Stage 1 Aerial Antics Launch!
Community Forums/Showcase/Stage 1 Aerial Antics Launch!
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| OK, stage 1 of our Leadfoot Productions/Aerial Antics launch is ready! Please check out our new site and our game. The demo is only 4.9 MB and the full version (9.8 MB) is now available via Share*it for $19.95. http://www.leadfootproductions.com We are working a non-exclusive agreement with GG and we will hopefully get onto other sites such as RealOne and Shockwave as well. GG is probably 2 weeks away so we decided to set up our own shop and see how how the community likes the game etc... Thank you community! |
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| Ok I downloaded the demo and here are my thoughts. (remember I am extremely picky about games) Its a fun game, the gameplay graphics style is cool, and give the game a friendly family fealin. I found that your controls were frustratingly bad. Especialy with the mouse, it was almost impossible to tell what direction the jets were aiming, and in times when this was essential for gameplay, it was dampening the fun. I found the mouse the best out of the three control options, but even still your Rotate on Y axis with the mouse was very "jerky" and could have done with a smooth transition. My other criticism is the gui, it seems lacking and as if "slapped together" compared to the to the rest of the game. At the end of my first round, I was bashing the keys wondering why it wouldn't advance screen, then I noticed I was meant to enter my name. This seemed a bit "frustrating", especialy having to do it absolutly every round. Some more good things; The sound was very nice, gave a relaxed feel to the game, perhaps there could have been some more rewarding "STAGE COMPLETE" sound effects, but this was not really noticable. Over-all, this game is fun, but personally I would have got some more people to beta it before you started the release process. Anyway, good luck and I hope my notes are not too 'bad', but I was only giving my oppinions of the game. Good luck :) |
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| Yeah, we had actually gone through a lot with the GUI, but in the end when you type your name for a best time, your hands are on the keyboard so it's natural to ENTER your name :) The only time you have to do that is when you get a best time, but of course initially you'll always have to do that. Perhaps initially we should set up the best times to not be always beaten. As for the control I also prefer the mouse due to it's responsiveness. However, the other control schemes are basically molded right from Pilotwings (how the jets pitch when you press on the d-pad and automatically return to normal when you let off). I felt that was a good game and control scheme and didn't want to ditch it. From my fairly decent beta test, I found there are some people who can play this sort of game and some who cannot come to grips with it's gameplay style. I offered 3 different inputs to try and run the gamut, but the concept of controlling one's momentum in the air is what eludes the people who have a hard time. Anyway, this sort of thing is good. Before we launch to a larger audience I wanted the feedback of the community. |
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| It all looks good and its a nice idea, but I had serious problems with the controls, like skn3[ac] did. It all became very frustrating very quickly and I lost interest on the level where you have to fly through the rings. Oh, and I never had any bother with Pilot Wings! PS: You spelt 'stabilise' wrong on the control setup screen. Might seem pedantic but in games you're selling, you can't have typos. |
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| Ah that sounds cool. I did just go back to it, and was left wanting more. The control thing is still annoying, mainly because its hard to tell the difference between a forward facing jet, and backward facing jet. Perhaps for the high score, it could remember you last name, and have a button to click [ok]. |
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| All good feedback! Keep it coming. Thank you! |
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| I found the joypad controls to be fine, except for some reason, the pilot doesn't turn when I press left on the joypad. Is it just me that gets this? The joypad works fine with other games. Mouse controls were a bit iffy I thought, a bit over-sensitive. I ended up all over the place. The presentation of the game is lacking somewhat I feel. Considering the rest of the game looks so good, it's a shame a similar effort hasn't been put into the frontend. To improve it, I would ditch the Comic Sans font for starters, and make the instructions font bigger - it is virtually unreadable in 640x480. But with that out the way, I have to say the game is brilliant fun. The first four levels have definitely wet my appetite for the game, and I'll probably go and buy it now. Well done on this Ban and Evak. |
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| Simon, Check your mail. |
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| Like everything else written in Blitz3D it doesn't work on my Tablet PC. |
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| This is great :-) I keep missing the rings LOL. |
