Re: [pygame] Trolls Outta Luckland - new release

[B W <stabbingfinger@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 10:39 PM, Bryce Schroeder
<bryce.schroeder@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My, that was quick.

> Control scheme interesting and somewhat novel but a little difficult
> (probably to at least in part to unfamiliarity); there is potential
> there but it needs refinement. I think I would like mouse to aim, keys
> to move the ship, personally.

Sadly for keyboard and joystick lovers, I'm too sold on the mouse for
this one. The nimbleness of the mouse will be much needed by the time
v0.0.5 rolls around.

I don't think it would be possible to tune the game to swing both
ways. If it's tuned for a keyboard, a mouse user would be bored after
one-and-a-quarter stages (and give up more quickly than you seem to
have). If the reverse, a keyboard user would get mauled (and give up
more quickly than the mouse user). :)

No, input mode is not going to change. But I might be able to tweak it
if presented with some constructive feedback in that area.

> The graphics are small and difficult to
> see. Better (larger, mainly) graphics would be a logical improvement
> at this point.

What size is your display? And is your eyesight good or poor? No
insult meant by those questions. They are factors I would want to
consider when interpreting your comment. And puzzling out how big is
too big, how small is too small.

I was going to go full-screen, but not all full-screens are created
equal. My laptop kinda sucks at it, and Pygame crashes when I exit
full-screen mode. Of such are my woeful choices made. I don't know
that there is a way to get the desktop info and instruct SDL to open a
maximized window, taking into account window decorations. If someone
knows this trick and is willing to divulge it, I would be grateful.

Also, a large window and graphics means jumping sprites more pixels
per frame and the motion appears jerky or blurred to me, depending on
your frame and refresh rate. I guess I could consider knuckling down
and do scaling based on user-selected screen resolution. Not sure how
easy that would be... but I think not very.

On the other hand, scaled images look scaled. I am not an artiste and
don't know their crafty tricks. Yet.

Nevertheless, and circling back around, refresh-related artifacts
greatly annoy me and I tend to tweak my displays (and game design) to
reduce them. Options... features... work, work, work...

> None of the aforementioned problems are really severe.
> Overall, it's a competently executed but forgettable basic space
> invaders style game; a quirky control scheme alone is not enough to
> differentiate it from similar games.

Granted, space shooters have been done into the ground. What uncharted
territory is left in the genre to award distinction? If you can answer
that question for me, I may write a game about it. Until then, you get
a HALF-FINISHED competently executed but forgettable basic space
invaders. Meanwhile I was hoping someone wouldn't disparage an alpha
version of Trolls Outta Luckland for being akin to refried beans. But
I guess it had to happen. :)

All I'm hoping for is that this one, at the end, will offer enough
flash and character and maybe challenge to inspire someone to play it
longer than the first three player deaths, brag about a high score,
and become intrigued enough to look under the hood to see how it was
pulled off. Hm, reading back...  heh, that is hoping for quite a bit.

Oh, and did I mention Trolls Outta Luckland is HALF-FINISHED? =)

Thanks for the feedback, Bryce. There were some good points to it.

Gumm