"Amju Pet Zoo" first playable

[Jason Colman]

Hi there! This is my first post, because my account got trashed - I guess because it's so long since I last posted! Oh well.

I've been working on this game for a while, it's kind of a zoo sim. It's totally not finished, but is just about playable - that is, you can move around and do a few things.

If you have time to check it out I would be very grateful! All comments welcome!

Screenshots and download are at www.amju.com/petzoo.html

Thanks!

[Skorche]

Very interesting visual style.

[maximile]

Yeah, it looks interesting. The controls really got me, though. You can be holding down one key and it'll be going in a different direction, and the only way to make it work is to release that key and then depress it again.

[Bjoernke]

I got confused, because when I tried to click on new game, an animation of a dragon eating rabbits came up, and i thought i should steer something. After trying to first steer the dragon, and then the chickens, I finnaly hit esc, by which point I was already a bit annoyed.
Then I hated the controls: They seemed to lag behind big time, and when I tried to precisely plug down the fence (which i got from the arrow), but couldn't, I quit in disgust.
Also I found the music annoying.

Sorry to be harsh, but besides the fancy graphics and a decent start menu, I couldn't see much good stuff in this game.

Funnily I loved the geeky nag screen at the end, but was a bit worried that the counter went up, not down, so i didn't know when it would stop, and almost force quitted.

[bump_fn]

this is pretty cute and fun and looks like it has a whole lot of potential :D but i definitely agree that smoothing out the controls would really open the game up a lot. i am looking forward to seeing more of this!

[Jason Colman]

Oh wow, replies! First of all, thanks for taking the time to try out the game and posting your thoughts - I really appreciate it.

Controls no good, eh ? Gahh, I thought I had come up with something simple and intuitive :wacko: so it's a good job you set me straight. It sounds like (please correct me) that using the arrow keys is OK, it's just that I've done it in a bad, buggy way :(

Bjoernke, don't worry about being harsh :) Sorry you got hit by the annoying/confusing attract mode.. I should have made it clear the game hadn't started yet or got rid of it completely. Interesting to hear that dropping a fence was frustrating. My idea was that their position snaps to a grid, so it's easy to line them up... but I guess that's just aggravating.

Thanks again guys... decent constructive feedback is gold :)

[maximile]

The grid system seemed to work well for me. It kinda reminded me of Command and Conquer, in a weird way.

But the controls... yeah, I think it is simple and intuitive, but it sucks right now. The way I'm used to them working is that the player moves in the direction of the sum of all the keys... e.g., if left is held down the player goes left, if left and up is held down the player goes diagonally left and up, and if left and right are held down the player doesn't move. And so on.

It feels "laggy" because people are used to depressing one key before releasing another. On most games this would result in the player making a slightly wider game, but on Amju Pet Zoo if you do it too quickly it seems to ignore you.

I hope you choose to change that behaviour, because I think otherwise it's becoming pretty cool.

[Jason Colman]

Maximile, thanks for explaining in more detail - that really is helpful! Yes, you should definitely be able to go diagonally! I feel a bit stupid for not thinking of that :blush: Guess I should look up from the keyboard once in a while :)

[Jason Colman]

OK, everyone hated the controls for Amju Pet Zoo version 0.2, which used the arrow keys.

I give you version 0.3, which has mouse-only controls: you point where you want to go and hold down the mouse button.

If anyone would like to download and try the new version, I would be very grateful. I would espcially like to hear from the 0.2-haters if this is an improvement :p

Screenshots (same as the old ones, sorry) and new download can still be found at www.amju.com/petzoo.html.

Thanks again everyone!

[maximile]

I'd say that's way better. It's annoying that if you're wandering around and you accidentally drag the mouse to the middle of the screen she stops, though. Because then you have to release and click again.

[Jason Colman]

Hi Maximile, thanks for your response. Yes I think you are right, you shouldn't have to click again after Amju stops.

I have got some other feedback, saying that you should just click where you want Amju to go, and she then walks there, without you having to hold down the mouse button. Does that sound preferable ?

Also the "pick up" and "drop" buttons are in a bad place. Maybe at the top of the screen...

It's really hard to get this right! :wacko: