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Racing Entropy

by

A fast paced puzzle game featuring cute flowers and power over the elements

A game where you have to battle the elements, by using elements, in order to terraform the landscape in order to accomplish randomly selected goals, on a randomly generated map.

Originally created for LD34, we are looking to finish this and add a list of new features now that the holiday season is over, but need more feedback to pick a good direction.

  • Tutorial is going to get much more flushed out, currently the underlying levels are finished, just need to get the GUI working.
  • Each variety of plant is going to get it's own artwork (depending on terrain)
  • Android build
  • More game modes
  • Some more tests on world creation to guarantee that a good puzzle is created
  • Manually created challenges
  • Potentially something of a storyline

Roasts

groundon33 8 years ago

Mechanics Tutorial/Learning Curve
i have not played this game for long, so consider correcting me (if it's possible on this site?)

List of things that in my opinion need changes:
-configuration has input controls for first person shooter, i recommend adding meaningful options such as ability to bind key to each type of tile
-intro screen could use more polish:
-the name is rather blurry, possibly create a font (or scalable vector graphics) so that it stays sharp when scaled like the logo of a company,
because this can be alot of work you could also just use a larger image with more detail
-i can see the end of the water in the corners (1920x1080)
also when playing a game: prevent user from panning the camera where the water stops
-consider adding a label next to 'low medium hard' that says 'difficulty'
-UI:
-consider adding labels or tooltips when hoverering that give the name of the tyle type
-when completing a game, the quit game option doesn't work, when you press 'new game' after you have pressed 'quit game'
it then asks you whether you want to quit game.
-when completing a game, you should have the option to go back to the main menu
-when completing a game, you should be able to choose a difficulty when selecting 'new game', or just replace 'new game' with all the difficulties (again add label)
-when completing a game that you failed 'plants died', the 'new game' option doesn't work, after pressing it twice, you go back to main menu
-hide the menu button when playing (in for example pause menu)
-allow us to rotate the board AND to change the viewing angle (top-down to a very low angle), when doing this, you will need to add some type of skybox, and hide the edges of the water
-allow surrender (generate new level with same difficulty)
-choosing a difficulty on the main menu after having played a game should generate a new game instead of using the previous game of that difficulty
-tutorial:
-consider adding a robust tutorial, because a game based on mechanics needs to be explained
-explain the term 'entropy', this does not need to go in great detail, consider incorporating this in the tutorial (at the beginning)
-what plants/plant type are we protecting?
-explain the mechanics for each type of tile
-difficulty (note: i am speaking from inexperience with this game)
-low seems inconsistent, sometimes giving me 1 type of tile and a very very easy objective, other times giving me 4 types of tiles
-instead of only difficulties, consider using parameters that the player can set to generate a level: 'number of tile types', 'board size', 'difficulty', 'enable <
Reply

groundon33 8 years ago

comment got cut off

-instead of only difficulties, consider using parameters that the player can set to generate a level: 'number of tile types', 'board size', 'difficulty',
'enable <> (example disable flagposts), etc.
-can't say alot more since i have next to know deep knowledge of the game since there is no tutorial
-sound effects
-music is okay, consider adding more (choose Creative Commons music), wil get stale
-sound effects for each tile are too loud for my taste, and i think they wil get stale very fast, for possible solution see next point
-add volume sliders (music, sound effects)
-cloud effect is bad, it is loud when a cloud is created, and then fades out, consider having a constant sound of wind with volume slightly increasing depending on amount of clouds
-changes in tiles that are done indirectly (for example fire spreading) should also have a sound

i think these changes would do alot to improve the game
Reply

AdvancedAzrielAngel 8 years ago

Tutorial/Learning Curve Mechanics
This is the kind of game that I pick up, play for 5-10 minutes, then I realize there's nothing else to it beyond a very simple mechanic and I lose interest in it because I mastered it but have no further reward that makes me want to keep playing.

-Graphics and sound are mediocre.
-No tutorial but the learning curve is so easy it's not a big problem.
-The randomness of some of the effects doesn't feel challenging, it feels downright annoying, that's a problem. There wasn't a predictable pattern so I felt helpless once the effects started.
-The victory message informing me that my plants survived seems completely disconnected from what I'm doing. What plants?
-Difficulty levels don't make sense. Low? You mean Easy? And it's not easy, it's pretty hard sometimes. Sometimes hard is easy. What's going on?
Reply

Vallar 8 years ago

Hello,

I tried to download the game but unfortunately the website seems not to work.
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