💡 sup3r's design station - a different kind of game feedback

[paisleypug]

Thanks! I’ll also add that in the post jam version!

[CrimsonBlackGames]

I will bite. Starblast Retro

[Hong_Jooni_Pooni]

Oh, the projectiles are like magic balls and if u are skilled enough it enables you to float,
also with the stripper penguin, the joke is that there is nothing under there, its literally a penguin but i blur it out so its sus

[sup3r87]

Hey! Sorry I’m so late to this one - kinda forgot about it lol, but am here now. Starblast is a really cool game with all it’s modes and programming complexity. It’s very easy to tell an experienced flowlabber made it!

I’m gonna do what I did with pug’s arcade game and say that an unlocks system coupled with a universal score is the best way to make the game more interesting. Most random arcade games out there never throw all modes at you at once, but give you 1-2 basic ones to play, and as you gather points you unlock new ones. That’s the best way to go about it with this game, because it has so many modes. Introducing it overtime lets people enjoy each individual mode and gives a sense of progress. Don’t feed the buffet to someone, instead give them a meal at a time!

[Pixel_Name1]

More fun and more challenging please

Flowlab.io - Ants: Long live the queen

[sup3r87]

hey, sorry for being late! This is a really neat game you have here - I love survival games like these!

Before the main advice, I do have two urgent tips:
-please make the reward for killing the boss greater than summoning it, so there’s a need to summon it
-please have ingame descriptions of the upgrades and not just in the game desc. Many don’t like reading the game description for all info, including myself.

Anyway,
To make the game more fun I would add an unlockable ability to command the ant soldiers to different locations via mouse. Atm your soldiers fight for you but sometimes are in the wrong position. Adding an unlockable via purchase method of commanding them would help make the game more strategic and enjoyable.
To make the game more challenging I would add some kind of day and night cycle to the game. During day, enemies spawn less, during night they spawn more + bosses, etc etc. atm the game is quite easy and day/night cycles exist to keep the pressure on the player to beefing up defenses so they can make it through the next night. day/night cycles are a core element of most survival games.

[John_Shrekinson]

@sup3r87

You might also wanna explore redesigning the menu by adding more clarity to buttons and “categorizing” them. The current main menu is kind of a text jumble but you already have the code to change that fairly easily.

@sup3r87

My idea for this game would be to Reduce weapon variety and instead make 2-3 weapons more versatile and fun to use . It’s a little frusturating reading a tutorial per pretty much every new level lol, I think making it simpler and making the weapons more fun/easy to use will make the game easier to run through.

[OnionKidStorm]

i just wanna make this game i made more fun

Flowlab.io - Just One Life (demo)

[paisleypug]

Flowlab.io - Pilot(null)

here’s a game, it’s far from finished though

[sup3r87]

Hey! I’m so sorry I reviewed this so late - It somehow missed me. Regardless, here’s my review after trying out the game.

I strongly reccomend adding a background with a few layers. Games feel mostly quite empty without them. They can do wonders to make your game feel more alive, and you don’t even need very good art skills - just try to make it look like the current levels, with less detail.

I would also reccomend an animation when you win before going to the next level. Atm you have a win animation which is nice, but it plays for a split second. It would be nice for storm to do a little dance before going to the next level.

EDIT: to make your game fun I would add enemies that fly up and down. Moving obstacles overall make a game feel more challenging and fun. The world should only be static at the start!

Aside from all that, the fullscreen toggle doesn’t toggle back, which it should (nice gimmick making it a block instead of “press f”!). The character’s animations also seem to be a little wonk (pushing animation doesnt stop after you’re done pushing), so that should be looked into. Good luck with your game!

[sup3r87]

Neat space game you have here! I’m a fan of the variety in the bosses and their attacks! It has the potential to be really good.

I would change the campaign menu select to something more dynamic, like universal crumble’s galaxy map. The ship “roster” is a little boring, and touching it up would do it wonders.

I also reccomend highlighting the buttons when selected. Basically, they can be gray when not selected and white when selected (the main menu and death screen). It gives the menus more polish and overall looks better.

This is against the philosophy of this review category but I really, really need to mention: you need to zoom the screen out and make the player faster. I know you don’t want to, but bullet hells are supposed to be frenzies of lots of bullets, and shouldnt feel like you’re in a cramped room. At the rate of bullet hell games I’ll prolly make a guide about them.

[paisleypug]

thanks a ton, i agree with most of your feedback! today i’m implementing a bunch of feedback so it’s gonna be way better at the end of the day

[paisleypug]

@sup3r87

I really, really need to mention: you need to zoom the screen out

hey, i don’t really think i’m going to be able to do this because the game is built around being 16:9 so it would screw up a lot of things, i will make the player faster though

[paisleypug]

sooo like, is this topic dead?

[sup3r87]

well if no one gives me games, I can’t give feedback on them!

[paisleypug]

Ok! I’ll submit something soon

[Pixel_Name1]

More fun and more challenging please

Flowlab.io - Chuntian de youxi

[117JOJO]

More fun and challenging please (submitted on behalf of my best friend)

Flowlab.io - Halo: Flowlab Evolved

[sup3r87]

I was pleasantly surprised by this one! It’s well animated and definitely has good potential. Really like what you have so far for a platformer.

I usually don’t suggest this kind of thing, but you really need to overhaul the platforming mechanics. On the basic level, this means improving the physics, collision detection etc. The game felt buggy physics wise while playing and I had difficulty reaching some areas. You can also do more complex things though, like adding a dotted outline in front of the player when they’re holding a springboard as a kind of “preview”.

Also, you should definitely add a world map. Restarting the entire game on death is very discouraging. There should be a way to load levels you’ve been to. You can just unlock a level when reached, or maybe you need some kind of currency to unlock them on the map. It’s your choice!

Definitely a game with a lot of potential! Looking forward to more!

[sup3r87]

This project has a lot more depth to it than I thought it would! A lot of time has clearly gone into it. Also custom mouse cursor :DD DDDDD D

The background could really use objects with parallax. Camera parallax is really easy to do in flowlab and it will make the worlds (like the campaign world) much more pleasing to the eye. Distant planets and the ring world background would look much better.

The game’s shooting could also use an energy/reload system. Just spamming the shoot button is boring - adding energy or reload systems would make combat far more strategic and intuitive.

John, I know you’ve been told this before, but you have used flowlab with well enough time to get into more intricate and advanced game systems. Go get your feet dirty! Try new things like the custom cursor! You are well capable of doing it!