Circlestrafe - Need help with testing conceptual design

Lin Beifong

Lin Beifong

Iron Chief
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Core 'Shroom Staff
Retired Wiki Staff
I've had a conceptual game design idea in my head for a while and I need assistance with testing its performance in practice. So I figured: "Why not turn this into a public thing?"

I asked 2257 to whip up a relatively simple program for me. You can find said program here (no, it's not a virus):
https://www.mediafire.com/?ru80frjtdyuhioq

If you want to help me with testing this thing, here is what I need you to do:

1. Download the game.

2. Get acquainted with how the controls work. You move the shield by positioning the cursor in the circle. No clicking necessary. You can play around with this until you are familiar with how it works. The game won't start until you press ENTER.

3. Press ENTER and play the game. Keep the projectiles away from the center of the circle by blocking them with the shield. More and more projectiles appear the longer you hold out. If three projectiles reach the center, the game ends.

4. Post here and leave feedback about what problems you encountered with the controls, as well as other things you think were important (apart from the graphics being boring, because I know they are).

5. Also tell me how many points you can get before dying.



Thank you to everyone who will take the time to help.
 
the controls might be a bit too fast, like the cursor needs more of a stabilizer or something

i got 24 points before dying, i think there might have been too much of a difficulty spike around that area (i.e. it goes from around one projectile at a time to multiple projectiles all in a row too fast). maybe ease into it more?
 
yeah, i was gonna comment on the difficulty spike too.

also, it's kinda hard to see some of the projectiles, if these are the final graphics and not just placeholders or something.
 
They are placeholders. Technically the whole program is a placeholder. It's a very, very, veeeery early and simplified build of what it is actually supposed to be, existing only to test the control scheme and hammer out its shortcomings.

If the wonky difficulty curve persists as a problem, I'll have to reduce the speed at which the intervals between projectiles decrease.
 
45 points, go me. Most of my concerns are graphics, so, that eliminates nearly everything I'd have to say. Is the point of the game to only have the cursor within the circle or could you have movement outside of it? Also, it seemed to spike in difficulty around what I'd guess is 20 but then plateaued? I'm not sure if that's just me quickly getting used to the quicker speed or not.
 
I'll play it tomorrow and let you know what I think.
 
I got 22 points. I was using my laptop's touchpad. I'll try the mouse later and see if that improves my score. I have to agree with the others who mentioned the difficulty spike around that area. What I would do to address that is to slow it down to initial speed when you introduce multiple projectiles at once (I'd suggest doing that with every increase in the number of projectiles heading toward the circle at the same time) so that the player can become adjusted to the mechanic, and then speeding the game up again.
 
https://www.mediafire.com/?or4rqoeh8k886kq

I had some modifications added to hopefully reduce the quick spike in difficulty. Please let me know your thoughts.

Ragna the Bloodedge said:
the controls might be a bit too fast, like the cursor needs more of a stabilizer or something
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean?
 
I managed to get 44 points using my laptop's touchpad. The difficulty spike is less sudden, which is good. I played the game with a mouse and managed 30 points. An issue I had then is that minor movements of the mouse would cause radical shifts in the position of the shield. For example, I wanted to move the shield toward the top of the circle at one point and ended up on the other side (if the circle were a clock face, I was at 9, wanted to move to 12, and ended up at 3).
 
Mario4Ever said:
An issue I had then is that minor movements of the mouse would cause radical shifts in the position of the shield. For example, I wanted to move the shield toward the top of the circle at one point and ended up on the other side (if the circle were a clock face, I was at 9, wanted to move to 12, and ended up at 3).
Click to expand...

This seems like something that would happen if you move the cursor around on and very close to dead center. I'm not quite sure how to fix that. I guess I could remove the middle of the circle as a sensitive area to eliminate the more ambiguous positions you can move the cursor to. Basically turn it from a circle into a donut to encourage keeping some distance between cursor and center. Then again this might slow down shield maneuverability by making you move the mouse more to keep up with the projectiles. That may be counter productive...
 
yeah the problem i was having was pretty much what m4e said, but slowing down the shield movement would probably make it unfair in the later levels so idk what could be done about it
 
So we overhauled the way the controls work. There's no cursor anymore and you move the shield around just by moving the mouse.

https://www.mediafire.com/?acpj5f1chas554x

Please check it out and let me know whether it fixes the issues that were brought up.
 
