My first amateur game creation - "Miner Danger", made in free mode - Feedback appreciated

To preface: the reason why I’m here is because I’ve been a lifelong gamer, and always wanted to design games for a living, but never got around to learning how to code. After spending the last couple of years playing some stupid P2W microtransaction gacha garbage title, and realizing that people were literally dumping millions of dollars into a game that a monkey could have created, I figured - hey, I’m a primate too. I can probably learn how to make a really cheesy game myself. Flowlab seemed like as good a place as any for an amateur like me to start.

That’s not to say I expect to become a millionaire, or even make any money at all from my games… for now I am just playing around with the Flowlab tool as a labor of love and an outlet for my creative ambitions. Still trying to figure out how it all works, so please excuse me if my first attempt here seems a bit on the newbish side (on that note, I do have a few questions on how to improve my game and how to use more advanced options for future titles I plan to produce, but I’ll get to those later).

Anyway, without further ado, here is my first attempt at making a game. Within the restrictive limits of the free Flowlab tool. Any and all feedback is welcome (including scathingly negative reviews; don’t worry, I’ve been on the internet for a while, I’ve been called every name under the sun, I can take it).

I decided to start with a basic platformer jumping game, with lots of danger and coins to collect. The character himself (or herself, if you prefer, it’s just a sprite) does not have any attack abilities. It’s simple arrow keys… left for left, right for right, up for jump. That’s it. Main goal is to just get to the end of each level alive, but you can also try to collect all the coins for bragging rights (though just getting through alive is probably hard enough, at least for me).

There are dangers to avoid… lava and fire, bats, spikes, TNT, frozen water and alligators to name a few… and they are plentiful. There is also the occasional health pack scattered throughout each level to help keep you alive to the end, as encountering some objects will probably be unavoidable.

WARNING: this game was not designed with beginners in mind. It’s certainly not impossible either, but I didn’t want to make it too easy for you experienced gamers out there.

I did use a lot of the default pixels, but also created a few of my own for variety. Let me know what you think! And please, once again, keep in mind that I have zero coding experience and that this is literally my first time ever attempting to create a playable video game.

If I get enough positive feedback on this game and others I plan to create later, I will consider upgrading to the independent developer package (or whatever it’s called) . In the meantime, there are a few more things I need to figure out how to do first. Like how to equip the character with a weapon, how to save stats and have them carry over to the next level, how to make enemies and items work the way I want them to so that they don’t just sit there spinning around in circles all day. You know, basic stuff - or at least stuff that probably comes basic to most of you, but it’s still a bit of a steep learning curve for me.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read (and play) the drivel I have created. :slightly_smiling_face:

EDIT: And yes, every level is completable. I’ve finished them all myself. Each one has a “shortcut” trick.

That’s not to say that I’ve survived to collect every coin in every level… that’s ultra hard mode, and I’m not good enough to beat my own game in ultra hard mode.

3 Likes

This is really cool!

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Thank you! Let me know if you have any tips on how I can improve it… still trying to get the TNT barrels to roll correctly on levels 4 and 5, and to get the coins to carry over from one level to the next… a few other improvements I’d like to make…

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This is really good mate it’s pretty hard tho or I’m just really bad

2 Likes

Nah, it is really hard. Intentionally so, because I didn’t want anyone to say it was too easy. If I had more levels to work with, I would have started out with easier levels and made them harder as you go… but only having 5 levels really limits me. Some tips to help: if you’re having trouble with the basic game, don’t bother going after the coins, as I put them in hard to reach places on purpose. Just go for the end. Double jump is your friend. The little health packs scattered about can really help, but only if they’re easily accessible. Don’t go for one that is way out of the way unless you’re also going for the coins.

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Slight update / “bug fix” based on feedback:

The “alerts” for each level should now only trigger ONCE per level, instead of popping up again every time you die.

Still working on figuring out how to track total coins collected from all levels instead of just current level…

Neat! What about your other game? Will you still be updating that?

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Welcome
good game
Had to quit after like 7 attements at ultra had mode

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Yep! I also wanted to fine tune a couple of elements in this one as well… like getting the gold counts to carry over from one level to the next so that it displays a total of all collected at the end of the game. Maybe putting in a tracker to show how many times you died, how quickly you completed each level, etc. A global scoreboard would be neat, but I think I need Indie for that.

Also there are a couple of game mechanics I would like to polish up on the first one… making the rafts and rail cars work better, making the TNT barrels roll more smoothly without bouncing as much (and maybe shortening the trigger proximity so that they don’t drop until you’re closer to them).

Thank you! Yeah, collecting all the coins in every level is very difficult. I’ve managed to do it once on the first level, haven’t even attempted it on the other levels yet. I do know that every level is technically completable, if you either time your jumps perfectly or are able to exploit some of the shortcuts. But it’s not easy at all, at least not for me. :slightly_smiling_face: