part of the fun.

    Only thing I'd add is a mute button. Music is cool, but user should have control over it.

    • u are my target market haha. :) you are like me. I agree about the mute button - its coming.mantrakid
  • lodef0

    great start. nice combination of elements, like a survival strategy combined with a shooter.

    There should be some sort of depot/store planet, or spaceship, that you can go to to buy stuff. Unless I am missing something you have to die before you are able to buy the base pyramids and the explosion weapon thing. You should be able to buy them while playing once you have enough. The bases helped out a lot. Also the prices should be better, I think its 30 for a base and like 250 or a 1000 for other stuff, it would be hard to get that much. Can you upgrade the gun? Add descriptions to the different items on mouse over in the store too because the icons aren't really enough.

    Its good to have some exploration/ discovery but its not clear at all what the ultimate goal is. You need a way of gauging progress, and more should start happening with the plants. Some sort of a map or radar would be cool, maybe one that marks a planet once it has been populated. I never knew when to move on to another planet and couldn't find it again if I left. Is the goal to populate all the planets with plants or to just stay alive as long as possible?

    I love the music but the sound FX are a bit sparse right now. The aliens could use there own sounds so you know when they are coming. It might have been a glitch or something but the aliens started to appear out of nowhere in the middle of the screen rather than flying in. The graphic style and playability are the best things about it right now but make the plants look better.

    I played a bunch last night so it got me thinking, which is a good thing.

    • im gonna comment on this below, since itll likely be longer than this tiny boxmantrakid
  • detritus0

    Just in relation to this, which I effectively agree with..

    "Its good to have some exploration/ discovery but its not clear at all what the ultimate goal is. You need a way of gauging progress "

    ..one of the best gaming experiences I've had in recent years was:

    http://adarkroom.doublespeakgame…

    , a large part of which was that there was ZERO idea of what the path or indeed the reward or purpose is.

    Not sure what my point here is, but there's something in being left in the dark.

    • Yeh man! Great game. Most surprising gaming experience I've had! Spent a while on that bad boyHombre_Lobo
    • this was a huge inspiration for me - this and that candy box game, also a game called "starseed pilgrim"mantrakid
    • im also going for this 'tossed into space' feel and you gotta essentially learn what to do.. so glad you brought this up.mantrakid
    • that being said, i do feel i need a couple more obvious prods at the beginning because too many peeps are 'too' lostmantrakid
    • i feel like once i get people latched on to the basic concept the rest will start falling into placemantrakid
  • detritus0

    Some sort of environmental map or attitude indicator (eg 'north / south' 'up / down' might not go amiss.

    I very quickly lost the original planets that I had tried sprouting things on.

    • this is a purchaseable upgrade. ;) its in the 'mystery store' on the title screen. :)mantrakid
  • mantrakid0

    all amazing feedback and i thank you guys so much for caring enough to post on here.

    the most important feeling i want to get across is that feeling of being lost right from the very start. It was a very conscious / philosophical decision to leave the 'language' directions to a bare minimum.. actually 'click to play' i think is the only time a direction appears with actual words, and im thinking of changing that to a 'play' button by the final release haha.

    the thing is, i really want to make sure im not alienating people, which it sounds like i might be, but at the same time i truly think that feeling of 'learining what it is you're doing' really hits home once it clicks.. like there's something to be said for the emotional connection you gain once you actually discover what it is you're actually trying to accomplish -- it's the whole reason i didnt just give it away verbally in my initial post.. I feel like a decent part of the game is intended to be like a puzzle game - where youre presented with these relatively familiar mechanics (ala donkey kong run + jump alongside an Asteroids space shooter type thing) but you are not told what you're supposed to actually do with them. You end up noticing you have 1 seed (and I think that's an important graphical problem i need to solve - making it more obvious what it is you have there) and were sort of 'told' what to do with it (also feel i need to make that more obvious right from the start -- like im thinking maybe have a faded instructional animation / arrow / sequence appear above your head while you're standing on a planet... telling you what to do next. from that point on, you're on your own..)..

    I cant stress enough - your feedback and interest is fuel to my fire, and I'll have a new version posted here within a week with some updates that i think should help with that initial game understanding. The problem is by the time i show you guys, the concept and initial understanding has already sunk in, so i lose that fresh introduction value, but i couldnt have asked for more thoughtful feedback, so i appreciate it so so much. THANK YOU.

    ----

    My most important note: this was never meant to be understood / able to be beaten on the first try. The game itself is like an exploration of the rules that ive put in place - learning how to exploit them, and by way of death, giving you a chance to strengthen yourself through the upgrades, which also require engagement to really understand what they do. I never intended any of the experience to be a passive one... which is a paradox with the art style, gameplay mechanics and music --- as pretentious as it sounds, deep down i want to connect with the player in the way of having them not be told what to do, but for them to slowly come to a realization and understanding of what my intentions actually were.

    This is all coming after playing games like Candy Box / A Dark Room / Terraria / Proteus / Starseed Pilgrim / Castle Doctrine -- all games that start with zero direction, but have taken up a considerable portion of my consciousness because of that fact. I'd be delusional to list Sprout in with those amazing games, but it is certainly my intention to try to get others to feel that same feeling i got.

    TL;DR

  • mantrakid0

    (DEV MODE) CHEATS: If you guys want to continue exploring, there are some keys that will help. #1-9 on the main keyboard (while on the title screen) will give you money / bases / upgrades without having to earn them first. numberpad #1-9 should take them away if you want to go back to a challenge. Give yourself some cash with the 1 key on the title screen then buy the map (compass) upgrade to get a better picture of whats going on in the 'galaxy' floating in..

    While playing, you can add bases with SHIFT+2. Change guns with numberpad 0,1,2,3,4. Refill your health with H, refill your fuel with J.

    See if you can get to the first boss.. Props if you can do it without using these cheats.. It's very possible & just takes an understanding of the mechanics and noticing the visual clues that are being presented as you carry on.

  • mantrakid0

    Hey pals, hope you all had a very merry xmas and are enjoying the holidays in general. I've taken some time off from working on sprout, but sat down today to get some things that have been bugging me out of the way. Much of it based off the feedback I received from this thread so far, so again. Thanks.. :)

    Version 0.67
    - Removed cap on number of aliens to spawn at a time. Will now continue to spawn aliens in long games.
    - Stopped ability to crouch in midair while on a planet - was causing a glitch where you’d get stuck crouching
    - Properly fixed planet overlap - should just pop you back to the surface without dying now.
    - Adjusted health upgrade levels to make it a bit more challenging / more ‘do or die’ while playing.. found it too boring with lots of health.
    - Added slight zoom out / zoom in so you can see more while in space and a bit more challenge while on the planets.
    - Fixed the timer on the game over screen to show proper time.
    - Fixed a bug where it wasn’t resetting in-game timer after every new game...
    - Reduced number of UFO’s spawning overall, should balance nicely with the new planet zoom-in.
    - Added in-game instructions — dont do anything and it should prompt you how to get out of your current situation...
    - Changed color of planting to white + green.. red saved for enemy/damage-related stuff only now.

    — Next major updates will be new enemy types and a nice new ‘reason’ to explore the other planets, adding to the overall depth of gameplay.

    http://3030.ca/Sprout_067

    Any and all feedback welcome - i realize some of you are no longer virgins to the game, but try to think of yourself as completely clueless to see if the on-screen prompts actually help progress you to the next step if you are actually stuck. As before, thanks for checking.