farflamex's Forum Posts

  • Or if your bullets are going to be destroyed when they leave the layout anyway, add the 'Destroy outside layout' behaviour and put the bullet on the outside of the screen in the editor.

  • Can you just store that info in global variables?

  • Can you maybe just have them fade in and out when it's their turn?

  • Ah ok, I get it. It's really good and fun to play, once you understand what's going on. I know you have lots to do, but here's a few things I think need improvement.

    It's not entirely clear who can move at which point. Could you make the counters flash/fade when it's their turn?

    When you get a special effect, more detail on what it does would be nice. At the moment it just says 'Feather' but doesn't say what it does. I assume you were planning to work on that anyway.

    An A.I opponent is definitely needed, playing against yourself isn't as much fun.

    The graphics are spot-on and that's a big seller. Give it some spooky music and sound effects, with a start and end screen and you're good to go :)

    Going to put up my game on either Clay.io or Kongregate or Chrome or Windows 8, lol, or just all of them. I might try to start a topic about marketing because it's something most of us are clueless about. If we could share our experiences, it might help us to decide how to publish.

    Glad you liked the Survivors game. I think that idea has plenty of potential but since my graphics skills are so weak, it's simply not good enough (it got rated at 2 to 3 on Kongregate). I might see if I can get a graphics guy to jazz up the graphics, get some crazy music (there's a great site where you can buy excellent music for 99 cents - the music at the start of Frontier (now renamed) was bought from there) and rewrite it (would take a few days, it's so simple) and I might be able to make that a decent game.

  • I know it's still in development and I'll keep checking on your updates because I'd like to help out with improvements, as you're helping me with mine (that's a point, I need to put up my latest version).

    Right now, I found two things in your game I think could be improved. I know it's dumb, but I actually couldn't work out where the dice was at first, lol. Maybe have it start on a 6, then it'll look more like a die :)

    Secondly, I dunno if you've started on the board itself yet, but I rolled the die and nothing happened. Am I supposed to do something to get started?

    I know it's early days but the presentation is excellent and it just looks like the sort of thing that will do well when it's completed. I'll keep checking in.

  • Excellent stuff, think you could be onto a winner with this one :)

  • The marketing problem is indeed a major obstacle I feel. As you said, most of us simply aren't interested in marketing and I'd rather be improving the game or starting on my next project. Whilst I love programming games and would like to start another, it does feel rather disheartening to think that nobody will ever play them. A solution to the marketing issue would be nice.

    I'm considering putting it on Clay.io as the host and trying to drive traffic from Kongregate and other places over to there. That way I get paid for advertising at both ends but I can't imagine it being much. There are lots of other places, but it seems like a lot of work that I'd rather be spending doing programming.

    pixel, the fog was basically put there for that purpose, to show the movement. I guess stars might have been better in the end but the fog has other effects (it changes in different systems to give an idea of the amount of gases your ship is collectig). One of the radars can be turned off to make more room.

  • It's a great idea to post your demo regularly in my opinion, so that people can give feedback. It's too easy as the developer to think stuff is obvious which isn't obvious to the player.

    As far as I'm aware, there are no rules against posting a link to your unfinished game for us to test.

  • Thanks Dave, it's nice to see the work appreciated. I'd like to monetize, but I reckon the game is too complicated and right now, I'd be happy to just see it played by people. I've tried MarketJS but no response. I'm going to look into Kongregate but it needs a max resolution of 800 so I'll have to scale it down a bit. Not sure if I should do a demo (limited to level 2 upgrades) and then a paid version for like 49 cents or 99 cents.

    The gas in the foreground was added for just the reason you mentioned. In a space game, you have to have something moving quickly to give the impression of movement. Usually people use stars but I liked the gas effect more - took ages to get it right but I'm pleased with the end result. If you go to the gas giants or the purple planets, it changes colour and looks really nice, especially on the green and red planets (don't go to the red planets though unless you want to insta-die :p ).

    The fact that you enjoy the game is encouraging me to keep plugging away with it. I really don't know where to put the game though. Kongregate and Newgrounds seem like the best ideas, they just seem a bit fiddly with HTML5 games. For example, I think I have to host the game myself with Kongregate and if it gets a lot of hits, won't that mean a huge amount of bandwidth on my server (bearing in mind the game is quite a large download first time)?

    If you have any experience with marketing and feel you could help me out, I'd be interested in working with somebody on this side of things.

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  • Thanks for the advice guys, lots to mull on. Since it would be purely for developing, I'll go for something very cheap with no contract. I guess the weaker it is, the more I'll have to be careful with objects etc, so I'll go for something at the bottom end of the scale.

  • I'm new to the physics engine, so just playing around with it.

    Let's say the player pushes into a rock. The problem with the standard behaviour is that if he runs fast enough, he runs straight through the rock which flies over his head. Also if he pushes it into a solid wall, he runs underneath and it raises over his head again.

    So, how can I make him push the rock, but never actually overlap it?

  • I didn't even realise they were doing a new Elite, awesome. But you're right, I'll change the name. I'm not sure what to call it though, any ideas?

    Oddly enough, it wasn't initially based entirely on Elite. The initial idea was for a sort of space-ship simulator and the repairs part was central to the game, but it was too fiddly so I made it automated. The trading part I added later, it was kind of obvious really.

    The trick with combat, when the enemies become stronger is to keep moving and spinning to keep your stronger shields facing them. But yeah, initially it can be a bit easy I guess.

    As for monetizing, I'd like to make something from it. It was great fun to work with and I've learnt lots about C2, but it would at least be nice to see my game get some plays. I've stuck it on MarketJS, if that doesn't work, any other ideas? What do people normally do with their projects? Maybe stick it everywhere as a demo and charge like 49 cents for the full version, such as Chrome Web store and other indie sites?

    Thanks for the messages guys :)

  • I live in the UK but I'm sure most that applies here. It's very confusing, just so many targets. I suppose any basic phone would do the trick for starters, it's not like I'd be making the world's best games, it'd mainly be for experimenting at first.

  • I only want something to develop on, something which is weak so my finished game will work on just about anything. And which is the largest/best market? Is Android the way to go?

    I wouldn't want a contract at all, I have a very old mobile phone and I barely use that.

  • I'll be honest, I know nothing about the mobiles that can run C2 games. What would be a really cheap phone that I could pick up to test C2 games on? Presumably if it's cheap it'll be bad, meaning if a game runs on that, it'll run on more expensive ones?