needs work
i enjoyed the retro graphics and the simple controls but it still needs some more work like in level 3 i was able to walk over some of the water after exploring i didnt find anything on the other side
Reviews for "FlxAdventure"
Good, but very buggy
noticed the up stairs don't work in the dungeons. Also whatever you used to generate them, there are a lot of doors you can just walk around, the levels load slower and slower... The enemies get harder, but you can't level up after a certain point, and hen you finally run out of money to respawn, you start a new game in the bowels of hell with 8 hp and die instantly.
Needs work.
Bland and tedious
This game needs to be a lot more engaging. I'll get the trite stuff out of the way first, because it doesn't really matter since the only important thing is the gameplay. The total lack of music or sound effects is off-putting-and considering that there is no real-time gameplay (it's all turn-based), you might as well be playing a boardgame.
The visuals are decent, but I do take umbrage with the occasional meaningless tiles. In most cases the tiles are descriptive enough: floors you can walk on, walls and objects that block your path, doors that can be opened. But here and there are tiles that stand out-a sign, an unusual door, a unique floor tile with a circle on it-that seem to indicate something special, but don't do anything. The sign says nothing, the door will never open, the circle is just decoration.
The only purpose of graphics in a game is to describe the challenge to the player in a visual way. It's perfectly acceptable to have graphics that are purely decoration, but in these circumstances it's important to separate decoration from function in some way. A common solution is to lower the saturation of the decorative graphics so that the interactive elements (player, enemies, signs you can read) stand out against them. Minimalists will often suggest you should never use any graphics that don't have a meaning. But the point is, make sure the player can easily tell what he can and can't interact with or the player will become confused.
Now that we're past the fluff, the gameplay itself is slow and the controls are confusing. I realize there is a guide of sorts in the description, but manuals are a thing of the past. The typical gamer wants to put the game in and play, not read a lengthy manual. If the controls warrant explanation (this game does), the game should explain them to you when you start, either through a brief text or a tutorial of sorts.
Once I figured out that you just ran into enemies to attack them (again, this is counter-intuitive and needs to be explained), it took me a while to notice the arrow controls on the bottom left of the screen. I couldn't figure out why I killed the enemies above me but not the ones below me (in combat, up is attack and down is flee-hence my confusion). After this discovery, the shield and running man made sense but the fiery sword did not. Does it increase damage? At what cost? I seem to kill things faster but I always lose hearts when I use it. Does it cost a heart to use?
I also couldn't figure out how experience worked for a while until another confusion, the diamond gems that didn't seem to do anything, clicked into place and I realized that I got experience from the diamond gems. I wondered after a bit if maybe the fiery sword cost XP because my XP kept going down, so I quit using it. After a while I stopped using everything but my main attack and quickly found that this was a workable strategy. None of the enemies do enough damage to ever need to defend or flee, and the fiery sword doesn't do significantly more damage, especially at higher levels. In short, this game is simply ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. It's a glorified button masher.
This is all very sad because it seems like with a little bit of balancing work, a tutorial explaining how to play (especially the combat mechanic) and some sound effects, this could be an 8 or 9 game. It's put together well, and plays smoothly and without any major glitches, but it's far from professional.
SeiferTim2 responds:
I extremely appreciate your comments!
Let me say that I completely agree with just about every one of your points. This game is pretty much crap, but I would like to take a moment to explain and reiterate a few things.
I never expected or intended to truly win any awards or get hoisted on the shoulders of gamers for this project. While I started it for a competition, it was more of a challenge to myself with some restrictions to see what I could come up with. These restrictions were:
* To adhere as strictly as possible to the graphic set someone else made
* To get as much done in a limited amount of time (I believe 1 month? maybe less), and then stop working on it after that.
* To do it completely on my own without outside help
* To make the controls be as simple as possible - no menu/inventory/dialog/etc.
I went through a few iterations of the combat mechanics, and eventually settled on the Block/Normal/Strong/Run options and had to leave it at that to work on other parts of the game. I also intended to go back and tune the combat/XP gains/monsters, but ran out of time. I also intended to have a few more floors, but ran out of time. Music and sound got dropped towards the end - I had some placeholder music that I was implementing, but couldn't get it to work the way I wanted. So ultimately things got whittled down to what you see now.
Ultimately, I learned a lot working on this game, and between my personal experiences creating it, the often heated complaints and discussions about it, and the few times people have stolen it for whatever reason, I've been able to add to my toolbox a ton of great ideas and knowledge for future projects.
I've toyed with the idea of opening this back up and remaking it - maybe for Android or something, but I don't think I'm going to do that. I may make a completely new and different game building off of the lessons I've learned from it.
That being said, I highly encourage anyone thinking about making games to JUMP IN and make something! That probably goes for any kind of creative stuff... I certainly don't care when people give me 0s or send me long messages about what part of my anatomy I can stick my game, and I love when I get constructive, thought out criticism. You can only learn from your experimentation no matter how terrible they might turn out to be.
So yeah... lol I think I've rambled on enough :P
This game could not have been made without the awesome Flixel library, which makes it easy to make smooth, glitchless games in very little time, so make sure you check it out if you're thinking about making games at all. http://flixel.org/
Too easy
0 Death 29/30 hearts
1 shot every boss except the last one
Just spammed up on every mob to win. This game is too easy and I felt that half the time I didn't even have to pick up the power ups to proceed ,but I did anyways and facerolled.
I would like to see a more refined version of this in the future. It seems like it has the potential, but at it's current state is is a mindless button masher.
Awesome
great game, awesome fun and kept me entertained for a while thumbs up