"Release" Contest Feedback (voting closed)

[Cefallon]

Hey guys,
Here all the entries for our latest contest, themed "Release." Please check them out, provide feedback, and vote for your favorite! Remember, in these contests it is important to consider not just how polished a game is, but also how well it utilizes the theme!

Bruce: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/bphill/ReleaseV4.zip
Ryan: http://www.mediafire.com/?knhkztkyzqm
Ben: http://ballooon.mooo.com/release/
Duncan, Connor, and Matt: http://www.gamecreation.org/~dboehle/Release/

And with that, let the feedback commence!

[squirmonkey]

Are entrants allowed to vote?

[bkeyes]

Are entrants allowed to vote?

Yes, they are! In fact, we require (well, try to require) that entrants provide feedback and vote. But feedback is most important, so we like when people include short bits about their reasons for voting.

[benlan]

Bruce: What's the source of the music? Overall good fun, the missiles and turrets later on in kept it interesting. I ended up having some problems getting it to run initally, but such is typical of Game Maker games.

Ryan: While this game may have shown an interesting take on Breakout or something, it became very tedious to play after the first few levels and I didn't actually end up completing the game (how many levels are there?). I think the level design is something that would make or break this game. The first couple levels were ok, but later levels were frustrating. Powerups were interesting.

DCM: I didn't understand this "game" but it was interesting to look at and interact with and devise my own backstories/explanations for what was going on. I guess Muk is having a bad day since the ninja robot witch judges are shooting at him. It doesn't seem to be very effective; the judges are probably using like Poison Sting or something. But then Muk discovers he can just X everything away and it turns out that he's not Muk at all but some kid who had been covered in the Poison Sting fluids... or maybe Muk ate the kid....

So yeah, my votes:
1. Bruce
2. Muk
3. Liberator

[squirmonkey]

OK, so I'm going to base my votes largely on these things : "Since the primary focus of the competition is game design, that should be the primary focus in evaluating the games during voting. How effectively did the designer create a enjoyable game experience focused around the theme? How creative and innovative was it? Is it fun to play? Does it use the theme in such a manner that the theme adds substantially to the gameplay?"

Bruce: As far as seeing the theme in this game, I assume you were referring to "releasing the bombs." While this is an interesting use of the word release, I dont think that the game is focused around the theme. It's more a game of blowing things up than a game of releasing things. You get a 0 for creative and innovative, because it just wasn't. Flying over things blowing them up really isn't an innovative idea, it has been done before. In fact I believe there's one such game already on this site (saturn storm). Fun to play was a kinda iffy one. While it's definitely nice to blow things up now and again, and the graphic when the windows break is neat, it gets a little repetitive. Press spacebar a few times, fly through a poster, repeat. Then you see little holes in the ground or something. Anyhow the holes dont actually do anything which was kinda odd. You fly by like 50 of them and then a giant rocket appears out of one of them that takes up like half the screen and kills you in one go. I don't know about others, but I didn't find it particularly enjoyable. And then using the theme to add to the gameplay, is also not done very well. The act of releasing the bombs isnt what the game is about. It could have just as easily been a machine gun turret, or a rocket launcher or something, or even have allowed multiple such weapons.

Ben: Out of the three other entries I think this game uses the theme the best. The game is based around releasing Bessie from the beams of alien spacecraft. This is an interesting and somewhat amusing way of using the theme. The game is focused on the theme, which is really what needs to happen. As far as the second part of that criterion: "create an enjoyable game experience" not so amazing. The game was pretty much holding down the mouse button and moving side to side. Creative and innovative you get points for. I've never before seen a game where you have to defend a cow from approaching airborne assailants with a gardening hose, or even a game that works around the same mechanic. Fun to play... not so much. Like I said before there's really nothing to the gameplay of this game. The aliens approach one at a time making them fairly easy to repel, and they randomly drop Bessie even when you're not shooting at them. And sometimes they dont drop her even if you fire at them all the way up from the ground. The theme adding substantially to the gameplay is a 50/50 here I think. While the game is largely about releasing Bessie, you cant release her if they dont get her in the first place. Which isn't that difficult to prevent.

Duncan Connor and Matt: This game was.... interesting . Ninja ghost grim reaper judges in the sky that shoot rain vs odd pink blob/humanoid thing that shoots little yellow lasers of righteousness or something. As far as the theme goes... I'm going to have to work under the impression that the human inside the blob is the prisoner of the evil dudes in the sky in some way. When you shoot the judges, you slowly move towards humanoid form, when they shoot you, you become more blobular. So I assume the idea is to release yourself from them and the blobby form they have put you in. Maybe it represents some sin of yours or something, I dont really know. Creative and innovative is 100%. Despite the fact that I had no clue what was going on, I've never seen a game quite like it before. Fun to play is a bit lower on the scale here. while exchanging fire with these guys and trying to avoid theirs was kind of fun, it got old pretty fast. There are too many of them, which makes them too easy to hit, and nothing really changes throughout the game except your movement speed. Theme adds substantially to gameplay? Not really. The gameplay mechanic was exchanging fire, releasing was really just story based as far as I could tell.


