Clubland - Critique for 2D platform game in development

[precisionweb]

Hi Guys,

Hope you are all good.

I would to like to know if anyone would be so kind and help me and review what i have developed so far in a new 2d platform flash game called Clubland as I am currently working on the interface and would like to know the direction I am going in is the correct one and the game seem's easy to navigate and performs ok on other machines.

Please enclose your memory and frame rates profile stats given at the top of the interface flash movie and your machine specs so i can make sure the game will work on all machines as I have recently updated the Interface and design and fixed some of the little bugs in the game engine relating to speed, jump on ladder, and climb down ladder etc..

I still have to work on the collision detection, animation of character and a few other bits relating to game-play and level design.

http://www.clubland-thegame.com/game.html - Game Prototype

http://www.clubland-thegame.com/ - Splash Screen / Intro and Menu.

Here are some of the screen dialogs i am working on also to select character and modify game settings and high-scores

http://www.clubland-thegame.com/screens.png

On another note just in case your thinking there will be two movie clips. the whole game will only be one movie clip but i have seperated entirely down to profiling and testing purposes to make it more managable etc..

Please let me know your comments and thoughts

Marc

[navidroplets]

it moves to fast and i don't like how the whole screen jiggles whenever u jump on the bouncey thing. the bad guys should have some more personality they just zip back and forth, they should roll and stop. then look around. then do something like their busy with something and just get mad at that dj invading there space. i like the style looks, and i got the sound turned off cause i don't want my mom catching me playing games here, so. maybe someone else can tell you about that. but if it was a dj, then can u pick ur own music for the game?

[bluemagica]

It is too damn fast. And I am sorry to say, but I didn't notice anything unique about this game, rather it looks a very simple platformer, and there are billions of these out there......what makes yours special?

[ExpertAnimators]

Hey Precisionweb,
I like your design skills, the intro page and the instructions look neat. I like the choice of colors and that intro graphic makes me feel like I'm 3/4 drunk (which is good) .
I don't really get the link between the club and the little purple guy, but maybee I need to play more levels for that to show itself. The main character reminds me of a Ribeena Berry which I like.
Those little Yellow buggers are so deadly. I couldn't help trying to jump on them as I was playing and expecting them to die, but allas it was me who kept dying. I hope there's a level later on that I can spatter them with an oozy (just kidding).
I agree with the others that the play is a little quick, but I sort of had fun with it for a few mins, and it was just challenging enough that I had to have a few goes to get right to the top of the ladder to see what was going on.
Hope this helps.
Happy flashing!
EA.

[precisionweb]

hi bluemagic / EA

hope you are both good.

All of your comments are most appreciated as this is my first game i have ever developed due to the fact my day job is a web developer not game developer.

I have done a lot of research into different flash / mmo / unity3d games and the different types of platforms and i thought i would focus on flash game development first as it is a quicker language to develop in rather than C++, C#, Coldfusion, PHP, JAVA which i know.

I am currently focusing on making it play at a better pace per your requests and I have recently implemented into the engine support for moving platforms, jump on enemies, friction on different types of flooring etc... and other physics based things such as pushing blocks etc...

As i am not a designer it is taking me some time to work on some of the animation that the characters do. I.E. walking and pausing for a little time and then randomly walking another direction until has the player in it's line of sight and then starts to walk towards him etc...

Anyway. The way in which i am going to try and make the game different from all other platform games is to make it a cross between a social networking site / MMO game that has many other games within it but thought i would focus on the simple platformer at present then make it have a GTA 1 / 2 style or ISOMETRIC based city that you walk around and talk to people then go into clubs to play that platform game level and as you complete the different club levels and get your DJ status up more clubs will open up and the gameplay will get more difficult.

Advertisements
The advertising will be very subtle but to keep in the theme of CLUBBING etc.. i will offer advertising and sponsorship handling in each club, restaurant, bar which will have events / opening times / event booking / club gallery etc.. but will be very minimal and not focused completely within the startup screen for the game level.

This will offer different advertising campaign capabilities and spots to source funding within the game and offer full flexibility to increase the games by simply adding the functionaltiy to my CMS and will be as simple as selecting country, city and using google maps longtitude and latitude API it will place it within a map region etc.. so when you go into that city and enter the club it will have the level that was designed within the CMS which will be based upon the CITRUS engine level architect but flash / html5 based.


Marketing the Game
i work for a very good SEO marketing company that will market the game once completed and fully tested and once i have had the beta fully tested, comments by you guys and other people on other forums to make it a game that people will play.

Multiplayer Networking Engine
This will utilise a conversion of the RakNet SDK or i will use the SmartFoxServer temporarily to test the mutliplayer gameplay in beta as they offer a FREE service to help with indie game development.

Please let me know your comments to my approach and if i am going about it the wrong way.

If this doesn't sound like a good idea then i would be more than happy to have constructive criticism to the idea and open to some of your ideas because my creativity is rubbish to be brutely honest but i can develop very quickly and develop most things when given the idea.

The options i have addressed above will cater for returning players and also cater for some potential funding for the game development and advertising.

Kind Regards
Marc

[navidroplets]

hi navidroplets, hope you are good. your comments were most appreciated thanks for taking the time to look at my stuff!


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no problem navidroplets. thanks for not ignoring me just cause i'm a junior member! lol!

[precisionweb]

hi navidroplets.

sorry buddy, didn't mean for you to think i was ignoring you. lol.

your comments are also appreciated.

Marc