Hey DeadZergling, I was wondering if you would take a look at my intro with me in game some time. My game isn't ready to be made public yet, but with exception to a few minor things, I have the intro all set up for "first impressions". That is what is most important to me, for the sake of the contest. It is a kind'a complicated game, with a lot of choices. I've invested a lot of time trying to make it as intuitive as possible though; for new players to pick up and do well. It should only take about 15 minutes to see everything the game currently has to offer.
Next up on the list was Ling Slayers by FunkyUserName. Video is a good amount longer than the others, and that was after editing, but is still a fun game. We broke it a few times, but still a fun game :)
Not a whole lot of additional feedback for me to offer afterwards, aside from rathering my dwarf not walk directly into the enemy while reloading, and that my shots don't get stopped by allies if friendly fire is not a thing.
ah nice one, lots of bugs to fix for me, that's great! thanks for playing. :D
btw there is a "call dog" ability once you buy a dog, but i have to make this more clear i guess.
could you attach the replays? still don't know what happened at the tank.
i might add a "fixed camera" option, no cam movement at all if checked.
the black cliff/textures is a bug with blender m3 exports, will be fixed next version.
friendly fire and team vision depends on difficulty settings.
Up next is Bilxor's creation: Lifeforce Campaign Mission 1: Genesis . Not exactly fantasy or RTC geared, but still pretty good regardless. The video went on quite a lot longer than I would have liked, and the rendering, well we don't talk about that. But anyways, due to the length, annotations have been put in to make it easier to navigate, skip to stuff you want to see easier.
Shapes up to be a pretty fun campaign, but does fall into the problems that Star Trek/Star Wars prequels has. Namely, the technology of the past is better than the newer technology? Yea, has a little of that going on. If you like what you see, please let Bilxor know so he can be encouraged to finish more missions in the near future!
Next up is GlornII's creation, which he hasn't really named yet, but describes as a Warcraft 3 custom hero arena. He just wanted me to check the intro and such out, so it doesn't turn out to be the most exciting of videos. Still, if you like seeing a LOT of UIs and exotic creep grinding, you might enjoy it!
No more requests on my list for now, please let me know if you have any more.
Sure, but in a situation where I have too many requests, I'll probably try to give RTC related requests precedence as they are on a bit of a time crunch.
Lol, thanks for the review Zergling! I almost feel bad that you did not get to fight any bosses. They are not implemented yet. That ramp in the center you kept running up, will be a large portal eventually, leading to an area where you can go to fight bosses. It will likely be 2 weeks before I have the bosses added; and only plan to have 5 for the RTC contest (Setting realistic goals and all). I also plan to have all 24 starting heroes added; and to finish adding the defensive skills.
Ive written down to do things like flash dialog buttons of importance (when you have finished setting up your hero); and to add a tooltip to the skill unlocking buttons. I definitely have difficulty with "intuitivity", due to my wc3 history. In WC3, everyone understood what a "hero arena" was without and directions given; there is not nearly as much crossover as you might think. All I hear from people on sc2 is, "Ohh, its like dota." But then it isnt DOTA, and they are confused.
As you mentioned a few times, the UI is quite overwhelming. My goal being to allow for a lot of customization, I cannot simply remove options to make it more simple. Is there anything you thought of that could assist?
I noticed:
Despite every single UI screen having a "more info" button, you didn't even hover over one; not once. Did you simple not see them (there is a lot going on) or were you like a typical gamer and thought "I'm here to play, not to read!"? Either way, do you think trying to put more emphasis on those buttons would be a good idea? Those buttons each explain the screen you are looking at in great detail. I hate games which cover your screen in words; so I want to keep it optional; but I would really like people to click it!
The same can be said the the "close" button, or "continue" button in a few cases. A big red button on every screen that says "close". I made some of the buttons bigger and redder so they stand out; and people have still had problems figuring it out.
