deepBLUE... hunting for feedback
Community Forums/Showcase/deepBLUE... hunting for feedback
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| Hey all, No screenshots yet, but I will put some. In the meantime, could anyone peruse my site( Link in sig )and tell me what they think. The gfx I know are not the greatest. In the future I will either overhaul just before release or give out a patch to upgrade the graphics. Right now I'm curious about concept/presentation... BRIEF DESCRIPTION. When you open a record, you provide a seed number from 1-256. Based on this, the engine builds a procedural world composed of 100 island levels. You travel from island to island, searching for the GoldenConch, a lost relic of the legendary IsleKing. It's a simple 3rd-person platformer. Not a lot of combat, the focus is much more on exploration + puzzles. There is simple character interaction (over 200 Chars!), and plenty of treasure hunting. SURVEY: Based on the site/screenshots... A. How good or bad are the gfx(1-10)? B. How likely would you be to try a demo(1-10)? C. How likely would you be to buy this game(1-10)? D. What would be a reasonable price (Also including free gfx/gameplay expansion packs in the future)? E. Are the concepts clear? F. What would you change about it? G. WHat would you change about the style/presentation? Thanks d'avance for all replies! |
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| If you would like somebody to look at your site, you should provide a link. Many people have sigs turned off and can't see the link you have hidden in there. If you care enough about your game to truly want feedback, you should care enough to provide a link and some screenshots. Failure to do either shows you don't really care, so why should anybody reading your post care and do the extra legwork that you yourself are unwilling to do for your own game. |
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| Uh, well sir, I'm sorry to have offended you. You speak of 'leg-work'; indeed for me to get to the internet involves literal leg-work, and the submission of screenshots is dependant on if I could have a data-stick with me. Additionally, I was unaware that the 'no-sig' option hid all signatures. I thought it referred to your own... this makes much more sense. Indeed, I do care very much about this project, and have boatloads of pictures, I was just in the process of arranging them as well as working manymany hours a week. I thought that I had been polite/respectful, but honestly I don't use English much in my daily life so maybe I came across as brisk. Whatever. Here is what I was working on; I didn't think I was demanding people to cut their arms off or anything... I apologize to all if I was. In any case sorry to not be able to get back online until now... -K |
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   Linky link : http://dimsun.webs.com So, I hope that gives a good picture. Any criticisms or suggestions are much more than welcome. -K |
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| Based on this, the engine builds a procedural world composed of 100 island levels. You travel from island to island, searching for the GoldenConch, a lost relic of the legendary IsleKing. It's a simple 3rd-person platformer. Not a lot of combat, the focus is much more on exploration + puzzles. There is simple character interaction (over 200 Chars!), and plenty of treasure hunting. I'd like to try a demo if possible. I am curious about the procedural building of the levels. To answer your survey : A. I say 3/10 because all the meshes do not seem to use the same graphic style (some meshes and textures seems to have more details than others). I think that you don't need to have highly detailed realistic meshes and textures to make a good game but it is important to use the same graphics style for all meshes/textures or it can break the atmosphere. B. 5/10 why not ! C. For me it depends on the subject/gameplay/possibilities so if it is fun and it makes me laugh (which seems to be your positioning) and the price is not too high, why not. D. You only can answer this. Without a demo it is hard to evaluate the game. E. A video describing the subject, the gameplay, the possibilities, and showing the ambiance (and humor) is better than static text and static images IMO F. Unify the graphics style. G. Unify the graphics style. |
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| As people mentioned above: I'd would only be able to answer anything if you would provide a video and perhaps demo level. |
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| What I find myself asking myself is why people would play the games that I write. It's the opportunity cost. What are we bringing to the table that's new and interesting and compelling enough for a player to spend his time on it? If it's a 3rd person platformer, what exactly is the hook? Why this and not some other third person platformer, or another game style entirely? A. How good or bad are the gfx(1-10)? -9001 B. How likely would you be to try a demo(1-10)? 1, the opportunity cost C. How likely would you be to buy this game(1-10)? 1 D. What would be a reasonable price (Also including free gfx/gameplay expansion packs in the future)? I would not pay any amount of money for this. At this point I would have to be the one getting paid in order to get me to play it. E. Are the concepts clear? Yes F. What would you change about it? The graphics G. WHat would you change about the style/presentation? Gouraud shaded polygons are not looking good in 2014 I think you are biting off much more than you can chew in the art department and it's not just the graphics engine. Some of the heads you have made that are on display on your site are pretty good looking but I think the body style is a non-starter. If you expect people to play this, much less pay money for it, the graphics are going to have to be completely overhauled from models to color scheme to everything. I suggest that you look at a different style of model entirely-- look into voxel graphics, basically models built up out of cubes. Even if the engine is not really a voxel engine but just appears to be, graphics in that style are clean and clear and look good even though they are simple (see Cubeworld and Voxatron.) That graphical style is much more friendly to graphics done by programmers and not artists. Look at the graphics below-- they are totally rudimentary but the style and color scheme, bright saturated colors, are appealing and eye catching. I would say the worst thing about the images above is the color scheme and second is the modeling. Pseudovoxel graphics will be a ton easier and it will look better. Also Blitz3D is more than capable of producing good-looking voxel or pseudovoxel graphics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdRri5jSMs << I don't know what language Voxatron was written in but Blitz3D could do it easily. Then you have the much more difficult to answer questions regarding gameplay and WHY someone would spend time playing it. Are the puzzles really compelling enough that someone is going to spend time on it? Combat is a very easy way out, that's why there's combat in almost every game out there, it's an easy and straightforward mechanic. But that's all a secondary concern-- you have to make radical changes to the graphics style or nobody is going to play it and you will have wasted a huge amount of effort. |
