Reviews for Droid Grids Beta 0.19.1

[Fluxspore]

Good foundation

I can see a lot of potential in this game, things like how the pathfinding AI improves with each wave, and enemy behaviour changes.

At this point, it seems like you would benefit from getting an artist on board to help with sprites and design. A lot of people are going to be put off by the graphics, as the gameplay seems a bit jerky and it can be hard to understand what's going on with the simple graphics at the moment.

The same goes for sounds. It took me a while to work out what the timer sound was, and the gun sounds can get annoying and repetitive.

These things seem minor, but they can help improve a game a lot.

As far as gameplay goes, this reminds me a lot of Babo Violent (a free game floating around, google it), with the same top-down shooter style. Maybe that could help you with some ideas.

That's all I can think of, hopefully it helps!

glider521al responds:

Thanks for the review!
Thoughtful comments such as yours, makes doing this project alot more worthwhile :)

GRAPHICS:
I know that there are alot of amazing artists on newgrounds glowing at the fingers with talent.
However I'm not nearly finished implementing all the gameplay features (Such as a working upgrade shop), objects and gamemodes as I intend to. Right now that receives priority.
Although if anyone contributes artwork I'll be happy to credit them (and reimburse them if they play a significant part and the flash version of the game starts earning cash).

My only worry with hiring an artists, is that I'm not sure if I'll have their permission to port the game to other platforms (e.g. Java).
I.e. I still want to retain intellectual property rights over the main game.

SOUNDS:
Access to weapon sounds has been fairly limited, (with only access to the freeware domain) If you have any suggestions be sure to let me know.
I was thinking of adding music to make the experience more enjoyable, and the sounds less mundane, but I haven't found a suitable free track yet.

P.s. I'll be sure to look up Babo Violent :)

[ReklessCreati0n]

Great Beta, but

Like the reviews say, It does need some work. Some ideas-

1- move the camera in, just a little bit.
2- work on making some more interesting graphics, and animations ( explosions etc)
3- Gameplay is alright, but it has been done before, but this seems pretty fun.
4- Try adding in some more powerups that make things a lot more interesting
5- Take the HUD and make it less confusing, the less text the better.
6- Story! and Different Levels

I know a lot of these things will be out in the full release, but the game is pretty fun. I'd suggest a "Droid Management Area" where you can customize powerups on your robot. Like Armored Core

Good luck, hope to see it full and complete. If you need help on Graphics or anything, I can probably help yah out.

glider521al responds:

THANKYOU! :)
Finally an Intellegent and unbiased Reviewer who has something to say about the actual gameplay!
2. I agree, but first I need to get all the planned gameplay features implemented first.
3. Thanks.
4. Working on it :)
5. The reason why I'm using so much dynamic text, is because I haven't yet had time to create a training level...
6. Campaign mode will be implemented after the other game modes.
7. Sure, the armoury will definitely be added in, in a later version.
If you've got any tips on isometric art, I'd love to hear them. :)
EDIT:
after looking at your profile, you look like quite the skilled artist.
If you'd like to contribute a pic to my project, I'd be happy to credit you.
Alternatively, when I do get around to the graphics polishing end, I can send you some of my work to get a professional opinion :)

Right now my priority for the graphics is to make a better tileset and a more interesting background...

[kujal]

not fun..

looks like you have solved the problem u had earlier. thats good but the gameplay or the game itself is not fun or interesting in any way... atleast not to me.. this kind of shooter games are so last millennium...

glider521al responds:

Thanks alot for your absolutely unhelpful criticism.
Care to elaborate on why you found it "not fun"?
If you're biased against the genre of top down shooters please don't insult my work. There are plenty of popular Top Down Flash Shooters.
(e.g. Boxhead for one)
I've spent 3 damn months just making the engine, I was hoping to get someone who actually played the game for more than one minute before judging it.

If you look at the reviews for the previous version it received four reviews averaging 7/10, with most people saying that they enjoyed the gameplay.

For only 20 minutes I had a glitch whilst experimenting with preloaders and everyone comments on it.
Now that I've fixed it, no-one cares to comment on a single specific game feature they liked/disliked. :(

[Alathy]

A fatal Broken Button

Unrated.

Unfortunately the buttons to actually start any gameplay seem to be broken. No matter what difficulty (beginner, intermediate, hard) or game (single or two player), the buttons lead me back to what would be the main menu. If I hit the main menu button, it takes me back to the loading screen.

Once resolved, this game shows a lot of promise to be interesting with the amount of depth put into making the full gameplay manual.

glider521al responds:

I fixed it, the problem occured when I added the NG loader.

I forgot to update the frame the button was meant to link to,

P.s. To anyone else who may be reading this. Now that the fatal error has been fixed I need reviews from people who've got a chance to play the game.
I've spent months just getting it to this stage.

[hardriver]

major fix up

u may need to check the "coding"
and what not.
it looks like when u press the "play" buttons b4 a mission
it seems to go back to the main menu
as if it reconises the entire file as the actual game...
so yea

glider521al responds:

I fixed it, the problem occured when I added the NG loader.

I forgot to update the frame the button was meant to link to,

P.s. To anyone else who may be reading this. Now that the fatal error has been fixed I need reviews from people who've got a chance to play the game.
I've spent months just getting it to this stage.