My small draft of a small game world: Driftwurld

[Callan S.]

Okay, this is really small at the moment. I'll describe it as fighting battles that take some player skill so you can unlock more of the story of the local area and it's troubled history, advancing through. Currently that story is short, just a couple of paragraphs to get through, as it's in trial mode. It currently uses a basic and evasive attack system, which is described on the front page.

The main feedback I'm looking at is how far people get through it so far - really if people are getting through it, I think graphics and page formatting are nice add ons, but it's whether people are playing through that matters first. If you want to talk about formatting, button placement, etc, cool, but how far you got it the first priority.

And no e-mail is required (just leave the space blank if you want)

Here's the link:
http://driftwurld.freehostingcloud.com

Edit: I've migrated the game to a site named what I want to call it 'Driftwurld'. Link edited accordingly. All player accounts should have been migrated all right.

[PaxBritannia]

I see no graphics at all.

Pax.

[Callan S.]

*shrug* urban dead doesn't either (well, one logo at the start)

[PaxBritannia]

This is a bit obvious but this is basically the tutorial battle with a sentence or two of background info!

Pax.

[Callan S.]

If you want abrupt and upfront, either in terms of teaching/helping fellow developers learn you've dismissed the additions I've made, or you've missed them entirely but think you've evaluated enough to post. If it's dismissing the additions then you are wasting your time and mine - when people learn, they develop small steps at a time. I don't know if any teachers at any school you've been to said you'd done nothing because you didn't develop in leaps and bounds - I really hope none did, because rather than teaching that's actually abusive.

The additions of note are being able to advance through a story - story which practically all gamers seem to say they want (maybe that's not true and they just want pew pew?). There's a resting system. There's a battle system that you have to get through all the battle or get sent back. There's an attack and evasive attack system, with a small associated memory game.

I don't know if the way your approaching it is how people approached your projects in the past - if other people have looked at your projects in the past and unless you made huge changes they treated it as nothing new - if they did, I'm sorry it happened, they weren't very supportive of you and were pretty dismissive. If they thought they were being helpful, they weren't. Quite the opposite.

Sometimes the reason people don't say what they feel is because what they feel turns out to be wrong. They look before they leap.

Really from Halls videos I expected a community where each step is taught in small steps with each being a small accomplishment and likewise any small independent step onward from the tute are appreciated. But I may have been entirely misslead in thinking that.

WTF is the point of a community if I have to keep working entirely alone until I'm completely different from the tute?

This is wreckage

[hallsofvallhalla]

sorry my response is late. I did test it earlier and I like the progress made so far.

Something I have been not saying in fear of upsetting people is that those that are making progress through the tutorials and building from them and those here who have built from scratch are the ones that have the drive to complete their game. Many have come here thinking it will be easy, that I will give them a game(nearly have) and that they can recruit a team to do their work. It is not easy.

Those of us with a project or or working towards one are the only ones adding to any of the tutorials or help. Many many have dropped along the wayside when they realized that any game takes work. I am so anxious to see someone take at least one of my projects and turn it into a online thriving game. Hell if I could find one person to do that I would give them Quests of Crocania for free and exclusively. I want to see my projects made into real games by those that have the drive to do it.

I commend all that have and are trying. Just by seeing you here changing my base tutorials into a game has made me very happy. If people don't like that i did not implement graphics then frankly I don't care. Don't play the game or watch the tuts. There are thousands to replace you that care about gameplay. Do not get thrown off by comments or lack thereof. I cannot speak for everyone but I myself have been so friggn busy on a project that I think will be quite awesome that I have not been very active. My fault, but isn't that what it is all about?

I have played some of the crap that is out there. Most of the big browser games that are live right now suck and I know half of my games are far funner. Why the hell don't I finish and release? Because I am in here giving my damn games away and making tutorials. I want people here to release, to succeed.

[SpiritWebb]

I am in agreement with Halls.

Too many people want to make a game, but basically want it handed too them. For the most part that is here, but when they realize that there is some work that needs to be done to make it great (Halls has given a premise to work with, a foundation), they freak and leave with "its too much work!"

