First attempt at a game: "The New Kid"

[Ultra Magnus]

Hello people.

I've just spent the past few days learning AGS.
I'd appreciate some feedback on my first attempt at a game, as I'm sure I went round three sides of the square at various points.

Anyway, here it is.
http://www.mediafire.com/?eqxgrekxxnj - Updated with v1.2

It's roughly 14.8MB unpacked due to the (somewhat) high quality graphics.

As I said, I'd appreciate some tips on how I could make it (or my next game) better.
I do intend to add some music later, but I couldn't be bothered to put off releasing it until I could be bothered to make the midi files, seeing as there aren't any already available that I know of.

I'll shut up now.

Thanks.
J.

Note: This game may not be suitable for those who are offended by children's TV.

[GarageGothic]

I must admit I didn't expect much, downloading a game from a first-time poster. But I thought I might as well give it a try and give you some feedback before heading off to bed, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I'm not really familiar with Lazytown, and I assume that few of the graphical ressources are original. But even so, I think you've managed to put together a quite solid little game. Had it been longer I would even say it's a great kids game.

I don't mind the lack of real puzzles, but I'd have liked a least a bit more challenge - the soccer ball could perhaps have been partly hidden. I didn't play around with the dialog options, but everything seemed pretty straight forward. This is an area where you could easily have added more gameplay without spending much more development time.
Another thing is the interface. It seems to be just a re-skinning of the standard AGS interface even though some of the options are hardly used. Why even have an inventory when there's only a single item to pick up? For this type of game I would suggest a custom interface that doesn't require cursor switching at all. Make the cursor change to an arrow on exits, to a hand on items that can be picked up and otherwise just let any click trigger the look-at interaction. The fact that the only way to tell the cursors apart is the text at the bottom of the screen doesn't really fit the user friendly vibe that the rest of the game gives off.

I must commend you on the fact that the mousewheel back actually scrolls backwards through the interactions, that's something most games miss. However, it halts whenever you reach Look At instead of cycling like mousewheel forward does.

An excellent first game, good luck with your future projects!

[egamer]

The graphics are nice.  The thing that most struck me was the first-person viewpoint.  It reminds me of the old illustrated text adventures of the early 1980's, before the advent of the AGI interface, but with mouse input.  Kind of retro and modern at the same time.

[Ultra Magnus]

<snip>
An excellent first game, good luck with your future projects!

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I was initially planning to make it longer as well as bigger (more rooms, characters, puzzle elements etc.) that's why the inventory is there, and why the GUI is so big. But somewhere between putting the GUIs together and actually scripting the game I thought it would be better to start with something basic so as to reduce the risk of me giving up halfway through making it.

I kept it pretty close to the canon of the show, again because using pre-established characters and situations made it that bit easier for me. It's not really my place to say, but I could probably come up with something better/more interesting if I gave myself the freedom that comes with doing something more original.

As for the technical issues you raised :-
It is just a rehash of the basic interface. I was just building off of the default template to start with.
The automatic cursor changing idea sounds good, but seems like it might be a little out of my depth.
I must admit that the mousewheel scrolling thing was nothing to do with me, it's from the default template again. Or maybe I stole it from DemoQuest, I'm not sure. Either way, it was not my idea.

The graphics are nice.  The thing that most struck me was the first-person viewpoint.
<snip>

As GarageGothic picked up on, most of the graphics are stolen. Actually, it's only the objects that I made myself.
In truth I spent the first day making it Monkey Island style, but decided to give up on that and go with the first-person aspect because of how much I suck at pixel art. (A lot.)

Thanks for the feedback.

[TassieDevil]

This was a lovely little one! 
I liked it a lot. Very simple, didn't matter. Good luck with your next one, you are certainly on the right track!
Thank you!

[Dualnames]

Can someone upload a screenshot?

[Leon]

Great game. Better not show this to my kids ..  ;-)

A few remarks though... (when making this game for a kids-level)...
- It would be more obvious if there were arrows to the left and right indicating you can move a screen to the left or right. That way it's more clear that you can't move further. Or make the screens repeating (you are standing on a square so you can keep turning around...)
- I miss the sound...  It would add a lot to the attraction (certainly for kids). It would be an idea to add speech to the game and let Stephanie tell her story. But like you said, something for future work.
- The text speed is a bit fast. Kids don't read that fast, also people who don't have the English as native language might need a bit longer. Why not make it clickable so everyone can read at his/her own speed?
- The style of the text-boxes don't match the graphics style. The high-res images are great but the low-res text was disappointing. Maybe another font might do a lot? Or create Lazy-town style balloon-boxes?

I'd like to see more of this (so would my kids..). Keep up the great work.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Heh.

I must commend you on the fact that the mousewheel back actually scrolls backwards through the interactions, that's something most games miss. However, it halts whenever you reach Look At instead of cycling like mousewheel forward does.

I can answer this one. The re-vamped Default Game Template added this functionality, along with some other tidbits. But it broke because when I coded it I didn't expect the very first released game done with the template to be a first-person game, with a very different use for "walk"!

