Sadr 1196970270|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Graphics
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It would be nice if you could indicate which of the graphics are done and which of them are currently missing or worked on, so it's clear where we can comment on. Like it's fairly obvious that the "main menu" needs some polishing, but I suppose this isn't ready yet.
Some sprites (the fish for instance) have a noticeable artifacts around the border: try using an alpha layered PNG, vectorize the original image or use a mask layer for transparency. I like the "obvious" parallax for the style, but it would be nice if the ground and wave graphics would tile better horizontally.
Lowering the alpha for the fish nets to make them somewhat transparent could be nice (not sure, you'll have to test it out).
- All-in-all, most people react well to the graphics. Only negative comments I've seen so far has been on elements that I know will be fixed.
Music
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The music is really great for the setting of the game. They match really well. The addition of sound effects would be nice though. Just going from the music played during the game to the menu music is not all that great you need some sort of sound effect for when you die. And a different sound effect depending on wether you get caught by a net or a hook.
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Some sound effects perhaps, like the sound of air bubbles floating up?
- I believe we have a big load of sound effects being added shortly? Dunno if bubbles floating up is a part of this though.
- Haven't heard nothing but kind words about the compositions and effects so far. Be proud!
Controls
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Once I figured the controls I got stuck everywhere because of the collisions with the net. I felt frustrated, stuck where the second net is, and stopped playing after a couple of tries (which I guess is not what you want).
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It took me a frustratingly long time to figure out the controls (i.e. click to move up!). At first, I thought it was the arrow keys, then I thought maybe it was moving the mouse up/down. Then, I noticed that the fish moved when I pressed the mouse button down, but with that knowledge I could only get it to jump out of the water for some reason! I don't think the controls are intuitive at all.
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It's a very simple game, yet you could include some instructions. Like how you have to press the mouse button to float up or exit the credits screen. You could also allow alternate controls, like the arrow up key or space bar.
- We might want to consider doing something about the controls. I still feel like this game should simply be kept to the mouse alone, and that it should only include pressing one button, but I've been thinking that maybe we should change the effect of the clicking.
- Suggested change: How about if we make the fish just bounce up a bit when pressing the left mouse button, making the player a bit more engaged in the game, as he'll have to continuously press the left mouse button with precision in order to jump high at the right places, or slip in between a tight area.
- In any case, we definately need a quick introductionscreen that tells you simply and quickly what the controls at your disposal are. There's nothing worse than wondering if there might be any other controls you can use to your benefit, forcing you to press every button at the keyboard looking for it…
Difficulty
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It's a little too easy. For instance, you can just keep "crawling" on the ground and occasionally press the mouse button to finish the level.
Addictiveness
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Its not addicting at all. It amy get a little more addicting once you add a high score board, but only for people that a really competitive and try and be #1. I would recommend giving the player a new kind of fish for each level.
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Fairly low, you need to make the game play more interesting without making it too difficult to play for a casual gamer. You could make static objects that the player has to swim around but which will not attack him like coral or a sunken ship. Perhaps you can pick up items on your way for extra points. Maybe "live" enemies that move, making it more challenging to avoid them (sharks, harpoons, etc.).
- We already had features like this in mind right? I believe the small fish for the bigger one to catch was already a decided part of the concept, right?
- Having a highscore count and board would also definately aid in this issue, and I believe this is also an already planned addition, taken into account.
Awareness
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I read it but mostly because Im a curious person. It looked pretty boring. If you add a scrolling option and something happening in the back groud like a reef, bubbles, and to help get the point across to the reader fish getting caught in nets and on hooks. Just if you add bubbles put them on the sides of the screen where there isn't any text to read. Also put the fish getting caught above the text. If its behind the text it will be distracting. For the text box put it at the bottom of the screen with the backgroud a reef.
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No, I didn't bother to read the notes. To counter that, you may want to consider a splash screen with the text automatically scrolling by. The text shouldn't be as short as possible while still long enough to get the message across. Scrolling the will make the text looks less daunting as you will only see so many words at a time. If you have time, you may even consider an animation to communicate the message.
Maybe this has to do with unfinished graphics, but the font should be much bigger to allow people with less than perfect eyes to read it.
- He might be right about the font, but as for other changes, I think we should wait untill the game is more or less finished according to our original concept, as I think people will read more as long as it simply looks really good.
Length
- Not really a need for comments on this point untill the game is nearing completion, with all levels included.
Bugs and oddities
The bounding box issue is extremely annoying. You should just have a very thin box for the entrance of the net and leave the rest of it untouched (because I don't see how you can get caught in the net unless you go through the opening).
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Also, collision detection (e.g. for the net) could use some work!
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"Like when you swim just close to a fishing net, but get caught anyway."
Exactly that. The collision detection should be more forgiving: currently, it feels "unfair", which is annoying and frustrating for players.
- So, is it possible to make our collision detection more "forgiving"?
- Possible to make only the entrance of nets dangerous, letting the fish swim over the backside where there is no hole in, making it look like he's swimming on the side of the net.
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I kept the mouse button pressed and I was stuck at the top jumping…
- Sounds like a bug to me. Anyone else encountered this?
Miscellaneous
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Other than that, the game just needs some more speed and a bit more variation. Also, some sort of collectible point system would be nice and you could think about putting some above water and adding some seagull enemies.
- The speed, also as I've mentioned before, is something I think we should consider looking into, but it's not an important issue in my opinion. It comes more down to how the levels are made.
- We're already planning to add collectibles.
- Let's not think about seagulls or any other misc enemies untill the game is completely finished. Stick with the boats for now.
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It's unclear to me how the final score is determined.
- I presume this will be solved with a hichscore counter later, right? I guess we also need graphics for this.
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Add a "replay" button, so the player can restart the game without having to go to the main menu.
- This goes into my previous suggestion about letting the player continue from the level where he last died.
