My current game project, 3D Breakout has entered alpha stage and I would like to ask all you kind people here if you could please give me some feedback. Any form or fashion will do. I'm very curious to see how well it runs on various computer setups. The menu and setup screen that drives the game is missing in this release. I'm still working on the look and feel of it.

A few pointers about the game:

System requirements:

500 MHZ Intel or AMD Processor
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
DirectX 7.0 or newer MUST be installed
Direct3D compatible video card

Press 'spacebar' to switch between you/computer playing.
Press 'c' to change camera modes (used for testing)

You'll notice in the upper left corner a couple of numbers(60/6754). This represents FPS/TRIS (Frames per second / triangles per frame)

Please give me a detail analysis about the game. What you liked about it, what you didn't like. How it ran on your computer system. How did you like the sound effects, music, general game play and any other comments.

Thank you in advance!

Screenshot 1 (http://www.webappstogo.com/3dbreakout/images/screenshot_1.jpg)
Screenshot 2 (http://www.webappstogo.com/3dbreakout/images/screenshot_4.jpg)
Screenshot 3 (http://www.webappstogo.com/3dbreakout/images/screenshot_3.jpg)
Alpha Release (http://www.webappstogo.com/dlds.html?product=3DBOAlpha&pfile=3dbreakout/3dbo_alpha.zip)

Downloading...

hmm - have you used Blitz3D to build this?

=> yes you have used blitz :)

okay... what can I say... I'm not a fan of these kind of games so I dunno... colorful... nice sounds. I'm still wondering what that crap like creature did on the right side - does it have some kind of purpose? :) and that pipe thingy on the other end... ?

Hi Morphecy,

Yes, I'm using Blitz3D for this game project. I've been really happy with it. It considerably saves me so much time on development.

The creature to the right is nothing more than a programmers 3d model. Can't you tell? :) All jokes aside it will be used as one of the many Bosses that the user will face in the game. It will have a purpose soon.

The pipe thingy (gun) shoots these high-powered fireballs at your paddle. This will take place when the ball strikes a red (soon to be textured and identified) block.

Did the game run smoothly on your computer setup?

Nice.. I have to admit that when I heard words "3D Breakout" I didn´t except much.. but I have played the game something like 20-30 times now so it can´t be that bad game I suppose =))

+ Yeah, fast action =)
+ Everything was moving =) (first when camera moved it was hard to control the paddle but atleast I got used to it after some games)
+ Sounds/musics

Item/Paddle felt little strange.. Could it be possible to do it more flexible?? I mean when the item starts to be behind the paddle..

What do you like about that flash thing? I felt it was very easy place to lose life =)

Are you still going to do changes to graphics?

Originally posted by Alex_Code
Nice.. I have to admit that when I heard words "3D Breakout" I didn´t except much.. but I have played the game something like 20-30 times now so it can´t be that bad game I suppose =))
That's great news Alex_Code!! Maybe I have something here after all :)Item/Paddle felt little strange.. Could it be possible to do it more flexible?? I mean when the item starts to be behind the paddle..Thank you for reminding me. The collision detection needs to be adjusted in this scenario.
What do you like about that flash thing? I felt it was very easy place to lose life =) I agree with you and I will adjust the flash time accordingly.Are you still going to do changes to graphics?I certainly need to. I'm more of a coder than a graphics artist, as you probably can tell:) I'm currently looking for an artist/3d modeler to help out, but without any luck thus far.

I appreciate the feedback and comments!

-Joe

Whoa! U need cat like reflexes for this one!

What I liked:

Fast pace
Collision seems nice and accurate
Explosions

What I didn't like:

Losing my ball when the screen whites out
The camera swinging violently from side to side
The controls not being camera relative
The spinning floor that seemed to have no purpose.

With an artists help I'm sure this could be very nice indeed.

IMHO You need to ditch the more experimental parts (like the vomit inducing camera movement) but try to keep the energy/excitment.

Good luck.

SC

Very nice, cool effects. I have to agree with others on the camera part. And I didn't like the whieout thing at all, but otherwise very cool game.

Ran great on my comp. 800Mhz GeForce2

Thanks for playing the game guys! I really do appreciate it!

