WIP: Clover Overdrive - Demo

Hello Everyone!

So this is a new game I am currently working on, Clover Overdrive.

A lot of the music, text, screens are merely placeholders until I figure out theme. I am hoping to gain some feedback on the gameplay itself.

It is challenging, however that is what I was going for. Something fast, slippery yet still giving a feeling of having control.

Take a stab and let me know what you think. I am curious to see if anyone can finish it.

Thanks all!

***Updated version with fixed edge screens
 

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  • Clover Overdrive V2.zip
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Bucket Mouse

Active member
I found it pretty frustrating, to be honest. The control is much too loose and the platforms are way too small.
 

Dirk

Member
I like the splatter animation when the character dies ^^
The game itself is way too hard and frustrating for me. I reached the stage where I had to shoot through a gap to kill the boss, but I didn't manage to proceed further.
Honestly, if my controller didn't had a rewind function I wouldn't had played so far.
From a short test out of curiosity I did see you've already implemented a check point system, which is very important for this kind of games, I think.

Maybe if I were younger I would play it endlessly. Back when I was a kid I would keep playing games no matter how frustrating they were.
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
I would suggest starting the game with easier jumps to get players used to things, then ramping up the difficulty later. Get players hooked before making them work harder. I honestly couldn't get very far. It probably seems easy to you since you made the game and probably performed those same jumps over and over, but to us it's not so simple.

Love the death animation, walking animation needs to slow down and maybe add more frames.
 

baardbi

Well-known member
There is a lot of good here, but I must agree with the other guys. The way the game is right now it just feels way too difficult and actually not that fun. I think with just a few tweaks here and there that this could be a really good game. As suggested earlier in this thread you should probably address the controls. For a game like this to be fun you have to rely on good controls. Apart from that I think you did a good job on both sprite and BG graphics.
 
Bucket Mouse said:
I found it pretty frustrating, to be honest. The control is much too loose and the platforms are way too small.


Going to ease it up a bit. I personally find the frustration fun, but I am going to work on easing into the difficulty and tweak the controls rather than just throwing it at you straight off. I appreciate the feedback!
 
SciNEStist said:
I would suggest starting the game with easier jumps to get players used to things, then ramping up the difficulty later. Get players hooked before making them work harder. I honestly couldn't get very far. It probably seems easy to you since you made the game and probably performed those same jumps over and over, but to us it's not so simple.

Love the death animation, walking animation needs to slow down and maybe add more frames.

I agree, I was really focused on the frustrating part (as I enjoy the most frustrating games) but realize that just being dumped directly into it will be a complete turn off. Thanks for the insight, it is much appreciated.
 
Dirk said:
I like the splatter animation when the character dies ^^
The game itself is way too hard and frustrating for me. I reached the stage where I had to shoot through a gap to kill the boss, but I didn't manage to proceed further.
Honestly, if my controller didn't had a rewind function I wouldn't had played so far.
From a short test out of curiosity I did see you've already implemented a check point system, which is very important for this kind of games, I think.

Maybe if I were younger I would play it endlessly. Back when I was a kid I would keep playing games no matter how frustrating they were.

You actually reached the end boss of the stage surprisingly. I was hoping to go for short stage, yet difficult to achieve. I am going to take the feedback and see what I can do.

The honesty of the feedback is really helping me a lot in shaping this, as it was a quick ideareeee... Thanks!
 
dale_coop said:
Great graphics and awesome animation. But man, the controls are way TOO hard >_<



going to pull them back a bit, try and make it a tad tighter. I don't want to over frustrate off the bat, so i think a smooth ease into the difficulty will help.

Thanks for checking it out!
 
baardbi said:
There is a lot of good here, but I must agree with the other guys. The way the game is right now it just feels way too difficult and actually not that fun. I think with just a few tweaks here and there that this could be a really good game. As suggested earlier in this thread you should probably address the controls. For a game like this to be fun you have to rely on good controls. Apart from that I think you did a good job on both sprite and BG graphics.


Yeah, I initially started this with the idea "lets have a fast paced platformer with slippery controls that frustrates the shit out of you, but no lives so you can continue on"

I want the feeling of being frustrated, but by player choice and not because of unfair controls.

Going to tighten a few things control wise, and rev it up to the frustration. I mean, time invested > giving up later on!... I hope :)
 
Dirk said:
I gave it another go and made the final jump :)


Clover Overdrive V2_000.png



Hahahah holy hell, in my head I was like “this jump you have to be almost pixel perfect to nail it” but kept it in anyways. Glad to see it!
 

Dirk

Member
Hehe, not gonna lie, it felt quite like an accomplishment ^^

The problem with games that require precise controls is that NESmaker seems to sometimes ignore input for a few frames. I'm not sure if it's still the case with 4.1.5 as I've only made some test games to check if animations and graphics work, but in previous versions some jumps didn't get registered and the player died. This was very annoying in my old games as I mainly make platformers and jumping from one platform to another would often led to an undeserved death of the player. My games were not as fast paced as yours is, yet it still happend.
As far as I can tell I haven't encountered this in your game so I'm not sure if it's still an issue in NESmaker.

The only thing that caught my eye was the momentum of the player. When I slide against a wall, wait a short time and then jump I would still get moved in a direction. I think a collision with a wall should reset the player's momentum.
Well, I guess as long as it is consistent it doesn't really matter and is more a question of personal taste.
 
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