I second pretty much everything Leon said, and it remains only to compliment you on the great quality of your backgrounds and FM animations - original or not. Hey, taking things from various sources and make them all fir together is not easy either!

[mr.me]

Fantastic game! As a fan of Lazytown I think you did a great job keeping the spirit of the show. Can't wait for a sequel!

[CosmoQueen]

Where's the screenshots?

[Ghost]

A fun little game indeed, well done I don't like the series much, but this was indeed a nice, kid-friendly game.

Allow me to put these up.

[Ultra Magnus]

Hey all.

Thanks for all the comments and feedback. Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I thought I had this place sending me email alerts whenever anyone posted in this thread. I guess not.

Also, sorry for the lack of screenshots, I was not aware it was common practice. Will do better next time. As long as they're okay where they are, I think I'll leave them in Ghosts's post. Is that cool? (And thanks to Ghost for doing that for me.)

I've been working of the game some more, so the first post has been updated with a new link to version 1.2.
You can get it at http://www.mediafire.com/?eqxgrekxxnj.
One thing is that on the previous version I forgot to turn off the option to save games in My Docs, so anyone who's played it may well have a new empty saves folder courtesy of myself. Sorry about that.

I also realised that this should probably technically be referred to as a demo, as I intend to build off of it into a bigger game.
Would it be possible to shunt this over into the demos forum?

Aaaannyway...
On to the feedback...

- It would be more obvious if there were arrows to the left and right indicating you can move a screen to the left or right. That way it's more clear that you can't move further. Or make the screens repeating (you are standing on a square so you can keep turning around...)

This is true, and a good suggestion. Thanks.

- I miss the sound...  It would add a lot to the attraction (certainly for kids). It would be an idea to add speech to the game and let Stephanie tell her story. But like you said, something for future work.

Version 1.2 now has music. Still no voices or sfx, but it's better than nothing, right?
The looping midi could possibly drive you insane, but still... I think it's worth it.

- The text speed is a bit fast. Kids don't read that fast, also people who don't have the English as native language might need a bit longer. Why not make it clickable so everyone can read at his/her own speed?

I didn't know that was possible. I'll look into that. Thanks.

- The style of the text-boxes don't match the graphics style. The high-res images are great but the low-res text was disappointing. Maybe another font might do a lot? Or create Lazy-town style balloon-boxes?

I know, but I don't know how to customise text boxes and the like just yet. I'll look it up.
Maybe you're right, and it would be as simple as changing the font. I'll have a play around while I'm at it.

And lastly, thanks to everyone for the kind words and encouragement.

[Leon]

The leader and the midi do add a lot! When the volume is not too loud it's very playable!

The ball search is even better this way. A good change. But there are two remarks:
- I had some problems with the 'exit' of the bin-screen. The lack of cursor-changing and action indicators made it a bit difficult for me to find out how to get away. [exagerating here but still...]
- That brings up another part: I have to use the status panel and move my mouse over an object to see whether I'm walking, looking or taking... 

The credit screen at the end says ESC to exit. But that brings up the control panel... then you need to push quit, then confirm... It looks a bit messy.

I'm looking forward to the full game! If you need a beta-tester you know how to contact me. I've got four mini-testers here aged 5 to 9 all eager to have a go  . The perfect targetgroup for your game.

[Ultra Magnus]

Cool beans.
Thanks for the offer. I may just take you up on that at some point.

- I had some problems with the 'exit' of the bin-screen. The lack of cursor-changing and action indicators made it a bit difficult for me to find out how to get away. [exagerating here but still...]

Yeah, I was planning on putting something at first, but I couldn't think of a fitting description that would fit in the status panel space. I'll probably go with changing cursors in the full game, so it should be more obvious.

The credit screen at the end says ESC to exit. But that brings up the control panel... then you need to push quit, then confirm... It looks a bit messy.

Again, yeah. I initially wanted to have any click activate the quit command, but I couldn't figure out what part of the script that was, so I just went with what was already in place.
Again, it will be fixed in the full game.

Thanks again.
J.

[jetxl]

Lazy Town always makes me think of cake.

[CosmoQueen]

Cute and fun little game. The comments were quite funny too, especially the one about the wall

[Ultra Magnus]

CosmoQueen: I'm glad you liked it.

and jetxl: I've seen a fair few LazyTown YTMNDs, but that is by far one of the best. 8)

[Meystari F]

Cute game. Short and silly but I had fun with it. 

[Ultra Magnus]

Cute game. Short and silly but I had fun with it. 

Sweetness. I'm glad you liked it.

[Ghost]

Just wanted to tell you my cousin was here over the weekend, and I showed his daughter (age 7) "The New Kid"- she totally loved it, though I had to translate for her (bein' german).

Now, I was ordered to tell you on her behalf:
- you did a great job
- she loved how easy the friendly large "Stephanie buttons" were to use
- you did a great job recreating Lazy Town
- she liked how she was treated as the player instead of having 3rd person pespective
- she was a bit sad that Freddie didn't show up, she likes to see him being clumsy

I was also told to send a hug.

I should add that the girl's terribly nitpicky about what she likes, so this all adds up to a king-size compliment- and well deserved IMO