Milk: A shooter prototype, your comments

[Purgatorium]

screenshots:

angelfire.com/ab9/ab999/s1.jpg
angelfire.com/ab9/ab999/s2.jpg

game:

angelfire.com/ab9/ab999/setup.zip


This game is basically a repackage of an earlier version "Orange Revenge" with cool eye candy hard to find in other games. :eek:

1. Smaller size. The game aims for 5MB to seduce the dial up market. Simple stars background. Think Retro64 Bugatron.
2. Eye candy for girls and kids. Men go play your Jets n Guns.
3. Better graphics.
4. Parachutes added.
5. No music yet, still looking for a musician, so imagine a tune similar to Platypus when you play the game. :D
6. Tune ups.

[jankoM]

Can't download the game, you probabbly have to put it in a zip. Angelfire doesn't allow...

[Nexic]

Yeh I can't get it either.

From your (really tiny) screen shots I can see you've decided to set the game in space.... which probably won't help it's selling potential and may infact hinder it. Also to me it doesn't look like the art has been improved or even changed much.

As other people have said you *really* need a complete art overhaul, and polish the game play up a lot to make it sell anywhere near as well as Heavy Weapon does.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I'm just trying to give you the facts.

Eye candy for girls and kids. Men go play your Jets n Guns.

This is a very bad assumtion to make, as even very casual shooters will still have a mainly male audience.

[Purgatorium]

The link is updated. Sorry for the goof up.

Thanks for the feedback.

1.I thought people say the ships art and game play is ok?

2.The game was not made to be on par with Heavy Weapon or Platypus now. I aim for Bugatron(cough).

3. I compared my game play and ship graphics with Heavy Weapon. And I really think mine is slightly better :p .

Graphics: Is is the proportion of the ships or too little componets?

Game play: I really can't find any difference between mine and Heavy Weapon.

I need specifics guys, I'm thick. :eek:

[papillon]

.... you *so* don't want to know the thoughts that went through my head on seeing 'milk' and 'shooter' in the subject line.

From looking at the tiny tiny gameplay screenshot, it looks outdated and lacking in the 'wow' that would make someone inclined to buy rather than lump it in their minds with freeware. It's possible you HAVE more wow, but that screenshot certainly doesn't show it.

And I don't see anything particularly girly about it... I've *played* really girly shooters, and that doesn't look like one. :) (My favorite 'girly' shooting type game involved firing stars at fluffy clouds and catching the raindrops that you shook loose... Or the one with the little witch on her broom...) Cows are not girly. Cows are wacky. Wacky can be a good theme if you make it amusing enough.

But your screenshot (tiny tiny tiny unappealing screenshot) just says "I am using boring 3d shapes because I have no artist!", the art style I hate most in shareware games, and does not inspire me to download. :)

[jankoM]

I think you have an interesting game that has something to it.. fells fun to play and is interesting but needs some serrious balancing to make it look like standard sellable product.

I mean. YOu have nice ships nice particle efects, text efexts, but they are very different styles - something is pixelated, something is 3d, diferent fonts, some textures are high quality, some are very low. Menu fonts and select stage are the worst at this, game itself is much better. I think this is the easy part, you allready have playable game, and ingame gfx which is 40 times more work.

[jankoM]

papillon types faster than me... just one thought - yes your game is whacky...in big way and that is good. But now you have to make it pro-wacky.

[Nexic]

I aim for Bugatron(cough).

Well I don't mean to be rude but Bugatron is infinitely more polished and well presented. Just fire up the game and take a look. Now even though each of it's 3D models are pretty basic, with plain flat shaded textures, they are all of the same style. Every ship, particle effect, menu graphic looks like it was made for that game by the same artist.

Your game, whilst some pieces of art are of okay quality, it feels like a totally mishmash of different styles. Even to the point where it reminds me of flash games that steal art from counterstrike and unreal tournament. I'm not saying you've stolen anything, but it gives the player the same 'this game has been made my an amateur' feel, because the art styles and direction vary so wildly from each element to the next.

I compared my game play and ship graphics with Heavy Weapon. And I really think mine is slightly better

I'm afraid neither game play nor graphics come close to Heavy Weapon's. Graphics wise this is because your ships look like rockets a kid has made bottles of washing up liquid, where as heavy weapon's actually look like real planes, even if they are done in a cartoon style. Game play wise it's because heavy weapon has so much more. All of your ships just seem to fly horizontally acroos the screen randomly dropping rockets. Enemies in heavy weapon do special attack patterns etc.

