I Wanna Be The Rex - Early Alpha

[WetWookie]

This is a game I'm making for Bananasaurus Rex, a beloved twitch speedrunner. https://www.twitch.tv/bananasaurus_rex/profile
This game is meant to be very difficult. The salt must flow!
This game is in early alpha and I'm looking for feedback on current difficulty, bugs, design, etc before I go much further.
This is my first fan game and I'm open to suggestions.
It will be helpful to me if you reply to this post with completion times and death counts for each room as well as letting me know what you like and dislike.

Update 5/9/15
Big update: The game is a lot longer now with 4 rooms (+1 secret) before the first boss followed by 4 more rooms and a 2nd boss. The secret room contains an item that changes the player skin and gives the player a bullet time ability and a butt slam (dodge) ability.

There are some development/testing tools left in this build if you choose to use them. The 1 key will move you to the previous room. The 2 key will move you to the next room. (exceptions to the 1 and 2 keys are the prologue, secret room and the room after the last boss) The G key will give you god mode. The H key will create a save at your current position. Right clicking your mouse will teleport you to your cursor. WARNING. Be careful using save anywhere and teleport. This game uses triggers to open and close up paths. Bypassing these triggers by teleporting past or saving and loading past these triggers will affect your game play experience.



Feedback welcome!

Screenshots

(click to show/hide)

[Sudnep]

Fix the sizes of the room (I believe it's the init room) so when you restart the screen doesn't shake. This forces the game to recenter to the center of the screen.

The first save shoots apples at me and then restarted me at the beginning of the room. It saved me in the room but not my x and y values. I'm sort of guessing this is 'intended'. If I died before this you teleport to the cut scene instead. I'm not sure which is intended.

Distinguish the difference between roll saves and regular save points. Most people do this but changing the text and making some funny troll that pops out but when I shoot a save without any indicators that just kills me it's not interesting, fun, or enjoyable in any way.

Why nerf the diagonal on the first screen?
The fake block(s) should be a block that disappears after touching. Not just a missing block.

Boss is kind of boring and extremely easy when doing it from the bottom.

The game isn't as hard as you think but making a hard game isn't necessarily fun to play. A game can be 'salt inducing' without being over the top in difficulty. Look at example games such as I wanna go Bananas or I wanna be the DareJar for examples since I think these are the type of games you had in mind for making.

Also please go to Global Game Settings and enable fullscreen on F4 press. (Resource Tab > Change Global Game Settings > Other > Check "Let <F4> switch between screen modes.")

Edit(s): Grammar errors and clarification.

[WetWookie]

Awesome feedback.
Yes the first (and third) saves are fake troll saves. I'll add an indication that it is intentional.
Dying before saving should not take you back to the cut scene. Will look into.

Why nerf the diagonal on the first screen?

Which particular jump is that? It was probably that unnerfed I couldn't do the jump and so I wasn't sure it was possible and erred on the side of caution.

Will take advice on disappearing as opposed to simply fake blocks.

Will add some diversity to the boss to encourage player mobility and hopefully make it less boring.

[Sudnep]

This jump, it's pushed into the block slightly.

(click to show/hide)

[WetWookie]

Yes. I had moved the top spike into the ceiling a bit because I was unable to perform it as it was and wasn't sure if it was possible. I'll move it back for the next alpha.

[BBF]

If you are unfamiliar with platforming I highly suggest getting someone more knowledgeable in case you are unsure about something. You should really know how standard jumps (Gates, diagonals, Corners, F-Jumps) work inside and out to put them into interesting positions for platforming.

Alternatively, you can use Record my Jumps to test something you want to put into the game a ton to make sure everything is possible.

[pieceofcheese87]

I think you're in over your head on this one. You can't just open up game maker for the first time and create a masterpiece fangame.
There are so many things wrong with the first few screens, but let me go over something first.

A guy requires at least one of these three things to be considered "good"

• Fun value

Plain and simple, it needs to be fun. While some people's view on fun can vary, I think we all agree that tediousness is not fun.
What you have put together is a tediously designed set of rooms that just aren't fun.

• Entertainment value

A game should be entertaining to watch. This can be achieved in multiple ways, whether it be funny traps, cool gimmicks, interesting bosses, etc.

• Production value

Production value is how good the game looks, the effects, the backgrounds, the sprites, all that stuff. Production value can help a terribly designed game become tolerable. You see, brown blocks and a simple 2 color background isn't going to cut it. Some japanese developers would disagree, but you're making a game for a popular streamer on twitch.
Do you think a game such as boshy would be so popular if it was all brown blocks and pastel backgrounds? Of course not. Production value is a very hard thing to master, and it requires practice, which brings me to my main point.


