Circular Snake

[ed-bit]

Hi all, I've been working on a game like the classic snake, but circular.

 

You can play it here: http://ed-bit.github.io/Circular-Snake/

 

This was my first attempt at a HTML5 game, and the entire game is in one JS file - no libraries or frameworks were used! I've posted the source code on GitHub.

 

Any feedback you have is appreciated, thanks!

[Blue Infinity]

The idea in general is fresh and unique, which is a big plus

 

However, I feel like the controls are difficult to grasp, even after trying them out for a while and reading the examples you've written. Especially in simple and quick games, it should be easy to pick up the game and just play it, to have a learning curve that is as short as possible.

 

Would it be possibly to experiment with another, simpler way to control the snake?

[marcgfx]

same here. like the idea, hate the controls. why not go with left/right turn 2 key approach? 

[ed-bit]

Yeah I'm aware the controls are pretty hard to pick up, I'm comfortable with them but of course I've had lots of practice while making the game. The trouble with a left or right key is that left and right changes depending on where you are on the circle. But thanks for the feedback, I'll see if I can experiment with an alternative control scheme.

[Blue Infinity]

Just an idea, but how about something like this:

In many 360-gravity platformers (that have Super Mario Galaxy -esque gravity) you move on a spherical surface counter-clockwise when you hold left and clockwise when you hold right. The player could press either of these keys when the snake is moving to a smaller or larger circle.

 

Changing to another layer of the circle would happen with up/down keys: up would let you move to a circle with a larger radius, towards the outside of the circle, and down would let you move to a circle with a smaller radius, towards the center of the circle.