Posted 04 July 2012 - 11:30 AM
Well, it's okay. The engine is pretty solid, the physics seem really good, and the idea is there. The graphics are kind of simplistic, but they're not bad at all, it fits together. I didn't like the main character, mostly because I kept seeing him as a smiley with his mouth open instead of a chick with a beak. My main problem is with the gameplay itself, particularly with the level design. First of all, the player doesn't have a field of view that's big enough and the camera never scrolls, which combined with the chick's high speed, leads to a lot of blind-play.
Because of the way the movement works and of how fast your character goes, it's actually pretty fun to simply go at top speed and fly around with the walls. In the first level I really enjoyed just flailing about. However, in the second level my fun was immediately ended because there was a hole just before one of the eggs, and by falling in to the hole (which continued the level) I was forced to restart, because I'd missed the egg and it was impossible to climb back up. The problem was that because of what I said before about the camera and the speed, a new player that's having fun going at high speed can't possibly see it coming. The first levels of a game are supposed to be easy, don't put a blind obstacle right in the second level that forces the player to restart. Like I said, it's fun to flail around, so the first few levels should be only about that. You can definitely have some holes for the player to jump, but failure should not be punished with a level restart, and the player needs to have time to see them coming.
Besides that, the game is just way too hard. I only got as far as finishing 7 levels, and I think I'm rather patient, compared to the average player. It's okay to have a hard game, but the player shouldn't feel this oppressed after just 7 levels. And it didn't take 7 levels; the game started feeling frustrating as soon as I encountered that second egg in level 2, and from beyond there it just got worse. I can only imagine the horrors that lie after that. So my point is, save the harder levels for later in game. And secondly, get rid of the blindness as much as possible. Again, it's FUN to go at high speed, it's NOT fun if you have to tap the arrow keys to go slowly because a chainsaw might pop out and you won't have time to stop. The player should see the chainsaw and then be careful, not be careful all the time. Like I said, the game really needs a better camera. Oh, and the way you have to restart if you lose the elevators is annoying.
The game in general also feels kind of amateur. There's no way to change the options without restarting the game, there's no level selection, the font's a bit hard to read, it's hard to tell which option is currently selected, the menu is kind of too yellow and the fade-out transitions.... I don't know, they feel like a PowerPoint presentation. And of course, the level design which, as I said, is pretty bad. Also, it's way too easy to cheat by editing the save file, you might want to look into some basic encryption.
In the end, it's got potential but everything I mentioned kills the game. The best advice I can give you is to test the game a lot before releasing it. The game's developer is the worst judge of a game's difficulty, and you can definitely tell that you didn't have any fresh players test the game, otherwise you would have seen the mess you made of the difficulty (although you did say it was challenging). Remember, test test test test! Sorry for all the harsh criticism, but I hope it will help you with your next project.
