Organisation

This may not seem like much, in fact it may seem like this belongs under planning, but actually this has got nothing to do with how organised you are. It's actually about making sure your game is organised, and that if anything is out of place the game should automatically clean itself up.

This first bit is about modes, to make sure that when one section is over the game can move onto the next without having things hanging over. The modes should be controlled by a single variable to make sure that it can only be one number at a time. So, during the logo and advert screens the game might want to be set to mode 0 for example. Then, once they are over it sets itself to 1 and the front of the menu begins.

Each sub-menu can have it's own mode at say 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 ect. This is because, some things only need to show up when the sub-menu for the settings is up for example. However, an animation in the background or a tune may need to play for all the sub-menus and the main menu. So, these things can be set to “If letter 1 of mode = X then do stuff.” However, more specific things can just be set to “If mode = X then do stuff.”

Another thing to have is an ALS (auto layering system). ALS is the automatic sprite shuffler which is set to work when the project starts. Here's our example:

I want a sun in the background, with a hill in front, and a house on the hill. First I need to go to the background and create a script-
When GF Clicked-
<Broadcast “Layer01” and Wait>
<Broadcast “Layer02” and Wait>
<Broadcast “Layer03” and Wait>

Now, every sprite needs a script saying <When I receive “LayerXX” / go to front>

The sun needs the script to say <When I recieve “Layer01” / go to front>, which will cause it to go in front of everything else. The hill needs it for layer 2, which will cause it to go in front of the sun. Finally you need a layer 3 script for the house. So even if you accidentally drag an object out of place, the ALS will keep it in the correct order every time the project is started.

Now you need a splash screen. This needs to be wonderful to look at, as this is the image that will appear online in the thumbnail. Give it a keyboard shortcut that will not likely be used (such as needing to press lots of keys at the same time) so that before you upload the project, you can quickly tap the key combination. The layer system will also bring this to the front for you automatically!

mathbrain wrote:

jamiewinter wrote:

mathbrain wrote:

jamiewinter wrote:

mathbrain wrote:

Review for pix rpg by jamiewinter

Game Design 10/10
The various levels, challenges, and achievements to unlock make this game very fun and addictive. The interesting dialogue also gives an extra side kick to the game to keep players from getting bored. If there is enough space, adding cloud data (once iCloud lists come out) to allow players to save the progress would be also wonderful.

Originality 7/10
Even though there are many adventure games in Scratch, few have as unique features as this one with, multiple levels and multiple obstacles/bosses. Moreover, the stats are original too, especially “reputation” and skin color. However, other than this, the main storyline (defeating enemies) is not very distinct from other adventure games, thus the 3 points lost.

Ease Of Use 3/5
Controls were very clear and effective in this game, although when controlling the arrow keys, the sprite moved quite slow (probably due to the large game size). In addition, I feel that more clarity/direction could be given on the process of the game. For example, I was confused on what to do after killing the dragon. I also didn’t know how to defeat the slimes. Maybe there could be a sign that says “GO HERE” to show the player what to do and where to do it. Otherwise, this would score 5/5.

Difficulty Balance 2/5
I feel that some parts of the game are much too difficult, such as killing the dragon (it took me multiple attempts until I finally did). Also the small fires (on the screen before the dragon battle) were hard to avoid. A difficulty slider would certainly help so the player can control how hard they want to play. Therefore, this scored 2/5.
Graphics 3/5
Moving sprites were very well designed in this game, especially the dragon boss’s fireballs and the small fires in the subsequent screen to the boss battle. I liked the detail attempted in the interior on some buildings, but I felt more could be added to the exterior. Moreover, I thought that the first introduction screen needed more details to make it more interesting, hence the 2 points lost.

Sound 4/5
The music in the game was excellent, and they all seemed to fit at the right time. For example, during Boss Battles, the music was more intense than the regular storyline (3/3 for music). There could have been more sound effects (1/2) though.

