My first game! (alpha stage)

(Blake Jones) #1

Since everybody here has been so helpful I figured I should show yall what i’ve been working on!

Be warned it’s in very early alpha, but any tips would be greatly appreciated!

(you can go inside the shop and if you fly to the right you’ll see the first monster i’ve been working on)

(Blake Jones) #2

OH! use arrow keys or asdw to control and if you hold the mouse button and click you can mine the tiles!

(Bora Kasap) #3

wow that works perfect. it is gonna be fun. please let me know when you updated it, i wanna see better graphics and try better movement physics in your game.

(Jonathan Stoler) #4

I understand you’re still pretty early in development here, but here are my criticisms/a few bugs:

  • you should be able to turn around and aim behind you by moving the mouse behind you. right now, it’s limited to 180 degrees and you need to tap the arrow key to turn around. to me, this feels very unnatural.
  • it’s really easy to fly out of stage bounds (just go to the top right corner and you’re free!). don’t forget to fix this before you release.
  • maybe you’re planning an upgrade system or something, but right now, it is really slow to carve tunnels. I don’t know if the point of the game is digging or fighting or something else, but digging any considerable distance feels really sluggish to me. I would try speeding it up.
  • in the shop, the text is aliased in a super ugly way.
  • if you stand next to the shop and move up, the shop moves up a little bit too and you can see the sky behind it.
  • you’re using mixed pixel sizes, between the game’s graphics and its HUD. this is a pixel art no-no.
  • you’ve used the same blue color for part of the sky, the bar on the right, and the blue section of the dial in the middle. this makes it look empty when it’s full. pick a different color.
    • you’ve also made the middle part of the dial thing transparent. I would color it in, even if the color you choose does not have a full opacity/alpha value.
  • obvious other things, like you can’t die or attack enemies, etc.

Even though the list above may seem long, it’s mostly little, nitpicky things. I think you’re on the right track and I’m excited to see where this goes when more of its systems are in place. Feel free to get back in touch with me if you want more details or anything else. This is really impressive for your first game!!!

PS: it’s super satisfying to make the little green worm things fall down by carving away their wall. I think the sound effect really sells it.