Feedback on Games

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Dean Lane on July 23, 2010 at 10:18pm

Let's see, here is my casual feedback on the first two games of the multicart:

Quiz game:
Very good game. The music is well composed and the gameplay is well balanced, however there are a few concerns I have about it; let's start with something simple. The point in the game where it asks about the device used to measure heat the A button becomes unresponsive (maybe it's an occasional glitch, haven't tested enough). Also I don't mind the grammatical errors due to limitations of the amount of words allowed but there are a few spelling fixer-uppers that can easily be done. Such as "Popeye" being misspelled as "Popey" and "Motor" being misspelled as "Moter".

Typing game:
Unlike the quiz game which has a few minor errors this one needs a general overhaul in gameplay. Keep the music however, because the music is great. However, I think there needs to be an initiative to input letters in the game. Take the whack a mole educational game that was one of the games developed for the platform for example, the moles will escape if a button is not pressed in time which is a fine initiative to type. I wonder if it would be a wise idea to have the monsters attack the player giving the player an initiative to type. In it's current state, the game is simply a demo that shows an animation every time a key is hit. So it's possible to peck at the keyboard as many incorrect typists do and still have no consequences. Many 8-bit games that taught typing would have various consequences for the "pecking" technique. Also a problem that has been pointed out before is that the character will not respond to any input until his animation is finished.

Let me know what you think of my input.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Skrbina on July 27, 2010 at 11:26am

Hello,

I'm interested in contributing to these games. I have a lot of experience with the 6502, how can I get involved with this project?

-Rick

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Permalink Reply by James Derek Lomas on July 28, 2010 at 1:54am

Ok, here are some quick changes to the games that I think might be possible to get done in a short time.

Quiz Game:
* Change question object to a simple question mark in a box. Do a palette shift on this, to make it noticeable.
* Change the background of the quiz question screen to white, and the text to black.
* Now there is an arrow that points at the selected arrow. Change this to a nice red ball.
* The first 2 questions should be basic arithmetic --- 8+8= and 8x8=
* Next question should be "Color of the Sky?" Next question should be
* When a question is correct:
* Make the incorrect answers disappear so the correct answer stays on the screen...
* Use the animation of hanuman that occurs when you push the up key. So that he appears to zoom up.
* Make hanuman go up much more than any other good object.
* Possibly change his palette -- but not so that it would be confused with the "shock" of hitting a bad object.
* When a question is incorrect:
* Do not have hanuman fall down. But maybe flash the background of the quiz screen red....

* Right now, hanuman can fly anywhere on the screen, and people tend to try to just "fly" him up. So, limit the height hanuman can fly up on the screen to 3/4 of the way up the screen.


Typing Game:
* Before the game begins, show a picture of the keyboard (from the playpower site). It can also say "Type the words!"
* Then, the first letter of the first word should be blinking
* It would be really great if the words could be changed out with the narrative (which I sent previously), but there probably isn't time for this week.

Malaria Game:
* Add a counter that counts up for each mosquito killed.
* Add a timer that counts down from 100
* When the timer finishes, have a screen appear that shows Malaria Info.
"Mosquitoes cause Malaria
You killed [x] Mosquitoes!"
Then, randomly display one of the following messages below the score:

"Use a bednet to prevent bites at night."

"Screen doors can prevent mosquitoes in the home"

"See a doctor if you have fever, feel very tired, and have chills or sweats."

"Prevent mosquitoes by removing trash from around your house."

"Mosquitoes breed in old water, like in old tires, wet trash, and old coconut shells."

"Mosquitoes bite the most when the sun sets."

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Lee on August 3, 2010 at 12:01pm

Hey Derek,

The Hanuman Quiz Games should have improved speed as it was very slow. Maybe there are powerups which could increase speed?

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Lee on August 3, 2010 at 9:37pm

http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af109/ars2pd/3in1_playpower.png

This is an interesting answer. Got more feedback coming from the guy who found this.

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Permalink Reply by James Derek Lomas on October 4, 2010 at 11:44am

Here is an updated 3-in-1. The biggest change is the last level of the typing game.

Attachments:

• 3in1_playpower.nes, 200 KB

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