Alpha version of Rockhead released!

[indiemaker]

you can download it at http://www.sodasoft.com.

Feedback of the constructive criticism type appreciated.

I've also posted a job wanted ad for Level Designer.

[codeminion]

I really like your game. It seems to be quite detailed and with a lot of content, but the lack of mouse control really distracted me from the gameplay and everything else.

Maciek

[mahlzeit]

I just gave the game a quick look. Here are some remarks:

- I have to agree with codeminion about the mouse control. At least add it to the menu screens.

- Speaking of the menu screens, why not have Enter (in addition to Space) as the select key? Using Enter is fairly standard.

- Small issue: When you deactivate the window and then activate it again, the topmost item of the menu is always selected, even if something else was selected at the time the window lost focus.

- The tutorial text at some point says to close the window. This confused me, because you must have meant the textbox (which doesn't look like a window) and not the game window itself. (I played in windowed mode; don't even know if there is a fullscreen option.)

- I did not know that Ancient Mayans seemed to be fools. ;)

- You can't quit back to the menu from the How to Play screens (or I don't know how). You also can't close the game menu with Esc.

- The transparent keyboard hints overlay makes it very hard to see what's on the screen! (Ah, now I see that is an option that is on by default. Still, I don't like it.)

- Undo would be nice.

- Some of the text has small spelling errors ("it's" instead of "its").

- When replaying the tutorial, it's annoying to click away the text popups again and again.

- Loading the game and the levels seems to take unnecessarily long.

- Redraw seems a little slow (probably because of the lighting).

- The first time you start the tutorial, the lamp is off. When you restart it, the lamp is already/still on. Weird. I'm not exactly sure what that lamp adds gameplay-wise, either.

That's it! :)

[indiemaker]

The mouse menu control will be put back in. I originally had it in but I found it cumbersome to switch from keyboard to mouse everytime a menu popped up. Thats the reason why I took it out.

I'm curious what type of PC you have? It must be an old computer, less than 600mhz for it to be really slow. I've tested it on an ancient 233 Pentium2, and it was slow, running about 15-20fps, but I think I can safely assume most people these days have at least a 600mhz or higher. It works great on a 600mhz Pentium and up.

As for all the other comments, I generally agree. I have a lot of little nagging things to clean up, and polish.

Thank you for your comments!

[mahlzeit]

It's not s l o w, just lagging. Like I'm waiting for the redraws to finish. But, being a game programmer, I'm probably more sensitive to that than most players of these kinds of games. :) My computer is a Pentium III running at 800 MHz.

[soniCron]

- Some of the text has small spelling errors ("it's" instead of "its").
Some of the texts have small grammar errors. ;)

(I just had to!)

[mahlzeit]

Tsk. There is nothing wrong with the phrase "some of the text has errors". And while you're technically correct that the example I gave is a grammar error (at least in the context it was used originally), usually this kind of error is the result of careless spelling, so my classification was proper. :) So there.

[soniCron]

And while you're technically correct that the example I gave is a grammar error (at least in the context it was used originally), usually this kind of error is the result of careless spelling, so my classification was proper. :) So there.
Hahaha! :D Touche!

[electronicStar]

This is much too difficult. The original adventures of Lolo didn't have lamp oil to manage or moving and shooting baddies. There shouldn't be a lamp because IMHO this is mainly a cerebral puzzle and the player should be able to pause to think on the map as long as he wants to (moreover the oil shouldn't decrease when I am on the inventory menu)
-The fact that the 3D elements overlap is not so good either as some of the items are hidden or difficult to see.
-Generally you should make the graphics a bit clearer.
-TOO MUCH loading time and there's somthing unpleasant with the loading bar, I don't know what
Otherwise this game has good potential,but not very casual though, more for the hardcore puzzle amateur.

[indiemaker]

This is much too difficult. The original adventures of Lolo didn't have lamp oil to manage or moving and shooting baddies. There shouldn't be a lamp because IMHO this is mainly a cerebral puzzle and the player should be able to pause to think on the map as long as he wants to (moreover the oil shouldn't decrease when I am on the inventory menu)
-The fact that the 3D elements overlap is not so good either as some of the items are hidden or difficult to see.
-Generally you should make the graphics a bit clearer.
-TOO MUCH loading time and there's somthing unpleasant with the loading bar, I don't know what
Otherwise this game has good potential,but not very casual though, more for the hardcore puzzle amateur.

