742 replies to this topic

[h0lx]

oh and i hate when the air control is too big
like in the default platformer example... you jump right and in midair you suddenly change directions and start moving left...

[Pilo]

Using the Shift key (can open an unexpected Accessibility window on some computers).

The shift key is one of the best keys (except the arrow keys) for playing games (this is what I find). If you have a problem with accessibility then it's your fault and you should turn in off.

[correojon]

One big fault 99% of GM platformers have:
They only use still platforms or with simple movement(up&down, right&left)...
Be more original!Use circular and random motions, rolling platforms, abbility to climb walls(so you have to catch the platform from the side instead of landing on it),...Just play a Megaman or a Sonic game and you should get 100 ideas for different platforms

[Carnivac]

Using the Shift key (can open an unexpected Accessibility window on some computers).

The shift key is one of the best keys (except the arrow keys) for playing games (this is what I find). If you have a problem with accessibility then it's your fault and you should turn in off.

That blasted shift key problem made me mess up a real good game of Amiga Pinball Illusions dammit... I turn it off but it turns itself back on every time I reboot the machine.


Oh and I despise Midi's. I always turn off the midi control and have Winamp running in the background. Use small mid-quality sound mp3's or tracker modules.

Edited by Wolverine, 15 December 2003 - 11:21 AM.

[CobraA1]

What's wrong with MIDIs?

[Carnivac]

Bout 95% of midis just sound like crap to me. I really just cant stand the fake sounding synth sound of them and I dont just mean on low end sound cards. And with every machine I've used Game Maker games hiccup when a Midi file loops. And most Midi's people seem to use are just mediocre versions of other games themes.

There have been a few quality ones but really they would all sound so much better if they used more real sounding instruments.

Edited by Wolverine, 15 December 2003 - 03:24 PM.

[P_R_O_T_O_M_A_N]

I have more_+=_
1. Games that contain glitches that the makers just ignore and let the people download the game and wait 1 hour and find out you can't make it past the
title screen.
2.Boring games, no one likes to keep climbing up a rope hoping for the
level exit to come soon but it takes 20 minutes.
3. No sound, if there is no sound the game can be a little dull
4. No music, if there is no music the game will stink horribly and get a bad review
5. Bad graphics, don't concentrate on the graphics too much but don't make all your platforms black boxes.
6. Horrible difficulty, no body likes a game where you can't get past the first stage. No one at all.
That is all for now, im sure ill find more

['Arry]

Bout 95% of midis just sound like crap to me.  I really just cant stand the fake sounding synth sound of them and I dont just mean on low end sound cards.  And with every machine I've used Game Maker games hiccup when a Midi file loops.  And most Midi's people seem to use are just mediocre versions of other games themes.

There have been a few quality ones but really they would all sound so much better if they used more real sounding instruments.

Mark is gonna revamp the MIDI feature on 5.3, so hopefully midi hiccups will lessen. The main advantage of midis is very small filesize though. If you look at it from a quality per byte perspective, midi beats mp3/wav easily.

More annoying things I thought of:

Games where the player has very little control over what happens - its extremely boring just to watch stuff happen.

Games where the user hypes them up to be great but are actually awful. But that's more a problem with the creator than the game I suppose.

Games which contain mp3s - either the games filesize in MB reaches double figures, or the creator has to put in a short loop of one song, both of which are more trouble than they are worth.

Edited by 'Arry, 28 December 2003 - 04:23 PM.

[hpapillon]

.. just out of curiosity, what games would those be? (where the player largely watches things happen)

The obvious things would be my goblins and Bug World, and that's because they're both sort of ecology-life-sim-things genre-wise. Are there other games in different genres where people have been making you watch too many cutscenes, or what?

['Arry]

.. just out of curiosity, what games would those be? (where the player largely watches things happen)

The obvious things would be my goblins and Bug World, and that's because they're both sort of ecology-life-sim-things genre-wise. Are there other games in different genres where people have been making you watch too many cutscenes, or what?

