I decided to scrap my auto-scrolling platform-shooter, to much reliance on memorization, and instead made it into a non-scrolling one. It's nearly finished now but I have decided to put the project on hold for a short while as I concentrate on developing another graphics style. The thing is that the graphics and presentation doesn't really suit the game. They where originally meant for a childrens game and now I'm using them for that purpose again. The game is supposed to be the first of a number of arcade-like games I was going to try to sell as downloadables (yes, sell). Besides, I really like single-screen action games and would like to finish it anyway.
Any critique are welcome as you are basically my target audience. There's some graphics that needs to be cleaned up but otherwise I don't think there's any bugs. Use Z, X and the arrow keys. No joystick support yet.
1) The color scheme on the menu is almost unusable. Maybe influenced by the fact that I'm red-green colorblind, but selected vs. unselected entries should be distinguished by more than hue in any case.
2) The enemies don't really do anything except force you to mash the fire button. No timing, no tactics, no strategy, no skill; you just mash the button fast enough or you die. This is the sort of thing that makes a game feel like work instead of play.
3) The variety in the obstacles is almost entirely superficial. They look different, and there are trivial differences, but fundamentally they're all deadly bits that periodically move up and down just enough to be avoidable.
4) I didn't get any sense of inertia in the character movement. Realism may not be a goal, but it just feels wrong at an intuitive level to have force = speed. Even completely abstract things like cursors frequently incorporate acceleration to avoid this. I'm not saying it should necessarily be at SMB levels, but there should be something there to give the character some weight.
The whole point of the game is to traverse the level as fast as possible, which would have been reflected in the score if that had been implemented yet. It's basically a racing game. Get from A to B as fast as possible.
Try timing you're jumps and notice that you can roll even when in the air. It's this rolling in the air that is key to clearing a level fast.
The skulls are there to keep you occupied. Basically, the whole shooting part is there to force the player into a certain rythm. If you don't play the game agressively it's just a nuicance.