Fair points. I put in the lamp because other levels are literally dungeons, and it makes sense to have the lamp there. For example, when Rockhead enters a Mayan pyramid, it should be dark, and not lit. It helps with the atmosphere and as long as the player collects gold/keys, he's got plenty of time to think. Some levels are outdoors where the lighting naturally changes from day to night. I could (maybe I should) offer different levels of difficulty in which the lamp lasts longer, or the warriors walk slower. All of these things can be done to fine tune the game.

Very correct about the menus; the lamp should not decrease while in a menu.

The current loading bar is temporary. I'll put some cooler graphix for it.

Rockhead isn't like many simplistic and mindless casual games which I detest and find very boring. I like games like Rockhead that offers a degree of complexity in the gameplay and some challenge otherwise what's the point. This won't appeal to everyone especially not for the casusal funites. Oh well. You can't please everyone. The real fun of a game like Rockhead that makes it worth playing is when you finally solve the puzzle. It's almost euphoric and addictive.

Thank you for your helpful comments!

[indiemaker]

New version of Rockhead uploaded. Fixed sound bugs. slow reloading levels. If you weren't able to get it working before, try the new version. Thanks.

[Gregor]

I have tried it out and I must say that I like it. The loading was quick and there was no lagging on my machine.
The only thing that bothered me was the overlapping of objects - in some levels I couldn't see the switches, because they were hidden by walls. And I would make those fire guardians - the spitting statues that kill you instantly - more obvious to see, like add some prominent red glow to their eyes or something - to make them radiate the danger. It happened a lot of times while playing a new level that I just didn't see them or in some levels, the upper part was out of the screen - instant death, restart.

[indiemaker]

I have tried it out and I must say that I like it. The loading was quick and there was no lagging on my machine.
The only thing that bothered me was the overlapping of objects - in some levels I couldn't see the switches, because they were hidden by walls. And I would make those fire guardians - the spitting statues that kill you instantly - more obvious to see, like add some prominent red glow to their eyes or something - to make them radiate the danger. It happened a lot of times while playing a new level that I just didn't see them or in some levels, the upper part was out of the screen - instant death, restart.


Thanks. The fire guards will have animated eyes, and moving mouths. At this point, I can't do much about the overlapping objects. The walls are a bit high I know.

Anyone else have problems running the game, or criticisms?

[ErikH2000]

I felt that the first tutorial level ought to have been broken up into 3 or maybe 4 levels. The lamp would be something to introduce after the first level, when the player is feeling more confident and oriented. As it is, I find it frustrating to not see any of the level at the very beginning. It would also be nice to make it very hard or impossible to die/screw up on the first level. Games like Rocknor's Bad Day or Wonderland have the right rate of introducing new elements and difficulty, I think.

-Erik

[indiemaker]

I felt that the first tutorial level ought to have been broken up into 3 or maybe 4 levels. The lamp would be something to introduce after the first level, when the player is feeling more confident and oriented. As it is, I find it frustrating to not see any of the level at the very beginning. It would also be nice to make it very hard or impossible to die/screw up on the first level. Games like Rocknor's Bad Day or Wonderland have the right rate of introducing new elements and difficulty, I think.

-Erik

I hadn't thought about breaking up the tutorial into 3 or 4 levels. That does seem to make sense, and doable.

The lamp has to be learned first otherwise the player would literally be in the dark! But other tools like whip, could be learned later.

Thanks for the comments!





Features to be added:

1> Since some prefer mouse support, I'm thinking of ways to make this game mouse compatible. The mouse enabled menus are doable, but how to play the game only with a mouse? I'm thinking of adding a target Cursor and the player will walk there when it is clicked.

It is already gamepad, keyboard compatible. Do you think a game like this can work well with a mouse? one idea is to have transparent arrows around the player which will be enabled only when it's possible to move to that direction. Depending on the arrow selected, the user can simply press a button and rockhead will walk there.


2> Undos. Some have requested Undos. That is also a good idea.

Anyone else have criticisms? comments? features requests?