As mentioned before, I will reduce the white flash time accordingly or perhaps I just need to get rid of it completely? Part of the thought process for this version of breakout was to introduce distractions while paddling the ball. Again, the camera swinging from side to side is another distraction that really tests your ability to adjust to the ball and paddling it back. Perhaps this is too much during the first few levels. Maybe this distraction should be used later once the player has advanced a few levels? The spinning floor is another way to distract the player as he/she is paddling the ball back. Perhaps there is a better way to accomplish this by flashing the texture used?

What I want to accomplish is to distract the player from paddling the ball without it being too difficult, keep it fast pace and fun at the same time. I believe the more gotcha's and power-ups (which is not available in this release) will make the game more exciting to play. I hope I have accomplished this somewhat thus far in this alpha release.

Again, thanks for the feedback people!

Hi =)

First of all, Could you put new version to of the game to the net when you have fixed lightig and that collision? =)

Also, I think that you shouldn´t forget any effect that you got there.. atleast now.. If you could fix that lighting and look again after that.. What do you think yourself, do you feel some effects too hard? (rather than lighting)

What I have now played.. I think that it´s just that lighting that makes situations where´s (atleast almost) impossible to save the ball..

Hey, could it be possible to add so that you can make effects happen by pressing keys on keyboard? It would be much easier to test different effects with that kind of configuration..

Originally posted by Alex_Code
First of all, Could you put new version to of the game to the net when you have fixed lightig and that collision? =)I plan to have a release later this evening that addresses the timing on the flash distraction and improved collision detection for the items that fall.Hey, could it be possible to add so that you can make effects happen by pressing keys on keyboard? It would be much easier to test different effects with that kind of configuration.. Seems like an interesting debug method and will look into it.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Nice effects (snow, sky..) and graphics, but too slow to be enjoyable here (slow pace, and only 20 fps, and the paddle moves maybe 1/4s after I move the mouse).
The white flash lasts too long, but you know that already :-).
It's difficult to see where the ball exits the play zone and where to position the paddle... Maybe shadows could help, not sure.
All the spikey things that drop off the bricks look dangerous, but they really are bonus points things only? There are no bonus things like hard ball, etc.?
The red ball shot by the canon seems to do nothing.

Athlon 850, 480MB, 32MB onboard S3 ProSavage (I thought it was a Savage4, but apparently some program tells me it's a ProSavage.. oh well..).
Windows 98, directx8.

Hi Stan,

Thanks for trying out the game and the feedback!

Nice effects (snow, sky..) and graphics, but too slow to be enjoyable here (slow pace, and only 20 fps, and the paddle moves maybe 1/4s after I move the mouse).
I have addressed these issues and you may download the latest from the link below.
It's difficult to see where the ball exits the play zone and where to position the paddle... Maybe shadows could help, not sure.
Good suggestion! I will look into this.
All the spikey things that drop off the bricks look dangerous, but they really are bonus points things only? There are no bonus things like hard ball, etc.?
I will identify these blocks with textures once I get those done.
The red ball shot by the canon seems to do nothing. From time to time you should see a flaming fireball headed directly to your paddle and the latest update will have paddle collision detection.
32MB onboard S3 ProSavage
I'm thinking this card is a bit slow these days.

Demo Link (http://www.webappstogo.com/3dbreakout/3dbo_setup.exe)

Thanks again!

I tried the "new" demo some days ago already, and saw you've improved on a few things which is good ;-).

I think the game is a bit more responsive than before... However there's still a noticeable delay between the mouse movement and the paddle movement. The game is running at 12-20 fps and the ball moves quite slowly; it's very easy (even in "insane" mode; not sure if the difficulty setting has any impact on the ball speed though). So I guess that your timing is somehow linked to the frame rate, since other people say it's fast...

Well, the ProSavage 4 may be "a bit slow" or not, depends on your target demographics I guess. There are obviously faster graphics cards available for only around 50 euros, but Max Payne (1) runs very well on it, for example. I guess it has less polygons than your game... but I have to say that it also looks better, sorry ;-).

Hi Stan,

Thanks again for the info.

I think once you replace that old card with at least a Geforce 256 or better (which btw is the recommended setup), all your troubles will be done with :)

As far as comparing Max Payne to my game, I'm simply flattered;)