Feedback Request: B.I.R.D.

[Falcan]

Hello guys, thanks for the great feedback you gave me last time. I slightly changed the rules, hint texts and added few features to make the game more clear.

Please tell me if it plays better - if you understand what you are supposed to do.

downlad link to new version:

http://www.rainbowcreatures.com/test/birddemo_setup.exe

in case you never played birdie demo - screenshot of older version:

http://www.rainbowcreatures.com/ptacek/level30.jpg


Thanks!
Pavel

[Nexic]

Well this game looks good, a few things I would try to change though:

The font is a little hard to read, a stronger dark outline to the text or a different overall colour would help.

On the buy exit screen I had to wait if I didn't wan't to buy it. This is fine only I had no idea how long I had to wait for, I would suggest putting a counter in the corner so there is some sign of how long you will have to wait.

I didn't really feel like I knew what I was doing. I know that I had to make them angry by flying close to the rocks, but that goal is reactive rather than active, if you see what I mean. I have to wait for enough rocks to fly by before I can win, rather than being able to cause the completion of the level by myself. If there were other objectives I didn't notice them. My suggestion would be to have an active goal to complete every level which is consistent throughout the whole game. Such as pooping on all the children and making them run away or something. And have the angry by flying close thing as a bonus instead.

The graphics, sound, music and overall polish was fairly good, no problems there.

Overall I found myself randomly flying about and then completing the levels for no apparent reason. I'm sure this game could be really fun with clearer goals, but too be honest I found it a bit bland.

Really you shouldn't be worried about only 1 sale in 200 downloads, thats 0.5% CR which actually is fairly good these days. But honestly with such a low number of downloads there is no real way to tell for sure. You could actually have a higher CR than Luxor!

You have to remember it all depends on the quality of your traffic. Downloads coming from a shareware games sites will always be higher than those from random misc news sites for example. So, how long have you been selling the game, what marketing have you done, and where are those downloads mainly coming from? A press release for example should bring in way more downloads than that after just a few days.

Don't lower the price!

[joe]

I downloaded this game a few days ago (before your post, I think I saw it on tigsource) because I like those pixle-graphics very much but when the game started I didn't know what to do, what my goal is (as nexic already mentioned), so I stopped the game after a few minutes and removed it from my harddisk.

If you improve the gample it could be a very cool game because I really like those pixel-like Amiga graphics.

[Falcan]

Thanks alot for this feedback guys! You are right, some people complained about clarity of what to do as well, I'll try to focus on that in the next update. Maybe tutorial level(s) would help, so the player can know the game step by step (for example how to avoid the rocks best to get the score) rather than throwing him into the game where he doesn't know how to finish the level..
About the download no.-I'm a little impatient probably :D

[mahlzeit]

I also downloaded it a few days ago and gave it a quick try, didn't know what to do, and uninstalled it. However, I was a little disappointed by the graphics. The game looks pretty enough in the screenshots, but afwul in fullscreen on my laptop, most likely because the graphics card needs to blow up the low resolution to fill the screen.

[Falcan]

maybe letting it in window as default would help? I made it in 640x480 res. because it is a bit less work, I did almost all the gfx myself so even 640 was horrid work..However as I see it the main problem is really people don't know what to do, I think this issue is fixable though.

[Falcan]

I'm sorry, posting this to let the thread go up, people maybe wouldn't notice it's updated(didn't want to make 2 threads so I just updated the old post, read above).

[jankoM]

I like your game, It has some feeling/personality/style to it and that is good IMO. Graphics animations sounds all go together nicely and gameplay is interesting and not so classic, but I to think game would benefit from more direct gameplay.

I must say that now that you put anger indicators above people everything is much better. You do something - see the result, progress and how much till goal is reached. You can say it is simmilar in that way with arkanoid... you hit the ball - ball hits bricks, you see the result and whats to finish.

But I still think Nexic gave you very good advice. I know you don't wanna change the point of your game but if I were you I would make serparate game modes (or levels that have different goals, gameplays) where you only poop on people and evade stones and stuff, this would come out more action oriented (hmm.. invaders turned around ) , you don't even have to change the code much and get whole new game.

[Falcan]

janko:
actually there are few levels(4 I think) in those 30 that have different rules from the game.

In one of those for example you take role of boy flying magic carpet and shoot down ballons that block way of birdie(birdie is controlled by computer on that level, so it's kinda switching the roles).. - if this is what you mean?

I wanted to keep number of those low so people are not confused by always new rules of game. Or you think more different levels like this would help?

