Playtesters needed for two games

[joelm]

Scenario: I decided to make Atari games for my two oldest children (both girls, ages 3 and 7) for Christmas - to be put in cartridge form with custom manuals, etc..

 

I pretty much have the games done but would like some playtestors to try them out for feed back. Remember, both of these games are written to be played on actual Atari hardware so the gameplay may vary on an emulator and they were both written to be played by children with some mild challenge for adults

 

Game 1: Autumn's Super Fussball - For my 3 year old, she loves soccer and has basic Atari playing skills

autumnfussbal-2.bas.bin

autumnfussbal_playtest10.bas.bin - Updated 13 Oct 13

 

One or Two Player

You get one minute to score as many goals as possible against the "Evil Pickle" goalie.

 

In One Player Mode:

Left Difficulty changes goal size and the speed of the Evil Pickle

Right Difficulty does nothing

 

Two Player Mode:

Left Difficulty only changes goal size

 

Game 2: Fowl Hunt - For my 7 year old, she is pretty good with the Atari and likes a challenge.

fowl_hunt_playtest.bas.bin

fowl_hunt_playtest10.bas.bin

fowl_hunt_playtest15.bas.bin

fowl_hunt_playtest25.bas.bin - Updated 13 Oct 13

 

 

Currently One Player Only

There are 10 different levels, a final score is given after the 10th level. Duck speed and time to complete level vary (time gets less). You have 15 shots to kill 10 ducks. On certain levels the ducks drop bombs, you can shoot the bombs to stop them from going off but you still only get 15 shots to destroy the bombs and 10 ducks - a little strategy is required to decide which is a priority for each player.

 

Left Difficulty on A = Hard Mode - faster ducks on higher levels, etc.

Left Difficulty on B = Easy Mode - slower ducks on all levels, etc.

Right Difficulty on A = Hard Aim - smaller aimer

Right Difficulty on B = Easier Aim - larger aimer

 

Scoring:

Duck = 100 points/each

Destroyed Bomb = 50 points/each

Killing all 10 ducks on a level = 1000 point bonus

A bomb landing and blowing up = - 100 points/each

 

That pretty much sums them up... let me know what you think. Thank you ahead of time.

Edited October 13, 2013 by joelm

[Impaler_26]

I just played a few rounds, nicely made games!

 

I think Autumn's Super Fussball is funny and good as it is for very young kids.

 

Fowl Hunt is also fun to play but 10 rounds are kinda long, it could use a bit more variation. How about changing the playfield every other round and change the background color from light blue (morning) to dark blue (evening)? 1 or 2 more rounds with bombs in hard mode would be neat too IMO.

 

As you're planning to put the games on cart you might wanna make custom score fonts to make them look more like your own.

 

I'll let my niece (9) and my nephew (6) play the games when they're here next week for some more appropriate feedback.

[+Random Terrain]

Flashing the screen in the hunting game would irritate the crap out of me, but I was never a 7 year old girl, so who knows what she'd like.

[joelm]

 

I think Autumn's Super Fussball is funny and good as it is for very young kids.

Thank you.

 

Fowl Hunt is also fun to play but 10 rounds are kinda long, it could use a bit more variation. How about changing the playfield every other round and change the background color from light blue (morning) to dark blue (evening)? 1 or 2 more rounds with bombs in hard mode would be neat too IMO.

Yeah, I kinda thought that while I was testing it. I may streamline the game and cut off a few levels. The changing background I hadn't thought of but that is a good idea and I think I get make the space for it pretty easily.

 

Flashing the screen in the hunting game would irritate the crap out of me, but I was never a 7 year old girl, so who knows what she'd like.

I thought the flashing would provide her with more evidence that the gun had fired... it is very annoying on Stella but not as noticible on my RCA CRT, still I will think about alternatives.

 

Thank you both for your input so far.

[Rabbit 2600]

Hm, I liked Autumn's Super Fussball. But, I would like to hear some background music.

