Hello there! I finished the first stage of my second game ever. Done with Defold, of course. Right now it’s being tested on Poki. You can play it with the preview link:
Currently, all main game logic is working, but I want to improve some nuances that are bothering me. I have to say that I’m quite proud of the current final bundle size, which is less than 4 MB. For this, I reused the same tilesource for all 50 level maps and changed the color palettes using a shader (idea stolen from somewhere in this forum). If it is finally published, I will keep making more levels.
I’d love to hear from you. How is it behaving on your device? Please let me know.
I just tested the game on my smartphone (iPhone 12), and I have to say that it works really well.
At first, it felt a little strange not being able to change the direction of the little alien, especially because the “wall bounce” mechanic works in a very particular way. From what I’ve experienced, it seems that the only way to make a small backward jump is by hitting the corners of the slightly protruding terrain. However, after a few levels, I got used to it.
I really liked the fact that some levels require a bit of problem-solving rather than just skill. For example, level 14 forces you to make use of the slopes to reach the goal without using up all your fuel.
The only thing I would consider improving is the image quality. I assume you probably tried to avoid using images that were too large in order to keep the final build lightweight, but at least on my phone, some of the graphics—especially the characters, icons, and the initial splash screen—look noticeably low-resolution.
One small detail that might be worth fixing: when you press buttons such as the pause icon, you can hear the sound of the spaceship activating. The fuel isn’t actually consumed, but it might be better not to play that sound when interacting with the UI. Alternatively, you could add a very short and subtle sound effect specifically for button interactions.
Thank you very much for your detailed review! I wasn’t sure how noticeable the low-resolution assets were, but that is something I’ll change since I think I have some room to increase the game’s file size. I will definitely take all your suggestions into account!
Fixed a sound bug I found (still working on that rocket sound you mentioned, though!).
Improved how sprites look at high resolutions. I didn’t actually change the assets—I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I turned off the “High DPI” option in game.project a while back. I thought High DPI was only for downscaling 2x images, but re-enabling it solved the issue!
More updates to come soon.
(Edit: I forgot to update link to preview. Now, you can check it again)
