[Feedback] Gladiator Trials II

[tagged]

This is my first shareware game, it's still got a few more weeks left of development but I believe this gives a good idea of what the game will be. There isn't any sound effects yet, but music is in there from Shade Music Studios. Just wanting to get some feedback on the game, particularly balancing if it was too easy or hard.

It's by far my biggest game, which is strange considering it started out as one of my smallest, damn feature creep. I've pushed the dev. environment I use to the limits, it's clear that it was never meant to create games of this size in :( So hopefully it works well on different computers!

I've done almost all the graphics/animations myself, which has taken along time. I hope that they are considered decent enough? I've been staring at them and tweaking them for many many months, and feel now they are at a point I am happy with.... Well the animations could be improved, but I decided to draw a line somewhere and get the game finished rather than keep improving it. :)

Well onto the game, the size is a little big I'm hoping the final won't reach past the 50mb mark.
Enjoy and hope to hear some good feedback,
Jeremy.

Test Demo Download (http://www.gladiatortrials2.com/files/gt2_test.zip) 32mb (Windows)

Some slightly outdated screenshots.
http://www.gladiatortrials2.com/images/scrshot_03_thumb.jpg (http://www.gladiatortrials2.com/images/scrshot_03.jpg) http://www.gladiatortrials2.com/images/scrshot_02_thumb.jpg (http://www.gladiatortrials2.com/images/scrshot_02.jpg)

[mrkwang]

Just started trial demo.

- Words are TOO SMALL, when menu appeared. It could be different if I'd play with FULLSCREEN, as I think. But most game doesn't have SMALL fonts at all. And as I try Tutorial, words are still SMALL & HARD TO READ. Other people could think differently, anyway.

- When I started, I must choose 'Yes' or 'No' to proceed. Well. You placed 'not-so-visible Marks' instead of 'Yes or No', and it's very difficult to understand.

I'd write some more feedbacks later. Just started Tutorial.

[mrkwang]

At now, I'm 2nd. phase of Tutorial, with Gladiator.

- Tutorial words are hard to understand. It's too small, and too many words. You'd make it short & brief, with more visible fonts.

- Camera working is not so good. Player must move outside the screen to scroll, but it doesn't work very easily.

- In the Battlefield for Gladiator, why must player go here & there to find hidden enemy? I found 1st. one easily, but can't find 2nd. at all. It's very annoying.

[mrkwang]

At now, on the real game.

- When I enter the Battlefield, my gladiator doesn't appear at all. No appearance, no turn, no battle.

[tagged]

Thanks for the feedback. Fonts are small? Hmm, I've been developing and playing it on a 1680x1050 resolution so it's rather strange that the font size would be too small, I would have thought it the opposite.. Are you able to provide a screenshot at all?

Fullscreen is not yet working, I probably should have mentioned that. I did get someone else comment on the 2nd tutorial about not seeing the triggers. I should place an arrow to show the next grid to go, but basically it helps explain the various functions of the arena which is why you needed to go from place to place. I may look into changing the format of that tutorial :)

Ahh, yes someone else picked up that you can enter the arena without needing to choose a Gladiator first.. I fixed that quickly! You must first double-click (or left-click a gladiator, then left-click a starting point in the minimap) on a Gladiator to place him in the arena before entering. It was a bug from the recent GUI changes.

I'm unsure if I can reduce the words in the tutorial, I believed it was quite simple. It's a rather complex game, with many important little features. I will look back into the tutorials and see if I can cut it down :cool:

The camera control is an unfortunate effect of the dev. environment I'm using. The best way to move the camera is using the arrow keys, which I should place in the tutorial (There is alot of information missing from the tutorial, which means it will probably increase instead of decreasing :(). I will try to improve the mouse movement, but may even consider just killing it altogether.

Thanks again for the feedback! :D

[Spore Man]

Thanks for the feedback. Fonts are small? Hmm, I've been developing and playing it on a 1680x1050 resolution so it's rather strange that the font size would be too small, I would have thought it the opposite.. Are you able to provide a screenshot at all?
Yikes, that's a nutty resolution. Have you tried out your own game at 1024x768? (The most common resolution in use)