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| Is that all there is to the demo (5 levels)? It all seemed over too quickly. I know how hard balancing the difficulty in a game is but I completed all these levels on my first go (with the mouse). Maybe I'm just a genius :) As has been mentioned (by others) I'm not keen on the gui. Also you should have an exit button on the main menu. People using blitz know that most games are quit with the escape key but your average user won't. You need to make everything as simple as possible. I'm gonna plug in my jopypad and give it a go with that cos I thought the controls with the mouse were too jerky. Some sort of smoothing (blending) would help (i think) |
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| Just had a go with my joypad. That's a lot better. You feel much more in control with it (at least I do) I do think the gui (menu's and stuff) should be able to be controlled with the joypad and keyboard though (as well as the mouse). It just makes more sense. I finished the demo (with my joypad) and then couldn't do anything. It's a small thing - but those are the things that count. |
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| Thanks Binary_Moon! We are going to be making the GUI more user friendly as that's been the biggest complaint. The other big thing is that the controls can be mapped to the same buttons for mouse (you need some buttons on the keyboard, since mouse can't support all controls) and keyboard. So people will experience for instance a problem if they only switch the camera button on the keys, and assign another control to the down arrow, but don't do the same for the mouse. Thus pushing the down arrow will do two actions. I'm going to come up with a good solution for that though. Just wanted people to be alert to that. Another problem that's been reported is problems actually mapping controls like if you press the cursor apparently Left shift comes up under the customize keys menu? This has only been experienced by one user so far and neither my partner not I can't replicate this. Anyway, thank you community once again. We're going to be shareware professionals and improve this product with free updates until it's loved. |
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| It's a neat demo concept but I really think the controls need to be thought out a little more. Controlling the guy is tougher than it really should be. I seem to have to let off the thruster before I can change the pitch of the jets sometimes ... this is pretty annoying. I'd like to be able to make quick adjustments to the jets as I fly, ala Lunar Lander, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Pity. It's a neat game though. If you guys spend some quality polish time on it, you'll probably have a winner! |
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| I think the mouse control (with a ball mouse possibly???) needs work judging from your comments. I have a lazer mouse but I don't have any problems throwing the character around. I can lay on the jets (something I don't recommend, use short controlled bursts for better results) and keep him under control by pitching back and forth. I'll be looking into the mouse controls and others quite a bit as people here are finding them too unforgiving. Thanks for the feedback!!! |
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| I agree about the controls. These are my main criticisms: Default keys don't make much sense. I was using WASD to control the man and up arrow to thrust. Wouldn't arrow keys to control the man and ctrl or space to thrust make more sense? The biggest problem as I see it is that the thrusters return to a straght downward position whenever you stop moving them. I can't tell you how annoying this is. If you just have them stay where I put them, it would be SOOOO much less frustrating. |
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| Hmm, but you want to stop moving usually to adjust your altitude (only reason to really use stabilize). Such is the way of the mouse (added late in developement). I had it set up just like Pilotwings with the keyboard and gamepad (which I think is a very nice setup as it automatically returns when you let off up or down). Also, most people actually had a harder time before I made them reset to default (I tried to match the original control scheme as much as possible). The mouse is actually a pretty complicated beast for this sort of thing because everyone thinks a little different. I could add an option to return the jets to 0 degrees when stabilize is pushed or not. |
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| The biggest problem as I see it is that the thrusters return to a straght downward position whenever you stop moving them. I can't tell you how annoying this is. If you just have them stay where I put them, it would be SOOOO much less frustrating. That is only true for the joypad and keyboard. The mouse lets you position the thrusters exactly. But I much prefer the joypad/keyboard control method, because when the thrusters return to neutral position, it makes it a lot easier to judge where they are exactly. |
