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Poing! - My first HTML5 game


Camaleonyco
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Hi! I have finished my first HTML5 game and I must say it doesn't look that bad! Please, take a minute to try it and rate it on Kongregate:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/camaleonyco/poing

You can also play it fullscreen and on mobile devices on my website: http://teleponk.com/Poing/

I plan to make more games like this, little tributes to the arcade classics from my childhood. So, even if your feedback doesn't help to improve this game, it certainly will help me with my future projects.

 

 

A little background:

When the Flash Game market collapsed I knew I had to quit game development. Until then, I was making a living mostly from Flash Games. Some of my most popular games are Moby Dick I and II, Days of Monsters, Clarence Saves The Day and Wild King. I tried the AppStore and PlayStore with a couple of projects (Bunny Cannon, Ketopix), but they didn't perform as well as I needed in order to become a Mobile Game developer.

However, a colleague told me that there is money in HTML5 gaming if you become proficient. He is very prolific, releasing a couple of games every month, and it seems like he is doing alright. I was used to spend several months making my games, but I was tired of that and the idea of making quick games was very appealing.

I tried several frameworks/toolsets/engines, but decided to use Phaser because it looks like it has the fewer caveats. Coming from ActionScript, making games with JavaScript is a lot easier than I expected. I started with a very simple project, but I can see how easy it would be to work on bigger games.

Anyway, I don't expect to become rich making small games, but I hope can still pay the rent with my them. Please let me know what do you think about it.

Sorry for my English!

screenshoot480.jpg

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Aesthetics are terrific, and I really like what you did with the letter box space.  Big Pang fan, but I couldn't find my rhythm with this one - always felt like I was being backed into the bottom corners because the bounce above the platforms meant they represented double danger?  Are there any other levels or powerups that come later?  Controls were hard enough on keyboard, and discouraging on mobile.

Overall suggestion: make a lot easier with clear milestones of success.

Issues: 1) "Press shoot to restart" doesn't restart.  2) orientation change on mobile doesn't re-crop the stage.

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Thanks a lot for the feedback!

The game was meant to be hard, but not boring. If the game pushes you to stay at a bottom corner I imagine it won't be too much fun. Maybe I should have highlighted that when you stomp an enemy it gives you double points, and that the gems gives you a huge bonus. As any old arcade the whole purpose is to get the highest score, but if it's not engaging enough... players will quit before the leaderboad shows up.

I will keep your advice in mind for the next games. Sadly, making a game in a week or two also means I cannot playtests that much, and I cannot invest a lot of time balancing the difficulty and adjusting the gameplay. But that doesn't mean I cannot learn! And use this new knowledge on future games.

As for the bugs, I would greatly appreciate if you let me know what browers and device did you use to play the game?

Thanks again!

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39 minutes ago, Camaleonyco said:

As for the bugs, I would greatly appreciate if you let me know what browers and device did you use to play the game?

Console reports:

Phaser.StateManager - No state found with the key: ShowAd

I guess that's my* ad-blocker breaking your game ... * I am not alone in such usage so don't assume this is an edge case.

49 minutes ago, Camaleonyco said:

I will keep your advice in mind for the next games. Sadly, making a game in a week or two also means I cannot playtests that much, and I cannot invest a lot of time balancing the difficulty and adjusting the gameplay. But that doesn't mean I cannot learn! And use this new knowledge on future games.

I understand - I used to think this way - I'd call it "finished" when "I" was done or the clock had run down.  But making a game in a tight window does not justify skimping on objective play-testing or user-feedback cycles.  Either scale back all disciplines to fit your timescales, or increase your timescales to include every discipline.  Otherwise it might be like making a boat without a hull.

I have found that getting comfortable with incremental "releases" makes development more rewarding in the mid-term (release fast, learn fast) and more financially stable in the longer-term (better user experience).

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I've updated the game, fixed some bugs and added some features requested by players:

-It changes orientation and rearrange controls on mobile without having to refresh.

-Additional control scheme for desktop players. A and D keys to move and Up to shoot.

-Fixed bug that prevented the game to restart when the ads were not available.

-You get an extra life after collecting 3 gems.

-The tutorial is more visual now, letting you know that you can stomp eyeballs and that gems are important.

-Some minor bugs fixed, resulting in a better performance on old mobile devices.

B10b, thanks a lot for the feedback, I'm still trying to figure out a production pipeline and your input is appreciated.

I will revisit this game in a couple of months before releasing it as a native app for Android and iOS. So, if you have more comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Thank you, everyone!

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