Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Looking for feedback on my 3D retro shooting game, Toyful Wonderworld!

A topic by Wicked Figs created Feb 16, 2024 Views: 326 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(+1)

Hey everyone, I've recently released the first part of Toyful Wonderworld, which was built off of my previous Bad Toys fangame. I haven't really received much feedback, so I'm hoping to get some opinions on my game to help me improve it for the full release. 

Toyful Wonderworld, The First Part

I'd mainly like some feedback on the mechanics and gameplay. Most importantly, I wanna know if it's FUN. Please give it a shot and let me know what I can do to improve the experience.


Hey there, your game is definitely FUN! I actually never played Bad Toys (or your remake) but I'm a big fan of Wolf3D and its derivatives, especially Blake Stone which this actually reminds me of a little bit. The bins full of parts are just perfect. It looks like you have replaced most (all?) of the assets from BT, which I would recommend going forward as it appears that the original is still for sale on the Tibo website!

I did run into a problematic bug, where the items don't populate correctly in the map. Most importantly the switch to open the first locked door! But also a bunch of decorations and stuff were missing. The first time this happened I thought it was because of the difficulty setting, basically when I restarted the level on medium everything came back leading me to believe they were just not flagged to spawn on hard. However, then I downloaded again on a different computer and picked medium first thing, and the same items were missing. Restarting the mission (again on medium) fixed it, but then I got missing items in the next map too!

Anyway the gameplay itself is pretty solid. At a basic level the gunplay is satisfying which can carry the whole experience. I found the rifle to be less useful than the pistol, which is slightly disappointing for the first new weapon you find. It does seem to do more damage but with the slower fire rate it is underwhelming. Maybe I'm missing something (shoots through enemies?). The enemy behavior could benefit from a little bit more randomness. One of my favorite parts of Wolf3D was when a guard would just bugger off for a while, slamming doors somewhere while you hope you don't get shot in the back suddenly. Patrolling enemies were also one of the things that made the level feel more "alive" and I think both of these behaviors could really work well here.

The framerate was pretty inconsistent, not sure if you can do anything about that in GameMaker... I initially blamed the potato I have at work and then found it almost went too fast on my PC. This isn't game breaking but it was a bit odd because the timing of shots suddenly would get much faster, maybe there is a way to cap the framerate?

I would really like to see the controls more customizable, as I would prefer to use Space to open and LMB to shoot. Also being able to save mid-level would be nice. Some other non-gameplay things, intermission gunshot sound is super loud even if the sound volume is low, and the secret opening sound seemed a little out of place (intentional?). Also the player's hands don't really match the voice? I'm not sure if I'm a toy or a human?

Overall it's an enjoyable experience, I like that there's no unlocking garbage and it's just a straight shooter. As I play more levels I'll definitely share my thoughts!

Thank you so much for the compliments and in-depth critique, it's very much appreciated! I'm really curious about this bug you mentioned, as I've never seen it before and it hasn't been mentioned by other players. Do you recall any specific instances of items that were missing besides the door switch? I know the difficulty settings will remove certain enemies and change some of the collectibles, but it shouldn't affect anything else as far as I know...

Addressing some of the other things you mentioned, I will probably power up the rifle a spec since others have said that it was a bit underwhelming in terms of effectiveness.  I also do like the idea of patrolling enemies. The only problem is that they're all visually designed to be facing the player at all times like in Bad Toys, unlike Wolfenstein and Doom where the enemies have sprites for 8 different directions, so it looks more natural if they're moving away from the player. There will be a large variety of enemies though, with various attacks that should keep players on their toes! I'll have to look into the framerate situation, as far as I know, GameMaker automatically caps it at 60fps so I'm not sure what might be causing this issue.

All in all, this was a very informative critique, and you pointed out some issues that I missed like the gunshot sound not adjusting to the sound settings that I shall address. Thanks again for writing this up! And again, if you have any more information about this bug, definitely let me know!

Lots of blocking decorations were not there... pretty much all of the chairs and tables, and flower pots in the first level, and all sorts of stuff in the second level including those rows of boxes? that hold in the two fuzzy pistol guys on either side of the hallway. I took a screenshot but forgot to include it ^.^

Yeah, rotations make spriting 8 times harder :P   In Doom (and maybe Wolf3d I'm not sure) they used a trick where some rotations could be mirrored, just to cut down on spriting time.

One other random thing I just remembered, I felt that the enemies blocking during death animation was a bit long. It is minor but if you could run past them a little sooner I think it would improve the flow

That's so bizarre. I have no idea how to go about replicating and fixing that issue, but I'll certainly keep an eye out for it. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention! I'll look into the death animation issue as well, which should be a simple adjustment to make.

Why fun when you can change it's style to make it scary? With a few tweaks here and there, some adjustement to the game lore, improvements to the style and environment, it might be a better fit than fun game. I always wonder why these games rely on players memory instead of providing a map, regardless if it's detailed to help or just partial to guide. Physic colliders from wandering objects might be reduced as they harm the user experience, especially when they trap you down. The two types of enemies i encountered, except one beign armed with gun, feels boringly the same. This could be a game i would invest in, but not as is in this stage. I'm playing for 5 mins or so, without knowing what to do next. Defeated all enemies i could find, entered through all doors i could open, still i wonder whether to relaunch from scratch and read the dialog which i accidentally quit.

Good potential overall :) Good luck!

(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I do think skipping the dialogue might have created some difficulties, especially with the phone character at the beginning. He informs you about a switch to open a locked door that allows you into the next area, as well as the map being accessible by pressing "M". The game also does get a bit scarier as you progress and has more enemy variety to make things challenging. I do appreciate you taking the time to try my game out!

Event hough the dialog is skipped, accidental or not, the npc should remain enough active to hint a wandering player. Instead of the whole dialog, he should remain slightly active to produce one line of text in fun way "Are you lost? Did you forgot to press the switch for the metal door?" M is definitely helpful, so it's good to have it. I don't recall seeing it in help? Maybe i went through it fast, though, it happens when I'm not fully devoted to a game.

What is your plan with launching your game, distributing, monetizing, and other publishing povs? Oh and last time i forget, what engine did you use for making it? Not that I'm coder but I find the engine important in the game distribution, and this isn't something i've run across before.