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| Oh, now that I reread that what I said doesn't make much sense. Um, pretty much the game would be unplayable with a digital pad if you had to manually set the thrusters all the time. With the mouse you can do it because it can be fast or slow, but with a D-Pad it has to be one value and it would be horrendous to have to swing them constantly back forth manually. If you want that kind of control the mouse works fast though. I mean with this game you either boost up, let off, boost back, or boost forward, with short controlled bursts. |
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| Why manually move the thrusters at all? Why not have it so forward moves you forward, back moves you back, left turns you left, right turns you right, a increases altitude and z decreases altitude? |
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| Quite a good idea. Not bad looking Controls are terrible Camera is bad. Feels like the guy is on the end of a stick the player is holding |
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| Why manually move the thrusters at all? Why not have it so forward moves you forward, back moves you back, left turns you left, right turns you right, a increases altitude and z decreases altitude? LOL ... You're joking right? |
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| Some of these critisisms are going to fall on deaf ears here. The controls and camera are both perfect for this game for one reason ... Pilotwings was the inspiration for this game and I aimed to stick to that formula while adding some additional gameplay. I always wished for more more rocket belt gameplay (a small part of Pilotwings) and that's what I made. Not everyone's going to like the gameplay and that's fine by me. Pilotwings wasn't the most popular game, but it has a niche which I am purposely aiming for. GUI issues and any legitimate bugs I am concerned with. I want to make the game accessible and not annoying (control aside). |
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| LOL ... You're joking right? No. |
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| <cries> :(.... |
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| Well I guess the difficult controls ARE the game, and if you simplified the controls there isn't much left. Personally, I don't much care for games where the difficulty comes from just getting your character to do what you want them to; but that is a personal choice of mine, and this game is definitely for people in the other camp. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Never played pilotwings so I dunno about that. I'm pretty good with controlling inertia, generally, but this game did annoy me I'm afraid. I guess I'm playing it "wrong"... usually with this sort of thing, I like to set the thruster down and slightly back, so I can use controlled bursts to maintain height and move forward too. But with aerial antics, I always end up just shooting straight up in the air on account of the, what is it, "stabilising"? Maybe more practice and it will seem natural. But I don't know if I'm willing to give it much more practice, on account of it annoying me... |
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| The main complaint with Juno by far, even after they have been tweaked considerably, is the controls. The Juno controls are no where near as complex as the Ariel Antics controls. Many of the game players *will not* be able to get a hang of the controls, and will delete the game even before they pass the first level. |
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| I think you are totally correct. But I guess, that is the kind of game that it is, and if that is the game BAN wanted to make and accepts that, then so be it. |
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| My 2 cents: I think the control method would be acceptible if the physics were not so alarmingly abrupt. I would make it softer, easier to control, and have a soft chasecam. The rigid one makes it "feel" as though it's unplayable. It also doesn't intelligently move to help the player. For example, near a landing pad, it could gently raise slightly to help out. Games should help the player, and be intuitive to play. Difficulty and challenge comes in the form of decisions, not wrestling with controls that are, frankly, in need of polish. To sum up: You can keep the current control method, but improve the camera *dramatically* and make the physics more responsive and less powerful. More weight and less gravity, or so on... I'd have experimented with more beta testers. |
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| Another alarming problem is that the mouse method affects the game in a completely different way to joypad. The mouse method suffers because your rockets do not go back to their original places. |
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| Softening the physics is an interesting proposition. How many others feel that they are too 'strong', thusters and stabilizer? One thing in Pilotwings that I left out was having two types of thrusters (strong and weak). I added that mouse control to give the game something of it's own, and also just because it's a PC game and it's been recommended that if you can make it controllable with the mouse then do it. I've got quite a few other issues to deal with before I even think about changing the physics though. Every level has been tuned to work with the current set up so I don't really see that as an issue I'm going to adjust for some time unfortunately. |
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