Game Review 2: Kute Little Aliens

The game opens with a small story being told. "This is pliptonia, and something is wrong here. click to find out what it is."

This is why I fear I will not be able to make a game I enjoy. This is a shoddily done adventure game with the ability to suicide your 'Kute Little Aliens' over a cliff repeatedly. I guess the poor art and story may be intentional, but even then it feels rushed.

Glitches abound, and the game just suddenly ends after the game forces you to head into the forest. If you attempt to pick up the apples while inside the forest, it keeps sending you to pick up the same apples repeatedly until you quit the game. Yet if you decide to ignore the apples, it sends you to a village that the aliens have built while you wondered off with the other half of the tribe. You then get the option to stare at the same screen of a creeper pink alien in a doorway and a green blob that may be a tree for AS LONG AS YOU WANT, or quit, by closing the tab/window.

Honestly, I didn't really enjoy the game. I think they should have been able to fix the glitch that everyone who I've heard played the game runs into, and even then, there should be branching paths.

Game Review 1: Third World Farmer

The game opens up with a view of your little family of (gasp) third world farmers. They are a poor lot, and you have 50 dollars to spend on that which you deem necessary.

On my very first play through, I was immediately rofl-stomped by a drought which killed all of my plants and left me with -2 dollars. The game then politely informed me that my family cannot afford the price of living, and their health will suffer. Luckily, a businessman gave me a deal I couldn't afford to pass up, offering me 75 dollars to put his harmless barrels of toxic waste on my farm. Surprisingly, My family didn't grow extra appendiges, so I planted my 73 dollars of crops, and got a woman pregnant. The crops then failed fantastically, leaving me with -25 dollars. We flawlessly had a baby however.

GREAT!

The merry man of business then proposed to me the previous deal, again. I accepted, planted my 50 dollars of crops and pressed go. The little window of updates and joy informed me that the barrels were not safe this time, and someone had died.

Yay. Alt+f4.

Playthrough two showed me a fabulous turn of luck.

I bought a shovel this time with some of my opening cash, and speckled my field with corn. Preparing for the worst, I pressed go. Corrupt officials then stole my 2 dollars of savings for a farming tax. My harvest however gave me sixty-sum dollars.

I smiled and sent my family back to the farm, planting a mixture of Cotton, Wheat, and Corn.

Next update: ALL UR PIGS R DED FROM SWINE FLU. Huh--- wasn't aware I had pigs, so I suppose I'm fine. I continued dodging various maladies and when the drought decided to steal mah waters I was ready with a well. This continued until I beat the game.

I didn't know it was going to happen, but when you buy all of the special upgrades, (school, clinic, non-asshole Politicians...) You win the game. Granted, it warns you immediately before you click WIN, but thats a bit late, in my opinion. Score saves, explains how you got your points, and lets you save your score.

The first problem I found with the game is the lack of tutorial. The loading screen tells you everything you need to know, but I know for a fact some people may either ignore the whole thing or at least miss the part about "clicking family members for more options."

The tool tips are also a bit questionable. (ex. "Elephants: Elephants help.", "Cotton: Cotton is light and fluffy.") Would really like to know exactly how much elephants help, or how fluffy the cotton is. Failing that, it would be great to see how much profit I can expect from my cotton or corn.

It would've also been great if the game told you how to win during the exposition, as opposed to let you click around for 3 hours and not know why the game hasn't declared you a winnar yet. Would've also been great to see how I could obtain points in the game before I started, rather than after I finished.

In conclusion, the game was acshully quite fun. I enjoyed the random events (as long as it didn't destroy in you during the begining) and the upgrade system with the tools was quite well done as well. The tool tips were iffy, and it seems like a quick fix would be all it would take to fix them. The educational value is also a bit surprising if you care to look for it. I learned that life as a third world farmer is quite difficult, and the fact that I rage quit on my first playthrough will attest to that.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, and I recommend to my followers to give it a shot.

Game Idea

Okay, I need to brainstorm for game ideas.
My friend keeps pushing me to make a wall jumping game, but I'm not sure how far we can go with that. Keeping in mind the games I've tried on the globaloria web page, the game should probably be simple.
So I guess the gist seems simple, but It's impossible to truely tell until we get the chance to start work on it. The wall jumps seem like a good idea, but I fear the coding and design will run much deeper than our experience (or lack therof) will allow. An even better idea may be to make a simple platforming game.
Next, I wonder if a plot will be required. The man is jumping across a chasm, but why? Will combat be necessary? Should there be cinematics, or Character Growth? (When i think Character Growth I mean a level up system) Will we put much emphasis on player skill or will power-leveling your way past all problems be a viable solution?
I wonder if we will learn to make a save/load system for our game. A password system sounds simple enough, and I have a small amount of experience in creating a save/load code in the Warcraft 3 map maker, so perhaps this knowledge will serve me well.

I guess my answer to all of these questions is "I don't know, and I can't wait to try."

the first day

How much is there to it? The class just started. We went over the syllabus and set up our accounts. The class seems fun, and I cant wait to get started. I'm honestly a bit worried about what our skill and technology will be capable of, but I suppose that would mainly be my fault for setting my expectations so high. I look forward to working on a 2d game, but what?

Rpg's, Shooters, Platforming, puzzle...educational, even. What Ideas shall I flesh out?