Rebirth DEMO - My latest game

[Ty-chan]

I just released a demo for my latest game, Rebirth. It's very important I get feedback for the demo before I make another 50 puzzles and it turns out the mechanics and design behind them all suck, so please play it and give feedback:

http://www.betagames.biz/rebirth.html

[mccartney-tm]

I would like a counter indicating how many turns I have left in each level. Also I would find it more interesting if there were a few gems that performed different actions...
I also know that this is kind of early in the Dev cycle, but I would like to hear some background music...
Overall, the base mechanics are pretty responsive and intuitive. I'd recommend to keep them and work up from there.

[The Colonel]

Get rid of all the Comic-sans. Use something less terrible for the menu text. Also, I noticed some mouse lag, so if you can, do something about that. Get rid of the custom mouse cursor if you have to.

[Ty-chan]

Originally Posted by mccartney-tm

A) I would like a counter indicating how many turns I have left in each level. B) Also I would find it more interesting if there were a few gems that performed different actions... C) I also know that this is kind of early in the Dev cycle, but I would like to hear some background music... D) Overall, the base mechanics are pretty responsive and intuitive. I'd recommend to keep them and work up from there.

A) I could do that no prob.

B) Originally, each gem had an element and taking out large groups would give you a charged gem of that color. When you destroyed the charged gem, it would perform an elemental action and destroy same colored gems in the range of the attack. Or at least that was the plan. I had lots of problems with the programming and scrapped the idea.

C) Umm... there is background music. I know GM's pretty temperamental when working with music, especially MP3's. You sure your volume just wasn't down?

D) Eff yes! I did game mechanic right! First time, snitch! ... Well I guess I should wait for more than one person to tell me that before celebrating...

Originally Posted by The Colonel

A) Get rid of all the Comic-sans. Use something less terrible for the menu text. B) Also, I noticed some mouse lag, so if you can, do something about that. Get rid of the custom mouse cursor if you have to.

A) I appreciate it and I'll keep that in mind for later releases... but... I already did the whole game in that font... I'm not going to change it... Sorry.

B) The reason for that is that the mouse is an object rather than a sprite assigned to the mouse. I'm going to get GM Pro before the final release so I can just assign that sprite to the mouse.

[mccartney-tm]

Nope still can't hear music. I know that gamemaker has some issues with mp3s sometimes though, maybe you should try adjusting the triggers...

[Bradlestix]

The music plays fine for me, I think it has a cool ambient vibe. I also didn't notice any mouse lag. I like the central game mechanic too, though I agree that it needs a turn counter. The rules of the game could be explained a little clearer, stating that you have to match the gems in whatever pattern. The sound played when gems are cleared is very satisfying haha.

From a graphic standpoint you could try getting rid of the 1px black border on the "gems" and replacing it with a darker tone of the gem's colour, along with maybe giving the gems a solid shading style instead of the current pillow shading. The cracked texture animation on the buttons and mouse cursor doesn't look that good and looks out of place; I'd recommend simply having static buttons. Stronger highlights on the gems would look nice, too, if you're aiming for a shiny texture.

[Ty-chan]

Originally Posted by Bradlestix

The music plays fine for me, I think it has a cool ambient vibe. I also didn't notice any mouse lag. I like the central game mechanic too, though I agree that it needs a turn counter. A) The rules of the game could be explained a little clearer, stating that you have to match the gems in whatever pattern. The sound played when gems are cleared is very satisfying haha.

B) From a graphic standpoint you could try getting rid of the 1px black border on the "gems" and replacing it with a darker tone of the gem's colour, along with maybe giving the gems a solid shading style instead of the current pillow shading. C) The cracked texture animation on the buttons and mouse cursor doesn't look that good and looks out of place; I'd recommend simply having static buttons. D) Stronger highlights on the gems would look nice, too, if you're aiming for a shiny texture.

A) I didn't wanna shove a tutorial down peoples throats and tried to make the game self teaching, like MMX. That's why the first puzzle only requires ONE move, so it can teach you that you can switch the gems. I figured it seemed pretty self explanatory that you have to match up the colors. Maybe I'll add a How To Play section as an option to the right.

B) You can tell I'm definitely not a grand graphic artist. I'll see what changing the border colors look like on each gem, but I don't really know what you mean by solid shading style versus pillow shading...

C) That so? If I just got rid of the animation would that be fine? If I'm changing all the buttons, I may as well change the font as well, Colonel.

D) I'll try doing this too.

[Bradlestix]

Yeah, it's pretty clear you have to match the colours, but I mean: do they have to be in a horizontal line, a vertical line, a square etc. I think you got the teach-as-you-go thing right to a certain extent (and I think it's really cool that you're taking that approach, by the way) but even just some text saying "make groups of however-many gems to clear them off the screen" in the controls menu would be helpful.

I attached a file with an example of what I meant by solid shading (be warned, I'm no pixel artist, haha), but now that I've had a closer look you haven't done as much pillow shading as I thought, so if you wanna keep your style that's fine.

[Ty-chan]

Originally Posted by Bradlestix

Yeah, it's pretty clear you have to match the colours, but I mean: do they have to be in a horizontal line, a vertical line, a square etc. I think you got the teach-as-you-go thing right to a certain extent (and I think it's really cool that you're taking that approach, by the way) but even just some text saying "make groups of however-many gems to clear them off the screen" in the controls menu would be helpful.

I attached a file with an example of what I meant by solid shading (be warned, I'm no pixel artist, haha), but now that I've had a closer look you haven't done as much pillow shading as I thought, so if you wanna keep your style that's fine.

Ahh, I see. You have to group the gems into any group of four of the same color. I'll add a really quick tutorial when you choose the main game that you can skip with the press of a button. Also, I've tried playing around with the gems sprites and I've decided to just let them be.

[Ty-chan]

mccartney-tm, I just re-uploaded the demo with the music set to "Normal Sound" instead of "Use Multimedia Player." See if that helps.

The Colonel will be happy to now that the final version will have no trace of that font, and Bradlestix, I've made the buttons and mouse inanimate.

Oh, and I'm adding a counter right now.

[mccartney-tm]

still hears only sound no music...

[Ty-chan]

Originally Posted by mccartney-tm

still hears only sound no music...

Do ya think if I add the music as separate files in the download and have the game load them that it would work then? I'll try that.