rogueNoodle WOW - thank you so much for the very thoughtful, in depth feedback! I totally appreciate you taking the time! Thank you!
I am so glad you got the "artsy" idea of the game. It really did start off life as a weird graphics thing - probably should have made it a screen saver - but then one thing lead to another and I thought there was an arcade game in there. lol But your comments about the "zine" feel of it - that's the biggest compliment I could get - THANK YOU, you totally "got it"!
You had some great suggestions. And they are things I considered at some point along the way, some I actually dropped because I thought it would have been more confusing! lol
Is there a way to control the angular velocity of the character that I'm missing? Maybe something like a way to apply an opposite force while spinning to slow him down - might be kind of an interesting mechanic...
- Right now, no. You are at the mercy of gravity. Your idea is cool though. My "vision" was to develop this into a "platform" type game - if you can imagine <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> - and part of that was using forces to control the H?pfen character. I got it kind of working, but maybe it's something I could work into this version - something to slow/pause his movement, giving you a chance to clearly see where you are shooting. Hmmm...
...doodle blocks...If it had changed colour while it was charged, it might become more obvious to players that it was a good thing. It might also leave some interesting patterns when it draws to the canvas.
- I did have a "flashing" charged Doodle Block, but that was not quite the right effect, and sheesh, made it look suuuuper insane (even for me!) But maybe something obvious, but subtle. Kind of like when you hit the "Big Buff Cloud" there is a bell sound, and the size jiggles.
I do have an (early) "color" version of the game, where the "Buff Monster" and "Big Buff Cloud" enemies refer to a kind of "street art" concept where they fight to "grey out" your color painting of the environment. Imagine all of those explosions being bursts of color "paint" and you get the idea. Problem was, I REALLY liked the Black&White look. But there's probably some middle ground there - you've inspired me to revisit that initial street art idea.
I guess what I should do is create a game with different "modes" - B&W, Color, Arcade, "Adventure" (oh and a mute button like some people have suggested - lol) - but that felt a little too grand for this little weird "casual" game. But, it's got me thinking.
Thank you so much for the feedback!