New game: Pig Smasher! Looking for feedbacks

ThiagoPaiva

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this Gamesalad community and I made my first game.
So, I'm looking for some feedbacks and if anyone can find bugs. I'm not looking to publish it in the App Store, I want to know if it's looking okay and if I can improve anything.

Here is the link to my game: http://gamesalad.com/game/48643?filter=newest&platform=html5

Thanks and have fun!

tirnanoggames

like the graphics. Its a bit hard to play on a trackpad though.

FanStudioUK

You should really be ashamed of yourself!

Stop stealing Angry Birds artwork!

If you publish this, I'm sure you'll have to deal with their lawyers!

This is why GameSalad shouldn't be free, all the kids are getting their hans on this software, are stealing others artwork and after they call themselves game developers.

tirnanoggames

FanStudioUK said:
You should really be ashamed of yourself!

Stop stealing Angry Birds artwork!

If you publish this, I'm sure you'll have to deal with their lawyers!

This is why GameSalad shouldn't be free, all the kids are getting their hans on this software, are stealing others artwork and after they call themselves game developers.

Dude he said he wasn't going to publish it on the app store as in is not going to. I don't think he stole anything. Ya he recreated the art work of something in angry birds. I think he did a good job for a first game with the animation and physics and all he was looking for was feedback. Also what is it with the elitism with regards to gamesalad. Everybody has to start off somewhere. Gamesalad like any software is just a tool. I remember the C64 days and it was just kids in their bedroom making games. A lot went onto become really successful and yes they were real game developers.

Chunkypixels

Sorry to have to say this... but your talking crap Tirnanog.

He hasnt recreated anything...the artwork is a straight rip out of Angry Birds... and just because he said he isnt going to charge for the game, hes still published the game for people to play, using assets that he doesnt own.

Even publishing onto the GameSalad arcade, for free is a clear copyright infringment. It not only puts the user at risk of legal hassles, but also potentially puts GameSalad in hot water too, as theyre hosting the game on the website.

People need to learn that they cant just grab assets from wherever they want... and use them as they want.

And yup... FanStudio was right... clear example of why GS shouldnt be free.

tirnanoggames

Chunkypixels said:
Sorry to have to say this... but your talking crap Tirnanog.

He hasnt recreated anything...the artwork is a straight rip out of Angry Birds... and just because he said he isnt going to charge for the game, hes still published the game for people to play, using assets that he doesnt own.

Even publishing onto the GameSalad arcade, for free is a clear copyright infringment. It not only puts the user at risk of legal hassles, but also potentially puts GameSalad in hot water too, as theyre hosting the game on the website.

People need to learn that they cant just grab assets from wherever they want... and use them as they want.

And yup... FanStudio was right... clear example of why GS shouldnt be free.

First of all you are blowing this way out of proportion. The makers of angry birds are not going to give a crap about some one copying their artwork and making a game that a few people are going to play on a web page. If he did the art work himself in PS then I think he did as good job. If its from google images or something then what you say has more weight. We don't know if he did or not and do you know what I am getting sick of hearing people going on about their games being dragged down because gs is free and so much crap is being released on the app store. (which is why you believe gs shouldn't be free) I'm sorry but if your game is not selling well then its because of your failings not anybody else. Take my game for example. Sales are poor not because gs has a bad name but because the art work is crap. Making everybody pay for game salad is not going help you to sell you more games.

Asymptoteell

Tirananogagames, with all due respect, I feel that it isn't the fact that games aren't selling well that is the problem. It's that people, critics in particular, don't respect Gamesalad games simply because they're made with Gamesalad. A few months ago, I remember, a video review was posted on here for a wonderful Gamesalad game; I can't remember which. The review, overall, was positive, but as soon as the reviewer opened the app and saw the splash screen, he said to his friend that it was going to be crap.
I have a lot of faith in Gamesalad as a tool, but I think that if industry professionals continue to look at Gamesalad in this way, then this wonderful program will bite the dust, or at least won't be taken seriously.
In the same way, regardless of whether or not he's making money for this game, he is still using someone else's artwork to make a game. I personally would respect a game with colored boxes for art far more than one with stolen graphics.

Other than the art, though, for a first game, this actually isn't that bad. The gameplay is pretty simple, but for what it is, it's done well. Still, Thiago, if you ever want to be taken seriously as a game designer, don't steal art.

Asymptoteell

tirnanoggames

If a game is good then it should stand up on its own merits. There are a lot of really successful games made with gs. Again GS is just a tool and I hate when I hear people wishing they could restrict access of it to the masses. The more people that use it the more good games will be released. I'm sorry but that reviewer that you spoke of that said the game was going to be crap because he saw the splash screen is obviously incompetent as a game reviewer if he is going to have preconceptions like that.

Asymptoteell

Yes, but he is still respected, my point was, in a way, that competence and skill doesn't always go along with respect.

Asymptoteell

FanStudioUK

tirnanoggames said:
The more people that use it the more good games will be released.

Bollocks!
Actually the more crappier games are released!

Take a look at the App Store, 80% of the apps are crap. It's a fact!

beefy_clyro

tirnanoggames said:
If a game is good then it should stand up on its own merits. There are a lot of really successful games made with gs. Again GS is just a tool and I hate when I hear people wishing they could restrict access of it to the masses. The more people that use it the more good games will be released. I'm sorry but that reviewer that you spoke of that said the game was going to be crap because he saw the splash screen is obviously incompetent as a game reviewer if he is going to have preconceptions like that.

