Hello everyone!
My new game "Abandoned" is almost done. (You can look in my previous blog entry for a screenshot or go here: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d97/JaJPlatformRpg/Entrance2-2.png)Almost? Well, actually it IS done. But I can't guarantee it's bug-free yet. I also havn't added the online highscores yet, but I'm not sure the game needs those.What the game does need at the moment is testers, so everyone who likes to test the game can get a testversion here:http://www.jajproductions.nl/Abandoned.zipIt's 13 MB, a bit large, I know, but I really hope it's worth it. Comments are welcome
I'll tell you what I thinks when it's done downloading.
Yeah, me too.
Game profoundly lacks direction. Everywhere looks the same so it's hard to know if you've already been somewhere before, or where you're supposed to go. It's pretty much Zelda syndrome. But some people are for that, just not me.
I would have to agree with biggoron, I had NO idea what to do and why I had a timer.
My connection here is very shitty but assuming I DO manage to download it, I promise to test the crap out of it.
Did any of the people who say the game lacks direction find the first power (the lazer) because at the start there is pretty much only one way to go. Soon enough after that, you'll be able to find an item that helps you navigate.
The lack of direction is intentional, at any point there are multiple ways to go and all those directions would be right, if you feel lost, thats good, if you are lost and don't find any new items for about 5 minutes, then I kinda failed at my goal. (of course the more you get, the longer it might take to find new stuff)I do realise the game is not for everyone. I hope however, that the target group enjoys it.About the timer: Maybe you've noticed those dead creatures that look a lot like you? Thats hta happens to you when you run out of time.First of all: The game is brilliant, and the confusing beginning is a part of this. It's "Abandoned", guys. I'm going to defend JaJ in keeping the lack of directionality in the beginning intact.
It kept me playing for - as the timer says - 35 minutes, and I got a completion rate of 28%. I need to say that despite the fact that I died and saved in a bad place, which pretty much ruins the future for me, the timer is very generous. I'm going to play again from the beginning, I guess :)Bugs encountered so far: The speed-up ability seems to result in a few. By ramming into power-3 red tiles with power-2 haste once or twice, I got a cacophony of a repeated speed-up sound effect. I guess it also happens in other places, the sound glitch, I mean, when you hit things.Aside from that, destroying red tiles is hard at times - especially in the area where they are lined in a "\" pattern (south-west of the starting area). You seem to hit them when they touch your head only and often destroy just parts of the barricade.There was also one typo in the very beginning when you inspect your egg ("It a broken egg shell" or something like that ;))As for other comments, oh well, I'm not such a big fan of arrow-direction-based puzzles, and while they did offer some new kind of challenge, I felt there was too much of that (of course, I'm not expecting you to redo half of the game rooms now because of that). The arrows themselves also felt rather out-of-place, but it'd be hard to change them into anything else and retain the intuitive feel to them.In case you're interested, I got stuck twice: First when I just got to the "red / organic" area - I was running around for quite a time before I backtracked to get new things done in the previous area. The second time, I got stuck at the red arrow directions puzzle, not sure whether I should leave with them one way or another and which way I should leave… I guess this was the main waste of time (and air ;)) that killed me in the end.Finally, I found seeing which power is selected confusing, especially when you have two: I guess darkening unused powers or making them transparent would be more intuitive than making them pink.(oh, and having keys for next/previous power would be nice, say: A/S to choose powers, Z to use them, and X to interact)Hope I was helpful :)Very, very helpfull. Some things I did encounter before, but thought "I'll do that later" and forgot. Other things didn't occur to me, but I'll change most if not all of the things you suggested.
Currently the arrows are light emitting (meaning they are fully visible at all times) This might contribute to them feeling out of place.I think I need to state this somewhere, but there is a huge difference between red, blue and green arrows. Red arrow switches go for the entire game, blue arrow switches only change the arrow direction in one room. This may cause you to get lost when you first encounter the red ones. The point of the first puzzle is actually to show you ow they work.By the way there are 12 oxigen tanks to find, wich means you'll have 70 minutes for the entire game, most of them can be found pretty early on, so there might still be a future for you.