I thought I might help spread this game. At the moment I don't have time to play it, but I'll do that when I get work from home tonight. The full version was just released on The Game Creator forums a couple of months ago (I don't read the "Program Announcements" section enough...) and the game looks good. Don't expect it to be as great as the bigtime game developers/publishers' work though.

The game itself is a brawler type starring Bruce Li... er... Lee.

Download Link: Call of the Dragon


I guess while I'm at it I'll also link Unity 2.6 to this post. Not exactly sure what it is. It's either a game creation program or a graphics program for 3D games. I have yet to tinker with the thing myself. It USED TO cost $200, but now it's being given out for free.

Download Link: Unity 2.6


Now that this post is done, it's time I got back to working on my personal game project, "Drunkduck ShooterZ!" (er... working title).

I've already downloaded this, but like you haven't been able to try it out yet. I'm pretty sure it's a game creation thing rather than a graphics program. I hope I'm right, because I already have more graphics programs than I'm ever going to need.



Suggestion: minigame where you go fishing for hairy custard trout.

I feel a sudden urge to play Karateka now...

No minigames here. It's a scrolling shooter.

Actually, I had a level where in part of it you had to go inside a giant Custard Trout, shoot out his teeth, destroy that bulb like thing hanging in the back of the mouth, then avoid the crushing walls of its esophagus by shooting pits into it... finally you had to destroy an alien device implanted in its stomach wall before making your way to its heart (which has been replaced by an alien heart) and shoot it out to destroy it. And that's not mentioning the brain which breaks free inside the skull then tries to crush you to death with its two dendrite arms...

But I think I'll just use a large dragon instead of a trout. And the Custard Trout can be an ultimate (random) weapon.

I should post another thread about brainstorming ideas for this game later...

Concerning the topic of the thread, I would have to say this game's not so hot, even by amateur standards. Controls are slow and unresponsive. Enemies on the other hand can be pretty fast and if they surroud you you're just kind of screwed since you can't block both sides at the same time. Forget ever pulling off kicks, let along a jump kick. It doesn't come off as being particlarly hard, just frustrating and unfair. It would also be nice if you could remap the keys, maybe use a joystick instead, but it doesn't seem to let me do that in the options. The graphics aren't anything special and I can see some really awkward modeling and animation in places. It looks like the only way to get it to run at a playable speed is to crank it up since the normal speed is way too slow. It's an interesting concept, but it just isn't executed very well.

Why exactly are you trying to promote this game you haven't played? I mean, I'm not expecting a professional game, here, but this strikes me as being pretty bad even for an independent title.

I tried it a couple hours ago myself and I'd have to say you're right about that. I still think it was the best effort one guy could do with programming code (my skill in 3D or even 2D is nowhere near that yet). No amateur game is going to be as great as the professionals though, independent or otherwise. Maybe I shouldn't have titled this thread "Indy", though my definition of an indy game is where a game is programmed by a single or small group of guys/girls on a computer without any financial assistance from a major development studio...

Also checked on the Unity program. It is apparently a game authoring tool of some sort. I'm still going through the tutorial but I could probably use it to make 3D games. Now if only I was great at creating 3D models...

Your definition and mydeinition for indy games are the same, it's just I've seen much better. A lot of the problems I see with this game aren't due to limitations when it comes to programming skills, but just bad design decisions. He could have made the game better, but didn't.

Hmm... what would you suggest? I'll pass it over to the programmer who made this game.

Well, for one, the combat needs to be more fluid. Attacks are spaced out too much. If they're really trying to emulate Bruce Lee, there should be more speed to how he fights. I find that most of the enemies can get hits in a lot faster than the player. Plus there is almost no way to counter getting surrounded. The player can perform back attacks, but either their range is exteremely limited andthe enemies don't come close enough for them to work, or they are too slow to be useful. Enemy reaction animation seems a bit on the short side. It almost seems like it takes enemies less time to recover from your hit than it takes for you to recover from your hit. That may just be because the combos are so slow, though. It seems like there is a combo system in place, but the attacks take so long to pull off, enemies can usually recover and hit you out of the next hit in the combo. Either that or they surround you and the guy behin you hits you out of the attack and then they both get to wail on you and you can't really do anything about it. Combos should have less time between the hits, with a delay at the end of the combo, especialy if you want to get the whole Bruce Lee experience. He had a number of shots where he'd do a move or string of attacks and hold the pose at the end while making funny noises. Having some forward momentum during the combos could also help solve the problem of back attacks mid combo. If the character is moving forward to some degree, the enemies have to move back into range to attack. It's not impossible for them to get in a cheap shot, but it would feel less cheap than the current system where they knock you out of an attack as soon as you throw a punch and then gang up on you.

It's hard to tell if ducking actually lets you avoid high hits or not. If it doesn't, it should. Blocking could be a bit more useful. It takes too long to turn around to block hits from the back, but blocking only works in the direction you're facing. Turning around should be quicker and easier. Just pressing in a direction should make the character face in that direction. Hitting in the direction while attacking can still perform a back attack, but the turnarounds are murder in this game, especially since the back attacks are so ineffective. It could also help if the back attacks actually turned your character around to face the enemy, allowing the player to continue a combo. I noticed there are some back attacks that do this, but they usually involve jumping and seem to be almost impossible to pull off.

Jumping could be vastly improved. The character feels a bit floaty and the slower speed of the jump also makes jumping attacks almost completely worthless. I saw no reason to ever jump since it was like inviting enemies to knock you out of whatever you were trying to do.

Most of the issues I have with the game have to do with speed and range on the main character. I could see soe tweaks to the timing making the game more fun. Also, make it easier to pick up weapons.

I disagree. There are some really great games by amateur/indy developers, but they tend to be 2D/2.5D games. For instance Cave Story and Knytt, which were both developed by one person and are available for free.