Like Breakout? Try 'MehPong - Planetarion' (Constructive Criticism Welcome)

RopeDrink

First of all, big thanks to Cult and Syxpak for helping me get this damn thing uploaded somewhere!

Right, short and sweet.

Created this game using ' The Games Factory ' so it's not like I was trying to make an overly professional game, but I spent quite a bit of time trying to master the program, and used all the resources it had, as well as photoshopped images and music I created (in the interest of saving myself from copyright hugging bastards in the unlikely event that I manage to find a way of selling this meagre game).

So the best thing about the game is that it's completely my own.

Basically I'd like to recieve any advice or criticism on the game itself, especially the difficulty settings, how fast it runs on other machines and, if anyone can figure out a nice, fair equation that I could use in the statistics ranking system, that would be great too.

So, if anybody is interested, you can grab the file here (20mb zipped):

http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~cult/files/MehPong_Planetarion_Setup.zip
(Thanks again to Cult and Syxpak)

Cheers to anyone who takes the time to try it out, and all advice is welcome.

TIPS:
The level music is in MIDI format, so to make it less annoying you should try setting your sound preferences (Control Panel) so that MIDI files are played in the best format. Also, if you have a GFX card with a low fill rate you might experience choppy gameplay and dissapearing sprites, especially on stages that contain bad weather... And to use special attacks, make sure you have NUMLOCK turned on!

Enough from me, hope you enjoy my little creation!
Cheers!

DonkeyStyle \o/

Screenies plz.

RopeDrink

Mossy Monk

didnt play a whole lot of it yet but so far i like it

the_syco

Bad thing: Limited install path!



But I want to install to "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\MehPong"

This will annoy a few people, who want to install it in a "games" directory, etc.

RopeDrink

Oh I know that, that's why I got myself a program named 'Install Maker' and I'm pretty sure you know what THAT does, but I tried it out a few times and wasn't actually too sure if it worked so I put it aside for a while and will give it a go at some stage soon enough.

RopeDrink

Just remembered - Must add a 'HOW TO PLAY' or even a 'CONTROLS' screen.So far all information on how to play the game are in a hastily written readme file supplied in the .zip.

Time for me to take some notes.

Lord Oz

The Games Factory is nice, step up to Multimedia Fusion once you've gotten to grips with TGF. MMF is like turning TGF up to 11!

RopeDrink

I'll definately look it up.
Been roaming through all the addon packs and utilities from the website, but never really looked at any of the other packages. Call me a stingy bastard but I'm not really willing to fork out money for programs like this when there are plenty of free varieties online

RopeDrink

If people were interested I'd even try working on the Multiplayer Online feature ala Tetrinet.

A multiplayer breakout game could work, too.
Tonnes of idea's rolling around in my head but just never really bothered to implement anything.

Karl Hungus

Got this off old Ropey a while back... Damn addictive stuff altogether!

MiCr0

could it be possible to disable the sound?
and the paddle seems a bit laggy - it could be smoother
is it possible to window it - rather than full screen?
could it be possible to have "lives" - rather than just ending

also, as a newb - it might be nice to have some of the powerups enabled as a suggestion

RopeDrink

Um...

You can select how many lives you want from 0-20, I'm not too sure what you mean in regards to power ups...
Do you mean, additional powers when playing on the easy settings?

As for the sounds, I disabled the ability to get rid of it, and forgot the actually reallow it, so that's my bad.

There are major sprite and game size conflicts when played in a window, unfortunately. I'm not too sure how you can implement a way for the game to be resized depending on the window size, which is a shame. You CAN play in window mode but you get little benefit from it.

As for the lag, that unfortunately seems to be normal, hence I wanted people to give some feedback from playing on different systems. It seemed to run smoother than a babies buttock on one of my friends PC's, so I'm trying to get an estimate for the 'recommended specifications'.

Thanks for posting about it, however, and all criticism is duly noted. It's going to be hard to get the game perfect, thanks to GamesFactory restrictions, but I'll take a note of everything and hopefully I'll either be able to fix them for this game, or keep the suggestions for future projects!

MiCr0

just re-read this
how can you increase the number of lives you get?

also, would it be possible to change the keys layout?

RopeDrink

To increase your lives, you must increase the "Extra Spheres" option in your config. If you click on the titles of the config panels, it gives you information on the cost and effects of each ability, which might help you out slightly, although the explanations also need a revamp.

As far as I know, the majority of the controls are based on The Games Factory program settings, although I'm thinking of creating a second set of controls as well as quick launch keys and other helpful keyboard enhancements.

Thanks again for the feedback

BloodBath

Great but tbh i found it a little boring. The game needs powerups. It gets a bit dull destroying tiles without anything dropping from them. I think if you restructured the game so that you earn talent points as you go through the levels and from the odd rare drop it would be more fun. Also how do you use the abilities like missiles or whatever u pick? The button config is weird to say the least.

RopeDrink

Firstly, all this is explained in the readme file, but it's my bad not actually having a controls menu / information / HOW TO PLAY screen.

Make sure NUMLOCK is switched on.
Use NUMLEFT & NUMRIGHT to move the Yellow Cursor Left & Right by one space.
Use NUMUP & NUM DOWN to move the Yellow Cursor Left & Right by three spaces.
When a powerup has been activated (It's Icon turns pink/red) move the cursor to the attack and use NUMPAD5 to activate the attack.

I used to have powerups drop from blocks, but on some occasions this caused errors, especially on sprite filled levels such as those that are succeptable to bad weather, although this only seems to happen on my system (Low GFX FillRate) so I might work on a BonusDrop system. Also, MehPong was originally created to be a LEVEL UP style Breakout game where completion of levels earned experience which, as you progress, earned more statistic points to be allocated to your configuration.

