I made a game: Ramble Planet

[Andi]

Hello folks. It's been a while since I posted. I've been developing a game called Ramble Planet using the OHRRPGCE game creation engine for about a year and half and have recently released the first complete version. It's not a shmup, but since shmups.com has such a critical audience, I imagine your feedback will be useful.

To summarize the game: Your spaceship has crashed on a planet that is both a hostile frontier and a trendy tourist destination. You need to search the world for parts to fix your ship and return home. It's an adventure game with a focus on exploration and discovery, and there are some streamlined RPG elements.

Its features include:

*Free-roaming exploration of a sprawling world.
*Numerous puzzles and secrets.
*3 playable alien races with unique agendas.
*Groovy original music.

You can download see screenshots and download the PC version here: http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewgame.php?t=6028. The PC version contains an illustrated instruction manual.

Or you can download the free Android version on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... mbleplanet

Please give Ramble Planet a try and tell me what you think. I've gotten really good advice from you guys on some games I've made previously, and am looking forward any suggestions you might offer.

I hope you enjoy the game.

[Specineff]

Good to see you're still alive.

[Ruldra]

To summarize the game: Your spaceship has crashed on a planet that is both a hostile frontier and a trendy tourist destination. You need to search the world for parts to fix your ship and return home. It's an adventure game with a focus on exploration and discovery, and there are some streamlined RPG elements.

This game of yours sounds very much like Notrium. Did you use that as inspiration, by any chance?

[Herr Schatten]

Cool. I liked your other games. Can't wait to try this out.

[Andi]

Spec and Herr Schatten: Good to see some familiar faces still around.

This game of yours sounds very much like Notrium. Did you use that as inspiration, by any chance?

I've never played it, but I just read about it some. Sound interesting. I'll give it a try.

Admittedly, the premise of crashing on an alien world and finding a way off is pretty generic. I can think of at least five Choose Your Own Adventure books with the same concept

[Andi]

Did anyone give Ramble Planet a try yet? I'm really looking forward to your feedback.

[Herr Schatten]

Did anyone give Ramble Planet a try yet? I'm really looking forward to your feedback.

I went on a two-weeks vacation (outer hebrides - stunningly beautiful) pretty much right after I downloaded it, so I haven't had the chance yet, but now that I'm back I plan to give it a try this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it, too.

[Ed Oscuro]

You have died and found a new realm. Something is hunting you right now. You recall the horror of being born! Someone coughs on your aural membrane. A being flees with your sinus cavity.
You understand the emotions of stone.

Seems super simple at first, but there's a lot going on here. Looking forward to beating down some level 9 goons (I'm pretty close).

I love all the names for everything, and the short descriptions - very evocative. Like the quotes from above - those are a random sample of what you can get for just ONE world encounter. The graphics are like this too - you can usually grasp what they're intended to represent, and they look awesome, so don't be deceived by the blocky appearance; there's a ton of variation here. Interesting music too.

You know that gods walk the planet.

[Ed Oscuro]

Tiny update: Went away from the game for a bit, came back and got a few more parts. Up to 62/70 now, four metal, and 108/110 experience (level 16 if counting the robot bonus). Oh, and if it makes any difference, I went with the Hugbox, er Holdbox race, because Philosophers! and an awesome animation (I went with the one with four spheres at the edges of the box). Cool beans.

Like I thought, the game seems to be mostly petered out at this point. I think maybe I need to go back and look for one previously-dangerous critter but most of the other things aren't screaming "do this!" at me.

The part of the underground music with the jet engine noise...a lot of the samples and stuff tug at my memory here, but I wanted to say that section of music reminds me of Scrapland music a bit. Unfortunately, after over four hours, the mix is starting to grate, especially the overworld music. Thankfully the title screen music is still fresh for me while I write this.

Maybe there is something that has gone totally unnoticed by me, but aside from the few unresolved bits of puzzle here and there (shadow, tree man, and in the underworld, fizzy reactor, transmogrifier, and the two NPCs flaunting Parts, near Your Government) it looks like there's nothing. I think this kind of game could do with some tweaks to even out the play time, and leave fewer truly obscure puzzle bits. Even more, I wish there was something like an endgame to wrap the experience up - assuming here that there isn't going to be anything but some minor puzzles to solve and yet more variants on the game clear text.