A good game will stand up on its own merits as many have, but only if it gets the media attention it deserves ... that or a lot of luck. A lot of good games have failed miserably! The app store is a crowded place now, if you can get reviews and press over the net then you'll stand more chance of being featured by Apple, thats the key.

'that reviewer that you spoke of that said the game was going to be crap because he saw the splash screen is obviously incompetent as a game reviewer if he is going to have preconceptions like that.' - Granted but this is the whole perception of Touch Arcade, the holy grail of all things iOS. They seem to be coming around slightly more as some good games have now started being featured on their site but they still frown upon GameSalad.

Fact is, with the free model, a lot more crap is published by people thinking its get rich quick. If you paid for your service you'd probably put more care into it. Im not brandishing all kids with the same brush but i've seen countless on here produce crap after crap with the GS branding all over it or copyright fringing with GS all over it. That does effect the brand and if you can't see that then your living in a deluded opinion.

Each game should be judged on it own merit but in reality, I'm afraid it isn't!

ThiagoPaiva

Well, looks like I brought up a discussion that wasn't my purpose with this topic, but let me say a few words.

First of all, I was pretty explicit in this topic that this was my first game and that I wouldn't publish it in App Store.
The reason I used these characters are because they were available to me when I first created a game in Flying Pigs (the project that I used as a base to my game).

Second, about the copywrite use, in my concern, this case goes into the Fair Use, because:

1. My purpose using it was only to learn making games (study use)
2. I didn't copy a lot of things, just one or another and the reach of my game is limited to just a few people (there are 100 plays, but 40 of them should be me testing in different browsers)
3. The effect of my game has upon Rovio market is zero, they won't sell more, they won't sell less, they won't even exist about this game.
4. I'm not just copying it, I made a new game using it

Read more about Fair Use here: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html#1

But what I really wanted with this post was to know about the quality of my game (not the art of it), if there are any bugs, if I'm doing something really wrong or if there are things I could improve. I would appreciate to have some feedback about that.

Tirnanoggames, really appreciate your feedback and It is kind of hard to play using a trakingpad, unfortunately I don't know a way to improve that, I think the problem is the game style that requires some agility that is difficult to get using a trackpad.

Thanks

mikelowe

Nice reply Thaigo. Good to hear you are aware of all that and not trying to make a quick-buck ripoff type of thing.

I will give you some feedback:

dont make the pigs spawn over the quit button. I accidentally tried to hit a pig and quit the game.
make it so that you have to click inside the pig and not just drag the mouse inside of it while clicking (make it touch pressed, not touch inside)

Keep learning, you'll really get the hang of gamesalad.

LeonardDeveloper

Chunkypixels said:
Sorry to have to say this... but your talking crap Tirnanog.

He hasnt recreated anything...the artwork is a straight rip out of Angry Birds... and just because he said he isnt going to charge for the game, hes still published the game for people to play, using assets that he doesnt own.

Even publishing onto the GameSalad arcade, for free is a clear copyright infringment. It not only puts the user at risk of legal hassles, but also potentially puts GameSalad in hot water too, as theyre hosting the game on the website.

People need to learn that they cant just grab assets from wherever they want... and use them as they want.

And yup... FanStudio was right... clear example of why GS shouldnt be free.

+1

SnapFire

I in some ways agree with Tirnanog and in some ways with Chunky.

I think that Gamesalad should stay free because even if there are some rubbish apps produced because of it, there may be 1 out of 5 that is actually good.

However, this is still a copyright infringement even if it's on such a small scale. If you were in court, it wouldn't matter how small the scale was. But i highly doubt that a company like Rovio would go after some small little game with it's pig pictures in it-especially if it's free.

Anyway, I do have some feedback:
1) I agree with Mike-the pigs should not spawn over the "X" and you should not be able to drag your finger into the pig and have it still explode
2) Make sure you align everything on the screen-the three things you have on the HUD are all at different levels
3) It would be cool if you had a bunch of pigs falling in the background of the main screen-it would make it more flashy

Overall, a good first game. I wish you the best of luck!

-Thomas

ThiagoPaiva

Thanks Mikelowe and SnapFire for your feedbacks.
I didn't know that it would be better use touch pressed rather than touch inside.

I will try to do your suggestions!

And had some problem to align things, mainly because I first made the stages and than I decide to put life and I don't know how to copy/paste between scenarios, group images or align automatically, so I had to do it manually in all stages. =/

Is there a way to do the things I said above? Or there isn't this features in Gamesalad?

Thanks

SnapFire

Just go into the actors you want to align and make change atribute self.positon.x or self.position.y

Then you can just make their x's the same and the y's equally spaced out or vice versa.

Hope that helps
-Thomas

PS. What exactly do you mean by group images and copy between scenarios?

SnapFire

Are you still having a problem?

-Thomas

ThiagoPaiva

I didn't have time to work on it, but I guess the way you said it's gonna work fine.

And what I meant with group images is to create a group some actors so they move together. About the copy between scenarios, I would like to copy an actor and paste in another scene in the same place, but I guess I could define position and it should work!

Thanks SnapFire!

SnapFire

ThiagoPaiva said:
I didn't have time to work on it, but I guess the way you said it's gonna work fine.

And what I meant with group images is to create a group some actors so they move together. About the copy between scenarios, I would like to copy an actor and paste in another scene in the same place, but I guess I could define position and it should work!

Thanks SnapFire!

About the grouping: you can constrain actors to one another with the constrain atribute. You make two game atributes, game.y and game.x. Then you have the actor change the game atributes to it's x and y, respectively. Then, you go into the other actor and change it's x and y to the game atributes. That should keep them together.

-Thomas