[joelm]

 

Hm, I liked Autumn's Super Fussball. But, I would like to hear some background music.

 

I would like that too, sadly my sound skills with the Atari are somewhat lacking and making music is something that has escaped me up to this point. It probably would spice the game up though. I thought about adding a roaring crowd, that is well within my skill level, but I might try to do something with music. I don't know what Al's turn around time is on custom carts though and I want to get these things perfected in time for Christmas... Something to tinker with.

Edited October 5, 2013 by joelm

[joelm]

Ok, so I have updated Fowl Hunt with some of the suggestions I received and I think the game has gotten a lot better. The new build is attached to the main post.

 

Now there are only 8 levels - the duck speed still increases and the time allowed still decreases but the number of shots you get varies a little (between 12 and 16 depending)

The scenery changes a little every two rounds and I tried (not altogether successfully) to capture a dawn to dusk day of hunting using the background color. I also ended up refining some of the code (my coding is very sloppy) and changing the score font.

 

Let me know what you think of the updates.

 

- I just tested it on a 7800 using my Harmony cart and it appears that I have the difficulty switch settings backwards.

 

Left switch set to B seems to allow the duck speed to increase and Right switch set to B seems to make the aimer smaller. I guess that is one thing I need to fix with the next build.

 

Update - 8 Oct 13: I added some "eye candy" type of things to spice up the background a little (moving clouds, etc.). The difficulty switch issue is fixed, at least as far as Stella and my 7800 are concerned, I haven't taken the time to make sure it works on my 2600 too but I assume it will because it now works on the 7800. Some slight code cleanup was accomplished.

Edited October 8, 2013 by joelm

[joelm]

Update - 13 Oct 13: I am pretty sure I have both games where I want them to be, given the limits of my abilities. I had only minor changes to Autumn's Fussball but I did make some more significant changes to Grace's Fowl Hunt. Please try out the most recent versions of both games and let me know what you think. Again, I am looking to get these ordered as soon as possible but any feedback would be helpful. Remember, I write my games to be played on actual Atari hardware so if you have a Harmony cart (or something similar) that is probably the best way to experience both games, they should work fine on emulators though. Thanks again!

[Impaler_26]

I like the changes you made to the games, especially fowl hunt is much more fun to play now. Have you already checked if the games don't use too many cycles?

[joelm]

Everything works on my 7800 - I didn't actually get around to testing them on my 2600. I would assume that if they work on a Harmony cart that they should work when burned to an actual cart. I could be wrong though... I have never ordered a custom cart.

[Impaler_26]

I would assume that if they work on a Harmony cart that they should work when burned to an actual cart. I could be wrong though...

 

Yep, the games should work fine on a burned cart then AFAIK.

[classiccollector]

These are both fun games (as far as kids are concerned). I think a cheering crowd would be great if you could add that in but other than that no real issues.

Edited October 29, 2013 by classiccollector

[joelm]

 

These are both fun games (as far as kids are concerned). I think a cheering crowd would be great if you could add that in but other than that no real issues.

Thank you. I had thought about using crowd noise but my attempts to implement it have been less than stellar. Since these are for Christmas gifts I went ahead and decided to order them as-is. My plan is to try another sports game and see what I can do about crowd noise... adding decent sound to my games has always been a steep hill for me to climb, I spent days on the dog bark and I am still not 100% on it.

 

Thank you all for your input, I have considered removing all of the personal touches (kid's names, etc.) from the binaries and making them available in the homebrew section with manual files, maybe that would be a good time to get a crowd noise figured out.

[joelm]

Hey I just thought I would throw this out there for anyone contemplating having custom carts made. I placed my order with Al for the two carts and they were at my door in about a week, both look and work great. I cannot comprehend, with everything else going on, how Al was able to get everything done and shipped so quickly, but the whole process and end product are definitely worth the price of admission.

 

[classiccollector]

Congrats on getting your games onto a cart, They look fantastic. I am enjoying playing Graces Fowl Hunt and think it's a pretty good game. Once again Congrats.