Killer Freaks! My First HTML5 Game.

[Sammi3]

Hello guys, just a bit of backstory before I begin, I'm 17 and trying to prove to my parents that a career in game development is a real profession so I hope this goes well! Anyway, here is Killer Freaks.

 

KILLER FREAKS

Killer Freaks is a fun action arcade game whereby the protagonist uses a slingshot to keep themselves safe from the Freaks! The game features in-game achievements and in-game statistics. It has a fun game mechanic and I believe it's worth your time to try it out. I believe the game should do most of the talking though. I understand that the game is in need of some polishing but I'm hoping to strike a deal with a HTML5 sponsor two in order to buy a desktop PC. Please give me your honest opinion and criticize me as hard as you can. I have to improve in order to make a living out of this. Thank you for your time, Samuel.

 

Direct Link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107475417/Killer%20Freaks/index.html

 

MarketJS Link: http://www.marketjs.com/game/KillerFreaks

 

Hope you enjoy the game

[Sammi3]

I would like to apologize, it seems that my images have been scaled down. The game resolution is 320x480.

[matheusbn]

Well done! 

 

I just think it's too hard or fast on the 2 wave from the previous one, but maybe it's me because I'm not that player anymore. 

 

Overall congratulations.

[dhaber]

Nice work.  It is hard to find a good dynamic that works well on mobile devices, and I think you've got something here.

 

A few thoughts / comments:

• It seems like the player is being hit by the bugs a little before they reach the player.   It would be nice if it was more clear where the hit zone is.
• As was pointed out, the difficulty curve is too high.   The first level is relatively easy, and the second one is very difficult.  Most people aren't going to return to a game where the difficulty is too high or they aren't feeling like they are making progress.   When the difficulty is tweaked just right, games start becoming addictive, and I think this being off is the biggest weakness to what you've got here. 
• The splat sound is working really well.
• I'm not hearing any sound upon being hit by the enemy.  It would be useful to know when you are hit beyond the color change.  
• The color change is nice, but if you get stuck on the brink of death where your whole screen is red, it doesn't look very good. Maybe just flash red and have a health bar?  Or go red around the edges only?  Also, maybe reset health between stages?
• When playing on Chrome (desktop) with full screen there is a small overlay rectangle being drawn in the upper left corner.   This is where things like "Wave 1" are centered.  It looks like this should be the size of the whole viewport, but instead it is only about 1/4th of it.  Also on full screen on Chrome the page has a slightly larger height than the window, so if you pull down to the bottom, the page scrolls.
• The marketJS link that isn't full-screened doesn't have those issues, but the padding looks a little tight for text.    For example, on the "Killer Freaks" title screen there are only a few pixels of padding on the left and right of the text.  I think it would look a lot nicer with more padding or if the title was split into two lines.  An extra graphic for the title screen showing an artistic rendition of the bugs invading or something of that sort could be very nice polish.
• The overlay rectangle darkens everything below.   I'm not sure that it makes it look better?
• The "Combo" messages sometimes clear out so fast that you can't read them.
• I really like it when games like this have a secondary dynamic such as things that spawn that give you weapon powerups, or health.  Having different enemies at the same time could be nice too.  They could move at different rates.  (EDIT: Made it to wave 3 and see that you have this.)  Some could take multiple hits.  Boss bugs could take a number of hits.    I'm not sure these are the answers, but I feel like doing something in this area could help with the replay value of the game.
• Background music that matches the intensity of the game would be awesome.

Anyway, I hope you don't mind the feedback.  I like the dynamic you've got going on here.   You are on the right track.  Definitely keep going and keep polishing this.

[Sammi3]

Thanks for the great feedback! This community is nice. I'm about to take a flight for boarding school but I'll work on the suggestions very hard and plan to become a very avid user of these forums. 

 

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• I really like it when games like this have a secondary dynamic such as things that spawn that give you weapon powerups, or health.  Having different enemies at the same time could be nice too.  They could move at different rates.  (EDIT: Made it to wave 3 and see that you have this.)  Some could take multiple hits.  Boss bugs could take a number of hits.    I'm not sure these are the answers, but I feel like doing something in this area could help with the replay value of the game.
• Background music that matches the intensity of the game would be awesome.

 

I'll try to make new types of weapons. One of my first thoughts was to eventually allow the user to use a boomarang which would help deal with enemies that you missed the first time and since I work by myself, it's really hard to make game music but I will certainly try to cook something up. Anyway, thank you both again for the great feedback.

[haden]

Nice little game you've got the here. I tested the game on my iPod touch 4th gen (iOS 6.1.3), the game scaled well on my Chrome browser but not on Safari, here is a screenshot of how it looks like in Safari:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36169647/Killer%20Freaks.png

 

Also, when the freaks appear on top of the screen they are hidden by the score text which is not cool at all. Maybe make them appear right under the score.

[Sammi3]

I thought if it was good on an iPad, it would be good on an iPhone. I have no cash right now but I might know what is causing the problem and I'll update it. I'll be right back.

[Eamon]

On a iPod Touch 3rd gen the game is really small, I'm guess your using the mobility engine from the gmc forums? Because that's also broken on older platforms...

[AhmedElyamani]

Great game , Very good for a first game too!

The gameplay turned remarkably difficult after the third wave , and it would be more neat to have a health bar instead of the screen going red. But it's  still a great game , and nice sound effects too!

[benny!]

Cool game. Personally, I like it a lot. No idea if this type of game is what publisher are looking for - nevertheless - I relally enjoyed it!

[@Alex@]

It's quite nice gameplay wise but the trophies menu had information pop-up (using the dropbox link say : format) which seemed unfinished. It would be nice to have an overlay in game to display the information.

[Sammi3]

Thanks for the feedback. I've been busy in boarding school but I'm sure now I have the time to make improvements on the things that have been listed. Thank you again.