I wasn't going to name and shame, but hey: War Game version 1 or whatever it was called. It's an RTS game, where you build the factories for your units, and then you have to set a waypoint for your units. The units then move towrds this waypoint and attack stuff if there are enemies nearby. While the AI of the units isnt that bad, te player can't control the units, which is awful, because thats the whole point of RTS games. Life-sim games aren't so bad, after all you are meant to watch stuff happen in that genre.

Edited by 'Arry, 28 December 2003 - 04:26 PM.

[P_R_O_T_O_M_A_N]

just out of curiosity, what games would those be? (where the player largely watches things happen)

you really shouldn't have asked that :skull
My Annoyance lists complie of several different games.
Plasma Twins Strike Again
Megaman PSX
Cosgrove's Umbrella
Ape Escape Poverty Kicks ***
Emoticon Pleasure
Death do you Death
Don't ask me that same question
Dance Dance REVOLVED
::::;;
And a whole lot more

[Smarty]

I'll add my 2 cents. Things that can put me off:

• Poor interface. It takes time, but you need a good interface to your game. It really IS the face of your game. Just a bunch of message boxes in which you can click yes or no to select the options is a serious put-down.
• Graphics or sound inconsistency. For graphics: images that do not "fit" together in the game. This happens especially with ripped graphics. For sounds: any music or sound that simply does not fit the content of the game (for example, a game about picking flowers with a futuristic techno synthesizer theme).
• Bad speed performance on relatively simple games. This is mostly caused by inefficient programming. I don't want to need a 1.2 Gigahertz machine to play Space Invaders.
• Using the default Game Maker loading screen. Make your own!
• Spelling errors in the language used. Any game with spelling errors seems either unprofessional or thrown together in a hurry. Ask someone else to correct your spelling if you are unsure.

Smarty

[imakegames99]

I hate games with too many particles. they annoy me.

Edited by imakegames99, 29 December 2003 - 01:31 PM.

[39ster]

Extra files, other than the one Game Maker compiled exe., that are needed to run the game.

This is one is wrong. More professional games dont use just one exe as there game. They usually have directories with graphics that load at runtime. I do it all the time, it also makes loading time faster if you only load the sprites when there first needed.

[TheAnemic]

Some people get trigger happy with transition effects. That pisses me off. Just leave them as they are.

['Arry]

On installers. 

Unless your game is over ten megs or you absolutely need seperate files to improve performance drastically, you should not have one.  It isn't needed and there's no need to delude yourself into thinking you do.

I agree - installers just mean you have to mess around for longer before you can play the game. More annoyances i thought of: People who name their readme files readme.txt - this gets annoying if you are extracting games, because you have to create a new folder for each game, which takes time. But worse is games which use GMR files to run them and the person calls it game.gmr. Then when you try to run a game you get a different one because the file has been overwritten. These are annoying and could be easily avoided by adding some characters or giving the more individual names.

Edited by 'Arry, 12 April 2004 - 05:23 PM.

[Adam]

One big fault 99% of GM platformers have:
They only use still platforms or with simple movement(up&down, right&left)...
Be more original!Use circular and random motions, rolling platforms, abbility to climb walls(so you have to catch the platform from the side instead of landing on it),...Just play a Megaman or a Sonic game and you should get 100 ideas for different platforms

I have a platformer in the works with not much progress right now that has bullet pickups, falling blocks, retracting platforms, diagonal and circle moving platforms, switches and buttons and other effect objects, and is soon going to have pushable blocks.

[CobraA1]

Unless your game is over ten megs or you absolutely need seperate files to improve performance drastically, you should not have one. It isn't needed and there's no need to delude yourself into thinking you do.

Who's deluded here? Only 1337 GameMaker players insist on no installers. 99% of the professional games I play use an installer. Not having an installer screams unprofessional, and there's no need to delude yourself into thinking otherwise.

installers just mean you have to mess around for longer before you can play the game.

You mean compared to manually telling the zip program where to place the file, creating directories manually, and extracting files? I fail to see how this is any better than mindlessly clicking the "next" button, and I fail to see why mindlessly clicking the "next" button is considered "difficult".

People who name their redme files readme.txt - this gets annoying if you are extracting games, because you have to create a new folder for each game

Only a problem for 1337 GameMaker users who insist that there is something wrong with installers.