what was this made on?
Reviews for "Get Home Drunk"
ruthers responds:
Stencyl.
www.stencyl.com
The way you die and how its very anticlimactic actually made me giggle a bit XD But over all I do understand that you said its work in progress. Its just kinda meh after awhile and it doesn't really have much to it, but I look forward to what you have to offer creator! ^^
ruthers responds:
Hi thanks for playing it and for your feedback.
Going forward with this game I'll try to come up with new ways of making it more fun.
Alright demo.
"Get home drunk" is a great idea for a game but it's not whatever this is
there is nothing intuitive about the workings of the game:
If the game stood alone and you didn't write a description, I would have to figure out what kills me. Add some instructions that visually tell you (show the sprite in the instructions rather than a description) what harms you, maybe how things harm you (the crowd moves you back). Be sure though not to overwhelm the player with instructions, make it as small and concise as possible
bugs: going through walls from underneath
you can get pickpocketed to the point of being in debt
you will often get stopped by the side of a building
The game design is surprisingly not bad. There are moments where i think about the risk and the rewards of my actions, which are made from the elements in the game. The very middle of the road is the safest part of the street (which could be a good quirk of the level even if it might be an oversight), but I'm not able to stay there the entire time because I slow down if I don't get to a bathroom. the pee mechanic is fairly well implemented, as it forces the player into taking risks .
The game seemed unfair at first, but the game allowed me to think around my previous problems. I think the biggest unfair element might be those instances of getting stuck between the the risk of crossing the road and the girl and guy that will instantly game over you.
The scoring of the game is completely abstract from the player. What gives me more score? What's the point of scoring? Is score only dependent on time? There is no indication of this, and we need some clarification if you want people to really try getting more score.
buying anything is useless at this state. For food, there is no incentive for a player to buy food accept for the possibility that it might make them faster. buying food has the huge possible detriment of slowing you down to a pixel per second. The risk is rarely considered because recovering from being sick is painfully slow and too difficult. This makes buying any food pointless. The only other thing you can buy is transportation, which doesn't add much to the game as it just skips the level. You should make buying things more interesting and rewarding, rather than pointless and too risky.
The art and audio clash. The audio in the title screen has real voices: real things compliment other real things. the art it pixelated and retro: retro things compliment other retro aspects. The art and the audio have different qualities that don't match up when put together. This is bad as it is a break in unity. A break in unity can be jarring and sometimes humorous, but is a show of a lack of understanding how certain things fit with each other. you should find the biggest represented aspect in your game (I would say retro feeling) and make everything fit into that feeling well. A break in unity can sometimes be used to contrast two things, or to make some point. In your case the game breaks its unity because you wanted the player feel like their in some bar or cafe or something before they start the game. I think it's not too terrible in your case but if it's reoccurring it could pile up and get real bad real quick.
Overall I don't think this game is too great, it has only a few good things, like its interesting and possibly unintended risk-reward considerations. The concept and execution isn't crazy innovative. The art is bad and clashes with the audio.
You want to improve this game and make it better, but the rating that you get is going to be based mostly on this first version. I think you need to get out of the habit of "I'll fix the bad things later," and you should try showing us the extents of what you can make when you first release your work. Personally I don't care whether or not you choose to leave in flaws in your games, but if you leave in flaws you won't be able to get feedback on aspects of your game that people would have commented on if it were fully developed. Most feedback is going to come from the first time you published, not later with the improvements. The most important feedback you can get on your work is when you think you can't make the game any better than it is right now. Don't get in the mindset of trying to only improve your work, try to improve yourself and your understanding of your work as well.
-Sorry for being an internet jackass, Sincerely Pizza Roll
ruthers responds:
Hi Pizzaroll!
Thanks for playing the game!
The bugs you have mentioned I am aware of and have posted them already on the Stencyl website forums page. I like to approach it all on a full free day because I know when you go to fix one bug another two pop up and I don't want to lose my trail of thought of how to fix things if I only have an hour or two free. I'll hopefully get at least a day or two over the festive period to iron out the bugs.
I agree with you that I need to keep the style retro both in graphics and audio. The audio on the intro screen is just me in a bar with my iPad recording the ambience.
I'm not the best artist or musician evidently thats why I'll always go back and revamp things on all of my games as I improve over time.
What I'll do the next time I sit down to this game is go over your paragraphs and see whether I can implement the suggestions you've written. One point you've suggested is to make the food buying more rewarding to the player rather than it being a risk, my initial thought is to maybe remove the food poisoning aspect of this altogether.
Again thanks for the constructive feedback.