Hey everyone
After many months of starting projects only to have them end in some variation of:
- too difficult to get working reasonably on Smilebasic
- too ambitious to get to a version that is both "playable" and "worthy of playing"
- what the heck was I thinking... this project stinks
.... I finally got Tiki Descent http://smilebasicsource.com/page?pid=900 to a point where I felt it was ready to post.
Here's the irony: The game was quite playable several weeks ago. The basic play mechanics are simple and my play testers (family) were happy to give it a run even back when it didn't have title screens and "surround".
Yet - I was not ready to publish the game until
- there was music in the game (all games need music)
- there were particle effects for good measure (what are those physics equations again?)
- the "intro movie" and title screen had some kind of meaning to it
- an antagonist existed (even if he was just eye-candy)
- included power-ups (seriously.. you cannot have too many of those)
- the background graphics created "mood"
In the past days and weeks I found myself feverishly "polishing" the game to try make it more and more "professional" (yet knowing in my heart and mind that the imperfections in the game were deep... ). I was pleased with the hand-drawn graphics and the final "sort of kind of like an evil laugh" sound effect using BEEP commands. Yet - I am sure I could polish the game until MIIVERSE is disabled - and then never get images uploaded... sigh.
I'd be interested in others thoughts: how much energy to pour into a game ... does it really add to the experience? Will people play it more?
Thanks for reading....