You never noticed that there were additional tiers of items; once you had 4, you never opened the vendor again. Again, is this because the screen is overwhelming and you just skimmed over the buttons on the left? Or being that the game is an alpha, and a lot of the content is missing, just assume that there were no additional tiers of items? I'm quite surprised how well you did considering the stats you were missing out on. (there are items which reduce spell damage too; so that fireball hitting you wouldnt have hurt so bad)
Again, thanks for checking out my game for me. If you are interested, you can be the first person to fight a boss in the game ^_^. you spent way more time looking to fight a boss that I thought you would spend on the entire map; I hope you enjoyed it at least.
As you mentioned a few times, the UI is quite overwhelming. My goal being to allow for a lot of customization, I cannot simply remove options to make it more simple. Is there anything you thought of that could assist?
Perhaps only showing what is relevant at the time? If that makes sense. I can understand wanting to give players options, lots of customization, but it was just to the point of oh crap what do I do on my end. Like hero selecting, it might make more sense to show each hero's strengths/weaknesses, then have a next, and THEN let the players pick stats. That is just my opinion though, I don't typically play this sort of game so can't value my own opinion of it too much.
Despite every single UI screen having a "more info" button, you didn't even hover over one; not once. Did you simple not see them (there is a lot going on) or were you like a typical gamer and thought "I'm here to play, not to read!"? Either way, do you think trying to put more emphasis on those buttons would be a good idea? Those buttons each explain the screen you are looking at in great detail. I hate games which cover your screen in words; so I want to keep it optional; but I would really like people to click it!
I may have missed it, or may have thought, oh no, not more text!!!! Keep away!!!!
The same can be said the the "close" button, or "continue" button in a few cases. A big red button on every screen that says "close". I made some of the buttons bigger and redder so they stand out; and people have still had problems figuring it out.
I intentionally tried moving with the shop open to see if it would be smart enough to auto close at one point, which it did not. I could go about my merry way buying from the shop while out in the field, which I'm guessing wasn't intentional.
You never noticed that there were additional tiers of items; once you had 4, you never opened the vendor again. Again, is this because the screen is overwhelming and you just skimmed over the buttons on the left? Or being that the game is an alpha, and a lot of the content is missing, just assume that there were no additional tiers of items? I'm quite surprised how well you did considering the stats you were missing out on. (there are items which reduce spell damage too; so that fireball hitting you wouldnt have hurt so bad)
I actually knew about this, but only from the fact I played your last hero arena 2-3 years back, and something like that existed there. I'd say I was just so focused on finding a boss that I didn't care about that.
Again, thanks for checking out my game for me. If you are interested, you can be the first person to fight a boss in the game ^_^. you spent way more time looking to fight a boss that I thought you would spend on the entire map; I hope you enjoyed it at least.
Sounds good about the boss thing, be happy to do another video for it when you are ready.
Just wanted to pop by and say thanks for reviewing my map. I noticed a few tweaks/errors that I could polish up and I really enjoyed watching the playthrough (even though you had over 1k minerals in the bank most of the game... had me yelling MACRO!!"
Yeah well, after that first failed attempt, I wanted to have a nest egg just in case. Since I had no idea how many resources you'd give me, what'd happen next. Not that having extras or an army of marines helped any for that yeti cave... Still sour about that one, lol.
Imagine the yeti cave as the next map in the series where nothing would carry over anyway... haha that was my original plan but decided to pack it all together instead.
Hi all, have another video ready for you, this time it is WarpCraftv2 by Acaraco:
Acaraco did warn me that the orc race was currently not balanced, but I wanted to play as them anyways, so I did! The map did have a few hiccups, but that is just my gift for recording I think. If there is a way to break a map, I'll likely find it somehow. I'm not typically a fan of this sort of map either, but the slower pace, allowing for actual planning instead of just rush as fast as you can to try not to die, makes it a lot more approachable for me.
Will be posting Trieva's request in the very near future.
As fair warning to any of you procrastinators out there, I'm not taking any requests past 11/16/2015. Have my own mod to work on after all. So if you really wanted to see me stumble about through one of your creations, the time to get your requests in is now.
