| Catapult for Hire - Public Playtest |
 Loud |
Long time no see dudes.
So after working on a few different game prototypes, I came back to Catapult back in March / April. Been working on it for a bit and now I'm needing some feedback to see what people think.
The graphics and audio still need a lot of work, there is still a lot of placeholder stuff / GUI in there.
I'm mainly curious to know how other people find the difficulty especially without a training mission. It's a hard line to walk in knowing how much to hand-hold and when you're giving too much information.
http://games.pixelmega.com/catapult/playtest.html
I've only included 4 missions in the campaign, but hopefully it gets across the variety of missions possible. It will really start to get fun when I can introduce all of the modifications and how they interact with all the payloads.
Please let me know what you think!
read 707 times
7/27/2010 5:47:15 PM (last edit: 7/27/2010 5:56:13 PM)
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| advance-software |
Sorry dude, I'm on Linux at the moment - no unity plugin there yet.
I'll try the windows version next time I boot it.
read 664 times
7/27/2010 7:18:49 PM (last edit: 7/27/2010 7:23:40 PM)
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| mattymoose |
I don't think a tutorial is necessary but there should at least be a prompt telling the player to use spacebar to go into the aiming menu before firing. It only took me a few seconds to figure out, but I was panning the camera around and thinking that was the way to change the trajectory.
Also in games like this, don't you typically have a timing element where you have to fire at a specific point in order to get full accuracy/strength? It seems a bit cheap just selecting stuff and hitting "fire."
read 640 times
7/27/2010 7:45:56 PM (last edit: 7/27/2010 7:45:56 PM)
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| Loud |
@advance-software: Yeah, bummer on the linux, perhaps one day it will port.
@matty - Cool, yeah I think the tutorial will be just a quick run-through of the buttons and be skippable.
As for the timing element I'm going for more simulation based gameplay than twitch. I don't imagine that medieval catapultists (not a word) had to time their shot. I like the idea of the player learning their machine and mastering it to be pinpoint accurate in any situation. If it's "typical" then I want to stray from that.
read 635 times
7/27/2010 8:07:15 PM (last edit: 7/27/2010 8:07:15 PM)
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| mattymoose |
i don't mean 'twitch' ... its tough to describe... check out what happens when the worm fires a missile in worms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JHcJL2yJP8
theres a prompt that fades in/out and you have to "fire" at the moment when it's at maximum - it;s more about timing than twitch reflexes - it just makes it seem more like a "game" than a simulation where you just enter the correct values and press 'go'
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7/27/2010 11:32:59 PM (last edit: 7/27/2010 11:32:59 PM)
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| Loud |
@matty - I totally understand what you mean, I'm just not interested in recreating that. I'm a huge fan of worms and I think worms 4 mayhem (the 3d version) was amazing, but it just didn't do very well because it was overly complex. Besides, Have you played through all the levels in the playtest? The later levels introduce a few ideas that will make the game more than just entering values and hitting go.
Also, note to self. Don't release a playtest the day Starcraft 2 comes out. !!!
read 604 times
7/28/2010 12:20:01 AM (last edit: 7/28/2010 12:20:01 AM)
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| mathias-soeholm |
Haven't play'd the whole thing yet, but.. My first impression was:" Hey that's kind off cool..".It somehow reminds me of one of them old PS1 games I play'd as kid, i love the cartoonish feeling to it with the music, graphics and everything.
I bet it took a lot of work to get to this point, keep it up :D
Website - Twitter
ClearCut Games
read 594 times
7/28/2010 12:47:57 AM (last edit: 7/28/2010 12:48:11 AM)
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| horizon |
I love the game. Could be pretty addicting if you pull it off right.
I'd get rid of the whole aim mode, make the controls stand there all the time in the upper left corner, left button controls the buttons (make both dragging sliders and arrows for small increments), and right one controls camera.
And I definitely wouldn't go for the timed hit for the power, I like it this way, it's hard enough as it is.
But make sure it can't be abused by memorizing the exact numbers and repeating the level to do it perfectly. (maybe some randomness in placement of either objects or catapult)
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7/28/2010 1:35:22 AM (last edit: 7/28/2010 1:35:22 AM)
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| npcph |
i like it. i agree about having the info in the corner also. makes it easier. and the video was kinda choppy so i hit esc to skip. but then i wasn't sure what i need to do. maybe add in the objective at the bottom.
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7/28/2010 3:37:15 AM (last edit: 7/28/2010 3:37:15 AM)
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| Loud |
Thanks for the feedback and ideas guys.
@mathias-soeholm - Cool yeah, I'm going for an N64 era vibe so I'm happy with a PS1 comparison. =)
@horizon - I'll have to think about that. I'm not sure how it would work because you would always have the mouse pointer, right click to rotate, but then I would have to middle mouse click or something to follow the payload trail. I do want to add keyboard arrows for fine tuning shots either way.
@npcph - Totally agree with the objective summary. At what points did the game get choppy? Were there some levels or points in the game in particular? That would help me a lot if you could be bothered to find out...
read 555 times
7/28/2010 4:23:39 AM (last edit: 7/28/2010 4:23:39 AM)
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| horizon |
I didn't mean keyboard arrows, I meant button arrows. With keyboard you'll have to again have "modes" when you click on one of the numbers and use keyboard to move it.
How about this:
Left mouse click does all the settings, and follows trail if clicked on an empty surface (launch is a button like everything else, which works better as I accidentally fired the ball many times with the current setup.
Right mouse controls the camera.
read 529 times
7/28/2010 1:37:13 PM (last edit: 7/28/2010 1:37:13 PM)
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| BishBashRoss |
I was gonna give it a whirl at work but no option to mute sound.
Maxing and Relaxing
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7/28/2010 1:56:39 PM (last edit: 7/28/2010 1:56:39 PM)
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| Loud |
If you hit esc, it's in the options menu. =)
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7/28/2010 3:31:45 PM (last edit: 7/28/2010 3:31:58 PM)
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| npcph |
it started to load and then went all white. i hit esc and was gonna close out when the video came up. it was all choppy and going about 1/1000 of the speed it should have been (or so i'm guessing). so i hit esc to play the game.
not sure if the choppy ness was the game or maybe my internet connection. I'm on high speed dsl but at times it goes really slow.
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7/28/2010 4:16:07 PM (last edit: 7/28/2010 4:16:07 PM)
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| BishBashRoss |
Thanks. Cool game, nice work on the graphics defo getting n N64 Mario/Zelda vibe. The controls can definitely be streamlined though. Right now I can see people becoming frustrated and giving up. I would be tempted to make a screen icon for each mode and get rid of the right mouse button completely.
Maxing and Relaxing
read 486 times
7/28/2010 4:25:30 PM (last edit: 7/28/2010 4:25:30 PM)
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