Reactive: Beta testers wanted and Level editors wanted

[isgoed]

I just released the Beta Version of Reactive (http://www.revaro.net/Reactive/Reactive.sit) (20mb). I would like some people to test it.

See a screenshot on my site: http://www.revaro.net/Reactive

Reactive is a 2D shooter with internetplay (CtF,TDM,DM). The environment features fluid simulation.

You could tell me:

What the performance is.
What your first impression is and how much you would pay for it.

If you have some more time you could tell me:

Since I plan to sell this product I would like to have a high quality/polish. Please report anything that you think that should be changed/fixed/improved.
Create some levels with the included level editor


To play a network game you can connect to my server on 83.84.77.186 (port 22525 needs to be open). The server will not be running all the time. You can contact me on my a i m account "IsgoedAIM" between 10:00 and 18:00 dutch time, so I can create the server.

[jessimko]

The frame rate seemed fine, but the performance was sluggish, as if the game was in slow motion. I like the smooth walking animation. The background animation stutters as the game starts up, and for me at least, all the controls defaulted to "none", so I had to configure them before playing. Also, the background graphics smeared when the screen scrolled. I have an nVidia GForce FX 5200 on a G5/ 1.8.
I think it will be really fun once it's polished. It looks like you put a lot of work into it, especially the physics.

[aegidian]

Hmm. Wouldn't open for me at all, no messages to console.log, nuffink!. (Dual 1.8 G5, OSX 10.3.8)

[Blorx2]

I honestly like this game. I'd be willing to pay at least 15 USD for this game. I already told the dev this

[iefan]

It loads for me, but it says "use w, a, s, d" to move. It don't do anything no matter what key I hit.

PowerBook G4 12-incher 867mhz, 640 RAM

[Danlab]

look ok but you need to change this horrible graphics !
should be really fun with nice gfx

[kodex]

Same problem, the movement keys did not work for me. Was getting 100 FPS on a Dual 1.8 G5. Wish there was more i could tell you but i was unable to play.

[JustinFic]

100 FPS for me too, solid, although the game still feels like it's running super slow.

The physics of the game are awesome, especially the fluids.

The controls however are horrible. Moving my lizard just feels so sluggish and unresponsive, and the physics do get in the way here. Modeling both legs separately and trying to accurately physically model a walk cycle is unnecessary, and it led to tons of problems:

- Just walking straight caused my lizard to bounce around, and I can't execute a jump while I'm in that mid-bounce. Just walking up a hill (towards the end of level 1) is near impossible and frustrating.

- First level, at the second "sign" (the one that says I need to get my eggs back) there's a little peg sticking out of the ground. It's tiny, but every time I've played that level one of my lizard's legs gets caught on it, and he either trips or gets stuck. Perfect example of the physics overpowering the gameplay.

- Second level, after I grab the rockets, if I am too close to that door and turn around, my tail overlaps the door and I get stuck. Seems sometimes I can wiggle out of it with enough wailing on the keys, there were several times where I needed to completely abort the level.

- At the part where I'm supposed to fire the missle in the shaft, the floor where the sign is can be destroyed, and if I fall in the hole, I'm suspended by my head on one side and my tail on the other. While it looks funny as hell I'm still stuck. I've wiggled out of it, but I've had to abort from here too.

- I still can't seem to fire the missle into the shaft. I've played with the trajectories and I just can't get it to fire all the way through it. After inadvertantly killing myself about a dozen times I just gave up.

Overall the game has a lot of potential but it suffers from some serious control issues at the moment. It shouldn't be a challenge just to move around. Realistic physics in games is awesome, but relying on it completely is no bueno.

[isgoed]

100 FPS for me too, solid, although the game still feels like it's running super slow.

The physics of the game are awesome, especially the fluids.

The controls however are horrible. Moving my lizard just feels so sluggish and unresponsive, and the physics do get in the way here. Modeling both legs separately and trying to accurately physically model a walk cycle is unnecessary, and it led to tons of problems:

- Just walking straight caused my lizard to bounce around, and I can't execute a jump while I'm in that mid-bounce. Just walking up a hill (towards the end of level 1) is near impossible and frustrating.

- First level, at the second "sign" (the one that says I need to get my eggs back) there's a little peg sticking out of the ground. It's tiny, but every time I've played that level one of my lizard's legs gets caught on it, and he either trips or gets stuck. Perfect example of the physics overpowering the gameplay.

- Second level, after I grab the rockets, if I am too close to that door and turn around, my tail overlaps the door and I get stuck. Seems sometimes I can wiggle out of it with enough wailing on the keys, there were several times where I needed to completely abort the level.

- At the part where I'm supposed to fire the missle in the shaft, the floor where the sign is can be destroyed, and if I fall in the hole, I'm suspended by my head on one side and my tail on the other. While it looks funny as hell I'm still stuck. I've wiggled out of it, but I've had to abort from here too.

- I still can't seem to fire the missle into the shaft. I've played with the trajectories and I just can't get it to fire all the way through it. After inadvertantly killing myself about a dozen times I just gave up.