It worked quite well, but at the time I wasn't too sure how I could protect the MehPong INI file from being edited so that you could allocate infinite stats, so I fixed it into the mode it is now, where you must first select your configuration before playing.

This is the reason I wanted criticism.
I've very proud of my Game, which blinds me to some of it's flaws, hence I wanted to throw it online so that I could get playtesters to give me fresh ideas and, ultimately, judge the required specifications to play the game.

So far I've gotten some nice idea's from quite a lot of people (I thank you all) and have plans for a patch update or a full overhaul of the game.

Once perfected, my next addition will be co-operative / Versus stages and, if I can work around a new function I found, allow online multiplay ala Tetrinet.

Until I have sufficient criticism and ideas, and fix up the many bugs in the game, I'll leave that project well alone. As for the Multiplayer features, seeing as very few people seem interested, I'll leave it out for the moment.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to D/L and play my game.
I hope there are more who are willing to take the step

Thanks again for the advice!

entropi

Aye, it's a very nice game indeed, the overall package is well presented and it's very easy on both the eyes and ears [ love the Jap RPG-esque themed music also ]

Suggestions ?

maybe add 10-15 more skill points , increase durability on hard blocks a little.. thats all i can think of right now. Righto , off to continue my playing

MiCr0

also when the level starts - it would be nice if you could choose when the ball gets released

RopeDrink

That was how the old games worked, and in truth I should have kept that feature. Basically, due to the lack of a pause button, I wanted to launch the player right into the fray, and keep said player busy until the level draws to the conclusion. In keeping the pace fast, I was hoping to hide that minor detail

I can't efficiently add a pause feature, and the only one available is through the GamesFactory itself which, for some reason, disables itself after one or two different screens have loaded, which I don't understand at all, but I could probably work on making my own pause feature.

love the Jap RPG-esque themed music also

This is another problem. The in-game music will appeal to some, and disgust others. Personally, I feel it gives the game a slightly retro feel, considering it IS a revamp of one of the most ancient computer games around, but it would seem the like/dislike ratio is tipped in favour of the latter. Only MIDI and samples may be used, and samples (*WAVS) can cause slowdown and ingame SFX conflicts which I certainly didn't want to have to endure.

As for the statistic points, I can create a wide range of effective configurations capable of walking through most stages, regardless of difficulty, with ease which is what I aimed for. Too many statistic points would ultimately make the game too easy. Still, if I get the chance to work on a rank based LEVELUP feature that adds extra statistic points then that could remedy the problem.

Please keep the feedback coming guys, I'm getting a wide range of ideas for making this a far superior game.

Lord Oz

If I remember correctly there's an extension which has better pausing, I think it's called the timer extension.

RopeDrink

Nice one, thanks.

I'll look it up at some stage soon. Downloaded a wide range of .dll's from the website before, but some I couldn't get because they were only set for other packages. If one exists for TGF, then that could be exactly what I need.

Cheers, Oz.

Dr.Smurf

Really GREAT Game, just passed level 1... Going back to game.

SLIM19198

ok, here we go:

Controls - Mouse control with weapon selection via mouse buttons and scrolly wheel
Sound - make multiple soundtracks available (lots of midis like a juke box)
Weapons - Include drop bonuses (but make em ones that you cannot purchase, like fast charge weapons or really big blow everything up gun, shotgun, psycho damage, also bad power ups - replace blocks, slow weapons charge....)
Network play - Vs battle on network, speed challenge, score challenge, attack other player with bad weapons?

Hope this is constructive ;-)

SLIM

RopeDrink

Just added the ability to stop music from playing ingame, as well as the infamous 'Retry Level' button on the statistics screen, both of which were suggested by you friendly critics.

Now if I could just find CuLT so I coul re-upload, or figure out how to incorporate a patch...

On a side note, I had an extensive chat with SLIM here, and decided to inplace my Shotgun fetish into the game. A host of unpurchasable weapons will be accessable through drop down bonuses, as well as durability repair and statistic upgrades/downgrads (Negative Bonuses).

On top of that, I've already been working on a Challenge mode that requires you to accomplish specific tasks rather than just break all the basic blocks, so once I get that going that should add quite a big number of extra levels, but may double the size of the game (Which would mean 30-40mb zipped!) which is NOT GOOD!

Currently trying to figure out a simple but effective method for an information screen also, that'll be the next addition anyhow.

Thanks again to all for the support, please keep it coming. All ideas and suggestions duly noted!

SLIM19198

Woohoo, I also want to be added to the credits screen

RopeDrink

Well I have a special thanks mentioned for Boards on the end splash screen.
When it's all up and running I'll chuck in some proper names

Dooom

Should've been called "MehPhong". I thought it was, which made me laugh.

And then I realised it wasn't, so I stopped.

D/l'ing it now. Managed to break Solitaire so I need something to do.

RopeDrink

Managed to break Solitaire so I need something to do.

I'm shocked and intrigued!?
How does one go about breaking Solitaire?

Well, you'll be the first to benefit from the new version.
Uploaded the newert version to the same link seeing as I haven't actually attempted using PatchMaker yet.

Hope you enjoy it Spike, and please post up your thoughts on your shiny new game

RopeDrink

'MehPong - Planetarion' has just reached the home page of the Daily Click!

http://www.create-games.com/home.asp

Might seem like nothing to most people, but I'm extremely chuffed at the fact that my game, however small, has recieved some recognition (besides all of you kind people who posted here, also )
The latest version can be downloaded from there.

It contains a newly added Help Page, Retry Button, Music On / Off option and a few other suggestions that you kind people submitted, so thanks again.

I'll stop bleeting about it, however.
I know this is more or a Game Editing thread, but I decided to post it here seeing as I'm giving you guys a free game

Anyhow, thread terminated!
Thanks to all who took the time to play it!