Firing Round 8/10 (This is the addition of the following scores)
Reliability 1/2
0 (Very Glitchy) 1 (A few glitches) 2 (Hardly any glitches)
Game Length 2/2
0 (Too Short) 1 (Descent Length) 2 (Long lasting or endless)
Game Pace 1/2
0 (Very slow or too long for it's own sake) 1 (Quite engrossing) 2 (Very well paced and fun)
Replay Value 2/2
0 (Would never replay/ did not want to finish it the first time) 1 (Might replay) 2 (Too good to stop!)
Programming 2/2
0 (Simple to make) 1 (Fairly advanced) 2 (It was very complex)

Overall Experience 43/50
This game was full of adventure and made we want to keep playing and keep exploring the different levels. The unique bosses and animations make this a memorable and extraordinarily complex project. Even though difficulty could be adjusted, the challenges allowed me to feel rewarded after completing them, particularly the dragon boss. Seven points were taken off because (1) in some places, the pace was slow, such as during mandatory conversations and (2) confusion on how to play in some aspects, such as “stats”, “skins”, and what to do to unlock certain achievements.

TOTAL: 80/100

Thanks for the review but can you just reply to this with all the things to improve and by the first into screen what do you mean

No problem: by the first screen, I mean the one that immediately pops up when you click play.

By mandatory conversations do you mean the ones which aren't in boxes

Yes; and by the way, this is one of my favorite games

Thanks You know for the glitches setcion (reliability) Could you tell me some to make it a better experience for players

Long Jump Games

“You are a long jumper! Get a high score by jumping far!”

Game Design 2/10
The issue with this game is the lack of things to do. Whilst it was fairly addicting to get a good score, and to a certain extent you could replay it forever trying your improve your score, there would be little need to. The aim of the game is simply to keep the right arrow pressed, and then press space at the furthest possible point. If you want, you don't even need to keep the right arrow key down for that long, so you could wait until you get to near the very end before charging. Trying to get a good distance earns this a two, but there's no reason to score it higher, just like there's no reason to play this more than once.

It would have been much better with a variety of sports, that way there would have been more challenges, the game would have lasted longer, and there could have been hundreds of variations of races, such as collecting items.

Originality 10/10
I've never seen anything like this on scratch. Dare I say it, this deserves a ten! Sure it's a sports game, but I've never seen a long jump one. More games would have been better, but this has nothing to do with originality.

Ease Of Use 4/5
This game was very simple and I had no problems with comfort. There was also a tutorial. The music slider was missing or hidden though, which didn't help.

Difficulty Balance 1/5
This was too easy, almost to the point where there is barely any skill needed. Sure the higher scores looked difficult to beat (giving this a point), but without a strategy to beat them, they are a bit pointless. Basically to beat them you just need to keep the right arrow down and hope you press space at the right time.

Graphics 1/5
The buttons on the menu weren't even in line, never mind the gradient fills in the background, which were bright green and dark blue. All the sandpit needed was a touch of the “spray” tool in MS Paint, to add little dots to make it look like sand, and the background shouldn't have been the same gradient fill from the menu. White lines and a red track would have looked better, with grass in the background.

The scratch cat was drawn from a side-scrolling perspective, which meant that it would have been easier to make this a side scrolling long jump game. This would have looked a lot better too! Then if it scrolled, the pit would have been off-screen, so that player would have had less time to prepare for the pit coming, making the game harder to play! I must mention the scratch cat again, because although I agree that people should be allowed to use it, the fact that it wasn't even animated with the two pre-made costumes was appalling. Still, I could guess what everything was.

Sound 1/5
One point for at least adding a song, but it was really low quality, and the song itself wasn't so great to make it worthwhile. On top of that, I never felt like I was in a stadium, not only because of the graphics but also because of the lack of ambiances of cheering audiences in the background. There was no atmosphere in this game, which is a real shame.

Firing Round 2/10 (This is the addition of the following scores)
Reliability 2/2
0 (Very Glitchy) 1 (A few glitches) 2 (Hardly any glitches)
Game Length 0/2
0 (Too Short) 1 (Descent Length) 2 (Long lasting or endless)
Game Pace 0/2
0 (Very slow or too long for it's own sake) 1 (Quite engrossing) 2 (Very well paced and fun)
Replay Value 0/2
0 (Would never replay/ did not want to finish it the first time) 1 (Might replay) 2 (Too good to stop!)
Programming 0/2
0 (Simple to make) 1 (Fairly advanced) 2 (It was very complex)

Overall Experience 0/50
As I mentioned earlier, this game could have done with a greater atmosphere… or any atmosphere! Ambiances, plus a side-scrolling audience in the background would have made the environment so great to be in. With the help of extra mini games and different achievements, this could have been a far more enjoyable and challenging experience. The whole point of sports games are to get competitive too, and I never felt like wanting to win anything. There should be AI enemies in the mini games, designed to chant when they win to make you want to beat them. This game is just missing too much. I'll forget about this in no time, and there's no reason why I'd play it again, but in the future if there was an update with all of these enhancements, it would sure be a classic. The key is to get the atmosphere and the competition going.

