Orsum Explorer

[ThinkerThinker]

Please check out our latest game called Orsum Explorer (nothing to do with IE, also works on FireFox, honestly ).

Orsum Explorer

We are working on loads more levels.

Please have some fun and let me know what you think. Any problems you spot and any suggestions on improvements will be more that welcome (I mean, the problems won't be welcome but reporting them will be appreciated).

Thanks

Philippe

[ImprisonedPride]

Very nice graphics. Played about 10 levels and thought it was really nice! Good job!

[Schfifty Five]

Very nice game! The graphics are awesome! What did you use to make them?

[Squize]

Excellent presentation, one day all games will be that good

Great work mate ( Although I struggle like hell with iso controls, but that's just me ),

Squize.

[ThinkerThinker]

Very nice game! The graphics are awesome! What did you use to make them?

We did the graphics using 3DS MAX but mostly it's just Photoshop work. We are currenly doing a lava level and have another 8 levels in planning, all based on different environment on the island. The next update, in a couple of weeks, will have a level editor so the kids (or grownups ) will be able to create and upload their own game levels (not graphics yet but that might come later). Other will then be able to play and rate these user created levels.

Glad you like the game. It's been fun creating it.

[scheletro]

I love those games where you have a great layout not only inside the game, nice graphics and effects

[alillm]

Excellent presentation, one day all games will be that good

Great work mate ( Although I struggle like hell with iso controls, but that's just me ),

Squize.

No, I don't think its just you, the controls in this are the wrong way round to what I see as the conventional iso controls (where up key moves up right etc).I have played a few games which have this control scheme and personally I hate it, no matter how long I play I can never get used to it.

Other than that though it seems to be a well made game good job. Just add multiple control choices and it will be great.

Ali

[ImprisonedPride]

8-direction controls in an iso environment are really not that hard to pull off, and to get the tile(s[plural only if you feel the need]) you use the same idea as tony's getMyCorners function for tilebased games except you can use just the single point at the feet for a single tile, or create an imaginary iso-box around the character and test all 4 corners.

[Eldiran]

Now that's a pretty game. I, too, was thrown off by the controls, though. Also, the "How to Play" and "Play" buttons would show up if I rolled over them on any screen (well, at least the map and end of level screens; those are the only ones I checked.)

[ThinkerThinker]

No, I don't think its just you, the controls in this are the wrong way round to what I see as the conventional iso controls (where up key moves up right etc).I have played a few games which have this control scheme and personally I hate it, no matter how long I play I can never get used to it.
Ali

Hi Ali,

We've been playing this game so long the controls seems intuitive to us but I think giving users an alternative set of keys might be the solution. The big reason for the key selection was because this is not really an isometric game as the whole game is actually rotated clockwise by about 15 degrees (I think it's called trisometric or something) so 'up' felt/looks more like it should be top-left.

So if we do an alternative key set what would you suggest? Would 'I' (up-right), 'L' (down-right), 'K' (down-left) and 'J' (up-left) do the trick?

Let me know and we'll implement it.

Thanks

Philippe

[Thomas Aquinas]

Nice game, tasty presentation!

Only suggestion I have is to skip the first level, one 'testing the water' level is more than enough if you ask me.

[ThinkerThinker]

Nice game, tasty presentation!
Only suggestion I have is to skip the first level, one 'testing the water' level is more than enough if you ask me.

Hi Thomas,

I know the first two levels are kind of lame but the target audience is 8 - 14 so the need some time to get use to it all. I think I might change the level to llok a bit more interesting though.

Thanks for the comment.

[renderhjs]

nice CG,
- what I noticed however that the upper right corner isn´t yet propper retouched (it still looks like taken from somewhere else)- the ship is brushed over 1/2 with the white clouds.

- movement feels sometimes a little bit chunky,- perhaps removing some frames of the walk cylce can improve performance here (just interlace the frames in flash).

- I needed 2 attempts to actually find the spot where one could actually play a level (map view)- perhaps make it easier- more noticable in wich direction one has to search.

ah well overall very nice surprise esspecially with the graphics

[Alluvian]

I agree that the beginning needs to be more engaging. I read here that the first two levels are lame, and I personally quit on the second one with the thought "so, this game is about walking around with no obstacles other than not being able to walk through tall grass... pass"

If the game is not about what the first two levels show, there needs to be at least some hint of what it WILL be about in those first two levels, or at least the second one.

VERY slow start gameplay wise, but very very nice presentation. GREAT graphics and art assets.

[EvilKris]

Wow, don't need to tell you that the graphics are top-notch.
The artwork for the map was especially impressive.
For an aspiring kids game it's perfect. Of course it starts off slow but I think the eye-candy will keep the kiddies playing until it gets more exciting.
The controls are not as good as they could be. I personally would have preferred it to be more like Pacman, so instead of holding down a key your dragon moves in the last direction until he hits a wall or the direction is changed. Also I kept going up-left when I meant to go up-right. A pain in the ass for me but maybe others might like it that way.
Brilliant..

[renderhjs]

I had actually problems with the direction setup for the direction keys too...- so you´r not the only one.

[armyvisual]

I actually found it a bit confusing about what the site was... once i signed up, at first i could not find where to go to play the game!

Once i got in the game, as others said after the second level i came back here to give feedback. There isn't enough engaging people in these levels. Maybe you could treat the first few levels as tutorials? Just a thought, i found this often engaging in other games as it shows you things you will encounter, and features you have implimented in the game.

The game engine feels nice, for flash. It is a bit clunky sometimes, but again this is flash and you have use a art based game so i dont expect the same fluidness as a vector game - no complaints from me.

This is absolutely top notch quality, with some minor attention to certain details you will have a hit!

By the way, how many people worked on the project, and how long was the game in development? If you don't mind me asking.

[ThinkerThinker]

Thanks for the feedback. We have now changed the first two levels: level one is still simple but looks more interesting and you meet the enemy on level two already. It's still a simple level but it sets what the game is about. The HiScore tables is all up and running now. We've also no included an additional key set (ILKJ) with the movement direction adjusted as some of you suggested (mess with my brain that way but hey, I want to keep everyone happy ).

I noticed a problem: in IE the browser seems to indicate that it is still downloading something although everything's downloaded. It happens on several pages of the site, not just the game page. Can anyone shed some light on what this could be? There used to be random streaming MP3 files but switching this off made no difference?

Thanks

[ThinkerThinker]

By the way, how many people worked on the project, and how long was the game in development? If you don't mind me asking.

Not at all. Two people six weeks (with some interruptions from other projects, as usual). One artist, me, (four weeks) and one programmer (six weeks). This does not include the character 3D models which was part of the animation series' development. It takes me about 2-3 days to develop a level's tile assets. The Level editor we are working on at the moment should take about 2 weeks (3 days for art and 10 days for the programmer) to complete.

Philippe