After playing about ten times, I saw that it is as I wanted it, neither easy nor difficult. Visually something bothers me and I can’t figure out what it is… which makes me insecure to share and makes me wonder if the game is really ready. I opted for a 960X540 resolution, and lots of enemies and prey, and I think that’s why it got almost 90 megabits (can’t be sent by email). Should I redo the project with a lower resolution and with fewer enemies and collectibles? Many games I see have only the player and an enemy in an infinite scene that speeds up and makes it impossible to play for a long time, but my game can be played for hours and hours without this kind of difficulty if you just worry about surviving…
In short: The player will control a fish that will have to flee from bigger ones and “eat” other smaller ones. The larger fish take 1 life and the smaller ones give points that vary (10, 50 + 1 life, 100) and the seahorse 1 life + 1000 points. Colliding with jellyfish is harmless, but it loses 20 points. If the player loses all lives = Game Over, but if he can accumulate 100000 points = Game Win. Given the amount of points available in the game, I think someone can win in about an hour.
The intention was to create an interesting and enjoyable game to be able to pass the time, and it’s been almost a month since I started to elaborate and draw all the arts, compose the songs, watch tutorials… now I wonder if I managed to do something really interesting that whoever plays will invite others to play too… and I am in doubt if I share or not, if I should invest to transform it into a “profitable product”, if I should disclose. Does anyone else feel that way when they finish their projects? Can anyone suggest what I should do?
The Score doesn’t look good/done, and maybe icons on the shells are nicer than black default font.
The resolution is low enough, but 90MB really sounds a bit much.
It should be possible to reduce that, but I don’t know your resources.
Of course, it’s not the next Call of Duty and less than a month is not much developtime. But I think it’s good enough to easy publish it on itchio or something like that. Then you get some players and feedback.
When I was drafting the game, I thought this “stone frame” would be nice, but I don’t know if I like it after the game is ready. I also find the life icons and the score small, which can reach 99990 before the game is finished.
Excuse me, actually the android app got 61 megabits - which I still think is high.
Thank you for the tips.
I was unable to install the Android version on my tablet, but the Windows version is very pleasant to play, the keys and their combinations (up + left / right or down + left / right) speed up the movements, moving the player in all angles. In the Windows version I use the UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT keys, in the Android version I used “the cursor / touch in on”. (I need to decide how each version will be. Thinking that I finished my game just made me see that I still have a lot to learn and solve.)
I found one more error that I need to correct before the final version: Highscore works game after game, but when you leave the game, it is not saved, it starts from scratch.
I'm thinking of making the Windows version available on itchio to get tips on what needs to be improved, what do you think?
I downloaded the 960x540 resolution to 720x408, I eliminated a lot of arts, objects and actions and conditions… I thought it would significantly lower the size of the final app, but it increased from 61MB to 66 the Android app. However, it downloaded the Windows app from 92MB to 84. So much effort in the past few days for nothing. I don’t know where I’m going wrong, I need to resolve this.
(I hope to make the game available soon, I have a passion for perfectionism, although I am aware of my little ability to deliver an excellent product.)
At the Windows Installer version ~36MB just come from necessary things that have nothing to do with your assets and events. On Android it should be similar.
Your goal with sending the game via email so does not make much sense. The browser version is much smaller.
To install on my tablet, I had to uninstall two applications, that’s when I started to try to reduce the size, it’s not just because I can’t send it by email (which I think is more practical) to friends.
Then it’s time for a new SSD
It would be easier to share a download link, e.g. with dropbox.
Or use free hosting like itchio So simply any of your friends can play it in the browser on every device without installation, size problems, etc.
I intend to make it available on Itch.io or on Poki, but I am insecure and I would like some acquaintances of mine to test it, to then publish it on a website as the definitive version.
(I’m a strange guy [Asperger], I don’t read well with criticism, so I try to do my best. I don’t even read well with praise… I always think that anyone would do the same or better with a little effort… don’t be surprised if I disappear from the community without publishing any games.)
The minimum size for Android packaging is about 1MB, so most of the 60MB are yours.
Open your project folder, and sort all files by size to find out what’s up.
From the screenshots, I would expect a game of ~10MB, 15MB if there’s a nice background music.
Hello!
After many attempts, I gave up trying to download the file size for Android and decided to publish the Windows version on Itch.io to see what they think of the game.
https://otherworlds.itch.io/escaping-fish
Note: I noticed that on the website, the ‘exit’ button doesn’t work and the ‘full window’ button was over the ‘exit’ button. To exit the full window, use the ‘esc’ key. On my computer, you can only play on the full screen, because when using the ‘up & down’ keys, the website page is moving. (I can still change a few things before considering it as a final version.)
