Blogs - SpaceMammoth

So, in order to put off doing some rather tedious coding around the level setup for the Campaign of Mammoth Gravity Battles, I've been modelling and texturing the last few graphical assets for the game. These are the "special" enemies and features of the campaign that keep it interesting, so they have to be good. Things like the Mammoth Missile Cruiser - a deadly boss like warship that fires two shots at once and takes a massive amount of damage to destroy.

I'm enjoying this creative detour away from some rather dull coding, but I have to say, if I ever need to get paid by the artwork produced, I am going to go very hungry. It takes forever to get the model right, do the UV map, do the texture, get the shader working, and I find myself repeating bits as I realize what I did wrong a few steps back. I have so much respect for artists that can crack out high quality modle after model. I am so much faster at coding...

Mammothgravitybattles.com

So whats up with the ratings we get for our games? I find the ratings I see for other games to be a little bit random. Gone crazy and lost all my money at the casino, random. Its fine, until you realize that the rating is so so so important to the success of your game.

So I have an old Java Web game - Gravity Battles, that I have on two a few sites about the internet:

Kongregate.com - Rating: 2.56 - Only 2 Comments, both positive
Gamejolt.com Rating 4.7 - 10 Comments, mixed, fairly positive

and on older sites (under a lightly different name - but the game is Identical
Arcadetown.com - Rating 3.81
Arcadepod.com - Rating 4 - 133 comments mostly positive.

So what does that tell us? Not a-lot. The public rate my game between 2.56 and 4.7 out of 5 on different websites with Kongregate being the toughest crowd and GameJolt being the most kind. I'm never going to make any money from my game on these websites, so why do I care? Because I am building the sequel Mammoth Gravity Battles which has its game-play firmly rooted in Gravity Battles I need to know what people like and don't like, but clearly ratings are giving me no clue to that.

So you think I'm obsessing over ratings when I shouldn't? Just wait till I get Mammoth Gravity Battles released, then you will see obsession ;-)

(Screenshot from Mammoth Gravity Battles)

Mammoth Gravity Battles is coming along nicely, but I have been worrying about one thing – the difficulty. The latest version of the web player demo has been available for a month, and I've had some wonderful feedback. However, the demo takes the player straight into an advanced 3D level with no tutorial. Its really not for the feint-hearted. In addition, I was so pleased with my improvements to the game AI, I think I've left it a little over aggressive – they frequently take you down in a few shots – you
don't have time to mess around!

The feedback has been positive, but quite a few players struggled with aiming and understanding how the gravity was going to effect their shots. That is because we are not doing something that is easy. In fact its never been done before – players can't have experienced moving three dimensional gravity
fields, unless they work for NASA. So that leaves me a challenge; I don't want to lose this aspect of the game, its what makes Mammoth Gravity Battles unique, but I must facilitate the player's progression so they can handle it. I can help with improving the interface, give more feedback as to where they are aiming, but for them to really get the game – they need to get to the point where estimating complex 3D orbits is second nature. The only way I can hope to achieve this is though a well structured campaign mode that gradually leads them to this point. Starting with simpler 2D aiming at static targets we will work up to aiming at an enemy missile cruiser across a chaotic moving 3D sector filled with wormholes and stars nearing supernova.

I'm getting towards the end of development of Mammoth Gravity Battles and starting to have thoughts about other game ideas. I had a great wine-fueled discussion last night; thrashing about various game ideas, the truth is there is just too many good ideas to pursue them all. How do you choose? Anyway, I must not get too distracted, Mammoth Gravity Battles needs finishing. At the moment I am coding the campaign level layout engine, which will allow me to efficiently layout the campaign levels. Its no the most exciting bit of coding, but it is important...