Monday, February 13, 2012

Fix It : Post-Mortem

I didn't mention it earlier but I made "Fix It" for the GMC Jam #5 (Theme: Facade).

The competition ran for 72 hours but due to a big fancy school test and wasting time on an isometric pixel art house that I spent a full day on and then scrapped, the final product is just a little over 30 hours of work.

Despite some major glitches that include an impossible level, clunky physics, and the fact that it doesn't even run on some computers, the game received some pretty good reviews.  People loved the concept but hated the execution.  I'm fine with that and I agree with them for the most part.

Thanks to everyone at school and on the IRC who lent moral support and also thanks to Nocturne and the rest of the GMC community for another excellent jam.  I always hate making games but you people pull me through it.

And now, some press.


Raocow made a review of the game here:
Part 2:
Playthrough:

Timelapse:
And a compilation of all the games, which I can't embed for some reason: GMC Jam 5 Compilation

Some reviews (highlighted my favorites):
"whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa... You've got this like little weird garbage bag man... I dunno it's all distorted and crazy... what is going on... WHAAA... (pause) ahahahahahahahah... whaat?  I flip the world that is oh my god... that's amazing... oh my god that's... (psychotic laugh) can you guys parse... this...?" ~raocow
"Very unqiue, extremely confusing. I had to skip the first two levels as I had absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing, unfortunately I had to mute the sound too because the high pitched beeping was giving me a headache. That aside, it's still a very cool little puzzle game and thankfully gives you the option to cheat your ass off and skip levels. Playing this game is for the intelligent only, if you're as thick as I am, just walk away, ThatSnail's serious brain exerciser will only bring pain upon our fragile minds." ~Rusty
"Second most polished....There are an amazing number of levels; and the layer-switching thing where you can see the other layers at 3D angles must've been tricky. And the story is quite interesting. And it has sound effects!
I like it...EXCEPT for the part where the game consistently breaks! I can hear the hero moving, but my screen is just a sheet of turqoiuse! But still, I like it up until it breaks. 3/5" ~SkullSoft
 "The concept of this game was really nice. i never got around to finishing it but what i saw was really good. The graphics of the differnt layers were good and the whole thing was epic." ~Keevor
"Wow. Just, wow. Use of theme: nicely done. Graphics: okay. Not great, not terrible. Colorful. Music: None? Sounds: One? Gameplay: Huh. It was interesting, but I've already mentioned I'm not good at platformers. Imagine how I felt trying to play a platformer where at any given time you can only walk on platforms that are in a different position from where they currently seem to be. I couldn't make it past the Save Red level. My brain hurt more than my hands did as I tried to figure out where the hell the ground really was." ~IceMetalPunk
 "A nice little puzzle-platformer. It had a nice engaging story and it's connection to the theme was very well done. I couldn't beat some levels, but luckily ThatSnail left me a skip button (Ctrl). The graphics were minimilistic, but I like that. The one sound effect got annoying after a while, and there was a bug. If you huld up while under a block, you hang there until you let go. Overall I thought it deserved a fair 7/10" ~snail man
 "Rating: 4.5/5 Another good puzzler. Too good for this easily confuzzled old brain. Similar to False by JonathanPzone & KodyT in this Jam, but very different in execution. I got quite a ways into it, but there are more games to play and review, and I found myself getting lost in this facade. This one is staying on my hard drive. Almost got a five with this, but I thought the graphics could have been a little better. It was a little hard to differentiate the solid from the non-solid blocks which added to the bewildering confusement, and I found it a little annoying, to be honest. Excellent game, keeps you turnin' the page." ~HayManMarc
 "it's difficult and strange.." ~ahmed # elyamani
"Very good idea. However, it seemed very buggy. I was unable to move side to side while on the ground, and sometimes I'd hit invisible walls. Still, this game could be pretty good if you "Fix It"." ~RekNepZ
 "ThatSnail's Fix It is a lovely story driven puzzle game. The whole structure of the game requires some skill in memory and timing, since you need to remember what each of "frames" are designed. This makes simple levels difficult, while still maintaining the level of enjoyment. The whole game is designed around the "frames" effect, it should be credited that the effect looks good. One of the stranger points of this puzzle game is that it has story that is directly tied to the game play. The story is thought provoking and was made with the theme in mind." ~RedOctober
 "The title describes what you should do with the game, cause all I get is a white screen… Screenshots looks promising though, and I’ll see if I can run this on someone else’s computer." ~TheUltimate
"Took me a while to figure out. It's a good idea but not very good execution. You need to keep working on this! :3" ~orange08
"For the characteristic crazy gameplay style of a ThatSnail game. It's a simple game, yet he makes so much out of it." ~TheSnidr
"I really liked the way the platform switched around in this one. Great idea." ~Venomous
"I liked the visual style of this. And color use. And the idea of "flipping" the blocks like that. Nice little mechanic there. (^-^)b The levels coulda been better designed tho." ~dadio
"This looks inventive and stylish, nice music too. I'm impressed. Good job!" ~cactus
 "You need to fix the jumping on platforms when the ceiling from/atop the target platform is as high as you are tall. Stuck on the yellow and red push blocks. cant reach the red push block on that platform because I hit the ceiling with my head.  Lovely concept though." ~icuurd12b42

2 comments:

  1. cactus reviewed the game?

    Also what am I doing in the credits? :P (not that I mind)

    ReplyDelete
  2. He posted in the topic. Made my day.

    I put everyone who beta-tested the game in the credits and you were one of them. Congratulations, orange!

    ReplyDelete