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Re: [pygame] Game demo for review



Dave,

I finally had a chance to play your game (albeit with the sound off.) 
I was at level 7 when I had to leave.  I believe I had four lives (is
that "fleet"?) left and the enemies were repeating, so I have a hunch
I could've played forever.

I liked the graphics in general, and thought the enemies were pretty
good.  (I especially liked the little squid-like dive bomber guys.)  I
didn't think the disappearing guys were too annoying, although if they
flickered any faster, I think they would be.

Unfortunately, I didn't really like either of the control schemes. 
With the keys (which I didn't play for long), I thought the game felt
way too slipperly and fast.  I really think cutting down the players
movement speed by half would help a lot.  The game is also a LOT
easier with the mouse.  In fact, once I figured out the "trick", I
stopped moving around the board; I just sat in the middle of the
screen and clicked on the bad guys.  I would clear the board really
easily this way.  Some of the problem was caused by being able to turn
instantly; I could be shooting guys on either side of the board with
no turning delay.

My advice is either get rid of the mouse controls and fix the keyboard
controls, or else combine them Robotron 2084 style; ie, drive in any
directions while shooting in other directions.  Also, like a previous
person said, it's not very frantic.  I think some of this could be
helped by just making bigger enemies.  Now, even if there are a lot of
enemies on the screen, most of the screen is still back.  Another good
options, I think, would be to just add in a million more sprites. 
Have ships leave trails, have exploding ships blow off debris, have
stars in the background, have your ship smoke when damaged, etc. 
Certainly, the barren feeling wasn't helped by my having the sound off
when I played, but I definitely think a ton of particles would help
spruce it up.

Finally, not to harp on the Windows-only stuff, but I felt the
installer was over the top.  When I agree to a EULA, have a Start
directory made, yadda yadda, I expect a professionally developed game,
not a solid early effort from a hobbyist programmer.  I think that at
this point, you're "competing" with Flash and Java applet games, and
so a big install, EULA, etc. is overkill.

I really encourage you to keep working on the game, I want to see how
it turns out.

-Nate

On 13/01/06, David Mikesell <dave_mikesell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I was planning on replacing the 'm' key hack with a menu option when I
> get around to implementing the menu, but I like this idea.  Thanks!
>
> On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:07:02 -0800, "Bob the Hamster"
> <Bob-pygame-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
> > On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 06:22:57AM -0500, David Mikesell wrote:
> > > Re: the mouse controls, for now use the 'm' key to toggle between mouse
> > > and keyboard.
> >
> > Modal controls like this aren't really a good thing. Suggestion:
> >
> > 1) Pressing Left or right keys disables point-to-move.
> > 2) Moving mouse re-enables point to-move
> > 3) both keys and mouse buttons for shoot and thrust are always enabled
> > at all times
> >
> > That way, the game behaves as if both keyboard and mouse are active
> > simultaneously, and they never even have to be aware that they are
> > switching between one mode and the other.
> >
> > ---
> > James
>