Fur balls 1 - evil be thy name: Bundles of mayhem!

[barefoot]

Hi
I would like to announce my latest game.

TITLE:
Fur Balls 1 - evil be thy name: Bundles of mayhem!...

STORY:
Your uncle Silas is being terrorised by mysterious critter fur balls who are eating his food, objects and wrecking his house!

Uncle Silas has asked you, his nephew Willy, to help him by getting rid of them, but its
not that easy!!!

They started appearing after a meteor storm a month earlier and are now taunting Uncle Silas!

Go through each room killing the fur ball residing there.. if you can..

Try to drown, burn and microwave fur balls!!!!!!

Good luck!!

SUMMARY:
This is a short game of about 40 mins to an experienced player, others may take longer!

TIP:
You may need to combine inventory items to be successfull.

NB: Due to a computer error and unable to rectify, you will see some speckles at the top of the window, hopefully this won't spoil the gameplay.

Graphics

16 bit - 640 x 480 resolution.

Game story and scripting by Les Mayers (barefoot)

2010

You arrive at your terrified uncle Silas's house in the cold and snow!


Finding a smoking fur ball! He's got to go!

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=search&sterm=fur+balls&submit=Search%21

Thank you

barefoot

[Saren]

It looks cute! I'll give it a try.

[saluk]

Far too much pixel hunting. Some of the items you pick up are seemingly invisible too, or attached to another item which the main character cautions you against looking into. If you are going to hide something, make the character encourage the player to look closer at the thing its hidden in, instead of telling them to go away.

Graphics are also all over the place. You should find a graphical style that suits you and stick to it. I thought the characters and furballs looked ok, but some of the objects were hard to tell what they were. Also, the first room is very unclear where the exits are. It's not common to have more than one exit per direction in an adventure game, so if you are going to do so you need to make it clear. Since you never interact with the front door and the windows are just for show, a better idea would have been to draw the room from the opposite view, so that you can see all of the doors you can go into.

I liked the concept a lot though (love the critter movies!) Some of the writing wasn't bad either (or it was obviously intentionally bad, like the dialogue in the movies you are spoofing).

[barefoot]

Hi Saluk

Thanks for your comments...

Most  PNC Games expect the user to Look and Interact with objects and stuff...  find things etc... I mean, should it be over obvious? I have played games where it really is a pixel hunt and I find them frustrating!

Not quite sure about the:

Some of the items you pick up are seemingly invisible too...

Unless you are referring to the log stick?

Regarding the first room, maybe you have a good point... but the idea is to walk around the room. after all, you know there must be other rooms.. but point taken...

Graphical style... I did'nt think there was a whole lot of difference but again, point take..

The outside view was a great idea, too late now though...

It was meant to be like a spoof horror with comic overtones..

All in all Saluk, thanks for pointing stuff out and I will endeavour to keep all this in mind...for future games... Each game is a learning curve, perfection comes with time, practice and advice.

I am almost ready with my next Game:-  CSI: Ginger and Leech.

Thanks again Saluk

barefoot

[saluk]

Yep, don't let my comments get you down, your games are improving each time, so that is cool to see. I did enjoy this game for the most part!

Yep, adventure games are about exploring and figuring stuff out. It's just there is a fine line between too obvious and too obscure. You don't want to give it away, but you don't want people to randomly click around the screen and solve the puzzle by accident either. What annoys me in games is when I know how to solve the puzzle, but am fighting the interface to accomplish it. When I find out, for instance, that my idea of a solution was correct, but I didn't click on the right pixel and needed to be left one pixel, that is a bit annoying. I am talking about the log stick, yes Also if I remember there was something in the bedroom, where he says "I don't see anything useful in there", but if you click one pixel above it you get the crossbow.

The living room thing is mostly convention. You shouldn't expect players to assume that there are 5 exits off the bottom of the screen without giving some kind of clue or hint. When you are making a game, you know the answer, so sometimes it can be hard to know what things feel like as a player. I kept getting stuck thinking I had been everywhere in the game when there was actually yet another hidden exit I missed. Some games from this perspective will draw outlines of doors. A recent example is Professor Neely, when you are walking around the house. The outline of the door to the basement and the kitchen are visible. The other solution is to use a perspective that shows the exits.

Here's a good general rule: If something in the game should be obvious to the character, it usually should be obvious to the player as well. The puzzles themselves in this game were ok, maybe a little too obvious at times, but the method of solving them required some random clicking on my part. Maybe try and make the challenge come more from the logic and less from the interface, is what I'm trying to say.

[barefoot]

Thanks for your added comments saluk, points noted..

I've been toying with a few ideas such as a version of Grand theft auto AGS style....oh, and willy the run-away sausage. to name but a few..lol

I am currently researching Forums and places for ways to improve artwork and gameplay.

All food for thought...

I just hope my pc don't get clobbered by trojans before i finish a game this time as it did with Fur Balls and Indy Bones:=

cheers

barefoot