Room for improvement

[ShinyToyGuns 29]

Hey all,

As some of you may or may not know, I volunteer some of my time to a small 2D online game called Return to Gaurdia. Lately, however, it seems like game activity has dropped significantly. Some reasons I've received/noticed for this happening are:

• Not enough updates (this is a big one)
• Players get bored
• Start of the game isn't very helpful for newer players (no tutorial)

 

My reason for bringing this here is to maybe try getting more feedback on how we can improve the game. Anybody who creates a new character will receive compensation in-game for participating in the study. Some things I ask you to think about are:

• What is there to grab your attention?
• What can we do to KEEP your attention?
• What do you like about the game?
• What do you DISLIKE about the game?
• What do you look for in an ORPG (Online Roleplaying Game)?
• Is the game too confusing?
• Is there enough for you to do?

 

Please let me know if you have any questions/comments, and if you decide to create a character, please post your in-game name here so you may be rewarded.

Thanks,

~Steven a.k.a. ShinyToyGuns (FaceSpace on RtG)~

 

Download page

GaurdiaInstall.exe or RTGaurdia-V3.95.zip

Edited November 6, 2011 by ShinyToyGuns

[Jon Bon 43]

I am interested in trying this. Would you be able to edit your first post and add a link to the games official download page? Thanks.

[ShinyToyGuns 29]

Thanks Jon, I've added the links in the first post...lemme know when you start playing :)

[Jon Bon 43]

Character Creation

-Virtually no difference between male and female

-Stat points are already spent, I was unable to allocate any, but their was a section that said (0 points remaining)

-My stat points displayed the same regardless of which class I selected.

-After creating my character I received a windows caution message stating "Character has been successfully created. You can now play First Star Online!."

The message should be given through the launcher not windows, not sure if First Star Online is the correct name? Says Return to Gaurdia at the top.

 

Sprites

-Need work, the up and down sprites are shorter then the left and right walking sprite.

-Chocobos, called Chocobos, change those(name and sprite), as they are from another license.

-Slimes need a way to tell which direction they are facing. Maybe a transparent sword inside them, pointing towards front?

-Wolf was attacking me from his side with no animation.

 

Interactions

-The two statues in Kalm near the north entrance/exit display two different score stats. Objects such as those should have a title above them when you cursor over them much like your characters name shows(trash cans, signs, mail box, anything interact-able, this way people hover over to check, and you can not put names on hidden/secret interactive things later on, like in dungeons for puzzles etc.

-Upon using the slot machine I am greeted with a window. Then left confused, in trying to interact with the guilds window I noticed a lever on the left, so I clicked it, it ran the slot machine. There is a 5G indicator at the bottom, but I fail to see where my money is, how am I to know if I should play if I am trying to save currency. When I click the button it goes from silence to a weird noisy slot machine SFX, I think you can find a better SFX, one without the ambient crowd in the back ground.

Won once, lost once, the display message in the chat window should tell you how much you won, the screen should display your current gold while you play the slots, and the lever should visually say PULL ME, on the round part or the bar of the lever.

-Blue potions restore life, and Red restores mana? Why? This is extra confusign for no reason, if you want to be different, pick different colors.

 

 

Display

-The who's Online and Friends windows stay on top of every other window, they should go behind like the main game window since they are magnet attached to the left side anyhow.

-Kalm is the name of a village in FF7, pick something original.

-The slot machine in the Inn in Kalm displays a secondary window behind it that reads 'Guilds' at the top, the window is only partially visible and appears to not supposed to be present.

-The shapes of the insides of the all the house are not even remotely the same to the shapes of the outsides of the houses.

-The bank looks like a tavern/bar, there are tables and chairs, and a fountain in the middle. Doesn't look right at all. I suggest splitting it into two sides, left and right. One side for bank, and vault stuff,(have two vendors, vault vendor with dialogue). Then on the other side have a guild counter, and put the mail box on that side as well. I also suggest doubling up on the mailboxes and vault containers to eat up more space, even if not needed, seems more realistic.

