Hey! So I just wanted to get some feedback here on a bowling simulator I’ve been working on for a little over a year. It should be pretty easy to start it up, just let it in load in, click on the big ol’ bowl button, then hit start game. At that point you’d select a ball on the rack and click to launch the ball, then you’d just click again to set your power. I’ve been trying to figure out a better mechanics system to make the whole game take a little bit more skill, rather than just aiming the ball where you want to throw it. Any overall suggestions for any aspect of the game would be highly appreciated! And one thing to note, when I made this game, I’ve always been trying to develop it just like real bowling. So with that, it’s probably a bit different from any bowling game you’ve played before
Great game so far, like you said, the game needs to be more skilled based. You could do this by implementing a sliding pointer mechanism for aiming the bowling ball like the power system you’ve done.
bug: After having a few goes, the ball came through the machine invisible.
Thanks for the suggestion! I mean, I was probably going to start off by doing some local-features. As when I originally made this game, it’s basically client-sided only. It’d be pretty hard to change any of that now, however, I’m still considering some kind of multiplayer feature.
When the game is loading you should set the TopbarTransparency to 0. That way the entire screen is opaque and the player doesn’t get a hint of what is behind it.
Also the walls… They’re… Smoothly Plain. I’d personally add some textures and/or paintings/photos on the walls. To make it look less… Smoothly plain.
Also when you roll the ball down with very low power. The ‘Ball Speed’ indicator reads ‘0 MPH’. Which logically makes no sense. As Shown Here:
Thanks Wingz for the suggestions! I’ll definitely figure out the topbar thing, as I didn’t actually know you could do that. As for the walls, perhaps I could check in to having a builder personalize them a bit more. Also, that ball speed bug is a bit weird, will definitely have a look at it! Thanks for testing It out!
I can see why you may want to make this a lot more “skill” based…
It is suprising easy to land strikes. This is because of how you can just click to choose the direction. To change this, you could also implment a different system to also support mobile and xbox users! Use an arrow that moves from side to side rather than clicking where you want the ball to go. Click to stop moving the arrow then you can change your power. This will then make the ball move in that direction rather than the direction where your mouse lands. Something like this:
With something like this you could also include a power meter on the arrow rather than off to the side of the screen, make it more immersive! This also suits xbox and mobile as all you then have to do is use 1 key or tap the screen.
bugs!
The only bug I found was that I landed a spare instead of stike, the system didn’t even register that all the pins were already down.
Thanks for the feedback Watermelon! I’d have to agree right now it’s very easy to get strikes. The thing is though, I’m looking for a way to completely enhance the way you bowl, making it take skill to be good at it, not luck. If I were to add the arrow, I mean, that’d give the game a bit of an arcade feel I think. I’m targeting to make this game realistic, and I’ve been trying to come up with unique mechanics to make the game more skill-based as to where you throw the ball, which is why I made that post regarding the camera movement. With that, I’ve actually been aware of that scoring issue for a long time now. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot and see what exactly is causing the problem. It’s been working better I think, but it’s not completely accurate every now and then, I’ll continue to dig into that though. Thanks man!
Pin Variations: Stronger pins, weaker pins, more valuable pins, explosive pins, in multiplayer everyone would get the same pin variations and layout on their turns, each round of bowling would have diffrent pin variations of course
Injuries/Body Strength/Fighting:
I noticed there’s a system where you get different bowlers with different stats, maybe other players(or npcs) should be able to get into fights mid game. If they injure each others legs, it puts a unwanted spin to the ball, Injury to the arms could make it harder(smaller time frame when its at the max power) to have as much power to a throw, and injuries to the head could make the player dizzy and have the screen shaky when you are picking where to throw. Different bowlers could have different stats on defense on body parts, so if you know what bowler the other player is using you can know the best area to target.
Nobody posted here in a while, so I am posting here. I like the game, and it is a realistic bowling simulator! But, I found a bug in your game. When I buy a pack, and finish opening it, I can’t get out of the pack opening menu. Can you please fix this bug in your game, please? Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback, Henry! I find that really odd, I’ll definitely check it out. Would you mind telling me which pack was giving you the problem?? As I concur when I last tested it, all the packs were working fine for me atleast.
The Bronze Bowler Packs, Bronze Part/Item Packs, and the Silver Part/Item packs were giving me the problem. And I think that all of the packs will cause the same problem. So, after a user finishes opening a pack on the pack opening screen, you should add a back button to let them go back to the pack shop or to the main menu. Can you please do that and fix the bug? That will be a great solution!
If I could make an assumption, I would assume your screen monitor’s resolution is too small on the Y axis, because there actually is a close button that should appear. The minimal size needed for the whole frame to become visible isn’t that demanding, but I could work on changing that. Thanks!
So far, Strike! looks like a decent game. It is well-scripted and the concept is fine. Akin to past criticisms, I feel the build is, however, lacklustre, and the systems in place for throwing the ball are in dire need of reform.
I couldn’t find anything about clothing in your menu stores. Ultimately, personalisation is the foundation on which roleplaying games are built; it would be prudent to consider either allowing players to use their own avatars or build their own through the money they earn. Perhaps have money scored (in small amounts; $1 to $3) for every few bowling pins one knocks down too instead of at the end of the game to stop people from becoming too bored.
I also found on the GUI for buying packs that the “Purchase” button was extremely large while it took me around a minute to find where the exit button was hidden. It may be the developer’s goal to sell his or her product, but there really shouldn’t be bias on the screen in terms of button size or location (buy or do not buy). It’s understandable if this wasn’t thought of, since the idea of an ‘X’ in the corner is commonplace, but there really should be a “Go back” or “Cancel” button underneath the “Purchase” button.
I wish you look in developing your game to its full potential.
Thank you for the feedback, Somnar! I’ll take these suggestions into play as I continue to work on it. As for your feedback towards the UI, I’ve really been checking out the possibility of hiring some one to completely remake the UI’s, as I designed all of them, they look really bad xd
So I’m trying to check into that currently, as a high end of my priority. Thanks!
Nice game! I do have some things to critique. I love the concept of self UI and how you mechanically grab the ball. What I would have to say would be that the GUI’s are a bit too sharp and generic, I would say smoother GUI’s and layouts (Power meter, Intro Cutscene, and Scorecards) like more contemporary and smoother. I like simple game concepts like bowling, golf, or pool. So I would say keep working on the game it has potential on making it up there.
