Author Topic: Test SLOVA, a language-learning game!  (Read 10400 times)

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Offline chickendude

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Re: Test SLOVA, a language-learning game!
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2013, 09:57:59 am »
So i somehow missed this before! Just loaded this to my 83+ and it's really cool, you get lots of exposure with the words. Here are some of my thoughts:
- When beating a level or losing, you've got a _GetKey call (and turning the calc off will crash ;)) which is just kinda weird since everywhere else you can use 2nd to advance.
- The keys on the main menu aren't exactly intuitive, i tried using the arrow keys to change level packs and 2nd to pick a level. Not really an issue though :)
- Watch out for those nukes! It's a little hard to tell exactly how far away you need to be to nuke one of the Gruzzles. Most of my deaths were self-induced :P
- It's a little frustrating having to start from scratch whenever you die, especially if you've nuked yourself or stepped on water or something silly like that. What about having a number of chances to get through a level (say 3) where you can die twice without losing your progress, if you die a third time you have to start that level over from scratch?

I forgot what else i wanted to say! Overall i think it's really cool, i wasn't sure how i was going to feel about the lack of physics but it's actually kinda cool being able to fly around. The controls are really quick and responsive. Sometimes the worlds feel really huge, though i don't know if that's good or bad :P I like how all the words in the foreign language reappear even if you've already collected that word, you get lots of exposure to the words. Right now i think the biggest thing is just the feeling you get when you die and have to collect all the words over again. At first i died quite a bit but quickly figured things out, i still nuke myself quite a bit and having to start over when you've already collected 4 or 5 words just kinda sucks ;)

Anyway, very cool and i'll try to put together some Spanish packs and if i can figure out how to fit some Chinese characters into 16x16 sprites maybe we can have a little Chinese pack (though i think a Chinese pack would be better with characters and pinyin, rather than English translations).

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Test SLOVA, a language-learning game!
« Reply #16 on: March 11, 2013, 12:57:46 pm »
I agree with all of those. (except I like the big worlds)  I especially agree with the death one since the levels get really hard once you reach the volcanoes.  I'll see what I can do.

As a rule of thumb, you're too close if the enemy is 16 pixels \ one tile away.

EDIT: I'll just take the deaths as shields.  A water death or nuke death will take a way a shield.  Did you find yourself running into grizzles quite frequently?  If so I'll do 6 shields instead of the usual 4 to take into account water and suicides
« Last Edit: March 11, 2013, 12:59:32 pm by Hot_Dog »

Offline chickendude

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Re: Test SLOVA, a language-learning game!
« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2013, 05:28:50 am »
The grizzles weren't usually what killed me, though it did happen, especially in the beginning. I honestly think 4 (or 5) shields is a good number. For the nukes, it would be nice to have a second animation (two more 16x16 bomb clouds) on either side of the grizzle just to give you an idea. Having deaths take away shields is another option, and like you said 6 shields might be better in that case. I'm currently working my way back from the start after turning the calc off during a _GetKey mid-program to see what happened :P