Radia - feedback & criticism

[Surrealix]

Quite a while ago I posted an early version of radia, an arkanoid-style game.

I've almost entirely re-written it, changing the gameplay, and improving it considerably.

I've re-written the graphics code - changing it from the slow windows API to DirectX7, as well as re-designing a large ammount of the graphics, and improving the interface.

I'd appreciate your feedback (be honest), and comments on it.

Screenshots:
Screen1 (http://www.surrealix-mirror.messive.org/screen1.png)
Screen2 (http://www.surrealix-mirror.messive.org/screen2.png)
Screen3 (http://www.surrealix-mirror.messive.org/screen3.png)

Download:
~7mb radia.exe (http://www.surrealix-mirror.messive.org/radia.php)

Thanks,
Philip :)

[princec]

Honesty hat on: screenies look so unappealing I'm not feeling particularly compelled to download it :/ Especially as, and here's the rub, it doesn't look like a familiar game. No ball, no bat, not arkanoid.

Cas :)

[Nexic]

A required .DLL file, GDIPLUS.DLL, was not Found.

Win 98, Radeon 9600, 512 RAM, 2.3ghz processor

[Surrealix]

A required .DLL file, GDIPLUS.DLL, was not Found.

Win 98, Radeon 9600, 512 RAM, 2.3ghz processor

Ah, sorry about that. I've included it, and another necessary dll into the installer now.

cas - I assure you there is a ball and a bat there, I'll look at making them more visible in the screenshots, and try to get some action showing as well.

Thanks both for your time.

[DanDanger]

Hello,

Its a very interesting idea, using a round arena, most original :) However you have got to be kidding with how difficult it is, it's just simply impossible to play. The mouse sensitivity is way to high and the control system seems... wrong somehow, im not sure how to actually make the paddle move where i want it to.

[stanchat]

I tried to run the game but it keeps dying trying to load the menu.ogg file.

error message (http://tccons.com/radiaerr1.gif)

[iliastepanov]

Well guys you'll not believe me but year ago I made prototype of the same game. Sphereical Arcanoid style game. I call this game Spheroid. Well just can say that my game is much easier to play. Probably I'll release it soon ;)

As for Radia I can say it mostly impossible to control :(

[drastik]

I have to say that I disagree in a few ways with most of the comments posted above. I only had a brief chance to play with your game, but I find that the original twists you've added to the gameplay WERE the reason I was compelled to download it. Had your screenshots indicated yet another breakout clone, I probably wouldn't have touched it with a 10 foot pole. C'mon guys, it's been done to DEATH. I realize that many are trying to make some semblance of a living with their games, but if we're going to cater to the lowest common denominator we all might as well send off our c.v.'s to Electronic Arts, the money's better. :)

Control was definitely picky, but it shouldn't be a huge deal to add a mouse sensitivity slider to your options menu (this game definitely needs one), or perhaps decrease the speed of the ball slightly.

And maybe look at cutting the load time, or at least do your precalculations and such AFTER the menu loads.

All in all, I really enjoyed this. Good luck with this and future projects.

[Mike Wiering]

I tried to run the game but it keeps dying trying to load the menu.ogg file.

error message (http://tccons.com/radiaerr1.gif)
Same problem here.

BTW: Please add Uninstall to the program's start menu.

[Surrealix]

As for Radia I can say it mostly impossible to control :(

Unfortunately, control seems to be the biggest problem at the moment. Sound looks like another issue I'll have to look at.

Currently, the control is based upon a scheme where the mouse is literally attached to the paddle. This works well if you move the mouse in circles, but it seems that most people don't realise/can't adjust to this.

I tried making it relative to the mouse X (or Y) position, in that if you move the mouse left, the paddle travels counter-clockwise. It works well if the paddle is on top, but if it's anywhere else, it's simply too confusing.

iliastepanov - you said that your game is much easier to control, how did you handle the control scheme?

Any other ideas on how to improve this would be cool.

anyhow, I'm off to look into that sound problem... :(

[soniCron]

Any other ideas on how to improve [the control] would be cool.
Frankly, any other method of control would be strange any other way than a relative X position doing clockwise/counter-clockwise movement. You say it was strange everywhere but the top. How long did you try it? It should work once you get used to it after a few minutes.

[Ryan Clark]

I just gave it a try and I'm getting the same error as stanchat. Some system info may help you to track down the bug, so here you go:

Windows 98se
P4 1.8ghz
512mb RAM
Radeon 9800

Good luck!

[oNyx]

Well guys you'll not believe me but year ago I made prototype of the same game.[...]

I do.

Or... well, I saw a game like that on flipcode's iotd many moons ago.

@topic

From the screenshots I would say that the contrast isn't high enough for my taste. Only #3 is ok-ish. In #1 and #2 it would help if those blue/red things had white labels instead of transparent ones. Well, give it a try... see if it helps. ;)

[Surrealix]

Frankly, any other method of control would be strange any other way than a relative X position doing clockwise/counter-clockwise movement. You say it was strange everywhere but the top. How long did you try it? It should work once you get used to it after a few minutes.

I've compiled a new version, which implements that control style. It's ~200Kb, and can be downloaded here:

radia_xmove.exe (http://surrealix-mirror.messive.org/radia_xmove.exe)

Simply place in the same folder as 'radia.exe', and run.

I've also played around with tying the paddle to the mouse's position on screen, which resulted in quite a simplistic play style. There are a couple of issues with it which I have yet to fix, but it's most likely to be easier than the original one.

radia_xymove.exe (http://surrealix-mirror.messive.org/radia_xymove.exe)

Feedback on these would be greatly appreciated.

BTW: Please add Uninstall to the program's start menu.

Good point, I'll update that in a minute.

I do.

Or... well, I saw a game like that on flipcode's iotd many moons ago.

Ah, that was an early version of radia, one which used bitblt, and older graphics (eugh... I shudder just thinking about it). This version is basically a complete re-write of that, bringing it up to a somewhat playable level.

The idea for this game came from a small java applet of pong, which was played in a circle. It was dismally boring, but did give me the inspiration for radia. I'm not surprised others have had the same idea.

You have a point with the pickups, I'll see what they look like with a solid fill.

[soniCron]

I'm not surprised others have had the same idea.
Ironically, I've been toying around with this idea for some time. It's just so far at the bottom of my list right now, I'd probably not get to it for quite a while. Good thing someone has. ;)

[stan]

Same error about menu.ogg, even though the file is here and plays fine in winamp.

That's funny because I had just yesterday a game idea about some circular thingy like this... Only the gameplay would be closer to minigolf than arkanoïd :).

[iliastepanov]

Well there is 2 main reasons why my game is easier that yours

1. I tried XY mouse movement it was so hard to control (as yours)
but X only movements works definitely better

2. I implemented there additional feature that looks like
power shield that surrounds arena and don't allow ball to
get out from the half of field. So sometimes this game looks
like classic arcanoid but when you picking up special bad
bonuses you will find that this shield is shrinking or start
rotating around field.

So main idea of implemeting such kind of game was not
only to convert arcanoid to spherical world but to add some
cool special bonuses: for example I got gravity bonus
and the ball start spinning around the center of arena.

[Nexic]

I'm now also getting the menu.ogg error - seems very common, you need to fix it ^.^