Overall I do find your game really fun, and I think a lot of other people do/will. But I doubt many of them will buy it because it doesn't feel like a quality product yet.

[Purgatorium]

Look I got some basic ideas from here first:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=4425

The underlying gameplay is actually pretty good

Some of the ship graphics are pretty good

though...

but mostly, the graphics are mediocre. Untextured mountains, pixelated folliage, etc. It's just bad

so the ships graphics some are good...

I am begining to understand why my art isn't working: Different styles seem to be the main problem. And from what I gather you guys are saying, it's too simplistic and "cheap".

Cows and milk are not housewifie or girly huh? Hmmmm

Art should be 40x more work.

Thank you.

Game play wise it's because heavy weapon has so much more. All of your ships just seem to fly horizontally acroos the screen randomly dropping rockets. Enemies in heavy weapon do special attack patterns etc.

I don't think you ever played Heavy Weapon, in the first two levels ships just fly hrizontally across the screen randomly dropping rockets. Fire it up and take a closer look. :mad:

Appreciate if you base your feedback on facts and get some sleep.

1.So I basically need to get my theme straighten up...

2.Ermmm the art...I really don't want my ships to look realistic, so I need to to find a better cartoon style, something more complicated?

3.The gameplay seems to be ok....

Opinions please! Take a good shot at my game. :D

[Nexic]

Actually you are correct, the first to levels of Heavy Weapon are just planes flying horizontally. I didn't actually remeber that because I'm so used to the later levels. On that point I appologise.

I havent played very far in your game (getting killed by the first boss I think), but do the enemies get more dynamic further in?

[Purgatorium]

Yes...do you think I suck that much? ;)

[Kaos]

I like it! Go with the cartoonish theme!

The name? I do like the cow thing, so perhaps something like "Cosmic Cow"?

The demo needs more levels however, would not be suitable as a "play to try demo" would need @ least 3 levels and/or a 30 min minimum demo time period.

Music, I have some s3m clips that you can listen to if you want something free! (PM me and I will give you a link from my server)

I think a simple techno-remix loop per level would be sufficient as far as music, techno is always good music to hear when you are blowing stuff up!


Also maybe a few voice overs on powerups may add some attention as well.

something that says "ATOMIC" when you get a nuke powerup for example, may be interesting, but then again it may be annoying, but it is something to try anyhow!

Also maybe a power up that links you to a bonus level if you kill the boss, that may be a good place to go as well.

but yeah, I like it, I think it could be a great game!

[Ricardo C]

I just tried it. The art feels more cohesive this time around, but it's still far from being a releasable game. The ship design is consistent, yes, but it's also very basic, and it doesn't look like it's that way on purpose, but rather because the artist wasn't up to the task of creating something better. Maybe you should spend some time developing your art skills, if you can't find a good artist for the game? Look at games like Platypus and Parodius for inspiration. You also need background graphics, even if you're going to turn it into a space shooter. Add galaxies, nebulae, etc. in the background, to break the monotony.

The particles are a little too much. The text around the cursor in the menu is just maddening, and the stars on the high scores tables are not only annoying, they make me think the programmer just discovered particle generators and is trying to use them whenever he can. You can make fun, "shiny" effects without inducing a seizure ;)

I still like the core gameplay, and I think this could turn into a good game, but the presentation still needs improvement. Play other games that match the style you're going for, and learn from them.

You have skills, Francis, you just need to polish them up :)

[impossible]

.... you *so* don't want to know the thoughts that went through my head on seeing 'milk' and 'shooter' in the subject line.
I think I was thinking the same thing as you, which prompted me to check out the thread :). Unfortuanately I was dissapointed, hehe.

[Bmc]

i never played the game yet, but I can tell you that it definetly needs a better name.

Edit - I played it and one thing that really bugged me is that I had no idea had to close the game, not of the standard methods worked so I had to go kill the task in the task manager

2) The graphics are a slight improvement. Some things are alright as they are but everything else including the cow tank at the bottom need to be done much better.

Personally I think you should just use this game as a learning experience and release it as freeware

Then start making your next game

[Purgatorium]

.... you *so* don't want to know the thoughts that went through my head on seeing 'milk' and 'shooter' in the subject line.

I was eating jerky watching WWF with my kid and suddenly I made the connection. How could you think of such a thing, shame on you! :D

Thanks for the feedback, I got what I need. :p

[Mike Boeh]

You need to aim higher than bugatron, as it's a bit dated now....

[Purgatorium]

O man thanks for pointing the direction to Florida, I was driving to Alaska! :D