Lovely, it has personality. I’ve just fooled around the first levels and it feels solid, once I’ve time I’ll play through it. Thanks for sharing your work once more.
I think I have now gotten this game feature complete (there’s still a little bit of content missing), and if anyone with an Android device would be willing to help me test it I’d very much appreciate it.
Send me a message with your gmail address (needs to be the one from your android device so you can download it from Google Play), and I’ll add you to the alpha testers group.
I am getting very close to finally finishing this off and releasing it into the wild (which will be nice because to be honest I want to get onto other projects).
I have created a short trailer that will go with the Google Play store listing, any comments you guys might have are very much appreciated;
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(Also, for those of you that prefer gifs, here’s an imgur album showing some recent game-play; http://imgur.com/gallery/39dYK).
Feels more like a gameplay teaser than a trailer. I think it could be easily condensed to one minute, I doubt most people that browse through games on the market will watch a 2 1/2 minute video.
That’s a fair point, I’ll make another one where there’s less pointless walking around.
I’ll also do a build where the texts on the signs aren’t showing up because it’s just confusing in the trailer when there’s not enough time to read it anyway.
Good to see you have kept the cartoony effects on death, although I would to see similar over-the-top effects for all deaths. Sometimes the sprite explodes in red, and other times there is just a quiet message saying DIED. Maybe for incinerations you could have a mushroom cloud animation?
There’s supposed to be excessive blood spray when dying from falling, being crushed, cut by saw blade or bitten by a snake. If you get burned there’s an excessive amount of smoke, if that wasn’t obvious in the video I’ll fix it in the next attempt at a trailer.
Sorry for the delay but now I have some feedback for you to present:
+++
the graphics fit very well to your story
I especially like the music in your game
sounds are also very well done
android-version is very stable - no crushes until now
controls are easy to understand
Moreover, I especially love the (zoom-)effect for going through a door into a new level
diversified levels are cool and each level is unique
—
sounds are well done, but the sound “attend to the door” is too loud
[android] the introduction to your game appears always you come to the main menu - very annoying
you don’t have enough time to read every sign in the level
after a certain time the game gets boring because the only sense of the game is collecting parts of a key - nothing a player really wants to do without rewards
Every beginner firstly can run to the level with the hook, but why should a player get a nice tool at the beginning of the game? this “cheating” (it’s not cheating at all but very similar) destroys the fun
Controls of the player are much better (easier) than in your game “Hovercraft”. But in case of an advanced player (who plays your game for hours) the king in the game moves too slowly. The player gets used to the movement and then he realize that e.g. jumping works very slowly
the player often sticks on the corner of the bottom, then he can’t move forward, falls down and dies - this is very annoying 2 meters before the end of a level
bodily injury after a huge jump is exaggerated - also small jumps to a lower platform will kill you
I can’t find a real advantage of the clothes you get. the player should feel a big advantage for this item
on Android the movement (left/right) on stairs is annoying and difficult
Further suggestions:
More Items! and Items should have advantages for the player
In general you could add some more speed into your game (not at the beginning but at a certain time after the player got used to the controls) - boost-shoes would be great!
The player could unlock doors with a part of the ‘Master’-key. When he finds a part of a key he unlocks the next 2 levels (or something like that). Without this function the player will never finish this game because searching only one ‘Master’-key is boring
disable the right/left movement on stairs on android
Give the player the feeling of getting back the king-power (e.g. through increasing speed or a greater hook). (“From dishwasher to king”)
Every level should be more useful than finding a part of a key, because the key is not very useful for the player (yes, the key unlocks the castle but the player can play 99% of the game without using the key - so why should he collect the parts of the key?)
sounds for the menu would be great
This is only my personal view, but I hope that some points are interesting for your further game-development. All in all I really like your concept and the way you make a game with foreign graphics - but you can also improve your game to create more fun for the players.
Wow! Thank you so much for that, I’ll go through it in detail tonight and get working on as many of these as possible.
I am very grateful for you taking the time to do this.
If you don’t mind me asking, how far did you get on the Android version? Did you get all the way to and kill the Impostor?
I have taken care of a few of your comments, they should be in version 0.77 (when that filters through the Google Play store).
The volume for the door opening sound is now turned down a bit.
The introductionary narrative is not played anymore if you’ve managed to collect at least one key-fragment.
I’ve extended the time available in the levels I suspect you’re referring to.
I need to think about what to do about this.
