Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

Use your enemies to destroy as many blue stars as you can!

NOTE: I do like to try and respond to everyone's reviews at least to say thanks. After 100+ reviews though I want to address a few themes here in my commentary that I likely won't address any further in individual responses to reviews.

COMMENTARY: My design goal with AVOIDAL was to create a mouse skills game with a fun and unique core mechanic. The point of the game (if there is one to any game) is entirely about highscores and testing your skills as a player. I also thought about classic arcade games from the 80s like Robotron, Yars Revenge, Frogger, Pac Man, Asteroids etc. None of these games had upgrades or shops or power ups. Are those things fun? Yes no doubt they are--sometimes I enjoy them too. I worry that these days upgrades and the like are often applied like some kind of placebo snake oil onto games lacking a fun core mechanic. I didn't want to do that with AVOIDAL. I also wanted to test my skills as a game designer by not using those crutches. I wanted a game that would either stand or fall based on it's own simple, no frills premise. It is OK if you don't like the game or find it fun! I totally respect that. Games are subjective like any other creative pursuit.

CONTROL TIPS: Since this is a mouse skills game it was always designed to be played with a mouse or tablet. Does this limit potential player base? Yes--but it was an intentional choice. It will be a lot harder on laptop touch pad or keyboard. I can't do anything about that. I enjoy mouse skills games and I've made a few because I like them and like to try and improve the genre.

SCREEN TIPS: To address the issue of mouse cursor hitting edge of screen mostly it is out of my control because it is inherent in the way the flash player and web browser work. The best solution may be to use the expand game button in the top right here on Newgrounds to make the area larger. This may make the game run slower I'm not sure.

MEDALS CONCERNS: A lot of you are complaining about the medals hardness. There are actually only 2 of the 23 that are incredibly hard. I put these there as insane motivators because I did actually have a few players playtesting that were operating at that level to get 200+ star streaks. The rest of the medals are attainable and were attained during heavy play testing of this game. You either have the skills or you don't--not sure what else to say. :D

Thanks everyone for leaving me your reviews (good or bad!) I just wanted to put a lot of stuff down here so I didn't have to address it piece meal over pages of reviews.

Best regards,
Dave Evans
Hybrid Mind Studios

UPDATE: v1.0.1 on November 8th, 2010

Made some changes based on some of the good feedback I've been receiving here. I've adjusted (limited) the distances that seekers and spikes activate against the player on later difficulties, I lowered the number of spikes and seekers that spawn on later levels, I adjusted the damage amounts per type of impact a bit too. Exploding blue star tips now do as much damage as seekers. Before they did as much damage as hitting a whole blue star. I also change the energy recharge rate so that the "training wheels" period now lasts just a few difficulty levels before running into things will definitely kill you fast. Thanks again for all the great feedback and constructive reviews everyone!

UPDATE: v1.0.2 on November 9th, 2010 - Fixed bug where you could start multiple sessions of the game via spacebar or play button. (Thanks for the report p00rleno!)