RiotBall beta - feedback request

[Pallav Nawani]

Hi all,

This is the first Beta release of my game RiotBall. RiotBall is a breakout game which tries to be a little bit different :). Since there are pretty good breakout games out there at the moment, I don't know whether this game will cut it. Please let me know what you think about this game - criticism, suggestions, anything will be helpful. Thanks for your help.

http://www.ironcode.com/data/RiotBall.zip

Best regards,
Pallav

[grant@seriesone]

It ran great, nice and smooth. The menu layout is clear and easy to navigate, it has quite a Megadrive look and feel to it.

The speed of the gameplay is good and I love the spinning / curve shot feature!, it really helps to get the last few blocks left. I like the fact that you can bounce the bonuses off the paddle repeatedly for more points. :)

I haven't played too many breakout clones so I don't know what features they have, but maybe you put some pinball elements into the game, like wire alleyways, special targets for bonus scores, hidden areas etc. Just a suggestion anyway.

[Pallav Nawani]

I haven't played too many breakout clones so I don't know what features they have, but maybe you put some pinball elements into the game, like wire alleyways, special targets for bonus scores, hidden areas etc. Just a suggestion anyway.

Thanks for playing. I haven't played any pinball games, but your Idea of special targets seems to be a nice one. I will go and download a pinball game and see how its done there.

Thanks again,
Pallav

[Night Elf]

I tried it. Nice game, really. I liked the bonus bouncing and how you continue very quickly after losing a life.

I have some criticism, however:

1) Graphically... Well, what can I say... It's... GRAY. It's nice how it all goes together, very tidy indeed. It doesn't look bad, but I think it could use some more colour. I think you could achive that without ruining the overall 'theme.'

2) The ball can't be easily distinguished among all the items and bouncing coins. You should make a more unique ball, and maybe paint it with some vivid colour, to contrast with the background. Right now, it's easier to keep track of gold coins than to follow the ball.

3) There too many different bricks which behave exactly the same. When I play a break out game, I expect different shaped bricks to have different behaviours, but this is not always true in this game. So when a new level starts and I see some new bricks I can't tell until I hit them if I'm just looking at just another shape for the same kind of bricks or at a bricks with a new behaviour. I understand this is a consequence of the graphics all being the same shade, so you have replaced different colours with different shapes.

4) Related to the above point: In the first level, some bricks are falling down, but they don't have any special appearance, they look just the same as the other non-falling bricks. So, how should I tell if a brick is falling or not? Here's a place for a different brick look!

5) Having those letters falling down at the beginning of a level is annoying. I'm already playing and I have those letters moving, covering the screen and confusing me. Either make the letters fall faster and don't let the player start the game until they're gone, or use another effect (perhaps the letters could fall but get invisible very fast.)

6) The highest level I got to what that one where the lateral walls get removet. It was very, very hard for me! The ball moved too fast for me to react to the new gameplay rules. I think this is an interesting idea, but yo may want to leave this for heigher levels...

[Pallav Nawani]

2) The ball can't be easily distinguished among all the items and bouncing coins.

3) There too many different bricks which behave exactly the same.

4) Related to the above point: In the first level, some bricks are falling down, but they don't have any special appearance, they look just the same as the other non-falling bricks. So, how should I tell if a brick is falling or not? Here's a place for a different brick look!

5) Having those letters falling down at the beginning of a level is annoying.

6) The highest level I got to what that one where the lateral walls get removet. It was very, very hard for me! The ball moved too fast for me to react to the new gameplay rules. I think this is an interesting idea, but yo may want to leave this for heigher levels...

Thanks for the criticisms. They are all nice points. We will make the graphics of the falling bricks different, and may be change ball color/increase its size. Your point about falling letters is also nice. I will make it so that when the user clicks to launch a ball, letters dissappear.

I had no Idea that it would become difficult to play the game after walls get removed. I guess familiarity with the game makes one forget such things.

Thanks once again
Best regards,
Pallav