I’m a developer looking for advice

General Discussion
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Hi everybody. I’m a developer in need of help. I’m posting this here because I thought it might a good and relevant place to do it. If I’m violating any forum rules, then please feel free to delete this or move it to the proper place. I am new to these forums and I’m sure I may have missed a thing or two…if that’s the case, I am sorry mods…my purpose is not to link dump, spam, or troll. I’m just a sincere game developer who is looking for some honest feedback from players with regard to a project that is very important to me.

For the last two years I’ve poured massive amounts of creativity, time, sweat, and tears into my game and I look at it now and I’m not sure what to do with it. I’m at the point where I’m considering abandoning the project or changing it drastically from its original vision…this is a tough decision for me to make because I’ve invested so much of myself into the game…but before I go ahead and do this, it occurred to me that I should gather feedback from game players who might actually understand the game’s controls. Given that my game is essentially is a twist on the fighting game genre, I thought I would come here to Shoryuken and ask you all what you think of it.

Some people have told me the controls are exhausting, difficult and tedious. I get what they’re saying to a certain extent, but I also have wondered if I’m asking the right people. There are lots of synchronized button presses in my game, which are essentially “special moves” borrowed from fighting games. I’ve tried to create a simple control scheme (only 3 buttons) with a high layer of depth by putting in special abilities that require timing, reflexes, and finger dexterity. So while there are only 3 buttons, those buttons can be used skillfully to launch some awesome abilities.

Kaboom! is essentially a fighting game in casual clothing, with a few twists. I started out with a “grand vision” of sorts: that short, casual games have the potential to offer richer, deeper, and more dynamic controls than they currently do. I believe that fast, twitchy combat, when done right, can be immensely rewarding and fun. The joy and challenge of split-second timing…pulling off an ability at just the right moment…dodging at the opportune time…a frenzied pace of combat…these things are largely missing in casual games. Interestingly enough, these attributes are very common in fighting games, so that’s why I thought you all might get what I’m trying to do with Kaboom!. It’s also why I think you all may be the best critics and judges of my game.

Kaboom! is my attempt at creating a proof of concept of my vision and I would really be honored if you could try it for me. It’s hard to explain how valuable your feedback would mean to me. After working on this for two years in a bubble, with no idea if I’m heading in the right direction or not…a little guidance would really go a long, long way.

Thank you all for reading! Here is a flash version of my game:

https://bekblaku.itch.io/kaboom

Warmest regards,
Bek

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I can already tell part of the issue is the controls aren’t intuitive, and honestly only people used to keyboard fighters and platformers would probably even find it comfortable. I know for myself I would never play on keyboard, I always hook up a controller, and I’d probably map S to a button and leave the directions on the d-pad. That alone would make a huge difference.

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Have you considered changing your stomp button to something a little more intuitive? To me, it is not natural to hold the S key while double-tapping A or D. I would suggest the spacebar (typical “jump”) key. Maybe even add is as an alternative, so you can use either? That way it can still be played with one hand, but if someone needed to, they have the option of using two hands much more comfortably. I did find that when I split my hands and used A/D+Down-arrow, it was instantly more enjoyable, but I still think spacebar is a good choice.

One more thing: I would suggest making your levels a little more condensed, at least towards the start of the game. Depending on how well you’re playing you’re getting somewhere around 2 minutes of repetitive, tiring motions before the boss, and it might be a little much for most players. You lose a lot of the fun factor once things start feeling like a grind, you know?

(First boss - and basically all of the first level if you do it right - can’t touch you if you just hold special and spam fireballs, fingers tired out after that though :stuck_out_tongue: )

Good luck.

edit: I don’t know what kind of games you are looking at for influence/research, but have you ever played the game Towerfall? It is certainly not the same genre, but it utilizes very few buttons and is extremely easy to pick up and play because of it, while still having a surprisingly high skill cap. It is one of my personal favorites, especially when it comes to its simplicity. Celeste is a more recent (and seemingly well-known) platforming game using a lot of the same concepts (it is fantastic, everyone should play it) however I feel that Towerfall really captured a lot of the aggressive playstyle you appear to be going for.

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Thanks for the feedback Gasaraki. I changed the bounce button to Space and re-uploaded the game…along with making the levels shorter and making the power-ups pop out more often. I will try to add gamepad support soon as I can. I really think that would make a big difference in accessibility.

Cheers!

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Gonna check it once i left my office.

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Rampage, I really appreciate you taking the time to write this all down for me.