Unfortunately making this kind of action game was probably not good move from me, I wanted to come up with something a bit original, but didn't think through the gameplay. Well, but now I have to make a game that sells from it, somehow:) And I'm still not sure how to put there the "direct" gameplay you speak about. Or if it's variety you miss.

Of course if the problem isn't in the whole concept of the game, which would suck ;)

[whisperstorm]

I have to say I like everything about this game except for one major factor.. the gameplay. The graphics, music, responsiveness is all spot on. However, dropping eggs on some little boy to get him angry is just... not all that fun? Having the limitation of the number of eggs combined with the timer is like being between a rock and a hard place.. you have to be conservative with your eggs but you still have to go fast to beat the timer... However this would make an excellent platformer game :)

so 100% for music, graphics and control, but 50% for gameplay...

[Falcan]

no problem, I'll just write a platformer from this tommorow :rolleyes:

but really, if the problem is in gameplay, what should I do? The idea is core of the game, I can change almost everything but if I wanted to change gameplay, I would have to redo all the levels, infact make completely different game from the gfx and engine I have. I'm rather looking how to improve it.. (maybe adding few levels with different rules from the original game in every environment for start).

btw. the purpose of the game(at least of the original version) shouldn't be shooting at boys with limited ammo, it had to be the avoiding of rocks, to learn how to avoid in risky ways to maximize the score..well that seems is too passive/not entertaining for people( to me it seemed funny ).

So, what are your suggestions? Would levels with different goals help? Can this game be funny in its current form? I'm working on it all day, if I knew the magic thing that would boost the gameplay I'm programming it right away..

[Bmc]

i don't think you have to completely re-do the game play add rewards ect eliminate some stuff

one suggestion... your game has a bird dropping eggs and your using excellent instead of Eggcellent? shame on you ;)

btw. this game screams for mouse control.

[Falcan]

Ah I'm so sorry, eggcellent is right on the top of my to-dolist now ;)

I had a little debate with other people about the game as well, I guess I'll rework few levels more like into classic arcade games - where you attack the enemies with your "weapons", avoid the rocks(and get some bonus for that but that would be just bonus), upgrade your "weapon" with new types/gather some fruits, land on heads of boys etc.;) In short to be the king of the playfield, not the one who has to hide and avoid something. I think that's what people don't like..

edit: mouse controls, yes it's on my to-do aswell, at least 5 people suggested this so far:)

I'll post new version with few levels here after it's finished.

[Robert Cummings]

What to fix:

Your collision areas suck. They are not fair to the player.
Keyboard controls entirely unnecesary. Mouse control better.
The feel of the bird feels a bit stiff.
The clouds look upside down.
Graphics style inconsistent in the game from menus to actual play.
Game feels mindlessly put together. There isn't any story between the levels, no progress, no "rescue" missions... nothing.

I think that is why it will not do well. Why is it called B.I.R.D? Whats that stand for? Is it another pointless thing? To be honest I think it is absurd dropping eggs on the boy. I thought it was poo poo at first and I was happy about that. But not eggs.

Not being nasty, just honest and straightforward from my point of view.

[Falcan]

ok:
- collision areas are..rectangles, fault of old engine, maybe making them smaller will help.

- mouse controls-already said that, it will be there

- clouds..well truecolor background wasn't made by me, but I think if they clouds look reverse doesn't have impact on gameplay.

- menu inconsistent - again, this wasn't created by me, maybe it could fit better but isn't the main problem right now I guess.

- story - yeah that should be improved very much and I think could really help. Glue together the levels and story, so you know what you are doing and why.

eggs or poo poo? it is poo poo, not eggs. I know some people think they are eggs, don't want to argue with them, I'll better redraw it;)

- and the name,yes it is just another pointless thing in the game...

[Sean Doherty]

Pavel,

I noticed the collision detection as well. I couple of times I died and I though I was clear of the rock. Maybe must decrease the bounding box.

[Falcan]

yes I have this on my to-do list, this could really frustrate the player..

[Falcan]

OK, I've made several changes - added mouse control, modified bounding boxes, added some treasures. Before posting the update I've got 1 more sale(that was 2 sales after 350 downloads, enough for me). After posting the update I'm at 750 downloads with no more sale - don't know if because the update, or if it's just bad luck.. :confused: Don't know if this is normal and it "looses" in thousands of downloads you usually have or not..(right now I have a problem to keep at least 60-70 visits/day). I'm also preparing to release Mac version of the game, hoping it will help the sales + traffic.