Feedback request: Amju Super Cool Pool

[Jason Colman]

Good morning!
I have been secretly working on a new game called Amju Super Cool Pool, a 3D pool game for Mac OS X and Windows. I've reached the stage where I would be very grateful for any criticism and comments. Brutal honesty please folks :)

Screenshots and downloads at www.amju.com/supercoolpool.html (http://www.amju.com/supercoolpool.html)

Free registration keys are up for grabs! - just drop me an email at jason@amju.com.

Thanks in advance for your time!

[Reactor]

Brutal honesty... are you sure? Not just plain old honesty? ;)

[TOgburn]

I was playing the US 8 ball and I found it really difficult to play. I did really like the graphics, though. The tutorial info was good at telling me what I needed to do next and I really liked that once I had learned what to do I could just click the x and it went away.

Now for the brutally part of honesty.
Whenever I had lined up a shot, pushed 's' to start the shot, and then clicked with the mouse to draw back, the cue would jump to the left or right. It just wouldn't stay lined up where I wanted it. The few times I was actually able to make a shot or get close was when I was zoomed all the way in so I could see how the cue would hit the ball I was aiming at.
The table was small, but it was suprisingly difficult to actually pocket a ball. One thing I really like about some of the other pool games are that they have ghost lines that show you where the balls will travel when you hit them, even it's only the cue ball and the first ball in line of sight.
The cue stick pulled back at full power isn't much stronger than minimum power.
It was really wierd to see Marin floating with legs appearing and disappearing and also when she was floating through the middle of the table to make a shot.

I'm more of a casual player, and the graphics seem aimed at that, but it's just too difficult to win. I would suggest adding the lines that show where the balls are going to go, then have the option to turn them off if you want.

[stanchat]

I pretty much ditto what has already been said, you need to add more help guides to make shooting easier. I have played over 2000 games at Yahoo Online Pool and the thing I love about is it is easy to shoot with no keyboard intervention. Take a look at the interface at Yahoo Pool to see a nice casual, mouse driven cue interface. Yahoo pool is written as a Java applet and is 2D. However it stills plays very well for casual pool players.

The other thing I noticed is that the window resizing iis not locked so you can resize to wharever you want 100 x 400 , 400 x 30 etc... It looks really weird at these sizes.


I do like the idea of a casual pool game and the graphics are actually pretty good.

[soniCron]

The bad:
There was some sample clicking on some of the songs.
Character animations make the game look like it's running at about 5 frames per second. Why not interpolate the frames?
Camera doesn't stay behind the cue stick, making it impossible to line up a shot. (I take it back. It does, but you have to wait about 20 seconds for the camera to lolly it's way over.)
Physics are sticky. Feels like I'm hitting rocks. No perceptable difference between light hitting and hard hitting.
When comes time to shoot, the cue stick moves to face the camera?! Screws up whatever shot I may have thought I lined up correctly.
Overhead view is impossible to control. I shouldn't have to control in 3D when doing overhead shots.
When pausing after losing focus, there is no indication, other than a frozen screen.
There's no "Quit" on the main menu?!!


The nitpicks:
Window opens in the top left corner of the screen.
Why put a close button on the first screen? Especially when there isn't one on the main menu!
Confusing menus.
Shortcut on desktop should be default when installing.


The good:
Other than the sample clicking, really cute and nice tunes!
Cute graphics.


Closing comments: For such a cute game, obviously targetting the less hardcore gamers out there, the control, learning curve, and general feel of this game are on par with controlling an aircraft carrier. By hand. Alone. The game was a total pain to play, and impossible to enjoy. I had a high hopes when browsing the screenshots last night, but they were all dashed on rocks upon playing this... "game". The cute graphics and nice tunes are hardly anything to make up for the fatal shortcomings of this game.

The run-down:
Pre-install: medium
Presentation: mild
Graphics: medium
Sound: medium
Music: medium
Gameplay: bland
Originality: mild
Entertainment: bland
Overall: bland


My recommendation: Except for the media, it needs a complete overhaul.

[GameStudioD]

I agree with all the points everyone else mentioned. Controls. Camera. Etc.

Nitpick: The characters look very big compared to the table. It just looks odd for big characters to play on such a small table. The same music was used from Amju Golf, ugh.

I love 3D platform games in general, from Crash Bandicoot to Rayman to Mario Kart. I like the different environments and collecting things. The Amju series is very similar to the games I like playing. The Amju series has also set up it's own style, with big environments and wacky props. Also, I thought that you learned from the mistakes of Amju Golf. Even with its flaws, I really, really liked Amju Golf.

I am very disappointed with Amju Pool. I was expecting a wacky, platform-style pool game with big environments, and lots of collecting, similar to Amju Golf. I envisioned the players being on the pool table. Player 4 feet high, pool balls 2 feet high. The cue ball could be used to collect hearts or power ups. Maybe you could walk around the table and hit switches to lock/unlock pockets. But, Amju Pool is just another golf game that just doesnt seem to fit into the Amju series.

[Jason Colman]

Hi guys, first of all a big thanks for taking the time to post feedback. I really appreciate these long posts with a lot of detail. These are all excellent points, and are immensely helpful! After working so closely on the game I couldn't see the faults any more.

Controls
Ok, this needs to be rewritten :) I've had a lot a of stick in the past for bad controls, so this is definitely a weak point for me. How could I make a simple game so complicated!?! :(

I've been loath to use the right mouse button because Macs don't have one, but I do like the idea of mouse-only control. I could use the middle wheel button for cue contact position too I guess.

The other idea I had was that you click on the red 'play' button to go into the "swing the cue" mode. (Currently it's just an icon to show you to press "s".)

soniCron, excellent point about the controls when camera is in birds-eye mode.

Camera
Sounds like it should be kind of stuck to the cue (at least if the cue is moved) so the cue is always pointing dead ahead.

Physics
A lot more difference between low-power and high-power shots: can do :)

All the other points
All excellent, thanks again for these.

Ok, lots to do! :)

[Jason Colman]

GameStudioD, I wanted to write a separate reply for your post, as it's very insightful. I do have things I want to add, such as bonuses to collect, more tables to unlock, including "crazy" tables etc. But I wanted to get something in front of you good people first... so I get the cake right before I start on the icing :)
Thanks for your comments though, I totally get what you're saying. And that's great that you liked Super Golf!