-There are two sprites name Stephie, one in the Inn, and one outside the Culinary Guild

 

Sound

-The game is dead silent, no music at all. This is definitely an issue.

-Some menus use SFX for clicking options some don't, this should be fluent.

-In heaven(the place the beam of light brought me to regen my HP I assume) the sound effect for the regen sounds weird, make it more high pitched.

 

Combat

-From a stand still, when I move in any direction other than the one I am currently facing I should stay on the same square, then move if I press/hold that direction. In other words, if I am facing left, and there is a slime in the next square to my right, when I hit right, I shouldn't walk into him, I should turn so I can attack rather then move through.

-Monsters should be solid objects to the player character.

-Seems like the monsters can attack you from any direction, they should only be able to attack from their 'front' then if you get more challenging monsters, allow them to attack from the side/back with different animations as the attack from the front animation.

 

Likes

-How each map is labeled at the bottom of the display window/above the chat window.

-The cut out roof effect when inside houses.

-Choice of NPC names, other than repeats.

-Crafting/repairing system seems neat.

 

Dislikes

-The game was obviously called First Star at one point and was renamed, or maybe the company is first star? But I see the name appear randomly from time to time, this needs stream lining, or explanation.

-Lack of direction/reason to play.

-It appeared I had to grind on slimes to level up to be strong enough to fight the wolves, because they would near kill me before they were dead.

 

Suggestions for Addition

-Music, and ambient sound, so crowd sound in tavern over town music, but bird sounds when outside over same town music etc.

-Quest system, something really simple, and linear. So I go into the quest menu and it would just be a series of bullet points with sentences like "The ghost by the graveyard said a dwarf in the west woods would make me a key so I can get his hat and avenge him"

-Story, again can be simple, I suggest having an intro story told by an elder of the town of Kalm, it can be merely text that scrolls up across the screen right before you play for the first time. If you want to get really fancy find a voice actor, and get them to read the intro. something like "Monsters in the area have been at an all time high, not knowing what to do, I was about to task our village's finest hunters to help. That's when strangers skilled in combat began to appear from the north woods. Having no memory of their past, each one was eager to help with solving the mysteries surrounding our small town."

-Definitely lacking a tutorial that explains how stuff works. I did however pick up most of what I needed by reading all the signs and talking to everyone, but since it's an mmo, couldn't you just make a youtube video that explains the simple and finer points of your game, and have it displayed right before the intro? Video would need to be short, a few minutes in length.

-More sprites for character creation, and if possible better customization, skin, then hair, then outfit would be ideal, so three layers upon character creation. My sprites head was too small on the walking up graphic, his head appeared to shrink when I turned up.

-Need better monster scaling, the wolves seem way harder than the slimes. Need to keep the exact same difficulty of monster for the first 3 or 4 monster introductions, but change their skins, and their attacks, but not their strengths or hp. This makes people feel like they are progressing but in theory are fighting reskinned slimes, with different attacks. Rather then a whole new monster with different stats.

 

 

Opinion

All in all, I really like this, it reminds me a lot of the original legend of zelda, but with slightly more direction. I don't think I would play this again (if I was playing by choice), as the combat system needs work, combined with the lack of story, no quest log, and improper monster scaling. In my opinion this game is still in Alpha stage. I was reluctant to suggest anything, as I think that the combat system, SFX, and other minor errors should be fixed before adding anything at all to the game.

[ShinyToyGuns 29]

Thank-you for your feedback, Jon :) I will pass this on to the one(s) that can make this happen, but after that, it's up to the owner of the game to update it.

 

 

As for your reward, I've donated 150 points to you, as well as gave you +1 rep for giving your feedback. Thanks again for giving it a try and giving your feedback.

[Jon Bon 43]

Thanks, I enjoyed it for the most part.

[ShinyToyGuns 29]

I've passed your feedback onto the co-owner of the game, Murdoc, and here's what he had to say:

 

Let that member know, that I enjoyed hearing his feedback and opinions.

 

Thanks for your help, Jon. :)

Edited November 9, 2011 by ShinyToyGuns