Introducing Fangorodrim

[djcityscapes]

Here is the game I've been working on as a hobby since the beginning of April:
Fangorodrim.zip (14 megs)

This is a real-time strategy game. I'm looking for feedback on where to go next with this. Its difficult to know if the game play is balanced. After 1000 games I have no idea if this is too easy or impossible to win or simply no fun to play. My perspective is shot.

Notes:
1. You win by colonizing all of the sectors.
2. Should take about an hour to win.
3. Freeware game, no strings attached
4. Looking for feedback and bug reports.
5. Win XP, Vista, Win 7
6. This runs great on 2.4ghz system, 1gig ram.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Screenshot:

[djcityscapes]

Has anyone had a chance to play my game?

[zoombapup]

Havent had chance to play it yet. I wonder if the UI clutter is putting people off? All those orange borders around lots of UI elements doesnt help.

It might be your posts were still waiting to be moderated too (you have to have 6 approved before your posts automatically are seen).

[CousinGilgamesh]

downloaded and played on a 2.16 ghz dual core macbook w\ 2 gb ram, running Vista, and everything was fine technically, except the screen stayed black for a good 15 seconds. The second time I loaded it was a little faster.

For feedback on the actual game: I found the control a little sluggish. The rate at which you can turn your ship around is really slow, so I found myself waiting a while if I wanted to go stop and go in the opposite direction. Another problem with the control is that there's no way of dodging incoming fire while attacking the enemy. In order to fire off a few shots at an enemy, you have to take just as many of theirs. You should add strafing if you want to have this kind of combat in the game. I didn't get far enough to make a fleet to fight the enemy ships off because I kept dying before i could really do anything, so I don't know, maybe it's better when you have a bunch of ships to command.

I notice you also stretch a square texture to different rectangle sizes for the border of the UI elements. You can tell because the borders are stretched shorter on some sides and wider on others. You should probably take care of that.

Since you're giving it away for free, I'm guessing this is one of your first projects, and in that light, I think you're doing pretty good. Every new game you make is a huge learning experience, and while you still have a lot to learn in terms of UI, gameplay mechanics, and general design, you've done a lot for a < 2 month project. Don't stop here! keep going!

I feel like I didn't get far enough into your game to give you more helpful feedback. Maybe I'll try again in a few days on easy (so I don't die immediately), and give you something better.

[techbear]

downloaded and played on a WinXP machine with Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2 GHz, 2 gig of RAM. Video card is Radeon X1650.

I have to agree with the previous poster that your ship's turn rate is too slow. I know that you want to have the user upgrade the ship during gameplay, but in my own games with a 2D top-down spaceship, players simply don't tolerate a clumsy avatar.

You can upgrade the ship in other ways, like better shields and weapons.

I played the normal diff level 3 times, and while futzing around got quickly killed by the periodic invaders. So I tried again with easy diff, and this allowed me to hold off the invaders while I produced a shield, research station, power plant (which didn't seem to do anything for me, cause I did the research, but didn't understand that I also needed to build one), and warp drive.

Then I warped south, and immediately got jumped by a bigger pack of aliens that killed me.

So here are my recommendations:
1) make the ship VERY nimble from the start.
2) increase the size of each sector; they're small and claustrophobic. Center the camera on your ship.
3) put 1-4 planets in each sector.
4) put two planets in the start sector, and start your first planet with improvements already in place that protect it (and your ship). That way the player has a safe home base, plus a template of what makes a fully assembled set of planetary upgrades. Then they can upgrade the second planet in the sector, before braving the warpdrive.
5) make the starting enemies even less nimble, so the player can run rings around them.
6) make an admiral face next to a pop-up of text, telling the player what to do next.

In general, you've made a good start here (I know, after all your work it's annoying to hear it's a "start"). But the game functions and can be fun with just a few tweaks.

Oh, and the alien laugh upon player death, and the "THE GALAXY IS DOOMED" text, are kinda childish (in my opinion). Ditch them.

Hope I helped!

[djcityscapes]

Thanks guys for the great feedback! I wondered why I wasn't hearing from anybody. 6 approved posts, eh? I belong to many forums and this is the first time I run across that.

Anyway, I plan to make a lot of changes based on this feedback:
1. get rid of the boxes with a slicker interface.
2. faster base turn rate (it does increase with leveling).
3. strafing. What are the conventional keys to use for strafing?

The key is to have bomb & drone tech before you move into other sectors. With bombs you fly in front of the enemy and drop. The drones protect the colonies. Thanks for your help!

Here is another screenshot: