Re: [pygame] Robo Hunt

[Brian Fisher <brian_fisher@xxxxxxx>]

------ Original Message ------
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to show you my game. It uses advanced Artificial
> Inteligence to hunt the player. As the robots go, they clear unseen
> places. But they must also maintain possibility where the player could
> move in the meantime.
> 
I like the robot ai in the way you can tell when they catch sight of you &
start following you. They feel very natural & alive (ironically not too
robot-y, but that's a good thing)

Jumping seems like a fun mechanic, but I think it's balanced to encourage you
to jump all the time rather than be reactive. It seems that you have full
directional control in the air, you can still collect plutonium and the robots
stop tracking you completely when in the air. Between those 3 things it seems
the best strategy is to just keep tapping the space bar while you click on
targets one at a time, and that isn't a fun way to play. I'd suggest giving
you less control in the air maybe? or maybe making you have some delay before
you can jump again after landing to encourage better timing? Also, it seems
that you can still get killed in the first bit of your spin after jumping.
That is discouraging to me, because it feels like even though I hit the space
bar before getting hit I still died - I think it would be better if you are
safe the very frame you detect the space bar, you'd feel more in control.

The way the enemies lose track of you in the air and keep going the same
direction is a nice touch though, it lets me feel like I fooled them a bit.
There might be some way to play up to that a bit more... like maybe make them
stop & turn after you have landed, like they are getting their bearings
again..

I like that you can control so much with the mouse. It's got a nice casual
feel because of that, but I think the control is not forgiving enough. For me
that kind of kills it - if you click on an invalid square (barrier or out of
bounds) you stop moving rather than go towards where you clicked, and that
frustrates me. Also I don't like having to click exactly on each plutonium and
wait to collect it to click on the next. I think it would be more fun if you
could click near a plutonium or click past a plutonium and you automatically
grabbed it on the way. Also I think it would be nice if you could kind of
"queue up" movement a bit to plan where you go in advance a bit more. (so like
click on the next target shortly before collecting the current one, and you'd
still get the current one)

I like it a lot for being a simple game, I think it has a lot of character
already.


---

Drowning the sub is cool too. The only thing I can think of that would make it
cooler would be if objects could rise and sink too.