So my votes are as follows:
1: Bessie, aliens, and garden hose
2: Ninja ghost grim reaper judges in the sky
3: Airplane, bombs, and windows

@ Benlan: There are 9 levels, and if you got up to powerups, you reached at least the 5th level. By the time you're on the 5th or 6th level out of 9 the game is pretty difficult. I acknowledge that. It is that way because the later levels of a game are supposed to be hard the way I see it.

Do people who aren't entrants vote as well?

--Ryan K

[Cefallon]

DCM: I didn't understand this "game" but it was interesting to look at and interact with and devise my own backstories/explanations for what was going on. I guess Muk is having a bad day since the ninja robot witch judges are shooting at him. It doesn't seem to be very effective; the judges are probably using like Poison Sting or something. But then Muk discovers he can just X everything away and it turns out that he's not Muk at all but some kid who had been covered in the Poison Sting fluids... or maybe Muk ate the kid....

This made my day. There was a lot of stuff that didn't get in that would have made the theme more clear (like a clearer win condition), but if this is how people interpret our game as it is, that's fine with me =P

I'll give you a hint, though. The entire game is a metaphor for something, and the judges are the key.

Anyway, Feedback time!

Ben -- You are trying to get aliens to release your cows. It's cool, and amusing, and I love the old school pixal art, but the feedback is rather lacking until you lose. Does that cow know that even if you save it, you will just eventually make it into a burger?
Ryan -- It's clear you put alot of effort into this -- you generated a lot of content, and even had achievements. I found the story somewhat amusing, although it made me think of a sort of reverse de Blob, if anyone has played that. Color is evil! long live the grays! That said, however, I also didn't finish your game. I kept getting the character stuck in the walls and having to start levels over. I feel like fixing that one little glitch could have made your game a lot more solid.
Bruce -- I enjoyed your backstory, and the feedback given for each bomb in your game was great -- I love the way that each pane of glass explodes as you hit it. I also think that your game ties into the theme the most, with 'release' being the central mechanic in the game. I would have liked to see the theme tied in a little bit more story-wise or thematically as well, though...

So I guess my vote goes for Bruce, although I enjoyed all of them.

Concepts I was surprised no one submitted:
--release from prison (this was the first thing in my head...)
--hanging on for you life (Don't release your grip!)
--a game about a game release

[Theotherguy]

Hey guys,
Here all the entries for our latest contest, themed "Release." Please check them out, provide feedback, and vote for your favorite! Remember, in these contests it is important to consider not just how polished a game is, but also how well it utilizes the theme!

Bruce: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/bphill/ReleaseV4.zip
Ryan: http://www.mediafire.com/?knhkztkyzqm
Ben: http://ballooon.mooo.com/release/
Duncan, Connor, and Matt: http://www.gamecreation.org/~dboehle/Release/

And with that, let the feedback commence!

Bruce:
THIS IS THE COOLEST GAME EVER OMG EXPLOSIONS AND LOTS OF BOMBS AND AN AWESOME BACKSTORY OH LOOK MISSILES OH GOD OH GOD 111/10.

*explosions need sounds. laser guns need more "pew pew"

Ryan:
Breakout where you actually have to break out!! Brilliant! Physics are kind of broken though. Also, maybe you could have tried something where the paddle rotates towards the mouse instead of having a big octagon. 8/10

Ben:
An interesting concept, but there is no way to win! The aliens just keep coming, and you just have to keep them off as long as possible. This is frustrating and a bit annoying. 7/10

Connor/Duncan/Me:
What...I just...I don't even....

?/10


Final rankings:
1. Bruce
2. Ryan
3. Ben

[Cefallon]

Do people who aren't entrants vote as well?

--Ryan K

Yes.

By the way, since it's kinda silly to hide it, the theme of our game is guilt. In order to be released from it, you can't run away from it, you have to turn around and confront it. (hence the fact you can't run and shoot at the same time.) It weighs you down, so you go slower... yeah. Chains were too hard to work with, so we went with purple goo. It would have worked better if we had gotten everything we wanted too in.

[squirmonkey]

Can someone please clarify for me? I dont understand what everyone loves so much about the airplane game?

--Ryan K

[Theotherguy]

Can someone please clarify for me? I dont understand what everyone loves so much about the airplane game?

--Ryan K

Did you see the number of explosions?! Good god man, the explosions!