New arcade game for cabinet - want your opinions

[mike_bike_kite]

I write games as a hobby. I've been working on this one for the past couple of months and I just wanted some feedback. It's a basic shoot them up game and is intended for both PC's and for MAME cabinets. In this game the various Martians can assemble together to create more powerful creatures. Whatever characteristics they have will be inherited by the finished assembly. You can blow them apart but they'll just scramble back together into something different. Supply drops give you weapon upgrades, health improvements or just points. There is a tutorial and various levels available. You can earn trophies at each level and you need to earn a trophy to start the next level. There are also global high scores (though the current entries are artificial).



Here's a quick video of the game which hopefully gives a rough idea of things:

[acvieluf]

Since you're asking for feedback, here is mine:

1st of all:  this looks really fun and engaging.  Kudos.

2nd: Thinking about this in a MAME cabinet makes me wonder.  What elements would be hard to read or discern on a CRT TV?  Many MAME cabinets have these, so just wondering, would there be an option to increase font size, maybe even bullet size, if necessary?

3rd:  Only because you're asking, i would make only one suggestion: A more polished start screen.  Maybe this is already in the works, but having the fonts lined up properly, and a more traditional start option on screen.  As it is now, it looks very much like a browser flash game.  Again, you're the artist, its your painting     . 

Looks fun, though, i'd love to have something newer like this along side the retro stuff in a cab. : )

[mike_bike_kite]

1) many thanks
2) the resolution of the game is 800x600 so it "should" be OK on a CRT TV but I don't have one to try I'm afraid. Increasing the size of the bullets would alter the game as it would be easier to hit things. I could put a version out there and see what folks think.
3) Can you be more specific or point me at specific games to try and emulate. Obviously, I'm a bit time constrained but I don't mind altering things. The aim of the attract screen as it stands was just to show the various aspects of the game. I'm definitely not an artist! the reason the game looks like a children's cartoon was simply because that's the level of my art.

"Looks fun, though, i'd love to have something newer like this along side the retro stuff in a cab." - actually that's why I started writing these games. The original games are brilliant but occasionally it'snice to try something new. My aim is to write a different game for each planet in the solar system. This is my third game now.

[EMDB]

Add a download link so we can give it a try on our cabs and give you real feedback.

I really like this homebrew game on my cab: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,137264.msg1416232.html#msg1416232

[acvieluf]

Can you be more specific or point me at specific games to try and emulate. Obviously, I'm a bit time constrained but I don't mind altering things. The aim of the attract screen as it stands was just to show the various aspects of the game. I'm definitely not an artist! the reason the game looks like a children's cartoon was simply because that's the level of my art.

Oh man, i'm sorry if it sounded like i was knocking your art.  Again, i wouldn't mention anything normally.  The attract screen is great, and the gameplay looks fun.  I was only speaking of the actual title.  (Found at :01 in your video).  I was just mentioned that the font looked crooked and mismatched.  That and the word "play" with the arrows over top make it look like a browser flash game. 

That being said, those things don't really matter if the game itself is fun.   

[mike_bike_kite]

Add a download link so we can give it a try on our cabs and give you real feedback.

I actually tried just providing a download link on my last game but got no replies at all even though I thought it was quite a fun game. Hey ho. I thought I'd try a video this time! My games are Java which can be an issue for some but that's what I code in. I can turn them into exe's but it's quite a process so I like to get the game settled before doing this.

Oh man, i'm sorry if it sounded like i was knocking your art.  Again, i wouldn't mention anything normally.  The attract screen is great, and the gameplay looks fun.  I was only speaking of the actual title.  (Found at :01 in your video).  I was just mentioned that the font looked crooked and mismatched.  That and the word "play" with the arrows over top make it look like a browser flash game. 

That being said, those things don't really matter if the game itself is fun.   

Absolutely no offence taken! I want to hear your opinions. The title was actually deliberately offset to try and show the idea of things assembling on screen but obviously that isn't working I did end up watching that guy's video. After the 1st 10 minutes he gets very informative and I agree with nearly all he has to say. I'll see what points I can add to this game.


I wondered about having a more "granular" power up system to provide more decisions to the game. At the moment you just get a new weapon with unlimited ammo unless your health is below 25% in which case you get a health boost. If you have all weapons and good health then you get a points bonus 2k, 3k ... 10k. I wondered about starting the player with all 3 weapons but only proving limited ammo for the first weapon. When the player gets to a power up I could then allow them to choose what they want:

• extra ammo (at the moment ammo is unlimited)
• more damage (fewer hits will kill things)
• faster firing
• better cooling (so it doesn't overheat so fast)
• health
• points (starting at 2k and then going up 1k at a time)

The problems with this choice are : I'm not sure whether a player would have enough time to make a sensible choice. Maybe I could slow play down or even stop play for a short while (the problem with this is it knocks the player out of the artificial world of the game which is usually a bad thing)? Should the upgrades and ammo only apply to the current weapon (it would make the menu shorter but would the player be able to organise themselves in time)? Thoughts anyone?