You are right, the player can “cheat” in this way and that’s intended. I want it to be non-linear in a sense and for people to realize that they can go back and do levels again or in a different order. But I’ll think about your comment and see if I can figure out a way to limit this.
What!? Are you saying controls in Hovercraft are difficult? After all, that game has gotten such excellent reviews as “Impossible to drive”, “Flies like a drunken fish” and “Like QWOP, but with two buttons”
In all seriousness though, I’ve sped up the walking/jumping speed of the player a bit to fix this.
I am not sure what you mean by this.
It’s to prevent people from taking short-cuts but falling down rather than climbing or otherwise traverse a level the way it was intended.
They double the amount of damage you can take. I’ll see if I can make that more obvious.
Agreed, I am working on coming up with a fix for this.
I have added button clicks to the menu buttons.
I’ve think about these and see if I can figure out a way to improve it along the lines you suggest.
Your personal view was exactly what I was hoping to get! Thank you again so much for taking the time to test my game and compile this report. And thanks for the compliments about it as well, it really makes my day to hear someone say they like my game.
Unfortunately not on Android, but I’m currently working on this I just tested some levels but I still not killed the Impostor This will take it’s time - you can’t run through the game in one week (this is a very positive aspect )
I have send you an email - Now I hope you understand what I mean
Concerning version 0.77:
much better now!
I really like the new running/jumping speed
The sound itself is brilliant but quiet and you forgot to add the sound for the “pause-button” in the level
Further feedback:
Did you change the design of the killing-wheel? It looks much improved now.
I’m not sure at all: When you fell off - is it water at the bottom? In this case the king could fall into cold water instead of falling off the stage. But you will have to think about performance/design of that. Maybe this current solution is better for the gameplay and works faster.
Something strange:
The V-SYNC level has two boxes - before 0.77 this level crushed on android - now I can’t open the second box. I’m not sure what exactly you fixed here
Right, you mean when the player gets a bit stuck on the corner?
I am trying to sort that. I think you should still be able to jump away though, right?
Adressing your latest comments;
I am glad you liked the new door-sound, walking speed, menu button-sound, and new killing wheel (excellent name, by the way).
I’ve added the click sound to the in-game buttons.
I’ve fixed the bug that broke most levels with boxes in.
I’ve fixed a bug with the Boss that made his stop all of a sudden.
I’ve fixed level V-SYNC to only have one chest.
I’ve made the water semi-transparent, and added a slapsh effect and sound to hightlight that the player actually falls in water.
I am uploading version 0.78_ALPHA to Google Play now, if you’re not fed up with testing this yet I’d appreciate any comments you may have on the changes.
Also, would you like to be credited in game for the testing as “Plain Bug”, “PlainBug” or not at all?
The one fragment you just collected is supposed to stay a little bit longer to show which one you just got, but if you say that’s just confusing/annoying I’ll get rid of it.
I could do several hearts instead of filling one heart up, it does make sense. I think I’ll implement that change next.
In this game the player is supposed to assemble a broken key, and after all pieces are put together the door to the final boss can be unlocked. After some testing by @PlainBug it was discovered that even after the key was assembled the last door wouldn’t unlock, I tracked it down to this brilliant piece of code;
public static boolean isKeyAssembled() {
//return aquiredFragments.size() == TOTAL_NUMBER_OF_FRAGMENTS;
return false; // TODO; Replace this false with check above before testing
}
Probably time to go through all the TODOs in the code :persecutioncomplex:
At work my classes are a vast hierarchy of dependencies that are dynamically injected for flexibility and testability. Static is considered bad in most cases.
At home my code is full of shortcuts, all geared towards actually finishing a game rather than just chasing code-perfection. Static is greeted with open arms as the saviour of many late design decisions.
I think that is okay, as long as (your code works and) you are able to understand your own code…
I finally killed the impostor 8) 8) 8) 8) ;D
Feedback:
After the player killed the impostor, the “real” king (so the player) should get the impostor’s clothes (because the king with his crown looks very nice)
The heart of the impostor is above the pause-button
He died to easily, he’s supposed to be hurt just once by each blade you manage to hit him with. I’ve fixed that now.
Now you have to walk up to the dead impostor and then you’ll steal his clothes, then the game will end.
I moved the heart of the impostor, and changed it’s color to be the inverse of the players.
The grappling hook is now disabled when entering doors.
I also added really weird confetti rain when you kill the impostor. I am not sure why.
New version, 0.84, is now filtering through Google Play.
I just tested some levels but I still not killed the Impostor 
This will take it’s time - you can’t run through the game in one week (this is a very positive aspect 