Boulder Dash Forum

Hi!

I stumbled on this forum today when looking for ways of getting players to a game I am working on. It's a browser based game inspired by Boulder Dash, Emerald Mine, and similar games.

Would you like to try it out? The game is called A World Below and can be found at http://aworldbelow.com.

The game is built around creating and sharing levels. Everyone can use the built in editor to add new levels to the game, and I am hoping that eventually there will be a large amount of levels. Based on things like rating and difficulty the game will then be able to recommend a level to you that is suitable to your play style so that every time you start the game there is something fun there.

But that's a long term plan. So far the game is quite unpolished. Feel free to try it out! All feedback, good or bad, is appreciated.

I know how frustrating it can be to get no reactions at all,
so I will give you mine ;
I went to take a look at your game, but I moved on when I
noticed that login is required ...

I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Sometimes, I willing to
take a quick look at a new game, but I don't want to login
for something totally unknown, no screenshots whatsoever,
that's just a little step too much. Sorry...

Thanks for the feedback, that's really useful information! You're right, the login is a huge barrier, and it seems like it scares almost everyone away. I need to rethink that, and at the very least add a way of playing the game as guest, without logging in.

Thanks for pointing that out! I'll post here again when there's a guest mode.

The guest mode is now in place, it is possible to play the game without creating an account.

You can try everything in the game in guest mode, including the level editor. Progress in the game is not saved though. Also, any levels you create are visible to you only, you cannot make them available to other players, and once you close the browser or navigate away, they are lost forever.

There are some annoyances still, for instance, there is no logout and a guest account can not be converted to a regular account if you like the game. But at least now the barrier of entry should be smaller!

It would be great if you tried the game and I very much appreciate any feedback you might have!

I will take a look at it tonight.

Can not start anything. I only see a blank window...

As promised, here's my feedback :

Overall, the game plays alright, I didn't experienced any problems or unexpected behaviour.

Below is a list of things to I noticed,
(and I don't mean to be negative or something, it is just some constructive critism).

There is no indication of how much crystals must be (still) collected.

No sound.

Sometimes, the movement is not consistent, the player then moves two places instead of just one.
(Strange enough, after I wrote this, I could not reproduce this issue anymore).

Movement is not too responsive, the player doesn't move instantly, it takes a little time while before the player actually starts moving.

The game is quite hard on the processor, it takes a continuous 55% processorload on my 3.20 Ghz Dualcore machine. (The games runs about 10 FPS).

When I enter the game for the first time, I saw four levels. After 20 minutes or so, there was only one left, 'The hourglass', even after clicking 'refresh'.

Amoeba should probably be animated, because like this, it's kind of hard to recognize. It took a while before I noticed that it was in fact Amoeba and not just gras or something.

Editor :

I have no clue what all the items are, I must find out by trial & error. Maybe you should give the items a tooltip wit a little explanation.

There is no (graphic) indication if a door is closed or opened, (unlike the exit-door).

CWS wrote:Can not start anything. I only see a blank window...

That's bad. If you could provide me with the following information it would be very helpful to me:

• What version of Flash do you have installed? Here's an easy way of finding out: go to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ and read what it says in the "Version information" box.
  
  What browser are you using? What version?
  
  What OS? Windows, Mac OS, Linux?
  
  When going to the game page, is the browser window black or white? Does it have a title?

It sounds like the Flash detection/installation/game startup failed. I haven't seen that problem myself, but then again I haven't tested all OS/browser/Flash version combinations (there are many).

Antonio wrote:[...]
Below is a list of things to I noticed,
(and I don't mean to be negative or something, it is just some constructive critism).

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it, it is very valuable to have someone look at the game with fresh eyes.

Antonio wrote: There is no indication of how much crystals must be (still) collected.

Good point, I agree it is confusing. I'll try to add a counter in the next version.

Antonio wrote: No sound.

I'd love to have sound! Not a top priority at the moment though - not because it's unimportant but because there are so many critical things not in place yet.

Antonio wrote: Sometimes, the movement is not consistent, the player then moves two places instead of just one.
(Strange enough, after I wrote this, I could not reproduce this issue anymore).

Movement is not too responsive, the player doesn't move instantly, it takes a little time while before the player actually starts moving.

The game is quite hard on the processor, it takes a continuous 55% processorload on my 3.20 Ghz Dualcore machine. (The games runs about 10 FPS).

Hm, the game is something of a CPU hog, but 10 FPS on your computer sounds low. Could you go to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ and check what version of Flash Player you have installed? Also, what browser (and version) are you using? I'd like to try to recreate your setup if possible and figure out why performance is that bad.

I am working with improving performance and controls, the game feels sluggish to play even when running with higher FPS. It is crucial I think for this type of game that the controls are responsive, so that is my main priority at the moment.

Antonio wrote: When I enter the game for the first time, I saw four levels. After 20 minutes or so, there was only one left, 'The hourglass', even after clicking 'refresh'.

That UI is very unintuitive I have found. I should do something about that. It shows only the "tutorial" levels, which there are four of at the moment, but hides the ones that you have completed already. And it doesn't update by itself so you have to press refresh (terrible, I know). There are a lot more levels under the "all levels" tab, but that's far from obvious. Once I've done with performance I plan on improving the experience for first time players, with a better tutorial and a better UI.

Antonio wrote: Amoeba should probably be animated, because like this, it's kind of hard to recognize. It took a while before I noticed that it was in fact Amoeba and not just gras or something.

Good point! As you've probably noticed I can't draw, so that's a constant headache for me...

Antonio wrote: Editor :

I have no clue what all the items are, I must find out by trial & error. Maybe you should give the items a tooltip wit a little explanation.

Good idea.

Antonio wrote: There is no (graphic) indication if a door is closed or opened, (unlike the exit-door).

True, didn't think of that.

Once again, thanks! This is extremely valuable to me, both the information but also the fact that someone took their time to try out the game I've been working on. It does wonders for morale!

Hm, the game is something of a CPU hog, but 10 FPS on your computer sounds low.
Could you go to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ and check what version of Flash Player you have installed?
Also, what browser (and version) are you using? I'd like to try to recreate your setup if possible and figure out why performance is that bad.

My setup is :
Windows XP
Firefox 5.0
Flash Player plugin 10.3.181.26