UFEC pre-results

The deadline for UFEC feedback is tomorrow. Hopefully that means the results will be available shortly, perhaps before the end of the month depending on how busy Lesan is.

Giving feedback on other peoples games is hard. Being game developers, we all know the trials involved, the hacks, the programmer art, the frantic cutting for impending deadlines that seem to come at just the wrong time in your work and/or personal life.

Overall, I think I was reasonably fair (but then again I would, wouldn't I?). All the games had positive sides,

I think that fang's Lord of the Elementals was the best of the bunch. A good and original idea, tied in well with the theme and polished too. The only complaint would be that the AI is too simple, once you understand the game it is too easy to win. Some proper AI, or a network play mode, would add some much-needed challenge.

I believe ne0_kamen's Forest Defense was the next best. Tower defense isn't too original, but I really liked the sound of the ideas in his thread, they seemed to play off the elements very well. However, the delivered version didn't quite live up to some of the more interesting ideas (a pain I know all too well), but the gameplay is solid enough. The main weakness is the variety, which is apparently been tweaked in his latest version.

Erik Rufelt's Origin of Aliens is a fun game, but a bit too unfinished, with some difficulty issues (which may be as per design) and some stability ones (which probably aren't part of the design). The elements were weaker than the other games, I thought.

I had high hopes for XDigital's Cycle, I even helped produce a Windows executable, but unfortunatly I found the game unplayable. This might have been a bug in the Windows port, but the game doesn't provide enough feedback to enable strategy, I ended up just clicking randomly because I couldn't tell the state of the board. I imagine it is similar to being taught to play blindfold chess, without first knowing the rules of chess. The game certainly looks like it had a lot of work put into it, so I would like to play an improved version if it becomes available. If the quality of the loading screen and menu art is anything to go by, there could be a good game there.

As for my own game, I don't know what to think. The elements came out a lot worse than I hoped. The polish just isn't there. The gameplay was still in flux, and its actually quite a messy game to play, too easy with spikes of insane difficulty. The graphics were ok, but inconsistent. The sounds might be the strongest part, given that no other games included them!

I hope to get some interesting feedback. I'm a solid programmer, but I don't have much experience in game design, and it definitely showed. The opinions of others could be vital for my next project.

I have some similar sized projects in my mind, but I think I might let them ferment some more. I might do some rapid prototyping of small games for my next project or two.