View Full Version : Feedback for my First Game
Sharky
30-08-2010, 08:51 PM
Hi, for my Final Matric project this year I decided to make a game (13MB, exe (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3WNR27JF), rar (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A87GH76M)), and would like some constructive criticism on it.
This was made using only Delphi 7. My idea was to create a simple RPG, much like Final Fantasy (the very first one), but much more basic. All graphics are downloaded. It obviously lacks polish, due to time pressure and the fact that that is not what we are assessed on.
Could you please give some feedback, as I would like to know if it has potential that I could build it on.
Note to any future Matrics: Do not try to do this! It is 10 times as difficult as you think it will be (this is over 2000 lines of code), save yourself the pain and do a cool database.
SC(+)PE
30-08-2010, 09:50 PM
Just fired it up, on first glance it seems some paths are absolute, not relative, since installing it on a drive labeled D not C caused it to throw errors about the theme song not being found in the C location. Still runs though :) carrying on with it now, more feedback shortly.
EDIT: more feedback.
The error seemed to be related to the shortcut, but once I had it running it was quite solid. It would take a large injection of creativity to get it going in the direction of a fun and entertaining game though.
Perhaps someone a little more qualified can give you more constructive feedback, other than my input of: it works but isn't very fun... maybe add unicorns, everything is better with unicorns.
Sharky
30-08-2010, 11:23 PM
JThe error seemed to be related to the shortcut
Yeah, the shortcuts made by the installer seem to be broken.
Thanks for the feed back, I know it is lacking, but adding content is the easy part, the solid base is what is most important.
Fengol
30-08-2010, 11:26 PM
I played through the game and it seems pretty solid. Good luck with your results!
Obviously this is only the combat part of an RPG (you're missing the exploration, leveling, items and other bits) but I must say it's very well done. I tried different scenarios like going unconscious and it all seemed to work.
What's missing from combat are different abilities from enemies; currently they only seem to pick a random player and do a basic attack. The next step would to have healers or casters in the enemy group who could vary up the combat by healing allies, casting spells that affect all the players etc.
Finally, while you have the large troll thing on the final level; he also just does the same attack. You need a boss battle who has multiple (read different) attacks.
Overall though, you have a pretty solid game (barring the previous person's comments of course).
x-scon
31-08-2010, 01:06 AM
I just played through it too. One thing that I would have liked to see was the health of the enemies (No use wasting a Mega-Uber-Slash on someone with only 10hp left). I might have missed it somewhere though.
Is there any way of doing a "mouse-over" effect that could show the hp of the targeted enemy? Unless of course you don't want the player to be able to see it? Even a percentage bar would suffice.
The different attacks that Fengol mentioned; You could give the boss an AOE attack that damages two or three characters. You just need the appropriate animation to indicate the attack. Maybe something like an avalanche for the cyclops? (Show the rock throw animation repeatedly or something?)
The music was damn annoying, but I suppose it's a minor thing.
The animations kind of remind me of Gameboy-style Pok?mon battles. I like it.
I can't think of anything else right now, it's getting too late :-P
I hope this helped a little bit. Good luck with the final product!
BlackShipsFillt
31-08-2010, 05:26 AM
I played through... I really like that it is a completed game, obviously it's not polished and has limited features, but it has a goal and it can be beaten, which is awesome.
There are a lot of pauses in the game, between each move there is a delay before the game accepts input again, this makes it more tedious than it needs to be, I don't know if it's calculating something or if you've just paused it. It could also be my computer I suppose.
You've got the basics down... (like Fengol suggested) from here you could add a macro map and quests and exploration... although you could keep it to a iMob like format (i.e. choose a random dungeon to fight in, gain experience and spend points, fight another tougher dungeon and so on endlessly)... Gaining stuff from the battles and getting stronger is a must, even if it is very simple and stripped down.
And different attacks and such would be nice... effects like stun and sleep and confuse would be awesome
Anyway... good work, given that this is your Matric project it really impresses me. Though I did find your it's-over-2000-lines-of-code warning a little amusing (because I spam code horribly and regularly have classes with more than 2000 lines of code, which I know is not something to be proud of, like they say, measuring programmers by the amount of code they write is like measuring aeroplanes by how much they weigh)
Evolution
31-08-2010, 09:58 AM
The music sounds familiar ;)
I see you used GDI to render your graphics.
Gazza_N
01-09-2010, 07:14 PM
The music sounds familiar ;)
Indeed! :P
Played it through, and yeah, like the others say, it's a solid bit of combat system software-wise. The only thing that it suffers from on the gameplay side is a lack of variety in terms of attack options (both for players and for enemies), and the pauses BlackShips mentions did make actions feel a little disjointed.
But yeah, as a first game project it's really neat! I wish you luck marks-wise! Let us know how it goes. :D
Sharky
02-09-2010, 12:08 AM
Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll be sure to expand on this game, since the base is solid I might as well use it.
There are a lot of pauses in the game, between each move there is a delay before the game accepts input again, this makes it more tedious than it needs to be, I don't know if it's calculating something or if you've just paused it. It could also be my computer I suppose.
No, I deliberately paused that, thinking things were too fast. I'll remove the pause, or at least reduce it significantly.
The music sounds familiar ;)
I see you used GDI to render your graphics.
GDI? What do you mean? I only used plain delphi 7 and some sprites off YoYogames.com.
Chippit
02-09-2010, 10:30 AM
GDI? What do you mean? I only used plain delphi 7 and some sprites off YoYogames.com.
GDI and GDI+ are the names of the standard windows forms rendering APIs. If you're just using standard windows forms, and not directx or SDL/OpenGL or something, that means you're using GDI.
So no, it's not Command and Conquer! :P
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.4 Copyright © 2019 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.