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| I suggest that you look at a different style of model entirely-- look into voxel graphics, basically models built up out of cubes. I suggest to not follow this suggestion. I agree that the graphics can be improved, but differentiation and uniqueness can become advantages over games which all looks the same. Personally i don't like the cube/minicubes graphics style, each his own tastes... |
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| indeed for me to get to the internet involves literal leg-work, and the submission of screenshots is dependant on if I could have a data-stick with me. It is only natural that you should be doing the leg work, it is your responsibility since it is your game. What issues you have to deal with to do the leg work are not the problem or myself or any others here. Additionally, I was unaware that the 'no-sig' option hid all signatures. I thought it referred to your own... this makes much more sense. No, that makes sense at all. If you didn't want to see your own sig, you wouldn't have created it and put it there in the first place. ;c) Because people abused the rules on sigs and half the damn screen was being taken up by some sigs, an option to hide sigs was given. Indeed, I do care very much about this project, and have boatloads of pictures, I was just in the process of arranging them as well as working manymany hours a week. I thought that I had been polite/respectful, but honestly I don't use English much in my daily life so maybe I came across as brisk. Whatever. I am glad that you care and everybody can appreciate a hectic work schedule and private life. But when one is that busy, it is best to sometimes wait and take the extra time needed to make your presentation. First impressions are extremely important and that is often what people judge something by. Here is what I was working on; I love the graphics except for one thing and I love the concept. As long as it is not multi-player, this is definitely something I would buy it it was $10 or under. In this screenshot, I do not like the green texture used for the ground:  The green in the image above is my only complaint from the shots in this thread and the shots on your site. I particularly like this screenshot:  This looks like a fun portion of that level. The site, screenshots and artwork show that you have put a lot of work and planning into this. It sounds like a fun game and the graphics are good, as well. You have to carefully consider feedback you will get. The Blitz community has a crab mentality. If you have ever had a crab in a bucket, he will often be able to climb out. If you have several crabs in a bucket, as soon as one crab tries to climb out, the other crabs will grab him and pull him back in. It is kinda like that in the Blitz community. The biggest thing you will get knocked for is your artwork. There seems to be a concerted effort by people in the community that give the same feedback for every game somebody posts and they complain about the artwork and want the artwork to look like the quality of artwork in other games. Of course when the game designer makes the changes, the new slam on his work is there is now nothing unique about his game and it looks like every other game out there. So always stay true to yourself and your goals for this game. Make the game YOU want to make! I like it and I look forward to it being completed. Major kudos to you for having some originality and talent and not making a match three, RPG, FPS, Solitaire, Hidden Object or any of the other games that get done to death. And the image up above in your post (not the images I posted)? The bottom right screen, where they are on the island with the trees? That green used for the ground there would look much better in place of the green I complained about earlier. Also in that pic of them on the island, the waterfall there is an AWESOME touch! |
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| Sorry, I thought I had posted reply but I guess it didn't go through... @Zoqfotpik: I am interested as to what you say about the body style. Feel free to elaborate. However, I do say that no, voxels are not a good idea for this particular project. I know, my gfx are not the top, but an attempt to have this in that style would only look like a knock off of Minecraft IMO. Your response to this opinion is also perfectly welcome. @RemiD / RickN: okay guys, I am working on a video, and maybe sometime soon I could hook up a demo... it'd be easy and I could show you some of my best. Thank you for the insight as to unifying Remi. If you want more info on the procedural, I can post... @Gary: Glad to know you like it.. I doubt myself at all times. Thank you very much for being very specific; I myself did not like that texture either very much. To all others, please give me your feedback, opinions, criticisms, or outright attacks, any data is valuable to me. Thanks in advance to all, -K |
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| I am back from the dead... With a screen capture. I have now resumed work on this after nearly 3.5 months of nothing and now I am nearly done. Seriously! Check this out, and let me know... I am very welcoming of feedback, as mentioned above... CHECK OUT THE SCREEN CAPTURE OF SMOKEE! edited |
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| That "CHECK IT!" link looks odd [http://youtu.be/-ScGclTQ5lo] - before I click it can you confirm it's correct? |
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| Appears to play a YouTube video of the game. |
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| Um. Sorry I'm confused. Yes it is a link to screen capture. Post above edited accordingly. This is an older capture with no sound... I will make an actual trailer out of footage I am gathering now as I am wrapping up with all the loose ends. Please take the survey in post #1, it would greatly help; your idees can be in this game! |
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