Next up on my list was Trieva's Co-Op turn based squad survival, BlitzFire.
Is pretty well designed for trying to bend the Starcraft 2 Engine to do something it clearly doesn't want to do. Reminds me a lot of a PvP oriented turn based I saw a couple years back, but I personally think it works a lot better as co-op. In terms of gameplay, not a whole lot I'd change about it, but I feel like it could use more work in the audio and visual departments. Have a sound other than civilian death whenever your squad is hit, have more blood splatters, sparks, and of course exaggerated deaths! Normally I wouldn't have such a Michael Bay opinion on the matter, but in the case of a game like this, having fun things to watch while waiting, as little rewards for winning, I think might really work.
Anywho, with that request out of the way, I officially have nothing else on my list for now, so get your requests in if you were going to. I won't actually be upset if this is the last of my requests for several weeks, I'm actually rather busy with work and modding lately.
I was going to wait until I got the last level finished, but since you have nothing else you're working on and there's a deadline for these things, would you like to give "Death By Fantasy" a try? I'd suggest playing with at least one other person. If you play through it without wiping and restarting a level, it will take about 25 minutes to complete.
It was made by me, with Terrain done by Wargirl and the Soundtrack done by Moustro. I highly suggest playing it with music enabled because his stuff is fantastic!
And if you do have other maps to try, you can put this one off a little, we hope to have the final level finished and playable in a week or so.
@Chewiest: Go
Anywho, look forward to see how it looks a few more weeks from now, keep up the good work. Despite my lack of ability at the game, I actually did like it.
Hey Deadzergling! A few weeks have passed and I improved a lot of things in Gods of Terminion: terrain & UI improvements, more races & gods added, 2 tutorials (a quick one and an in-depth one), and many bug and balance fixes which make the game hopefully much better. Your feedback as well as other beta-testers feedbacks were very helpful.
So if you're curious and want to give it another spin, that would be awesome!
Sure Chewiest, will put that on the list, probably record it the same night as Death by Fantasy. Will probably post yours after as I want to post ones I haven't done yet first :)
If you'd test my map, Shattered Soul Action RPG, I'd really appreciate it. The game is in a fully playable beta state right now. I'm really looking forward to hearing what people think so I can polish it up.
Hey DeadZergling, I was wondering if you would take a look at my intro with me in game some time. My game isn't ready to be made public yet, but with exception to a few minor things, I have the intro all set up for "first impressions". That is what is most important to me, for the sake of the contest. It is a kind'a complicated game, with a lot of choices. I've invested a lot of time trying to make it as intuitive as possible though; for new players to pick up and do well. It should only take about 15 minutes to see everything the game currently has to offer.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
@GlornII: Go
Will do Glorn when we can figure a schedule out.
Next up on the list was Ling Slayers by FunkyUserName. Video is a good amount longer than the others, and that was after editing, but is still a fun game. We broke it a few times, but still a fun game :)
Not a whole lot of additional feedback for me to offer afterwards, aside from rathering my dwarf not walk directly into the enemy while reloading, and that my shots don't get stopped by allies if friendly fire is not a thing.
ah nice one, lots of bugs to fix for me, that's great! thanks for playing. :D
btw there is a "call dog" ability once you buy a dog, but i have to make this more clear i guess.
could you attach the replays? still don't know what happened at the tank.
i might add a "fixed camera" option, no cam movement at all if checked.
the black cliff/textures is a bug with blender m3 exports, will be fixed next version.
friendly fire and team vision depends on difficulty settings.
Up next is Bilxor's creation: Lifeforce Campaign Mission 1: Genesis . Not exactly fantasy or RTC geared, but still pretty good regardless. The video went on quite a lot longer than I would have liked, and the rendering, well we don't talk about that. But anyways, due to the length, annotations have been put in to make it easier to navigate, skip to stuff you want to see easier.