TOTAL: 21/100

Key
0-19 I could have made that in my sleep!
20-39 Needs a lot of work.
40-59 An average project I suppose.
60-79 Quite a cool project.
80-94 Wow! It only needs a bit of tweaking.
95-100 You're the top cat!

I dunt get it

ZaharaMar wrote:

I dunt get it

it's just a club thing with fun projects, an occasional “worth mentioning” section and other cool stuff

Can i have my project pix rpg advertised

jamiewinter wrote:

Can i have my project pix rpg advertised

It's already on there!

Menus

Designing a menu may seem straightforward, but a rubbish menu can give a poor first appearance on your game.

The Tip Master wrote:

So that you don't lose patience later on, I'd recommend that you create the menu first. This is so that your greatest effort will be on the menu, as all players should at least reach the menu. Most scratchers create great games, but rush their menus at the end when they are tired. They might even create them first with the intention of leaving it as a draft, but instead of finishing it off at the end they have no energy left, leaving the game with a poor start.

Your menu needs to be organised. A maximum of three options and a back option should be sufficient, and keeping the same number of buttons on each submenu should help improve the consistency of your menu too. Make it clear which buttons are highlighted, and if any are disabled make it clear that they are. Try to have an animated background with a carefully selected tune as well.

Well, that's about it for menus. Make them clear, use the mode system as mentioned in the organisation section; if you need more than three or four buttons per slide, use submenus.

Borrego6165 wrote:

ZaharaMar wrote:

I dunt get it

it's just a club thing with fun projects, an occasional “worth mentioning” section and other cool stuff

cool…

Review for Scratchpad by jkl0l

OS Design 4/10
Although this was a somewhat well-designed project overall with numerous apps, there was none that made we want to play again. Some of the apps were purposeless, such as “camera” (maybe you can replace this with another game/edit this app) and “Crack your screen”. A good attempt was made as an imitation of the real iPad, but features need to be enhanced to score better.

Originality 10/10
I’ve never seen any projects of this kind on Scratch yet, and this proves to be a most promising project with some edits. I loved some of the functions of the apps, especially (1) Music, (2) Vote, and (3) Games (although this needs more features such as obstacles to be more addicting)

Ease Of Use 8/10
Overall, this game was fairly simple to use and understand, although I suggest putting in the descriptions to click the “circle-shaped home button at the bottom of the iPad” to return to the main screen, thus the 2 points off.
Graphics 2/5
Two points given for having some graphics, but they need improvement because now, they are of inferior quality, with some things showing when they’re not supposed to be (for example: “crack your screen”). In addition, I suggest making the fish take up the whole background rather than just a portion to make it look better. Moreover, I recommend using the “text” function in the costumes section for the Google Easter Eggs rather than hand-writing the words.

Sound 3/5
The music app was an excellent choice in this project, and the songs were of decent quality. However, there was no way to pause/stop a song, even if I clicked the other song. Thus, both songs would play at the same time.

Firing Round 5/10 (This is the addition of the following scores)
Reliability 1/2
0 (Very Glitchy) 1 (A few glitches) 2 (Hardly any glitches)
Variety 1/2
0 (Little to do) 1 (Decent amount) 2 (Lots of things to do)
Lag 2/2
0 (Very slow) 1 (Decent in most places) 2 (No lag)
Replay Value 0/2
0 (Would never reuse/ did not want to finish it the first time) 1 (Might reuse) 2 (Too good to stop!)
Programming 1/2
0 (Simple to make) 1 (Fairly advanced) 2 (It was very complex)


Overall Experience 23/50
Currently, this project is quite a few apps with most having some basic functions. In order to make this project score above 80/100, move development needs to be put into each app to make the experience more worthwhile, especially the gaming part, and there needs to be a way for players to be addicted! I did really enjoy the Google Easter Eggs and the Voting apps…there were extraordinarily unique. In conclusion, great job so far and I look forward to future versions, perhaps with even more interesting apps!

