So, What's Next?

The Orb Collector (Friend Feedback)

After posting the game to some friends, I received some interesting feedback. The game had to change drastically. Here are some of the points that were brought up:

• This game cannot be played by people with colour blindness
• The bullet shouldn’t be the same colour as the orbs
• Add the text ‘Password’ above the actual password
• It’s too hard
• Use the keyboard to skip to the next screen, because jumping from mouse to keyboard is tricky

Colour Blindness

A friend brought up the fact that he could not play this game due to colour blindness, which is something that I didn’t think about. So after looking into the condition I found out that there were many classes that affect various colours. This was a problem, because I didn’t want to exclude anyone.

I thought of a solution to this problem. Seeing that there are different types of colour blindness, why not add shapes inside the orbs to make them more distinctive? For the Yellow Orbs I added a thick black line running through the middle; the Cyan Orbs were left alone and a dark circle was added inside the Magenta Orb. I was worried that the orbs were too small for any detail to be seen, but my friend approved of the idea. There were still issues with the three colours, because he can't tell the difference between Cyan and Magenta. He later sent me three colours that are more distinctive and aesthetically pleasing.

So in the next few weeks I will adjust the game and make it suitable for this condition.

Original Colours (Fig 1)

Adjustments for Colour Blindness (Fig 2)

Cyan Bullet, Cyan Orb

This is a problem that I did not intend on fixing, but I do agree that it’s a nuisance. This will be fixed though, as the Colour Blind version will have three different coloured orbs.

Bullet and Orb comparison (Fig 3)

Password?

A random number after each level can be confusing and could possibly be mistaken for the score. I added the text above/ below each password, so no one makes this mistake.

Too Tough?

People brought up the fact that it’s a hard game, so I have made it easier, especially in the green area that contains toxic gas. Some of those levels required pin point accuracy because the timing was too tight.

Skipping screens with the keyboard

This is something I really agree with, especially considering that some levels start with a mutant charging towards you. I haven’t added this feature, but I have delayed the charging mutants.

What’s Next?

Originally, I wanted to start a project using XNA. but instead I'm going to adjust an old Flash project, and then create a new Flash game. The reason for this is that I want to create a few completed Flash games before I jump into another language (C#). XNA is completely different from Actionscript 2.0 and it would be tricky alternating between the two. I have recently found out that XNA 2.0 is now redundant and that I will need to learn XNA 4.0. So this will make things harder.

When I do make the jump into XNA, I will most likely re-make one of my Flash games, because the blue print is already drawn out.

New Flash Project

The gameplay is still uncertain, but the next project will be based on an old character I created, back when I was 14 years old. His name is Rox9. The game will still be based in ‘The Orb Collector’ universe, but many years in the future. Humanity is worse than ever and multiple gangs have taken over the land.

Below is an old, rough animation that I made many years ago (2004):

In my next post The Orb Collector should be updated; a newer version of an old project should be completed and I should have some concept art for the Rox9 game.