Feedback request: Sheeplings (Iteration 1)

[Karja]

KarjaSoft is a bit nervous to present iteration 1 (v0.1) of Sheeplings! Lately I've just been tweaking and holding this off, but I really need to release a first iteration to get somewhere.

Description:
Wolves, eagles, bandits - everyone is after your cute little friends! Protect and guide the sheep through (undecided) wool-raising levels, until you finally reach your goal: the sheep-jumping competition in Woollyville.

Screenshots:
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings1.jpg
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings2.jpg
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings3.jpg
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings4.jpg
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings5.jpg
http://www.sheeplings.com/sheeplings6.jpg

Demo download:
http://www.sheeplings.com/Sheeplings.exe

System requirements:
Not really sure! I haven't gotten hold of an older comp to test it on yet. Windows 2K/XP with a 3D-capable graphics card at least. Maybe 98/Me as well. The speed of the game ought to adjust itself according to the framerate, but I don't know at which point it becomes too jerky.

Other information:
* There are no options at the moment. Sorry! But you can run the game in windowed mode with the flag -w. (Or select the windowed option in the start menu.)
* There's just one default profile right now, but the progress is saved when you exit the game.

Some questions:
* Does it work?
* Is it fun?
* Does it look and sound decent enough?
* How's the difficulty?
* Does it need more tutorials? I'm pretty sparse with this.
* This iteration has one map screen and 24 levels. I'm thinking that this ought to cover one hour's worth of play quite well. Right?

A business-related question:
Ponder the following scenario: if the game's worth promoting, I'm uncertain about my ability to do just that. And I'm uncertain about my abilities to get attention to the game at all. Also, the game's not exactly hit-material. Would you say that I'm making a terrible decision if I give away exclusive rights to a publisher?

I welcome any comments and suggestions you may have!

[redito]

I only played about 10 minutes and found it quite frustrating. The mouse seemed to slide around the screen, making it very hard to control the movement of the dog. The barking got quite annoying too. Needs better sound effects.

There was a sparkly effect on only half of the screen at the end of each level. Oddly, it was diagonally in half. Like sparkly \ not sparkly.

The graphics are cute and the instruction panel for each level is a good idea for those of us who never read the help manual first anyway. It would be nice if you could click the panel away quickly if you wanted too. Or maybe a "don't show me this again" option for those who replay the game multiple times. And I still think some sort of 1 page tutorial is in order for those who actually do check these things first.

It's certainly not a game for me but I can see that kids might like it. It might be cuter if the sheep and the dog said things as you went along. Perhaps even an option to choose more or less belligerent sheep or a kinder or meaner dog.

I don't know what happens in later levels but if all you have to do is move sheep around you might want to add periodic bonus levels that offer something else. Herding different animals, perhaps. Even ridiculous ones like flamigos or something. Hmm... Can you herd a flamingo?

Still, a good start I think. But then that's just my 2 cents and I could quite possibly be full of crap. :D

[Geom]

I played the first 14 levels.

I think the game gives a good initial impression. The sheep and dog are cute, hearing the dog bark is fun, the paw-print mouse pointer is a nice touch, and the graphics and music are relaxing to look at/hear.

After the initial impression wore off though, the gameplay felt a bit repetitive and I got a little bored. Maybe a developing storyline would help keep the player's attention. E.g. like the way Fizzball opens with a mystery (why are the animals hungry, etc.) and reveals clues as the game progresses. Just a suggestion.

I don't think you need more tutorials, seems about right if not a little too slow. The difficulty is pretty easy but it'd probably be about right for kids. Except for that one early stage where you had to get the sheep to jump the bar, that seemed hard compared to the levels before & after it.

I'm not qualified to offer a business opinion, as I've released nothing either myself :), but, I could see this game appealing to younger players and to dog lovers.

[Karja]

I only played about 10 minutes and found it quite frustrating. The mouse seemed to slide around the screen, making it very hard to control the movement of the dog. [...] There was a sparkly effect on only half of the screen at the end of each level. Oddly, it was diagonally in half. Like sparkly \ not sparkly.

Is this a things with the controls, or do you think that there's an actual bug? I'll have to look into this sparkly thing; hard to see what you mean from the description. Time to find some other test gear...

It would be nice if you could click the panel away quickly if you wanted too. Or maybe a "don't show me this again" option for those who replay the game multiple times. And I still think some sort of 1 page tutorial is in order for those who actually do check these things first. [..] The barking got quite annoying too. Needs better sound effects.

Duly noted! I'll see what I can do about these things.

After the initial impression wore off though, the gameplay felt a bit repetitive and I got a little bored. Maybe a developing storyline would help keep the player's attention. E.g. like the way Fizzball opens with a mystery (why are the animals hungry, etc.) and reveals clues as the game progresses. Just a suggestion.

A bit repetitive... As far as I see it, there're three possibilities:

1) The game needs details to spice it up; a storyline á la Fizzball and/or bonus levels like redito suggests, and such. It has potential, but needs extra attention.
2) Another audience might actually enjoy the gameplay; personally I can't stand breakout games 'cause I find them repetitive, for example, but I know that others like them.
3) The gameplay is flawed in its foundation and pretty much sucks.

I don't believe it's 2, so I hope that it's the first option. I'll try to do something about this. Thanks for testing the game!

[Ricardo C]

The problem with the controls is that it doesn't feel like I'm moving the dog, it feels like I'm dragging him. And that makes it very hard to properly position him.

[Bad Sector]

I haven't yet downloaded the demo, but from the shots the first thing that came to my mind is that you should take care of your backgrounds: they look like pencil drawn and colored sketches. This is not a bad thing, i like this kind of graphics (and it's rare - let alone that if you target kids, i believe that they'll like it too). The bad thing is that they contrast with the sprites which are pixelled. Mixing two different styles doesn't look that good.

IMHO, you should replace the background with pixelart, or the pixelart sprites with hand-drawn-ish sprites. I would like the second approach, but that's only my taste - others may dislike it :-).

[Karja]

Ricardo C:
The controls comments are duly noted! And here I thought that I had done a good thing with them... On Gamedev there was a good suggestion: to add keyboard control. Maybe the feeling of control would improve if there's a choice to use keyboard (maybe gamepad?) as well, for a more direct approach. It's worth a shot!

Bad Sector:
Ugh, I didn't think that it clashed that badly. There's not much to say about it other than: yep, I agree about the lack of consistency. The game is developed on a budget that would be envious of a shoestring, so the art is a mix of my meagre hand-drawn sketchwork/GUI items/stuff like that, and the artist's sprites/title screen/background.

Preferably I would hire an artist proficient in a hand-drawn style, but I can't really see that happening with my budget. (And the sprites really are adorable!)