   New space adventure game:  Jack of All Trades
  Hello Game Devers,I recently finished version 1.0 of my game Jack of All Trades.  It is a 2d space game with action, trading, plot, and more.  I would appreciate feedback on it.  What did you like, what didn't you like?  What do you think needs to be improved most?Here are some links:Dingo Games homepage:www.dingogames.comJack of All Trades homepage:www.dingogames.com/jackA screenshot:Download Link:www.dingogames.com/jack/jackdemosetup.exeThank you,James SayerDingo Games[edited by - Dingo Games on January 28, 2004 4:33:15 PM][edited by - Dingo Games on January 29, 2004 12:08:22 AM]
  Well, it runs fine and doesn''t look all that bad.. Definitely well done. I wasn''t really having fun though, somehow. I think that the ship controls definitely need some work, especially in combat it is almost impossible to maneuver in such a way that you actually have a chance to hit your opponent.Maybe you should make the universe smaller, or customize it a bit more, as it was, I wasn''t really noticing that much of a difference between the systems so I''m not sure the game benefits from this. Especially because travelling is a bit awkward as well, the quickest way is to just turn back and head the way you came from before at each waypoint. There were more small details like this that I have noticed, but that''s everything I can remember. I really didn''t try this out for all that long, so take all of this with a grain of salt, but personally, I wouldn''t even think about buying this game. However, while it is no Freelancer, it definitely looks promising and if you keep improving it, I think it may turn out to be quite a lot of fun. ;  Thanks a lot for taking the time to try it out.  Good to know that it runs on your system.> and doesn’t look all that badI know they aren’t state of the art, but I tried my best :-).  I’m still learning my way around the art programs, and I’m getting better ( I used Blender and the Gimp to do the graphics).  I tried to make it run on lower end systems, and as such I couldn’t use any cool effects that 3d hardware would allow (eg. Alpha blending, rotation, and scaling).  At this point the only part of the graphics I could improve relatively easily would be the GUI.  I was kind of going for a Star Trek LCARS look, but they don’t look great.> especially in combat it is almost impossible to maneuver…Yeah, you start off with the shuttle, which is pretty much useless in combat.  It is slow and has the equivalent of a squirt gun for a weapon.  Once you buy the better ships, I think the combat is pretty fun.  But it is quite hard to balance the combat when there are so many different types of ships.  One thing that I want to do is make the game’s combat easier when you are just starting out.  Possibly by making your ship slightly better, or maybe by making pirates attack less often.  I have noticed that sometimes when just starting out, a powerful pirate will just come along and blow you up in one shot… which is a little bit annoying :-).  I may play around with the flight physics as well – right now they are quasi-real in the sense that your ship is not necessarily traveling in the same direction as it is pointing.> Maybe you should make the universe smaller, or customize it a bit more…Right now the main difference between systems is different ships/weapons/upgrades available, different governments in control, different ships flying around, and different commodity prices.  The planets also look different.  I am also planning on adding planet descriptions, which would help differentiate systems.  Visually, I could try putting different backgrounds in systems, or maybe different star densities.  I’ll have to think about what is feasible to do.> Traveling is a bit awkward as well…Yeah, I know what you mean.  I originally made the game without the waypoints, so you could just fly straight across the galaxy in a few seconds.  This made it too easy to trade and to do missions, so I added “random encounters” as you flew through the galaxy.  This feature didn’t work very well either.  It felt really awkward.  The game was inspired by the old Mac game Escape Velocity (along with other trading/space type games) and I ended up using the same technique as that game.  I think it works out alright because every time you enter a system, you have a chance of being attacked.  It also takes time to travel so it gives the feeling of accomplishing something… well, that’s the theory behind it anyways :-) … I might play around with the distance and angle needed to leave the system to make it feel better.> it is no FreelanceHaha, well someday ;-)I’ve actually sold a few copies since I released it last week, so that is quite promising considering how much I can still improve it.Any more comments are welcome.  Just telling me whether or not it works on your system would be helpful.Thanks, James SayerDingo Gameswww.dingogames.comHome of Jack of All Trades;  Space sims aren''t really my interest.. but I could have seen this being a top selling game 10 years ago - and I mean that as a compliment.  It''s polished and complete as far as a demo goes, and I''m sure the full version is as well.  Reminded me a lot of the fun Privateer series - I haven''t played Freelancer.Worked fine on my system..WinXP ProAthlon 1GHz512mb ramGeforce2Ultra(silencer) ;  Nice tribute to the pioneers of computing, successful programmers, european mythology, and what appears to be baseball players. (silencer) ;  Hey Silencer, thanks for trying.  Thanks for the comments.quote:Original post by -silencer-  Nice tribute to the pioneers of computing, successful programmers, european mythology, and what appears to be baseball players. Haha, to be more specific, a tribute to the 92/93 world champion Blue Jays...  James SayerDingo Gameswww.dingogames.comHome of Jack of All Trades;  Excelent, ran smoothly:500mhz amd k6nvidia geforce 2 mmx-400winxp128+256 mb ramtoo bad its a demo ;  Thanks bcomequote:Original post by bcome  too bad its a demo  Well, I decided I would give this shareware thing a try to see if it is viable... and so far it seems to be.  I just need to fix up a few things and then generate some more traffic to my site.  Can''t wait to start work on my next game though... James SayerDingo Gameswww.dingogames.comHome of Jack of All Trades