7 replies to this topic

[Peter Porky]

Judgement: Anniversary Edition is a story-driven adventure game. Step into the shoes of Stan, a boy trapped in a strange world where his decisions can mean the difference between life, death, or something inbetween.

Judgement: Anniversary Edition

[Peter Porky]

bumpity

[J_B]

A little rough around the edges but quite interesting, will have to play it a bit more. The decision stuff is cool and I like your sketched artwork. Got to say, I found using the mouse sort of annoying, I wish it was all keyboard controlled. I like the clues to parts of songs though I haven't got far enough to know what they mean yet.

[Peter Porky]

Bumpskeeters.

[Hyomoto]

I'll be entirely honest with you here, the game is riddled with bugs and questionable design decisions but its more interesting than most I've played. I couldn't help but think while I was playing how much it would benefit from a bit of proper design. It really showcases how bad 'default' is, and makes a lot of other things look much better by comparison. I reminds me a bit of a project I'd done about two years ago; I thought it was fun to play but looking back, it was a quagmire of lazy programming and poor planning.

Pros -
Good descriptions, interesting plot, decisions have meaningful setups and apparent consequences. The graphics are largely inconsistent but functional.

Cons -
Controls are awkward, no standardized interface, questionable design decisions, apparent lack of play testing, bugs/glitches, inconsistent player feedback, vague guidelines and goal framing.

My Suggestions -
You have a workable base here; that's something I don't say very often. The difference between it being interesting and being good is whether or not you are willing to fix the most major offenders. For instance, the escape key entirely quits the application. There is no confirmation dialogue. Also, level design is awkward as there is a heck of a lot of dead space on the maps. The player is like 16 pixels tall but you navigate entire continents, just wandering around until the next interesting scenario pops up. Combat is largely unsatisfying (though the animations are good) partly because it feels ignored. Hit detection for enemies is inconsistent, and on several occasions I was 'rooted' while being attacked. I don't know if that is intentional, but since it only happened some of the time its clearly buggy. You can tell the bounding box is your entire sprite and no effort has been made to make use of depth. The inconsistency is probably one of the oddest 'problems', your 'F' key menu is interesting and functional, as is the main menu. Most of the sprites seem well done, but that style doesn't translate to the background.

It all boils down to an experience that feels amateur. I imagine the 'behind the scenes' here is either exceptionally simplistic or a horrendous maze of bad programming but with a lot of work you could definitely up the ante on this project and, in my opinion, make it shine. Right now it looks, feels and plays like an early alpha of a good idea.

[Peter Porky]

I agree with you on the escape button. I think I actually have that fixed in a current build that isn't uploaded. How do you recommend I enhance the combat? What do you mean by "No standardized interface"? Can you outline some of the bugs besides the collision difficulties with the monsters? The entire continents will be part of more "exploring" in a newer build of the game, traveling to currently barren parts will reward you with collectables.

I also agree with the bounding box, it seems very obvious to me now it should be from his waist down as opposed to his whole body.

[Peter Porky]

Bumpskies

[Peter Porky]

Bumpskeeters