I just played it, got 41 points. It plays a lot better (movement's more fluid and better suited to the speed of the approaching circles), the difficulty spike that occurs feels natural, and I can't find any problems with it.
 
this is a pretty neat time waster
its so simple but its p fun at the same time
you should all try this game

for ppl lookin for an objective
i present you the tfp pro challenge
the first person to beat this high score O0
gets a free tf2 strange (you can sell it on the steam market if you dont play tf2 for gubbins)
 
that is quite a challenge

as a suggestion, unless you intend it to be that way, you should probably stop the shield from being able to move while the game is paused. it's quite easy to cheat doing that.
 
You should make the shield cheat a proper gameplay function, actually.

Instead of three lives, you should get 3-5 "freezes", which could be activated by a left or right click.

This could also entail a more complex score system, determined by whether or not you use your "freezes", or just how much you have left...

I dunno, I think it'd add some interesting depth to the gameplay. Just a suggestion.

First try score.
 
ALSO OH GOD PLEASE ADD A RETRY BUTTON

(clarification: whenever I screw up at the beginning, I'd rather just restart than go through the rest of the wave with only two lives)

On the subject of difficulty, by the way- this game has a ridiculous difficulty spike around 40-50. I've tried at least six times and I can't breach 65 because the game becomes completely overwhelming by that point, and I've almost beaten Super Hexagon, for god's sake.
 
Pink Gold Tubba Blubba said:
Holy shit, that score is amazing!
Click to expand...
ty

Cecil Terwilliger said:
that is quite a challenge

as a suggestion, unless you intend it to be that way, you should probably stop the shield from being able to move while the game is paused. it's quite easy to cheat doing that.
Click to expand...
you should do it

i noticed that too but i didnt really pay mind to it cause i thought people would just play the whole round through and like pause if they needed to do something asap and come back, but yea that might be a good idea to stop the mouse rotation thing

Contra(dictory) said:
ALSO OH GOD PLEASE ADD A RETRY BUTTON

(clarification: whenever I screw up at the beginning, I'd rather just restart than go through the rest of the wave with only two lives)

On the subject of difficulty, by the way- this game has a ridiculous difficulty spike around 40-50. I've tried at least six times and I can't breach 65 because the game becomes completely overwhelming by that point, and I've almost beaten Super Hexagon, for god's sake.
Click to expand...
idk man the game is p easy to lose by just not dodging 2 more rings

you need to control your mouse better
the spike gets to the real deal at 50 i think and then so many rings fly at you
you gotta keep that hand-eye coordination going

its probably easier on a touchpad i think cause you can just make a circle with your finger on it but personally i think i like playing with the mouse better
 
Minako Aino said:
for ppl lookin for an objective
i present you the tfp pro challenge
the first person to beat this high score O0
gets a free tf2 strange (you can sell it on the steam market if you dont play tf2 for gubbins)
Click to expand...

I did it http://i.imgur.com/ivYb2Yw.jpg

I almost had an aneurysm since I got 85 or 86 one try and just couldn't stop until I beat it

The touchpad does feel easier for me but that's because I use it all the time instead of a mouse, and the trick that I've at least been going with is kinda just like...not watching where the paddle is?? but instead focusing on which circle is flying in next and then just flinging my finger to the appropriate location. I guess that only works if you've got a decent feel of the sensitivity.
 
If a trackpad is easier, I'm in luck, as my keyboard has a trackpad built in and I don't see the need for a regular mouse (although games and such that absolutely require the scrollwheel are annoying)
 
Ok. So anyways did you play the game? The touchpad was easier for me and that's anecdotal at the moment, so, if you have a mouse to try it with and compare then gr8 then that's the advice Edo's looking for.
 
New version with a couple miniscule changes:
https://www.mediafire.com/?mfd365tczfc55e9

  • Removed the pause exploit
  • You can now restart the game by pressing 'R'
  • Scoring 50 points now gives you an extra life
  • Luigi's backflip has been nerfed
 
Luigi's frontflip is overpowered. Seriously though, I didn't encounter any issues.

Got sixty points. I think I'm just kinda bad at it.
 
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