On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 4:18 PM, brian purgert <[email protected]>wrote:
> Lol yeah, not one likes giving constructive criticism. But thanks treking > for check it out i can't wait to here back. Go ahead and fire away I don't > mind. Alright, played through, and here's some initial impressions. All meant to be constructive so apologies in advance if toneless emails make it sound harsh. *Main Menu* - I'm not a fan of the interface. The listview shoved between the title and text at the bottom is extremely cramped in horizontal layout even for just 3 items. Maybe try a Gallery that shows a small snapshot of the level and describes it. - Make the menu button bring up the options screen. I pressed it a few times and assumed there were no options. It was only after playing when looking carefully at the screen to critique that I noticed the little wrench icon. *In Game UI* - For the first couple of levels, don't bother showing the "locked" gravity controls. It's a huge waste of space. - Get rid of the timer icon, it's more waste of screen space for something that's already displayed with an actual timer - Make the timer font smaller - it's not something I need to focus on - when I need to check the time a quick glance is all I need - Remove the pause and restart icons - again, wasted UI real estate for things that aren't used frequently. Make pressing the menu pause the game and bring up the restart screen - Stop changing the location of the button for the tutorial screens. First is on top then on the bottom. Make up your mind. - Give a clearer indication that you've completed the level. There's no finish line or snazzy particle effects or anything - just another popup window that looks like the retry dialog making you think you lost for a second. *Gameplay* - Remove the "brake" button. It's awkwardly placed and I personally never used it once. Most driving games just use the reverse as the brake and that's what I did when playing. - When you crash, add a 1 - 3 second delay where the player can see the bike crash and explode and then bring up the retry screen up, maybe with a nice animation. It's very abrupt right now. - The tutorials should be optional or less intrusive. I was zooming along just fine then a tutorial screen abruptly interrupts what I'm doing and throws me off. Maybe put then in as "tips" every time you die. - Improve the physics - there were quite a few times when I just barely bumped into one of those red walls and my bike went flying killing me instantly. Quite annoying. - Add a jump - you have no idea how many times I shook my phone hoping to get a little hop out of the bike - like Mario Kart Wii. That would add more variety and challenge as well. - For the earlier levels at least, make it clearer what the "correct path is". It took a bit of trying to go backwards after shifting gravity to figure out that it's really meant to go forward all the time. - Shift the camera more to the right so the bike is on the left, 1/4 of the way from the left of the screen instead of the center, so you can see more and have more of a chance to react. *Other* - Story and / or goals - not every game needs one and this one probably doesn't, but give the player some reason for doing what s/he's doing. Who's the dude on the bike? Why are your racing through the set of Tron? What is the *purpose* (besides just playing the game). Angry Birds explains why the birds are angry and why they're hurling themselves at pigs. Even Pac-Man had some semblance of a story. - You may have a bug - I beat all the levels and after I reopened all the "Level Status" labels said "Locked", but I could still select them. - Turn off LogCat debugging for release - you're spamming my log =) At first I did not like the rotation controls but eventually got a kick out of it once I got the hang of it. There were some pretty sweet "oh snap" moments when I flipped gravity in one direction and my bike in another direction to do a crazy somersault and end up moving through an arc to land on the bottom side of a platform I was originally on the other side of. That's about it. Hope that's helpful. All that said, I think it's a pretty good game. 3.5 stars ain't too bad for games that are completely subjective. I hit you with a 5-star to balance out the idiots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing <http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking> - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