[Andi]

Maybe there is something that has gone totally unnoticed by me, but aside from the few unresolved bits of puzzle here and there (shadow, tree man, and in the underworld, fizzy reactor, transmogrifier, and the two NPCs flaunting Parts, near Your Government) it looks like there's nothing. I think this kind of game could do with some tweaks to even out the play time, and leave fewer truly obscure puzzle bits. Even more, I wish there was something like an endgame to wrap the experience up - assuming here that there isn't going to be anything but some minor puzzles to solve and yet more variants on the game clear text.

Thank you for taking the time to play. Your observations are informative. The more and more of the world you explore, the less there is to do. Nearly every portion of the game is accessible right from the beginning, so there is no rewarding sense of progression. It never occurred to me that could be to the game's detriment.

However, if you get a perfect score, the end game text changes based on your race. There are some JUNK items that also add additional end game text. Also, if you are absolutely stumped the PC version contains a text file called CHEATBOOK. It contains pretty explicit clues about the locations of each part. It is most useful if you have found the DIAGRAM item, but I am assuming you have since you are so far along.

Thanks again for playing and providing your comments! Perhaps I could implement some areas or objects that only unlock if you have a certain number of parts. This would add a bit more linearity and sense of advancement. I have to mull this over.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'll have to look at that cheatbook - really didn't want to have to get help with this. But it might be that the stuff I'm stuck on represents opportunities to revamp those things a bit.

It never really threw me off that there were so many items that have no purpose during gameplay - and even the equipment doesn't get equipped. Still, it did gnaw at me a little, and I did try using things in the menu occasionally - though it really isn't too unclear that you can't do much with many items from the menu, because all you can do is highlight them with the Enter key. Still, perhaps removing the ability to highlight them, and instead just allowing the player to cursor over, would make things even more clear.

[Andi]

Ramble Planet is now also available on OUYA: https://www.ouya.tv/game/Ramble-Planet/

I'll have to look at that cheatbook - really didn't want to have to get help with this. But it might be that the stuff I'm stuck on represents opportunities to revamp those things a bit.

It never really threw me off that there were so many items that have no purpose during gameplay - and even the equipment doesn't get equipped. Still, it did gnaw at me a little, and I did try using things in the menu occasionally - though it really isn't too unclear that you can't do much with many items from the menu, because all you can do is highlight them with the Enter key. Still, perhaps removing the ability to highlight them, and instead just allowing the player to cursor over, would make things even more clear.

Not a bad idea. I'm considering it. Almost any item you need to use will be used automatically in the right circumstances. The reason you can select the items in the menu is so they can be moved around and rearranged if you choose. However, there probably isn't too much point to that. There are however a few items that actually can be used from the inventory menu, but they are so few I could easily find another way to implement them.

Out of curiosity, what PARTS are you missing? I'm always curious to know which ones people find difficult.

[Ed Oscuro]

I got back to this for a few moments. Some thoughts:

- Noticed that typing speed in other programs is really slow and drops characters while RP is active.
- RP really doesn't like Alt-Tab; it's easy for the menu to pop in and out of existence, and when I get back to it, movement is slow. Personally, I always used Esc to open the menu, though I can see the appeal.

Now for my list of final parts:

button - classic pixelbitching, bump-into-everything, not really a good part hide.

geode - pretty much the same as the above. Didn't this one get uncovered by the tank shell or something?
needle - for some reason I wasn't feeling like scrolling through all the texts in The Village; I got the other parts and bits in areas like this. I think there was something about how these were set up that made it less obvious you needed to view all the perturbations. The broken vending machine in the underworld is another example of this, though I can't remember if I figured it out or used a hint. At least you can tell that the text is changing; for the needle, the changed Morepersons hologram text changes are very subtle.

freezer - cheatbook is useless here. Anybody can tell there's something fishy with that square. I'm guessing that I need to dig through the Junk in my inventory.

beamer - coulda swore I found all the nooks in that place. Guess I'll have another look.

chart - cheatbook is useless here.
reticle - cheatbook is useless here also.

66/70 parts so far, Captain rank, woohoo. It's kinda annoying being past the rank where you are in deep doo-doo with the ship crew, haha.