Drawn Adventures, an indie android game from Mauritius

Hi everybody,

I wanted to share with you a game I recently made so I can get some feedback. As there is no such a thing as a game industry in my home country, it is quite challenging to learn and share ideas regarding game design/development. I am looking to get feedback and comments to improve my game. :) I have based the game's scenes on the local Mauritian environment (for those of you who have been, it will be familiar).

Thanks,
Vipin

Link below, do note that it is only for android devices:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Vipin.DrawnAdventures

Screenshots:

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Comments

  • Heya! So happy to see you here, hope that MGSA can be a supportive home for you and other developers in your area. :)

    I am downloading now.
    Thanked by 1irokoispliskin
  • Thank you very much, need all the support I need as I might be the only [indie] game developer here :)
    Thanked by 1dammit
  • Cool stuff! Let me see if I have something useful to add. Artwise, I'd encourage thickening the outlines a little more along segments which are "platforms" for me to identify where to jump more easily. Would make my navigation a lot more comfortable. Also hoping you can customise the control scheme on the map screen. ;)

    Overall the hand-drawn is rad, how long does that take? Plus multi-layered parallax backgrounds, nice. And this control approach is reminiscent of a game I played recently, Dark Sword. It seems to work well as an approach for platformers.

    I found the stronger parts of the game lay with relatively "flat" segments which didn't require leaps of faith. I've played about 1 1/2 levels and my greatest barrier of progress has been falling into pits. I'll see if I can get further!
  • That is a good one actually! Didn't think of that. Will try and apply some thickening on the platform parts. Hmmm.. I have been working on it since December, so about 5 months and a half. Not much of a programmer, been adapting codes here and there. Many thanks for your support :)
  • edited
    Hi @irokoispliskin ! (And welcome to MGSA! )

    A group of us are going to be spending time in Mauritius in September. So, if you are the only Mauritian indie, for a couple months we'll be adding 1000% more indies to Mauritius :)

    Congrats firstly on making a game and putting it a up on the Play Store!

    You say it's hard learning about game development form Mauritius (and I can imagine this is an understatement if you're the only one). What do you most want to focus on? What's the part of game development that you enjoy the most? (I know if you're the only one you're going to have to do it all, but I don't want to offer lots of audio feedback when your main interest is in the visuals, or programming or design).

    Picking up on @Nandrew's points. There's a lot of charm in the handdrawn look.

    The platforming is definitely the bit that is defeating me. You've already got some assisted camera work (in that the camera moves ahead of the player a bit, which helps the player see where they are going). But when you're falling down it doesn't feel like you have the same knowledge of the terrain below you.

    One thing you can do is make the character more in the centre of the screen, or even move the camera down to focus on dangerous zones. I got killed by thorns near the start of the game, and it was a complete surprise because from above I couldn't see that there was any danger down there.

    Another thing that caught me out with the platforming is that sometimes when I try make a jump (like on those ziggarats on the first level) I jump when I'm just off the step. When this happens I've already used up my double jump (because I was in the air when I jumped the first time), but I have no way of knowing that I can't jump again until I try it and by that stage I'm already falling into danger.

    This article makes a point about "Making it easy to jump over gaps". http://devmag.org.za/2011/01/18/11-tips-for-making-a-fun-platformer/ ...I don't agree with every point in the article, but I think that tip is an important one for platformers.

    I like the music, but the sound effects drag it down a bit. I know being an audio engineer, on top of an artist, designer and programmer etc is a lot. But I think good game sound really helps communicate the feeling of a game, and this is especially powerful when the graphics are less realistic (because the audio design fills in the gaps that the visuals leave).

    A lot of the sound effects seem to have a slight pause before them, probably that the sound effect file has some blank space at the start. I think some sounds like jump sounds and landing sounds would help. Footsteps that change depending on what you stand on really help describe the world (I think). I do like adding variation to the sound effects, mostly through randomizing between multiple samples, but also randomizing pitch sometimes. Some sounds need this more than others of course, the voices when the shadows get hurt need it more because humans don't tend to make the exact same sound over and over (and so the same sound clip playing each time breaks the illusion of the world).

    I haven't played very far if I'm honest. The bus was a nice urban touch I think. I'm not sure if the coins are adding much to the game (I'm not a fan of pickups for the sake of pickups). Although in one or two places they let the player know where to go (by being a trail to the ground), which is a nice touch!

    Are the spiders invulnerable?

    Thanks for posting!
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