[Phaser] Elevator Miner

[turnA]

Hi there! This week we want to share about our newest games, Elevator Miner!

 

Elevator Miner is an arcade/action games where you must control the elevator on the right/left side of the screen to move the digger, and dig all the treasure while avoiding all the obstacle. If you're using desktop, you can use W/S to move the left elevator and UP/DOWN Arrow to move the right elevator. Of course on mobile you can just drag the elevator with both of your finger.

 

Link: http://j.mp/elevatorminer

 

Hope you enjoy it!

Do let me know if you have any feedback/problem

 

 

[venam]

The game graphics are superb and the gameplay idea is really good.

One problem I've had is that suddenly the game disappear for no reasons. I refreshed to confirmed that and it did the same thing.

[gikdew]

OMG those graphics look show good! 

[turnA]

OMG those graphics look show good! 

Thanks for the nice words!

 

The game graphics are superb and the gameplay idea is really good.

One problem I've had is that suddenly the game disappear for no reasons. I refreshed to confirmed that and it did the same thing.

Thanks for trying it! Can you tell me what are you using to access the games? (Mobile/Desktop and browser type?)

Is the game disappear like it blank screen, or the browser crashed? 

[venam]

Thanks for the nice words!

 

Thanks for trying it! Can you tell me what are you using to access the games? (Mobile/Desktop and browser type?)

Is the game disappear like it blank screen, or the browser crashed? 

I tried it on Firefox 28. The canvas disappears, the browser doesn't crash.

[Michel (Starnut)]

The game sure looks cute and I like the idea. Things that caught my eye (on desktop Chrome):

 

1. Simultanios movement of both elevators doesn't work using the keyboard, but I think it'd make the game way more dynamic. Didn't check if it works better on mobile though.

 

2. I'd expect the avatar's slide speed to depend on the rope's current angle, but it just moves at the same speed no matter how steep the rope angle is. That made me miss a lot of treasure cause the avatar moves rather slow. Also it made me crash into quite some obstacles since I just couldn't escape fast enough. Quite frustrating. Together with 1. adding angle dependent speed, again, could add an interesting dynamic to the game play.

 

3. Collision detection seems quite inaccurate / boxy at some times. Have you considered adjusting the hit boxes or even using polygonal shapes with P2 physics?

 

4.  Item generation feels very random right now I even had obstacles directly overlapping with artifact. No way to dig there Also it felt like the game had little new to offer pretty fast. But maybe that's just because I didn't make much progress.

 

5. The avatar's mustache looks a bit like a rock Nothing major, just threw me off a little

 

For me the game didn't pick up enough speed to "grab" me. I missed a lot of treasure and made very little $. Even after a few runs I didn't have much to spend on upgrades. I think it has quite some potential if you spent some more work improving controls though.

[turnA]

The game sure looks cute and I like the idea. Things that caught my eye (on desktop Chrome):

 

1. Simultanios movement of both elevators doesn't work using the keyboard, but I think it'd make the game way more dynamic. Didn't check if it works better on mobile though.

 

2. I'd expect the avatar's slide speed to depend on the rope's current angle, but it just moves at the same speed no matter how steep the rope angle is. That made me miss a lot of treasure cause the avatar moves rather slow. Also it made me crash into quite some obstacles since I just couldn't escape fast enough. Quite frustrating. Together with 1. adding angle dependent speed, again, could add an interesting dynamic to the game play.

 

3. Collision detection seems quite inaccurate / boxy at some times. Have you considered adjusting the hit boxes or even using polygonal shapes with P2 physics?

 

4.  Item generation feels very random right now I even had obstacles directly overlapping with artifact. No way to dig there Also it felt like the game had little new to offer pretty fast. But maybe that's just because I didn't make much progress.

 

5. The avatar's mustache looks a bit like a rock Nothing major, just threw me off a little

 

For me the game didn't pick up enough speed to "grab" me. I missed a lot of treasure and made very little $. Even after a few runs I didn't have much to spend on upgrades. I think it has quite some potential if you spent some more work improving controls though.

 

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Let me address it one by one:

1. You are very right about this. I have incorrect logic code for handling keyboard presses. It should work as you expected now.

2. You're right, it actually one of the upgrade that player can buy in the Upgrade Screen (Increase rope speed limit). The screenshot above is quite old

3. I have tried accurate pixel perfect collision but the performance is too low. For now I can only using rectangle intersect method, but with a bit larger tolerance

4. I just give more space to the item generation method. It should be appear correctly now.

5. You know what? After seeing it long enough the same thought did cross my mind. But I let it as it is, who know that he will become the next Mario? (complete with the trademark moustache)

 

I tried it on Firefox 28. The canvas disappears, the browser doesn't crash.

I see. I have tried it on my Firefox 28 (Windows 7) but there are no problem. Can you please check the console log (Ctrl+Shift+J), just wondering if there are error message pop up there.