Overall the game has a lot of potential but it suffers from some serious control issues at the moment. It shouldn't be a challenge just to move around. Realistic physics in games is awesome, but relying on it completely is no bueno.Yes you really hit the nail on all the main issues. I chose for physics movement, because I actually thought it was easier. Well it's absolutely not. I ended up in making a prerendered animation anyway, just to let my physics engine render it. Indeed I will be working on getting the movement pleasant and not frustrating (But it will take time). I at least wont drop pysics, since I already spent so much time on it.
You said a couple of times that you needed to abort the game. This is actually intended since the single player mode is supposes to be a puzzle game, so you are supposes to get 'stuck' a couple of times and learn from your previous mistakes. Do you think that I should make some kind of 'retry'-function?
Same problem, the movement keys did not work for me. Was getting 100 FPS on a Dual 1.8 G5. Wish there was more i could tell you but i was unable to play.The 100 FPS may indicate the speed of the Fluid Physics Engine, the draw FPS is initially locked to 20FPS. Note that the Movement Physics engine runs at 64HZ. (So there are 3 counters running)
look ok but you need to change this horrible graphics !
should be really fun with nice gfxI though about maybe using normal mapped textures (But that won't be a 1.0 release). Have you played beyond level 1? What would you suggest to improve the graphics?

It loads for me, but it says "use w, a, s, d" to move. It don't do anything no matter what key I hit.Yep, everyone has this problem. You need to configure your controls in game. (Unless you are running the same kind of powerbook as I have)
Hmm. Wouldn't open for me at all, no messages to console.log, nuffink!. (Dual 1.8 G5, OSX 10.3.8) Interesting. (You run a dual, my previous game had problems with duals also). Reactive creates a logfile "ReactiveLog.txt" at the same location of Reactive.app. If it is created you should be able to see an error message.
The frame rate seemed fine, but the performance was sluggish, as if the game was in slow motion. I like the smooth walking animation. The background animation stutters as the game starts up, and for me at least, all the controls defaulted to "none", so I had to configure them before playing. Also, the background graphics smeared when the screen scrolled. I have an nVidia GForce FX 5200 on a G5/ 1.8.
I think it will be really fun once it's polished. It looks like you put a lot of work into it, especially the physics.The "Smeared" graphics are part of level 1. Play level 2. The start-up animation indeed stutters, It is just called from the load functions, so the intervals are not constant and sometimes when big images are loaded it halts.


Thanks all for the feedback. This does prove that idevgames has a active community. I hope to bring out a Beta 2 by friday.

[aegidian]

Interesting. (You run a dual, my previous game had problems with duals also). Reactive creates a logfile "ReactiveLog.txt" at the same location of Reactive.app. If it is created you should be able to see an error message.

It wasn't created, because for some bizarre reason the executable flag for Reactive.app/Contents/MacOS/Reactive wasn't set when stuffit expanded the file. I checked Stuffit's preferences and it was supposed to be respecting the executable flags, I clicked that off and back on, and tried again - still no joy. So I went in and set the executable bit myself: chmod +x etc. Now Reactive runs and I'll get to commenting on it in a bit.

I noticed this only when another app I downloaded recently had the same behaviour.

This is a new and disturbing problem with Stuffit, can anyone relate?

[PowerMacX]

This is a new and disturbing problem with Stuffit, can anyone relate?

Actually, that sounds like the old and well known problem with earlier versions of StuffIt - which version are you using?

[aegidian]

Ah yes, 8.02 apparently, getting the new version now. Odd that the problem hasn't occurred before now though. Ah well. Thanks.

[AGhost]

You could tell me:

What the performance is.
What your first impression is and how much you would pay for it.

If you have some more time you could tell me:

Since I plan to sell this product I would like to have a high quality/polish. Please report anything that you think that should be changed/fixed/improved.
Create some levels with the included level editor




Aright here is my experience testing your game.


1st I downloaded it and when it unstuffed, it did not contain the application, only a file called "Data"
Then I re-unstuffed it and it worked
Then I ran the program and (even though I told it to run fullscreen) it ran in a window.
The main loading screen (with company name) was all messed up (lines and stuff)
The main page worked and I started a new game.
In the game, the graphics kept moving (like vibrating) and I could not move my character (even though It gave me the keys - they didn't work)
I had force quit the game since no keys seemed to quit it.

Then I Tried the Level Editor
When I first ran it it didn't seem to make much sense. There were windows and textures which said paste, etc.
I kept pressing OK until I reached an editing page where I was ablie to select colours which made some sort of boxes which made "colour mask boxes" (for lack of a better description) on a picture of a waterfall
Finally the editor froze and I had to force quit it as well


For your information, I tested this on a 1 Ghz eMac running Mac OS 10.3.8

So my experience with your game was kind of negative. All comment made in this are ment to be constuctive (I'm not try to insult your game making ability or say your game idea/concempt is bad) but I thinkk you should do a bit more bugtesting before trying to sell this.

AGhost