Shapes up to be a pretty fun campaign, but does fall into the problems that Star Trek/Star Wars prequels has. Namely, the technology of the past is better than the newer technology? Yea, has a little of that going on. If you like what you see, please let Bilxor know so he can be encouraged to finish more missions in the near future!
Next up is GlornII's creation, which he hasn't really named yet, but describes as a Warcraft 3 custom hero arena. He just wanted me to check the intro and such out, so it doesn't turn out to be the most exciting of videos. Still, if you like seeing a LOT of UIs and exotic creep grinding, you might enjoy it!
No more requests on my list for now, please let me know if you have any more.
@Trieva: Go
Sure, but in a situation where I have too many requests, I'll probably try to give RTC related requests precedence as they are on a bit of a time crunch.
Lol, thanks for the review Zergling! I almost feel bad that you did not get to fight any bosses. They are not implemented yet. That ramp in the center you kept running up, will be a large portal eventually, leading to an area where you can go to fight bosses. It will likely be 2 weeks before I have the bosses added; and only plan to have 5 for the RTC contest (Setting realistic goals and all). I also plan to have all 24 starting heroes added; and to finish adding the defensive skills.
Ive written down to do things like flash dialog buttons of importance (when you have finished setting up your hero); and to add a tooltip to the skill unlocking buttons. I definitely have difficulty with "intuitivity", due to my wc3 history. In WC3, everyone understood what a "hero arena" was without and directions given; there is not nearly as much crossover as you might think. All I hear from people on sc2 is, "Ohh, its like dota." But then it isnt DOTA, and they are confused.
As you mentioned a few times, the UI is quite overwhelming. My goal being to allow for a lot of customization, I cannot simply remove options to make it more simple. Is there anything you thought of that could assist?
I noticed:
Despite every single UI screen having a "more info" button, you didn't even hover over one; not once. Did you simple not see them (there is a lot going on) or were you like a typical gamer and thought "I'm here to play, not to read!"? Either way, do you think trying to put more emphasis on those buttons would be a good idea? Those buttons each explain the screen you are looking at in great detail. I hate games which cover your screen in words; so I want to keep it optional; but I would really like people to click it!
The same can be said the the "close" button, or "continue" button in a few cases. A big red button on every screen that says "close". I made some of the buttons bigger and redder so they stand out; and people have still had problems figuring it out.
You never noticed that there were additional tiers of items; once you had 4, you never opened the vendor again. Again, is this because the screen is overwhelming and you just skimmed over the buttons on the left? Or being that the game is an alpha, and a lot of the content is missing, just assume that there were no additional tiers of items? I'm quite surprised how well you did considering the stats you were missing out on. (there are items which reduce spell damage too; so that fireball hitting you wouldnt have hurt so bad)
Again, thanks for checking out my game for me. If you are interested, you can be the first person to fight a boss in the game ^_^. you spent way more time looking to fight a boss that I thought you would spend on the entire map; I hope you enjoyed it at least.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Perhaps only showing what is relevant at the time? If that makes sense. I can understand wanting to give players options, lots of customization, but it was just to the point of oh crap what do I do on my end. Like hero selecting, it might make more sense to show each hero's strengths/weaknesses, then have a next, and THEN let the players pick stats. That is just my opinion though, I don't typically play this sort of game so can't value my own opinion of it too much.
I may have missed it, or may have thought, oh no, not more text!!!! Keep away!!!!
I intentionally tried moving with the shop open to see if it would be smart enough to auto close at one point, which it did not. I could go about my merry way buying from the shop while out in the field, which I'm guessing wasn't intentional.
I actually knew about this, but only from the fact I played your last hero arena 2-3 years back, and something like that existed there. I'd say I was just so focused on finding a boss that I didn't care about that.
Sounds good about the boss thing, be happy to do another video for it when you are ready.
hey DZ,
Just wanted to pop by and say thanks for reviewing my map. I noticed a few tweaks/errors that I could polish up and I really enjoyed watching the playthrough (even though you had over 1k minerals in the bank most of the game... had me yelling MACRO!!"