[Martiny]

The game is awesome! Very beautiful and fun to play, I hope you can profit a lot from it (:

 

The only thing that annoyed me was the collision really. I clearly didn't hit an obstacle, but I lost anyway. Maybe it's not what you want, but a simple fix would be to make the collision box of obstacles a little bit smaller. I guess that is common among games: enemies hitbox are smaller than friendly objects. I've seen this in this image, from this site: http://devmag.org.za/2011/01/18/11-tips-for-making-a-fun-platformer/

 

 

 

Good game (:

[Michel (Starnut)]

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Let me address it one by one:

1. You are very right about this. I have incorrect logic code for handling keyboard presses. It should work as you expected now.

2. You're right, it actually one of the upgrade that player can buy in the Upgrade Screen (Increase rope speed limit). The screenshot above is quite old

3. I have tried accurate pixel perfect collision but the performance is too low. For now I can only using rectangle intersect method, but with a bit larger tolerance

4. I just give more space to the item generation method. It should be appear correctly now.

5. You know what? After seeing it long enough the same thought did cross my mind. But I let it as it is, who know that he will become the next Mario? (complete with the trademark moustache)

 

1. Works fine now. Way better!

 

2. I don't think it's the same. I bought the first update and it didn't change much and it still felt like a constant value, not like it was slowly increasing. I meant that the speed could increase depending on how steep the rope goes down. You could still "sell" upgrades for that increase factor, though, but I might change the dynamic of it.

 

3. Are you still on a Phaser 1.x version? Then ok, this may be true. But changing the bounding box size is a start.

 

4. Well no overlapping now but still I think you need to get more control of your random in order to generate more interesting levels still having these issues quite often: 

- Can't reach artifact because the avatar travels so slow there is no way I'll get there in time. Then there's a new artifact coming up on the other side and again, I can't reach it because of traveling speed. Quite frustrating.

- Had 5 obstacles in a row with no artifact coming up. Quite boring.

 

I think if you tinker on the game design with treasure/obstacle spawning and traveling speed a little you'll manage to get the frustration out.

 

5. No, don't toss it, keep it! But maybe some hair-lines in the mustache would help

[turnA]

1. Works fine now. Way better!

 

2. I don't think it's the same. I bought the first update and it didn't change much and it still felt like a constant value, not like it was slowly increasing. I meant that the speed could increase depending on how steep the rope goes down. You could still "sell" upgrades for that increase factor, though, but I might change the dynamic of it.

 

3. Are you still on a Phaser 1.x version? Then ok, this may be true. But changing the bounding box size is a start.

 

4. Well no overlapping now but still I think you need to get more control of your random in order to generate more interesting levels still having these issues quite often: 

- Can't reach artifact because the avatar travels so slow there is no way I'll get there in time. Then there's a new artifact coming up on the other side and again, I can't reach it because of traveling speed. Quite frustrating.

- Had 5 obstacles in a row with no artifact coming up. Quite boring.

 

I think if you tinker on the game design with treasure/obstacle spawning and traveling speed a little you'll manage to get the frustration out.

 

5. No, don't toss it, keep it! But maybe some hair-lines in the mustache would help

Thanks for the more detailed feedback. I have refine/rebalance all the collision, upgrade speed, and item generation.

The speed upgrade should show more effect now and the item generated will be varied so player not bored in the middle

 

The game is awesome! Very beautiful and fun to play, I hope you can profit a lot from it (:

 

The only thing that annoyed me was the collision really. I clearly didn't hit an obstacle, but I lost anyway. Maybe it's not what you want, but a simple fix would be to make the collision box of obstacles a little bit smaller. I guess that is common among games: enemies hitbox are smaller than friendly objects. I've seen this in this image, from this site: http://devmag.org.za/2011/01/18/11-tips-for-making-a-fun-platformer/

 

 

 

Good game (:

Thanks, this is exactly what I try to implement! Check out the game again to see it's implementation

[rich]

Lovely graphics I didn't realise it was a moustache until I read this thread! I thought he had his mouth open in an anime style scream

[gbachik]

When I first started I thought: this is kinda cool but meh...

 

Then I didn't stop playing for over an hour!

Its actually insanely addictive haha!

 

Nice concept here :]

[AlexSham]

I think you have done a lot of work, making this game. Good graphics, new gameplay.

The only problem is the loading. It loads too long! About 2 minutes in my case.

[novpixel]

hello TurnA....hello guys

Greetings, i'm artist for this game

thank you very much for nice feedback for my artworks, i realy appreciate it...i hope i can make better artwork in the next project

[gikdew]

 

I think you have done a lot of work, making this game. Good graphics, new gameplay.

The only problem is the loading. It loads too long! About 2 minutes in my case.

 

 

For me the same, the game is too large, you should improove loading, reduce image to png-8 (with photoshop, for not loosing quality). Have you minified the script??

[gikdew]

And after playing a lot, I think if the slope is high, you should increase the velocity of the player moving, calculating the slope, because the player moves to slowly when the slope is the maximum. (And map also the keys I-K for the right part movement, I dont like playing with arrows-WASD).

 

Little bug: On menu screen, you can still click the sliders and move them.

 

This is just my feedback, you don't have to change anything if you dont want to.

[Michel (Starnut)]

And after playing a lot, I think if the slope is high, you should increase the velocity of the player moving, calculating the slope, because the player moves to slowly when the slope is the maximum.

