What's the goal? Is there a way to lose? What's with the snakes? What's with the ships that fly at each other and explode? Why would I want to upgrade the ships?
Reviews for "JemKat"
MakeGamesHappen responds:
Goal: Just to gain points.
Lose: Nope. The snakes can steal your gems, but that is it.
Snakes: They steal your points if they touch the sparkles. Think maybe I should
have made them go directly after them.
Ships:
You get points for the ships you destroy. So upgrading how fast they spawn upgrades how quickly you can make money.
Hopefully that answers it all. Though by me having to answer these questions tells me the game design is severely lacking. Which I take full responsibility for.
-John Mark
oh now this is fun. I really like this one, JM. it this a mark for some reason today. ;) everything about it, the green on soothing grey, the cat, the art style. niice.
MakeGamesHappen responds:
I will remember that I am Mark today.
-Mark
Crazy and psycodelic game, i liked but ingame i dont know what im really doing!
MakeGamesHappen responds:
Thanks! Yeah, I am not the best game designer. Usually I make up for it by beta testing a lot to fix all the confusion and problems. But I didn't want this to be a main project.
-Mark
Glad to see you're still able to release awesome content..Even with the production with "AA" and all :D
MakeGamesHappen responds:
Are you on the DontTazeMeBro project? I can't remember. But I was doing a smaller scope spin-off in the same universe. It is a side scroller.
Differences:
1. Zoomed in more so it is easier to see.
2. Side scrolls.
3. Bombs are NOT one hit kill.
4. More action. Less puzzle.
If you are not on the project, and want an invite, let me know.
Right now both projects are on hold, but I am always willing to acquire new testers.
-Mark
So, umm, I kinda like this, but it is definitely not very polished.
There is no HUD, the game throws you right into the action. That wouldn't be that bad, if only there was some kind of explanation. The graphics are cool, like an acid trip, but they tend to get waaaay to chaotic and confusing after a while. The music is nice, I have nothing to complain about it, and all in all, the game doesn't look or sound bad, just chaotic and disorienting.
The gameplay consists in gathering these "A"s that spawn randomly on screen to feed the bizarre cat in the center. The faster you gather them, the more points you get, and sometimes, four panels will pop up from which you can gain upgrades that make the jems spawn faster, give you a special AoE clicking skill, make tiny little bullets appear from off-screen that fly in one direction and sometimes kill the "snakes" that steal jems, and some other updates that make the game crazier and crazier.
There are a few problems caused by the complete lack of in-game explanations, though. For instance, it took me a while to realize I controlled the bullets that appeared seemingly at random on screen, since there's no visual or auditive cue that indicates I did something when they show up. It took me a while to realize I could kill the snakes that steal my jems too.
Other problems, unrelated to the lack of explanation, but related to the bizarre HUD, are such as: the upgrade screen seems to show up at complete random, which is weird. Also, there's a point past which the money count on the upper left corner of the screen stops really counting the points I gathered, and simply starts displaying a "$$CHECK$$" text, and after this point the big numbers that show the score on screen start showing up everytime I click, even if I don't explicitly click "$$CHECK$$".
Everything is rather confusing because the only textual cues we get are on the upgrade screen, and it took me a while to figure out what each upgrade name referred to in-game. For instance, I wasn't aware that the "auto wave count" controlled the duration of the clicking skill, I figured that out a lot later. Either make it so that the upgrade screen gives us an example of what each upgrade does, or just make it so that the skills themselves make a little text pop up every now and then indicating what they are.
As a final thing I'd like to point out, the game seems to have no objective, and no way to lose. Having no objective would be okay if the game somehow ended, because that would imply its objective is to try and get a high score. But now, this game simply... goes on. Is that how it was meant to be? If so, then is it supposed to be like Cookie Clicker? If so, it's sure lacking in the way of expansive gameplay and idle mechanics.
With all that said, and all the confusion and disorientation I felt most of the time in this game, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a lot of fun with it. Gathering the jems with ever larger skill ranges, destroing enemy ships with bullets to gather even more points, and upgrading until I can wipe the screen in a few clicks is sure satisfying and rewarding. Therefore, I'm giving this a 3.5/5, and my approval.
MakeGamesHappen responds:
All your assessments are accurate.
The goal was indeed to make something like cookie clicker. Though I decided not to fix a lot of the design flaws because my goal was just to get it to a level of polish I was happy with and be done with it.
The project took 4 weeks when I wanted it to take 1. And all the code was written from the ground up. I am both happy and angry at myself for this. Happy because it is the most polished thing I've ever made with 100% my own code. Angry at myself because using 100% your own code is kind of stupid if you are trying to be a game designer. (in my opinion) Maybe I am just a better engine programmer than a game designer. But I am working on it.
-John Mark