Hey all,
I'm doing a game for game design class on uni
If you got a minute, give it a go:

http://www.itu.dk/people/kkkr/Beta7/KillMe.html

If you got another minute, fill out the questionaire at bellow the gameframe, or drop a line or two here

Cheers,

vedsten

Seeming as google spreadsheets seem to be blocked from here.. I'll reply here instead.

Fun little game.. though in a few places (from a level design point of view) you can get stuck (unable to jump up and unable to die to create a bounce mat) and are forced to 'restart' instead - which is not an optimal solution.

There are some interesting little challenges throughout the 15 (well - 14) levels. Level 13 was fairly tricky compared to all the others which (after figuring the controls and 'dump body' distances) were pretty straightforward. Level 14 however is really annoying as the important parts are off-screen. It feels like a very cheap way to make it difficult, and you have to try and throw/pick up bodies blind. Not even being sure if you have picked it up or not without wandering back on-screen to check.

One immediate crit - "Press space to select". Select? Select what? I presume you mean 'start'. I don't have anything to actually 'select'.

Also.. I came across one small bug where I could remain standing on top of the spikes. See below. (I died as soon as I walked right though)



All in all, a fun little game. Just a textual mistake, a slight bug, and a couple of levels that could be better designed. Nice bright and comical graphics and otherwise cheerful to the eye and mind. A couple of the 'helper' guys repeat information a bit uselessly on early levels too now that I think about it.

Nice work though,

-Z-

Quite a few inconsistencies, but showing improvement.



Some things have black outlines (eg the bin and the door sign etc) other things have very soft outlines eg the crates, lamppost.... Try and be consistent.

Also pay attention to the front facing corners if you are using that bright highlight. A few are missing - door frame, steps.. and a little bit in the shadow below the 'T' of Katt

I've also adjustded the base of the building at the rear so that the window matches the one at the front. i.e. there is a sill. However.. the top portion of the building would need to also be adjusted to match.

Also adjusted the highlighting of the panels of the streetlamp.

Lastly, the ground. You have the highlights of the tiles on the opposite side to the rest of the piece. Highlight on front edges.. shadow on the back. See the small tiles in the bottom right.



-Z-

I agree with Ptoing about the color reduction. Not only are you wasting time going from pixel to digital art, when the digital art medium could be avoided entirely, but you end up with a nearly identical file as Ptoing's but with a larger filesize to compensate with all those colors. You might not have hard-coded limitations, but you should be as efficient as possible when you can be.

aint that the truth!

Since memory and computers have got better and better - most software just gets lazier and more squanderous. Sure a texture may end up taking up more space in memory when loaded than a reduced colour sprite but it sure adds to the overall file size. Obviously higher quality sound and video tend to be the big culprits here much of the time, but when you take a look at things like .kkreiger and .debris (http://www.theprodukkt.com/) it just goes to show what can still be done at small file sizes.

-Z-

Overall, I think its a nice design. I just don't like the whole 'flashing' effect that seems to be going on. I'd rather just see a few of the yellow and orange pixels (between the crusts) moving around a bit I think, with the occasional clump of brightness and darkness. Colours themselves work well in putting forward the lava image

Yeah.. a more ragged edge to the tiles would help a bit too.. as if some pieces of the ground had been overheated and had fallen away as a chunk.

-Z-

Hmm.. I'll have to vote in agreement with what seems to be the minority in so much as I really don't think there's enough to update a blog style front page regularly enough for me or many others to want to bookmark that instead of the forum index. Just how many pixel-related 'events' occur? How many millions of new tutorials are there that need blogging about?

The novelty of something new... something to take part in designing is all well and good and probably stirs up a lot of eager anticipation, but I can't see it really being all that worth it in the long run.

As for the employment section being moved there, I kind of like the fact that new posts show up while I'm browsing the pixel art areas. I feel if it was removed to a not-so-updated blog area a lot of the keen pixellers might not notice things there.

I totally agree with you Ben, if it was after me everyone below 16 would be banned from the internet.

Heh.. we have (over the years) had some very good young pixellers. Though I will agree that the better ones are seriously in the minority. 'Dave' rings a bell to name one (if anyone remembers his stuff)

I think we should also eventually talk about changes in pixelation that will urge people to delurk. We're already planning a change where if a post is helpful to you (either because it is your own art that's being critiqued or it's not and you just learned from it) you can mark it and then the thread will show and the posts with thanks will read "user)s) named ________, ________, _________ found this post helpful!" which I think will encourage critique. But how can we get more readers-only to participate?

I love the idea of Tom, Dick and Sally found this comment useful (or whatever) and I'd love to see something like that integrated more on the site - like 'Karma' points or something that get shown next to your avatar when enough people have found enough of your comments useful. Equally there should be a 'karma reduction' when people find your comments ludicrous or very misguided. Apart from anything else, it gives newcomers a good idea of how much they should pay attention to the different people commenting - especially when comments oppose each other in some way.

Encouraging readers only... hmm you mean to crit or actually post art?

One thing that pops into my mind are some extra challenges more aimed at the (sorry) n00bs. (I don't necessarily mean n00b as in crap at pixel art, I just mean 'n00b' to here and lacking confidence). How about, for instance an 'edit' challenge. Throw up a simple sprite and let them have a go trying to spot various deliberate n00b errors in it and attempt to fix it. It should be encouraged that the better pixellers don't participate in things that are aimed below them, as their edits will likely make others feel inferior and incapable of posting something so well edited. However, after a given period, its a kind of free-for all and the better pixellers can then chip in and show how the job could have been done better. I seem to be rambling at this point while trying to get the idea across in a meaningful way.. but perhaps you get my meaning. Most of the current challenges are/have been a little too involving or difficult for newcomers, and usually a really good piece by someone will scare someone out of taking part.

Another option would be to have 'hidden submissions' to a challenge (similar in some ways to the hex collab) There was nothing visible by others to really deter you or 'raise the expectations' of you when taking part. Again, after a given period, all the entries are shown.


Hmm.. anyway.. all that's a bit off the original topic which was about a blog front desk. But I think there are other things that could be perhaps better addressed rather than something that really will just be a flavour of the month novelty in my opinion.

-Z-