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I remember playing a game like this before, can't remember what it was called though!

I found it hard to progress beyond a few levels because I ran out of teleports so there was nothing I could do.  I seem to remember in the version I played before that you could cause the nasties to collide and create an object equivalent to the land mines that kills other nasties.  I'd say you need something else like that which allows the player to continue playing.  Unless I'm just not very good at it of course, how many levels could you play through?

I also noticed that one time at the start of a level I appeared underneath one of the nasties.  It would be better to check for that when placing the player and pick another spot if it's already occupied.

Cheers,

    Dave

 

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http://www.smudgedcat.com

Glad someone had a look :-)

In this version if two of the nasties collide then one of them is teleported to an empty space.

The levels are totaly random in that it uses a code to set the amount of nasties the first level is code 15, the first char is the number of reapers ie - 1 and the second is the number of nasties plus one ie 6 there is also an equal number of land mines as nasties. the code is incromented by one each level so you get a steady increase until level 84 where it will do silly stuff.

Updated the zip to v1.02 - I think I have fixed the bug where you started under a nasty, I've also stoped it using full screen(it flickerd too much on start up)

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Nice work.
i'll take a look at the game, and give you my opinion.

I tried it out.  Its simple, but still fun in it's way.  It took a minute to figure out what I was doing but eventually was getting the bad guys to step on the mines (mostly because I thought the mines weren't mines....they look like old 1200 baud modems :D).

I think it would be improved a bit if the monsters didn't sometimes just pop-up right beside you when you start a level.  It made it impossible to do much in those cases.  Just make it so initially they can't be within 5-10 blocks of you or something and that problem would go away.

My only real complaint is that it would be much better to play in windowed mode.  It could be a nice side diversion game like minesweeper or solitare that you just pluck at while working on other things.  An option to shut off the sound would be good too, not that it's particularly bad, just uneeded for that type of play (windowed while doing other work).


All-in-all a good first game in XNA...you got it done and that's more then most :)

Cheers

Thanks I just up-loaded v1.02 which no longer uses full screen and I fixed a few bugs, as for the sound I might put this in the next version :-)

Thanks again for you feed back.

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Any game that is completed is something to be proud of.

Here's my thoughts:

1. Balance the sounds - the volume on one of the samples is much too loud compared to the others.
2. As others have suggested, enforce a minimum clear area around the player when generating a level - say 4 or 5 tiles square. I know you can use a teleport, but it feels "kind of" unfair when you start and there's 4 nasties right on your hammer.
3. I kept wanting to use the arrow keys, as they work on the front-end. It should be simple enough to add support for them.
4. You could integrate the XNA animated sprite example to make the nasties blink their eyes occasionally and liven up the arena.
5. How about a bonus system, where you get an extra teleport if you finish a level without dying?
6. How about a random "trap tile", where a random tile on the playfield (not the player or enemy) might periodically turn into a trap? It could either hinder you by blocking a way out, or help you by taking down enemies.
7. Clear up the font, maybe by making it bold? On my machine at 1280x1024 it looks pretty poor.