TOTAL: 55/100

Updated!

mathbrain wrote:

Review for Scratchpad by jkl0l

OS Design 4/10
Although this was a somewhat well-designed project overall with numerous apps, there was none that made we want to play again. Some of the apps were purposeless, such as “camera” (maybe you can replace this with another game/edit this app) and “Crack your screen”. A good attempt was made as an imitation of the real iPad, but features need to be enhanced to score better.

Originality 10/10
I’ve never seen any projects of this kind on Scratch yet, and this proves to be a most promising project with some edits. I loved some of the functions of the apps, especially (1) Music, (2) Vote, and (3) Games (although this needs more features such as obstacles to be more addicting)

Ease Of Use 8/10
Overall, this game was fairly simple to use and understand, although I suggest putting in the descriptions to click the “circle-shaped home button at the bottom of the iPad” to return to the main screen, thus the 2 points off.
Graphics 2/5
Two points given for having some graphics, but they need improvement because now, they are of inferior quality, with some things showing when they’re not supposed to be (for example: “crack your screen”). In addition, I suggest making the fish take up the whole background rather than just a portion to make it look better. Moreover, I recommend using the “text” function in the costumes section for the Google Easter Eggs rather than hand-writing the words.

Sound 3/5
The music app was an excellent choice in this project, and the songs were of decent quality. However, there was no way to pause/stop a song, even if I clicked the other song. Thus, both songs would play at the same time.

Firing Round 5/10 (This is the addition of the following scores)
Reliability 1/2
0 (Very Glitchy) 1 (A few glitches) 2 (Hardly any glitches)
Variety 1/2
0 (Little to do) 1 (Decent amount) 2 (Lots of things to do)
Lag 2/2
0 (Very slow) 1 (Decent in most places) 2 (No lag)
Replay Value 0/2
0 (Would never reuse/ did not want to finish it the first time) 1 (Might reuse) 2 (Too good to stop!)
Programming 1/2
0 (Simple to make) 1 (Fairly advanced) 2 (It was very complex)


Overall Experience 23/50
Currently, this project is quite a few apps with most having some basic functions. In order to make this project score above 80/100, move development needs to be put into each app to make the experience more worthwhile, especially the gaming part, and there needs to be a way for players to be addicted! I did really enjoy the Google Easter Eggs and the Voting apps…there were extraordinarily unique. In conclusion, great job so far and I look forward to future versions, perhaps with even more interesting apps!

TOTAL: 55/100

Great…. I worked really hard on that… Sorry about not using text on the easter eggs thing… Typos.

Game Screen

Some games may not need one of these, depending on how you want to layout your game. I would recommend that a business game has one of these, and that a city game will not need one, but I will leave that to you.

So, encase you're still confused, this is where we are up to: a tycoon game starts with your logo, followed by a menu and a tutorial. After this, you end up inside the game itself, on the game screen. You can have different ways of organising your game, but generally indie tycoons have a build mode and a live mode. Let's list all of these types:

Free For All
This is the most basic way of doing it. Everything can be accessed on screen at the same time, and the game is not automatically paused at any point. From the game screen you can hire or fire staff, change the appearance of your environment, and watch people respond to these changes in live time. For a scratch-based example, try the alpha of City Cast. Games like Roller Coaster Tycoon and SimCity also use this format.

Play and Pause
This is probably the most used format for indie tycoon games. It is where at the start of each month, you get to hire/fire staff, decorate your business and do all of the things you can do in the above format; time is paused and so there are no customers. Then you click on a button such as “Start Month” or “Begin Day”, which starts the clock so that customers can visit, except that most of the editing tools have been disabled. With the exception of some games like Now Boarding, where you have to control planes and passengers during the months, this format can be boring if you don't give your players much to do other than to watch until the time period is over. Games like Now Boarding, Lemonade Tycoon and Coffee Tycoon follow this format.