 

That's what I was trying to say. I think it'll make the game even more interesting but that's just my opinion

 

@turnA:

I'm also experiencing long loading times. Maybe it's just your server? My own (shared hosting) has the same issue. But a bit of image compression might help. There are awesome tools like Image Optim for Mac or PNG Gauntlet for Windows, which easily squeeze another 20-30% of KB out of your PNGs. Both are free.

 

@rich:

That's what I thought at first too Totally made sense for a guy dangling over an abyss

[turnA]

Lovely graphics I didn't realise it was a moustache until I read this thread! I thought he had his mouth open in an anime style scream

Haha, that's the one thing that doesn't cross my mind. Maybe because I already expect him to have moustache instead mouth there )

 

When I first started I thought: this is kinda cool but meh...

 

Then I didn't stop playing for over an hour!

Its actually insanely addictive haha!

 

Nice concept here :]

Thanks for the compliment!

 

 

I think you have done a lot of work, making this game. Good graphics, new gameplay.

The only problem is the loading. It loads too long! About 2 minutes in my case.

 

For me the same, the game is too large, you should improove loading, reduce image to png-8 (with photoshop, for not loosing quality). Have you minified the script??

Thanks for the feedback!

About loading time, I actually have minified all the asset and script file (total < +-5MB). I think it's about my hosting/CDN issue

Will try to lookup other alternatives in the near future... 

 

And after playing a lot, I think if the slope is high, you should increase the velocity of the player moving, calculating the slope, because the player moves to slowly when the slope is the maximum. (And map also the keys I-K for the right part movement, I dont like playing with arrows-WASD).

 

Little bug: On menu screen, you can still click the sliders and move them.

 

This is just my feedback, you don't have to change anything if you dont want to.

That's what I was trying to say. I think it'll make the game even more interesting but that's just my opinion

 

@turnA:

I'm also experiencing long loading times. Maybe it's just your server? My own (shared hosting) has the same issue. But a bit of image compression might help. There are awesome tools like Image Optim for Mac or PNG Gauntlet for Windows, which easily squeeze another 20-30% of KB out of your PNGs. Both are free.

 

@rich:

That's what I thought at first too Totally made sense for a guy dangling over an abyss

Actually that is correct, you are moving faster as it slope more. But in the beginning your maximum speed is limited. You need to upgrade the rope speed limit first before fully feel it's effectiveness. I have rebalance the upgrade a bit so it will show more (moving faster) when you have upgraded by one/two points.

I do feel it will be more intuitive with faster speed, but I also want to use the rope movement speed as one of the upgradeable skill

[Karma Octopus]

It's a great looking game and the concept is really nice. The only thing I didn't like was that he moves sooo slowly across the line, at least on PC it's very hard to collect anything at the start, and the start is very important for a game or it will loose lots of players.

[Andre Krug]

Cool game! Simply but yet addicitve. =)

[turnA]

It's a great looking game and the concept is really nice. The only thing I didn't like was that he moves sooo slowly across the line, at least on PC it's very hard to collect anything at the start, and the start is very important for a game or it will loose lots of players.

Cool game! Simply but yet addicitve. =)

Thanks for nice words and feedback!

Looks like the movement speed is a common complaint although it's upgrade section available right there, will need to find new way to inform the player about this...

By the way, I have activated the CDN for my website & games. If you have the time, please try the game again to check the loading time

 

[Michel (Starnut)]

Hey turnA,

 

problem is that the speed is so slow from the very beginning on before you have the chance to buy any upgrades. So the grind until you have enough in-game $ is not as joyful as it could be. Instead of trying to communicate this to the player, I'd suggest increasing the initial speed of the elevator so it's a bit more fun to play and then provide upgrades to speed things up even more. But that's just my 2 cents

[turnA]

Hey turnA,

 

problem is that the speed is so slow from the very beginning on before you have the chance to buy any upgrades. So the grind until you have enough in-game $ is not as joyful as it could be. Instead of trying to communicate this to the player, I'd suggest increasing the initial speed of the elevator so it's a bit more fun to play and then provide upgrades to speed things up even more. But that's just my 2 cents

Hi Starnut, thanks for the detailed input here. I have implemented your feedback by tinkering with the starting speed and overall speed upgrade calculation.

Thanks as always!

[Michel (Starnut)]

You're welcome. As an alternative, you could sell upgrades mainly for the acceleration speed meaning how fast does the avatar react to tilting the slope. The higher the upgrade the faster the reaction and acceleration so control improves and becomes more accurate over the course of the game. Just a thought.

 

Just played again (on desktop) and was surprised to find, that there's actually a bottom Some things I was wondering in that context:

 

- Is there a bonus for reaching the bottom? I was kinda expecting one.

- Do treasures sell for more money depending on the depth you got them from?

- What's the point of being able to dig deeper (first upgrade)?

 

And this might be a bug: After buying the "choose a lower starting point" upgrade once the button disappeared and didn't come back even in later sessions.

[Michel (Starnut)]

oh, and the help_btn.png image to the top left on the start screen is currently missing / not being loaded.