Side to side motion of the player feels smooth and the objective of the game is straightforward
This game is very intuitive and requires player to hit the perfect timing. This game also has a well-established scoring system.
It gives a twist on a well known game, the controls and game mechanics are intuitive.
I don't think this game did very much well at all, if I'm being honest. I could try to come up with something, but that would either require outright lying or damning so heavily with faint praise that it would just be kinder to say I was unenthused.
This game combines avoiding obstacles and shotting, making it more interesting for players: we can have more choices facing the obstacles.
The game is fun to play with triangle object represents players shooting beam and rectangle objects as enemy. An interesting choice to change color of rectangle to act as an enemy and can cause harm while at default color the player won't die when being hit. Harmless object can become enemy when these colors are changed. The sliding left and right of the triangle along with speed creates some challenges to the gameplay.
Coming up with an unique cooldown system of firing.
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What could this game have done better?
****************************
It feels bad when a brick spawns and you never have a chance to shoot it before it kills you. The 'safety' of a brick is deceiving because it could just turn orange while you're stuck in it. It might feel better if the one button had some impact on movement, rather than shooting. The forced delay of shooting also feels bad because you can't do anything about falling clusters of blocks.
Sometimes you will hit an obstacle even without any chance to fire a bullet to eliminate that.
Color scheme is really neon and a bit harsh on the eyes.
Had this game been more ambitious in scope instead of an arcade knockoff it could have gotten away with being shoddily done, had it been better executed instead of feeling half-baked it could have gotten away with being unoriginal, but you can't do both. To say what I would change:
- For concept, instead of automating the movement and using the button to shoot, you should have used a button to thrust sideways and automate the shooting, since if the blocks are only moving downwards aiming is trivial anyways. Probably add a fuel gauge of some sort as a cost, possibly tie firing into it if you're feeling ambitious?
- For execution, I would have bound the single button to Space instead of F as it's far more intuitive, changed the screen resolution from horizontal so the resolution was at least square in a vertically scrolling game, distinguished between the enabled/disabled colors far more than yellow/orange. Or at least synced the blocks up better to what was actually happening in game, or just removed the mechanic entirely since it doesn't really add anything to the game anyway, if you really think about it. Oh, and also whatever was going on with the firing to make it clear when exactly you can or can't fire, because that's kind of important in a game where that's your only action.
If you're reading this, I know I've been harsh, but please don't give up hope! I wouldn't have bothered writing all this if I didn't think you could do better. I believe in you!
The color changing of obstacles is not so predictable and obvious, making this game uncontrollable. I think they can create multiple classes for the obstacles and specify their behaviors so that players can get more knowledge on making their decisions.
The game can be improved by adding more game feel such as sounds effect of shooting beam, background battle music, explosion sound when enemy is destroyed. The theme can have less contrast to ease the player eyes. It would be helpful to have more information display such a health bar and the current score. The gameplay can add some random bonus items to upgrade shooting beam to bring more joy and avoid repetitive gameplay.
The level designing. It seems like the designer does not want the player to win (by their ability), rather on luck. But traditionally game based on luck are not action-like games like this one.
Comments
What did this game do well?
****************************
Side to side motion of the player feels smooth and the objective of the game is straightforward
This game is very intuitive and requires player to hit the perfect timing. This game also has a well-established scoring system.
It gives a twist on a well known game, the controls and game mechanics are intuitive.
I don't think this game did very much well at all, if I'm being honest. I could try to come up with something, but that would either require outright lying or damning so heavily with faint praise that it would just be kinder to say I was unenthused.
This game combines avoiding obstacles and shotting, making it more interesting for players: we can have more choices facing the obstacles.
The game is fun to play with triangle object represents players shooting beam and rectangle objects as enemy. An interesting choice to change color of rectangle to act as an enemy and can cause harm while at default color the player won't die when being hit. Harmless object can become enemy when these colors are changed. The sliding left and right of the triangle along with speed creates some challenges to the gameplay.
Coming up with an unique cooldown system of firing.
========================================
What could this game have done better?
****************************
It feels bad when a brick spawns and you never have a chance to shoot it before it kills you. The 'safety' of a brick is deceiving because it could just turn orange while you're stuck in it. It might feel better if the one button had some impact on movement, rather than shooting. The forced delay of shooting also feels bad because you can't do anything about falling clusters of blocks.
Sometimes you will hit an obstacle even without any chance to fire a bullet to eliminate that.
Color scheme is really neon and a bit harsh on the eyes.
Had this game been more ambitious in scope instead of an arcade knockoff it could have gotten away with being shoddily done, had it been better executed instead of feeling half-baked it could have gotten away with being unoriginal, but you can't do both. To say what I would change:
- For concept, instead of automating the movement and using the button to shoot, you should have used a button to thrust sideways and automate the shooting, since if the blocks are only moving downwards aiming is trivial anyways. Probably add a fuel gauge of some sort as a cost, possibly tie firing into it if you're feeling ambitious?
- For execution, I would have bound the single button to Space instead of F as it's far more intuitive, changed the screen resolution from horizontal so the resolution was at least square in a vertically scrolling game, distinguished between the enabled/disabled colors far more than yellow/orange. Or at least synced the blocks up better to what was actually happening in game, or just removed the mechanic entirely since it doesn't really add anything to the game anyway, if you really think about it. Oh, and also whatever was going on with the firing to make it clear when exactly you can or can't fire, because that's kind of important in a game where that's your only action.
If you're reading this, I know I've been harsh, but please don't give up hope! I wouldn't have bothered writing all this if I didn't think you could do better. I believe in you!
The color changing of obstacles is not so predictable and obvious, making this game uncontrollable. I think they can create multiple classes for the obstacles and specify their behaviors so that players can get more knowledge on making their decisions.
The game can be improved by adding more game feel such as sounds effect of shooting beam, background battle music, explosion sound when enemy is destroyed. The theme can have less contrast to ease the player eyes. It would be helpful to have more information display such a health bar and the current score. The gameplay can add some random bonus items to upgrade shooting beam to bring more joy and avoid repetitive gameplay.
The level designing. It seems like the designer does not want the player to win (by their ability), rather on luck. But traditionally game based on luck are not action-like games like this one.