I'm starting threads to give feedback to all of the entrants to this year's CCN Speedgame contest. Everyone did some good things this year, and I wanted to make some threads to give encouraging comments and constructive criticism. This week, I'll be making threads for 3 games each day, so as to hopefully not bump all of the other discussions off of the main page, and give everyone some daily-focused-feedback on their games. Feedback is an important part of the CCN contest, and I hope that we can give a big "thanks!" to our entrants by letting them know how they did! I don't think everyone should necessarily give numbered ratings like I did -- just some words of feedback and encouragement would be fantastic.

Sustaining Light (by HeardTheWord):
-----------------

Clint's Ratings:
Xian: 6 (Good visualization of the Bible parable, and I particularly like the more modern adaptation of the parable to help the player connect with it)
Fun: 6 (It's a respectably fun game, but it wasn't quite engaging enough to really "hook" me into it)
Orig: 7 (It was a very good adaptation of a non-standard parable, and I appreciate that creativity)
Gfx: 7 (I really liked the lamp particle effect, as well as the visual consistency of the menus)
Stab: 7 (No issues at all with the TGB project)

Summary:
Keep your oil lamp lit as you explore looking for coins in this fast-paced timed platformer. You don't know when the bridegroom is coming, so keep your lamp lit until he returns!

Feedback:
Hey Matt! Great job on the game! I wasn't able to give you terribly high marks for anything in particular, but overall it was a very solid little game. Nicely done! I particularly liked the creativity of the looping levels, and not quite knowing when the bridgegroom would return (at least 3 levels of play, then a 1/5th chance after that, with a guaranteed end at level 8). Nicely done! You made good use of the TGB features like blending (with the alpha'd drop shadow), particle effects (rain and lamp), and the tile engine. You made very good use of the one-way platforms, and so that was a nice element of originality to the standard platformer. The visual style of the game was quite nice -- I really liked the hooded look of the heroine. The rain loop and the rain effect provided a wonderfully dreary atmosphere for the game, and just made the lamp seem all the more warm and valuable. The jumping could have used a bit of refinement -- I'm not sure what it was that I didn't like about it, but it was hard to time the jumps off the edge of platforms very well, and it might have helped to set a max velocity for falling as it seems to get pretty quick at the end. Adding in variable-height jumps could have also helped the controls feel more inviting, but I'm not sure. All told, it was a simple yet solid game, and I was glad to play it and beat it a couple of times. Very well done, thanks!
<after playing it several days later> Ha! I found the secret level. Fun stuff!

I wished I would have been able to create more levels in the game because the three (plus secret level) that I created started to get old pretty fast. If I decide to continue to work on the game I'll probably add several extra levels and fix the jumping. What would have been nice is if the levels could have been randomized so that each time you played you'll start/end in a different level. Another thing I wanted to do was create an oil timer that actually looked like a lamp with the oil draining slowly, but that was quickly cut because of time constraints as well.

All in all this was a great learning experience and my whole goal of the competition was just to have a game at the end that I could call complete. I'm impressed with the overall quality of each game and was surprised to even get a place. Can't wait until next year!

------------------