Here's my first game demo. It only has one level right now and it's not very polished, but it's functional. I'd like to hear what people have to say as far as feedback. The graphical elements (excluding the splash screen) are all just place holders right now, but they should be enough to play with. There's not a settings menu yet so the settings menu option on the main menu doesn't do anything, but everything else works.

Download it here.

Videos and screen shots can be seen by following the blog link in my signature.

I tried your game for a few minutes and I like the idea of it, but I found that it was too hard and that I wasn't getting much better at it as I played, so it was frustrating, rather than challenging. I think the game needs a gradual learning curve, to give the player a feeling of mastery and to avoid frustration.

I also think you have a neat idea, but the demo level is really hard.  I think it is an idea worth exploring and adding more things to hit like small "black holes" or jets and things like that.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm planning on having a difficulty setting later on. I just haven't gotten to it yet. I admit it's hard to judge what the appropriate difficulty is. I don't struggle to get through the level, but then again I designed it so I'm sure that my opinion is biased. I've had friends try it, but they'd already had experience on the simpler level that I had been testing on earlier. That may have helped some.

I'll start working on adding a difficulty option to the menu soon.

Also did you try the game with a 360 controller or a keyboard? In either case did the control screen make sense? Did you figure out how to look around the level?

I was using my 360 controller and I found it worked well. I actually forgot that you could pan around the level. Maybe when the level starts up, it could start zoomed out, so that the player can see the whole thing and then automatically zoom in to start playing. Or start the level by panning around and give the player a tour. I think you should make it really obvious what the goal is and not rely on the player to do the panning.

I've been thinking about panning from the goal to the starting point. I wasn't sure what to do about levels that have multiple possible routes, but zooming out is good idea. I'll definitely think about how I can work that in.

w0w. Nostalgia! I remember making a game with similar physics and gameplay to this a long time ago (the major difference was that you had to destroy blocks by getting up to speed, not avoid traps). You might put in some sort of wall everyonce in a while so it's less like a "floating around in nothingness" and more of a "rolling around in a construct with dangerous traps all around."

Sorry, but I don't know how to restart the level when I lose. I can't find that option on the control settings... :-(

you shoud maybe set the control with the mouse, I think It would be more intuitive. Anyway nice concept.

Abel García Plaza:

Sorry, but I don't know how to restart the level when I lose. I can't find that option on the control settings... :-(

Reset the level with the space bar or the B button on a 360 controller.

Belkar:

Abel García Plaza:

Sorry, but I don't know how to restart the level when I lose. I can't find that option on the control settings... :-(

Reset the level with the space bar or the B button on a 360 controller.

OK. There is no mention to this in the control settings, maybe you could add it... ;-) After trying several times... I feel like a nerd. As other people said, your demo level is quite difficult.

Abel García Plaza:

Belkar:

Abel García Plaza:

Sorry, but I don't know how to restart the level when I lose. I can't find that option on the control settings... :-(

Reset the level with the space bar or the B button on a 360 controller.

OK. There is no mention to this in the control settings, maybe you could add it... ;-) After trying several times... I feel like a nerd. As other people said, your demo level is quite difficult.

You're right. I did miss this on the keyboard control screen. I'll get that in there right away.

I fixed the conrol screen, added a zoom function in look mode, and added difficulty settings. The previous difficulty is equivalent to hard. The easy settings should be MUCH easier. The new demo can be downloaded from the same link in my original post.