<Click Here> To See My Epic Single Player Campaign (LifeForceCampaign.com)
@Bilxor: Go
Yeah well, after that first failed attempt, I wanted to have a nest egg just in case. Since I had no idea how many resources you'd give me, what'd happen next. Not that having extras or an army of marines helped any for that yeti cave... Still sour about that one, lol.
@Deadzergling: Go
At least you kept your upgrades? :p
Imagine the yeti cave as the next map in the series where nothing would carry over anyway... haha that was my original plan but decided to pack it all together instead.
<Click Here> To See My Epic Single Player Campaign (LifeForceCampaign.com)
Hi all, have another video ready for you, this time it is WarpCraftv2 by Acaraco:
Acaraco did warn me that the orc race was currently not balanced, but I wanted to play as them anyways, so I did! The map did have a few hiccups, but that is just my gift for recording I think. If there is a way to break a map, I'll likely find it somehow. I'm not typically a fan of this sort of map either, but the slower pace, allowing for actual planning instead of just rush as fast as you can to try not to die, makes it a lot more approachable for me.
Will be posting Trieva's request in the very near future.
As fair warning to any of you procrastinators out there, I'm not taking any requests past 11/16/2015. Have my own mod to work on after all. So if you really wanted to see me stumble about through one of your creations, the time to get your requests in is now.
Next up on my list was Trieva's Co-Op turn based squad survival, BlitzFire.
Is pretty well designed for trying to bend the Starcraft 2 Engine to do something it clearly doesn't want to do. Reminds me a lot of a PvP oriented turn based I saw a couple years back, but I personally think it works a lot better as co-op. In terms of gameplay, not a whole lot I'd change about it, but I feel like it could use more work in the audio and visual departments. Have a sound other than civilian death whenever your squad is hit, have more blood splatters, sparks, and of course exaggerated deaths! Normally I wouldn't have such a Michael Bay opinion on the matter, but in the case of a game like this, having fun things to watch while waiting, as little rewards for winning, I think might really work.
Anywho, with that request out of the way, I officially have nothing else on my list for now, so get your requests in if you were going to. I won't actually be upset if this is the last of my requests for several weeks, I'm actually rather busy with work and modding lately.
Hey Zergling!
I was going to wait until I got the last level finished, but since you have nothing else you're working on and there's a deadline for these things, would you like to give "Death By Fantasy" a try? I'd suggest playing with at least one other person. If you play through it without wiping and restarting a level, it will take about 25 minutes to complete.
It was made by me, with Terrain done by Wargirl and the Soundtrack done by Moustro. I highly suggest playing it with music enabled because his stuff is fantastic!
And if you do have other maps to try, you can put this one off a little, we hope to have the final level finished and playable in a week or so.
Thanks!
rut
@rutegar: Go
Hi Rutegar, will be checking it out with duckies either this weekend or the next, whichever works out better for him. Will post it here when able.
Hey Deadzergling! A few weeks have passed and I improved a lot of things in Gods of Terminion: terrain & UI improvements, more races & gods added, 2 tutorials (a quick one and an in-depth one), and many bug and balance fixes which make the game hopefully much better. Your feedback as well as other beta-testers feedbacks were very helpful.
So if you're curious and want to give it another spin, that would be awesome!
@Chewiest: Go
Sure Chewiest, will put that on the list, probably record it the same night as Death by Fantasy. Will probably post yours after as I want to post ones I haven't done yet first :)
Hey Deadzergling,
If you'd test my map, Shattered Soul Action RPG, I'd really appreciate it. The game is in a fully playable beta state right now. I'm really looking forward to hearing what people think so I can polish it up.
Appreciate it!
@johnfloyd: Go
Sure, will put it on my list. Will likely be hitting it up this Sunday (11/15/2015) with duckies and wargirlwargirl.
Feel free to give Doodad Hunt 2 a try.
I am looking for pros/cons on the gameplay from folks atm.