My First Game. NOT DONE. Need Advice

Tofuwalrus

Hi,
My game doesnt have a name yet, except the title will include the word Tofuwalrus in it. I wanted advice on its visual appeal. Too boring? poorly illustrated? This is my first game and am wondering if it worth completing.

SlickZero

The UI layout is nice and proportional, and balanced, and everything looks like it is where a player would expect it to be.

Not knowing how the gameplay is, I would say just by looking at it, that the art styles are different for the dark boxes and castle, than the art style for the rocks and ground, and the art style for the UI controls. You've got 3 different styles going that aren't working together, for me at least. And the direction control on the left is interfering with the viewable gameplay area.

The angles on the lighter colored squares on the left (I'm assuming that's the tofu) are all different from each other, which would be fine if you were trying to represent the angle at which you are looking at the game, but the angles increase for each box that is smaller than the last, and you have the box with the greatest angle at the top of the scene, when as far as the angles are concerned, should be on the bottom.

And you may want to consider using a custom font for the level indicator and the score, it will give it a more polished feel.

That's me being nit-picky.

And of course it's worth completing! You've come this far with it. No reason to give it up now.

Other than that, I'm interested to see how the game actually plays. It looks like things get frantic and fast paced, which is cool. Is this your first game?

Wingmanapps

I would put 50% opacity on the UI buttons

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Ones first game is always an important learning experience. I think many users come to GS and make the mistake of thinking their going to make a AAA game without any prior experience. I think it's important you finish this game and grow your skills. Game making is a progression each game you make is a stepping stone to the next. What is common around here is people come think they have the best idea since Cocco puffs and they find it's harder than it looks and eventually they give up because they started off with unrealistic expectations. Keep at it and if this is what you really want to do then keep at it game by game.

cucurbit

I would suggest using Photoshop for future purposes.

If I were you I would also look for the freebie stuff all over internet. Sometimes you can find top quality for absolutly free and I belive it would look much better.

SolarPepperStudios

I like it but as some people have said before, make your UI and HUD at 50% opacity. I'm no good at art but I have to agree, try to find some other artwork online. I need to do the same with my games.

RP

Keep going!

LoungeGames

The graphics and art style look very nice, and so does the control pad.

wpaten

@FryingBaconStudios said it best when he said this is a great first attempt. For me I usually have 2-3 different iterations of a concept before I settle on the one I want to go with. This helps me hammer out things early on in the design phase before I get 20 levels in and realize that I should have steered left instead of right.

I had a friend last month ask me about some stuff concerning a job interview he was getting ready to go on. He was trying to learn a piece of software, to create something for this interview to impress the owner. But he had never used the software before. I told him the same thing I'd tell you. Start and finish this one till you are relatively satisfied with it. Then take everything you learned from this one, and go build a brand new one, it'll probably take you 1/2 the time now. Finish that one and THEN go and build the one you really want to be working on.

By doing this you will have the advantage of knowing exactly what you want to do with your game, because a game that is "halfway" thought out, feels that way to the user. Game players today are very smart and savvy. They start when they are little and our competition is very, very good. Make sure that you make a game that can go the distance and that you will be proud of in the end.

Consequently, my friend made 4 different versions of that interface for his interview, making it better and better, and in the end, he got the job. :-)