I changed the stomp button to space as you suggested. As I play it myself, I see your point - it is easier and more accessible. Also working on adding controller support…I think that would make a big difference.

I also condensed the levels as you suggested, and made power-ups pop out more often.

Yeah, the first level is super easy. I’m considering adding more enemies, bosses, power-ups and special abilities like a shoryuken. I honestly just don’t know if the game was crap or not so I’m not sure if doing all that additional work is worthwhile.

I’ve also been simultaneously developing a mobile version. The APK file is here for anybody who would like to install it on their android phone and give it a shot:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DMWqcs4eOGh_V7hoWOCgYkxdQ2Nbm4uO

If you’re interested, here’s some footage of what the android version looks like. I basically treat the mobile device as a gamepad:

I will try out Towerfall. I have heard a lot about it, Celeste too. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for responding!

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Thank you!

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Ok, downloading it right now.
Gonna post impressions later

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There’s shit all learning curve in this game. First impressions matter, and if players are getting constantly murked while they’re still figuring out the controls you’ve already lost your playerbase.

The most simplest action that a player is gonna start with is timing their fall onto an enemy or trying to bop an enemy from underneath using the natural movement of the character. Falling onto an enemy is fine, but rising up and dieing afterwards is not fun. You have very little control or way of avoiding enemies on the way up. No ones ever gonna stick around long enough to figure out that you can hold stomp and use the dashes for extra special attacks.

Asking players to understand advance mechanics of the game isn’t something you want right off the bat. The stage you’ve built is like two or three stages away from what you want in a starting stage.

As is, the only way to play the game is to constantly hold the special button. There is no downside or real decision to make behind it at all. You may as well just give it to the players off the bat. Letting go of the special button does jack squat in helping players have an easier time getting through or learning the game either. If you were getting bopped while your character was on the uprise, then stomping even harder isn’t going to address that, you’ll still get bopped coming back up anyway.

The only way someone will be able to enjoy themselves is if they somehow miraculously discovered how to hold special and dash at the same time. This requires them to know that:

  1. you can dash in this game
  2. you can hold stomp to charge in this
  3. you shouldn’t let go of stomp and keep charging
  4. you are able to dash while charging

That’s a lot of hurdles you’re asking someone to jump through when they’ve only just picked up the game for the first time.

There’s too many barriers at the moment from letting someone enjoy the game it’s most simplest level.
You’ll probably want to introduce the player on how to properly play your game. Consider making levels that first teach them the basic controls. You introduce the concept, give them some practice time then kick up the difficulty and add on the next mechanic as you see fit.

Something like the following order might work.

  1. move left, right
  2. stomping
  3. dashing
  4. holding and releasing stomp
  5. holding and dashing

You can have lessons subdivided into different levels, or have it as one continuously scrolling screen that progressively gets harder and harder.

Another idea you may consider is making the top of your character have a hitbox too. It’d simplify the game to where damage is only taken from the sides (front and back) and you can leverage the players pre-existing knowledge of breakout in picking up the game faster so that they can get to the fun stuff that you want them to experience faster (all the special moves and enemy dodging that you want them to do).

Look up flappy fighter for how they did a quick yet effective tutorial.

Pay attention to other games on how they slowly teach players the controls and rules of the game before ramping up the difficulty.

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Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I agree about the lack of friendliness. I will create a way of easing the player into the game and teach them how it works. I’ve seen that Miyamoto video you linked, it’s a very useful one and full of good tidbits. I’ll watch it again and take some pointers. My general plan right now is to make it a lot easier early on and slowly ramp up the difficulty wave after wave. I checked out flappy fighter and will take some notes on it.

Several other people have also mentioned that they don’t see a use in the charge button. It’s kind of weird because…well, when I put in the regular dash (without the fire charge), I was kind of projecting into the future…I envisioned the player having to maneuver quickly around obstacles that come their way, like projectiles and stuff popping out of the ground and from the top of the screen. That’s why I put in a feature where the dash actually goes through an enemy if timed right. You can try it if you like. So I envisioned the player dashing around, and even dashing through projectiles that couldn’t be hit. I think it may have been too forward-thinking, though. Without the projectiles and obstacles in the game to provide some context, the dash does really seem pointless. I think I will try what you said and put make the special abilities as the default dash.

Thanks for the info about the hurdles, yes there are quite a few of them happening at once…

Making the top of the character have a hit box is an interesting idea. I’m going to try to get to that and see what it feels like.

I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I value it so much. Cheers!

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Thanks!