I understand that you just want to have some fun by trying out something new for someone you watch, but making a game like this takes effort and time. Unfortunately, you can't spend 2 days on a game and pop out a masterpiece. If you want to take game making seriously, try your hand at something smaller first. Slapping someone's name on a game does not make it good.

[WetWookie]

I'm not going to just give up... I said in the opening post that the art is already planned for replacement. I'm not intending this to be a masterpiece and you seem to forget that everyone has a first project.

I tried to avoid any tedium by switching the style of hazards. The first half of the first room is precise jumping. The second have is less precise jumping but with some avoidance thrown in. The second room is avoidance plus path finding.

If you have any more specific feedback I'd be glad to work with it.

[kilgour22]

I tried to avoid any tedium by switching the style of hazards. The first half of the first room is precise jumping. The second have is less precise jumping but with some avoidance thrown in. The second room is avoidance plus path finding.

If you think that's precise jumping you've got a lot to learn. The fact that you weren't sure if a diagonal was possible because you couldn't do it is slightly painful... please have more experience with fangames before attempting to make something hard.

Also, those that listen to the advice of others that have a lot of experience become great gamemakers. Those that get defensive and are not open to constructive criticism don't last very long.

One final thing: have you asked BRex for permission to use his name in your game? You may not have considered that he possibly doesn't want his name chucked onto a game without being asked.

PS: Second screen. Add a save on the ground so you don't have to walk the entire length of the screen before being able to give another attempt.

[WetWookie]

I'm not getting defensive but if the advice is 'give up because this is your first game and can't possibly make a masterpiece' then it's not helpful advice. I'm well aware that I have work to do but surely you can see the difference between Sudnep's feedback and pieceofcheese87's post.

Yes. BRex is well aware of the game and seems pretty hyped about it.

Will add a ground save on second screen.

[pieceofcheese87]

Why bother asking for criticism then if you're going to ignore what you don't want to hear?
I never told you to give up. I'm saying to get more experience with game making before you take on a project such as this.
But as I can see you're not going to listen to me, so go ahead.

[WetWookie]

I'm looking for feedback on what I've made so far so I can correct them and avoid the same mistakes going forward. A list of things that you did or did not like would be much more helpful then telling me to stop making this game and get better at making games by making a different game first.

[Joni]

I'm looking for feedback on what I've made so far so I can correct them and avoid the same mistakes going forward. A list of things that you did or did not like would be much more helpful then telling me to stop making this game and get better at making games by making a different game first.

How would that be more helpful? Because you are already 100% committed to the idea of producing this game?
Look at it this way: By the point that you have finished 80% of the game, your gamemaking skills will have improved significantly and you will have to redo the first 40% because they are way below what you can produce by that point. This hermeneutic cycle of learning happens to everyone but the better you become, the less significant the increase in gamemaking skill is going to be, so that you will only apply minor changes to earlier stages, because relatively you have improved little.

So you can obv start working on this game right away, but most probably will redo every single screen you create in the beginning either way (after improving a lot, you yourself will not want them to be part of your game, let alone the beginning part, since it arguably is the most important part), which means this work will just go to waste. Or you heed Piece's advice and start a different project to hone your skills, that while not being up to your standards anymore after you are done, will at least not just "go to waste", as you can keep it, since it will not be a part in a big game that is of lower quality.

That's just my 2 cents though, obviously you can do whatever you want.

[WetWookie]

I am fine with going back and fixing earlier portions of the game as I learn.

[WetWookie]

Big update: The game is a lot longer now with 4 rooms (+1 secret) before the first boss followed by 4 more rooms and a 2nd boss. The secret room contains an item that changes the player skin and gives the player a bullet time ability and a butt slam (dodge) ability.

There are some development/testing tools left in this build if you choose to use them. The 1 key will move you to the previous room. The 2 key will move you to the next room. (exceptions to the 1 and 2 keys are the prologue, secret room and the room after the last boss) The G key will give you god mode. The H key will create a save at your current position. Right clicking your mouse will teleport you to your cursor. WARNING. Be careful using save anywhere and teleport. This game uses triggers to open and close up paths. Bypassing these triggers by teleporting past or saving and loading past these triggers will affect your game play experience.

https://www.mediafire.com/?366p0kaa6tg6cci
I recommend not using your old control and save files if you played the first release.

Feedback welcome!

Screenshots

(click to show/hide)