On 1/11/06, David Mikesell <dave_mikesell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Other than that, I welcome feedback on every other aspect of the game. > Thanks for taking the time to read this and (hopefully) play the demo. > Hi David, I'd be happy to try out your closed-source 17MB download windows-only game The first time I ran it, I just got a black screen for a bit, then I got your "Errors occurred" message box (nice to have as an unhandled exception handler) I'm attaching the error log The next time I ran it, loaded up fine - nice and snappy and quick no problems Actually playing the game though, the control bugged me a lot... It's definitely what stopped me from playing any longer For mouse control, I'd perfer to play entirely with the mouse - I really wanted shoot mapped to the left mouse button (leaving right-mouse as the thruster). For the type of game this is (medium-paced action, not too much thought) I'd rather be able to not be tied to the keyboard at all, so I can lean back, maybe sip a drink while playing or hold my phone while talking to someone... But the worst thing about mouse control is just that it's trying to act like a joystick (mapping left to rotate left, right to rotate right) - in my opinion if you are going to have mouse control at all, it should either be a pointing device or a gestural device... nothing else. I can imagine it as working either way in this game well (so either you get a targeting cursor to aim with, or mouse movement in a direction tends to point you in that direction) I am glad to see you trying mouse control though, because I think it could be the best for this game, and would be something kinda new Working with just the keyboard control though, I think the biggest problem was that I could only use one input at once, couldn't turn and shoot, or move and turn. It was very very annoying for me, I really think it should let you do multiple inputs at once. Other issues past that, I like how fast you can go, but found that I couldn't make precise movements or adjustments at all. I would suggest having some kind of small acceleration to the input, so a tap turn would be a finer movement, but when you hold to turn you'd do a 180 in about the same time. A little acceleration on thrust might be nice, but I like how quickly you can stop, and wouldn't really want to lose that. Finally, it really feels like I should be able to go backwards as well with the arrow keys (I tried a number of times) and I think it would make it feel cooler if you could. I would much rather have this game have one or the other control types (mouse or keyboard) work really well than have an option to pick between two where one or the other aren't great. My recommendation for anyone working on a control scheme would be to play around with your options as you go, but ultimately pick the best control configuration and make it just completely awesome - taking advantage of all the best things about your input device. When I was controlling things well enough, I really liked the pacing of the game (speed of the enemies vs. speed of your ship and all that) it's just about right for me - the game isn't too fast paced, but I feel like I can really move when I have to, which is very cool - a nice fun casual feel. (didn't seem to match the name of "frantic" actually, but I don't like twitch games) As for as aesthetics go, I like the environment and style (space games are cool) but I think for this kind of thing I'd love to see lots of graphical flash, particles, jet thrusters, some kind of trail behind the shots, enemies that fracture into pieces when destroyed... I want to fill the void of space with the fire, light and destruction in my wake All in all, I think if the control was better, it would be quite nice for a first game
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