At 10/31/09 01:54 PM, UknownXL wrote:
Yea we are getting off track.
I'm sorry for carrying on off the track, but since you want to be a game designer, I thought I'd point out little oversights in your game design for Doodle Warrior.
Keep in mind that I am honestly not trying to be mean or a jerk; I'm doing this so you can learn and improve your designing skills. This happens throughout the games industry - beta testers aren't just for finding bugs!
Note, I've avoided mentioning any slight programming bugs, and concentrated on what I felt was primarily concept
Also, to anyone else reading this, minor spoilers ahead
First of all, I liked the premise and the game idea. I was kindly directed the right way by the gentleman on the left of the house, and off I went. I realised then that the sound for attacking would get annoying (the same grunt over and over). I visited the shop, where I viewed the wares (having the store keeper's welcome text above each description was distracting). I was a tad confused on how to leave without buying anything (The 'D' key was displayed under the 'S', so I wasn't sure whether it was how to close the window or another key to buy something). Anyway, I carried on and decided to 'explore' down a pit (speaking of which, don't do the whole "fall down a pit and instantly respawn somewhere in the air", it looks unprofessional), and carried on to my destination. After walking in and receiving my quest, I headed to the woods.
First thing that annoyed me in the woods was the realisation that my sword was so short! Often there were times when I would try to get close enough to the spiders to hit them and ended up walking into them! Also, there little to no warning before one came down on me; either making it come down when the player was slightly further away, or having a visual giveaway such as webs directly below the spiders would have been a great aid. I presumed I had to duck under the swinging spiders (after you hit them), although I would have liked to have been told - likewise with picking up objects such as coins. After a few run-ins with the spiders (see previous points), I was low on health. I managed to get through the woods to the bridge, and was informed on what to do next. After dying and returning to my house (and taking a moment or two to get my bearings; I would have liked to seen a more gentle fade-in or something) (also, dying can be used as a shortcut?), I decided to get some of the bandages I saw earlier in the shop. Now, this description was confusing! I wasn't sure whether the bandages automatically 'activated' when I died, or I had to use them (after the first idea failed, I also tried having them equipped when I died, to no avail).
Back to the bridge, grabbing the letters as I went. I knew that the space bar brought up the inventory so I could see which blocks I had, but others may have not have been aware. Anyway, crossed the bridge, read the instructions on how to equip items (speaking of which, why is the 'S' key labelled as 'Enter', instead of something like 'equip'?), and carried on into the castle. This scene was confusing - I had to read carefully to make sure I knew who was speaking what. Having each person start their lines in a new text box (i.e. press 'D' to continue) would have been much less of an eyesore. Or, better yet, use something like pictures next to the boxes to make it even more obvious.
Right, back through the woods again, talk to the scholar, get the key, to the house, no problems here. Kill the goblin, get the key, leave through a different door (I presume a programming oversight), and so on until I reached the boss door. Right, there's a chest over there, nice stuff. Get stuff, go for boss. Spider on ceiling, okay. He keeps hitting me, until I realise that sidestepping a bit dodges everything. Seeing the items in the chest, I knew what I had to do. Having all the eyes open for a moment after each attack is annoying, but oh well. Taking out the top eye wasted an egg since I wasn't aware you had to jump. And then another when I threw it at the height of my jump and it went over.
Well, all of the eyes are gone, what now? Wait, he's attacking? Maybe I'm supposed to throw one at the mouth or something *wastes egg*. Okay, he's fallen to the floor. Climb down the ladders since I don't want to jump down and get hit by a mad spider running about on the bottom floor (which it wasn't, I later realised). I get to the bottom just to see the spider jump back up before I reach it. Annoying.
Back to repeat the procedure, and this time I jump to the bottom instead of climbing. A few hits of my sword later and it jumps back up. Now, I had no more eggs. From the moment I read that sign and got the eggs from the chest, I feared that you would make this mistake, but I hoped you wouldn't. I was stuck in this room, with no way of getting more eggs. You should not make your players go out of their way to get themselves killed (there are exceptions, but usually only with strong warning of what item and how many would be needed beforehand). Especially by such a slow and easy to avoid boss. Instead, it would have been better to have the boss, various enemies or even objects drop them when the player's supplies are low, or if that idea is so unappealing, allow the player to leave the boss's room and return after buying more eggs.
At this point I stopped playing, which if nothing else illustrates how annoying that game mechanic is.
One other thing, while we're on the subject of dying on purpose. Was there any way to save other than dying? It would be nice if the player could save at their house, even nicer if they could do so at any time. On top of that, encouraging the player to save after they complete each 'quest' would be a nice touch also - it not only makes some people more likely to save (the kind of people who may not bother going out of their way to do so, and of course more saves mean more people returning to play (and hence more revenue)), but it also gives players a slightly greater sense of achievement.
Of course, I can't tell if you have such a thing occur after beating the boss, but if it doesn't, I suggest you think about it for future games.
If you did, I thank you for reading all of that and hopefully taking it into consideration. I wish you all the best in your new career choice (as you can see, I'm also bumping your topic), and hope you manage to make your dream company a reality!