It takes time to build a game. I have been working on Undiscovered for a year now, most of it by myself. Luckily two friends know how to model and are helping. But I still need other people, and until that happens, I do it myself. That is why I haven't been really active here. Just take it slowly and if people complain, who cares, its your project that you should be excited about. Taking someone's foundation and turning it into your own, going above and beyond what was taught in the videos.

I myself would like to see people succeed with their projects. I would also like to see people stick with one project and see it too the end. (Not pointing at you Halls, lol). If people start a project, then change to another, then to another, nothing is getting done. Focus on one, then move on to another. We all must learn how to crawl (These tutorials do just that), then we must learn to walk then run. We cannot just run without learning first...

Thats my two cents...

[Rastan]

I thank you for the tutorials Halls. I am not currently upgrading on any of the releases but I am working on a decent size classless browser game using a good bit of what I have learned here. The game has a tribal theme.

At the moment I have a basic character creation A player vs player combat system working on a grp vs grp addition to that(A war between "tribes" if you will). Also, I have a messaging system, quest system, a system of sorting inventory, and a stat raising system in the works. Most these elements are functional just not fleshed out with content and adjusted to require balanced resources. Basically the meat of the game is playable though not what I want yet. It truly has been a good bit of work.... but that's the fun of it for me because I get to see results from it.


I have no set release date as it's still in hobby mode for me creating this but I would think I will be getting a host and putting it up for "Alpha" in the next few months. I would likely be way further behind where I am now if it wasn't for the people who have actively helped me here and also inactively by posting on various topics, questions, and tutorials.

Thank you guys for being an invaluable resource to me and hopefully before long I'll be able to contribute more with knowledge than I take.


Now onto the main topic since that's off my chest.

I was able to get through the first set of paragraphs and a line or 2 into the second set(the story changed). After that I started getting killed more often and didn't make a lot of progress

I was a little confused by the evasive attack mechanics. I may have missed a description at some point tho but they did add a little flavor to it all the same.
The only actual issue I ran into was that a blank email gave me a this email has already been taken message. Simple fix there.

I liked the story that I got to see I did have a hard time actually reading certain parts of it tho (this could have something to do with me being big and dumb lol ) I think maybe it needs line breaks in some spots it kinda gave a run together effect as I was rolling thru it.
I'll try to mess with it a bit more later and see where I get. I hope that feedback helps a little. This looks like its getting somewhere towards an interesting game. Look forward to more

[PaxBritannia]

If it's dismissing the additions then you are wasting your time and mine - when people learn, they develop small steps at a time.

Agreed.

Sorry if I seemed to discourage you or anything, I do that sometimes unknowingly.

Personally, I kept dieing. I remember reading a short description of the evasive attack, but they seemed to not make any significant gameplay difference.
Also, even a little formatting makes a big impression.

Pax.

[Callan S.]

Thanks go to Rastan who played all the way through what story there is right now. Thanks Rastan, it's really encouraging!

For anyone interested in what's been added, I just uploaded the following newly coded stuff

• 1. Graphics for three weapons (public domain clip arts), for double, triple and quad damage weapons
  
  2. These are found via a random roll after a battle, whether you win or even if you lose! There are small odds of not finding one at all, but that makes when you do find them all the sweeter!
  
  3. Stuck a timer element onto picking up the weapons and how long they last for, to increase the pace of play considerably.
  
  4. Repeating, these weapons are temporary but not hard to find.
  
  5. Rigged it that if you start a new account you find a triple weapon at the start! Make sure to click on it in time!
  
  6. Found a cool button maker here. Replaced the graphical buttons with these - I like the look. Might still be one or two links not replaced yet, though.
  
  7. Added an 'evade counter attack' option to the attack screen, that shows up randomly - if you don't pay attention and just click battle again instead of evading, you lose 2 hit points! Adds more 'pay attention' skill to the game.
  
  8. Increased the amount of battles you need to advance. Remember, lose once, loose all progress so far. That's not how grinding works.
  
  9. Found a javascript timer and implimented it a few times, though I don't quite like the look as it uses a form box to show the countdown number.

Probably some other stuff I will remember after making this post