Hybrid
I have only ever seen this on Scratch due to Scratch 1.4's limitations, and now with Scratch 2.0 out this format will probably be abandoned. In G:2013 because the buildings had to be stamped, it meant that I had to start from the back of the city and stamp forward. That meant that the player could not build behind another building. I then worked out that if none of the stamps overlapped, then this problem would cease to exist. So, I created two modes: view mode and build mode. These are practically the same as the two modes in “Play and Pause”, with the exception that you can access both at any time, and the game does not auto-pause. However, with the new clones it is possible to place objects behind other objects, trusting that you keep the layers updated, so only use this if you are making a 1.4 compatible game or you need more than 300 objects on screen at a time (Scratch 2.0 only allows 300 clones, but this may have changed depending on when you are reading this).

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May I join as a member? This is great idea for people like me because I'm not famous or get a lot of views or loves so this could help A lot!

Meteor Crash

Explore outer space as a bird and prevent a meteor apocalypse by collecting power-ups and avoiding obstacles!

Game Design 5/10
Well, although it looks less presentable (The meteors have little white dots.), it has this “creative” thought of using a bird. (Why a bird? Birds can't breathe in outer space, by the way.) Also, the game has not given me the fun that I expected. Still, I'd give it a 5.

Originality 7/10
I think there are a lot of games that includes avoiding obstacles. Well, this one's a bit different, but, this one has the same concept as with the other games. So, I'd give it a 7.

Ease Of Use 5/5
There is a guide to gaming at the start of the projects. And, the guide was well understood. So, it get a perfect score.

Difficulty Balance 3/5
You can't change the difficulty, and the game is too easy. I'd give it a 3.

Graphics 3/5
I've seen that the meteors have this white dots around it. Also, the background has to be edited. Maybe it needs less symmetry. Well, I'd give it a 3.

Sound NULL/5
There was no sound while the project was played. I can't score it.

Firing Round 5/10 (This is the addition of the following scores)
Reliability 2/2
0 (Very Glitchy) 1 (A few glitches) 2 (Hardly any glitches)
Game Length 2/2
0 (Too Short) 1 (Descent Length) 2 (Long lasting or endless)
Game Pace 1/2
0 (Very slow or too long for it's own sake) 1 (Quite engrossing) 2 (Very well paced and fun)
Replay Value 0/2
0 (Would never replay/ did not want to finish it the first time) 1 (Might replay) 2 (Too good to stop!)
Programming 0/2
0 (Simple to make) 1 (Fairly advanced) 2 (It was very complex)

Overall Experience 30/50
This is fine, but it really needs to have more ideas. More meteors (not just falling ones) would make the game harder. Also, the graphics should be better. Editing the meteors and the background (as explained earlier) would make it look better. Another thing would be points. Rather than having your seconds living, you can use points to have better outputs with scores.

TOTAL: 58/100
An average project I suppose.

Sir, is the review fine for you?

Math_Addict wrote:

Sir, is the review fine for you?

Writing
Could you clarify what “Also, the graphics should have more.” means. More what? I also think that Game Design and Originality are a bit too short, considering that they are out of a possible ten.

This review would have been great if you were simply clearer, such as in the above example. If you're not more assertive (this does not mean to be rude or nasty) than the creator may not bother making the changes, such as “something else has to be edited” -if you want the background changing, simply replace the line with "I don't like the current background, but this design would be much better!"

Neatening Up
Could you have the word “white” in black please, as I thought it was just a massive gap, which makes the review look messy.
"There is no sound while the project was played." Past tense or present tense?

Borrego6165 wrote:

Math_Addict wrote:

Sir, is the review fine for you?

Writing
Could you clarify what “Also, the graphics should have more.” means. More what? I also think that Game Design and Originality are a bit too short, considering that they are out of a possible ten.

This review would have been great if you were simply clearer, such as in the above example. If you're not more assertive (this does not mean to be rude or nasty) than the creator may not bother making the changes, such as “something else has to be edited” -if you want the background changing, simply replace the line with "I don't like the current background, but this design would be much better!"

Neatening Up
Could you have the word “white” in black please, as I thought it was just a massive gap, which makes the review look messy.
"There is no sound while the project was played." Past tense or present tense?

Thanks for pointing that one out. Well, I ran out of words for today. I'll try to edit it tomorrow.

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