Hey guys! I'm developing a game at the moment, and am wondering if anyone here can help me out. The game is an endless runner (similar to Jetpack Joyride) for IOS and Android, and is being developed in Unity. What's happened so far is I've got some really amazing graphics and music developed for the game. But the programmers I've got working on the game are not really doing it justice. Basically, everything is in the right spot and functioning ok. But the gameplay is lacking smoothness and a little bit of magic. So while the game looks and sounds awesome, it's is missing that special something. It feels a bit jerky and uninspiring to play. So two questions 1. Firstly, is it possible for a great programmer to come in at this point in the project and polish up the gameplay? I'm unsure about this as I'm not a programmer myself. 2. If this is possible, is there anyone in the forum you would recommend to hire for this type of job? I'm very keen to try and make this game as good as possible, so your thoughts and ideas would be most welcome Cheers!
The answer to 1, really depends on how well the current coders have done the project. Good code is easier to expand than poor code. It also depends how much flexibility is in the current project and if rewrites are going to require other dependent code to also be rewritten. The answer to 2, yes it is possible. As for who to recommend it depends what language it is in, how much needs to be done, etc etc. Depending on the complexity of your game you might even consider buying an endless runner template and then editing that. If your game is lacking smoothness then it needs to be optimised which may result in some of the art needing to be modified.
Thanks for the advice Destined Yeah it's a little difficult for me to comment on the quality of the code thus far as I'm not a coder. I have a build of the game, and it's not perfect by any means but the game seems to work as it should. It's just lacking in smoothness and also doesn't really progress in difficulty level as you move further into the game. In terms of what needs to be done, I believe these are the main things: 1. Tweaking the controls of the main character so they have a great feel (The main character runs on the ground, and then flies when you press the screen much like in Jetpack Joyride) 2. Increasing the smoothness and pace of the game. As you mentioned, this may be an optimizing issue. My big concern is my current programmers don't really have the instinct for when the game is moving at the right pace in a really smooth fashion. If coding is a mixture of art vs science, they are ok on the science side of things, but when it comes to the artistic, intuitive side they are not quite there. 3. Tweaking the gameplay so the game gets appropriately difficult as you progress 4. I'm not 100% sure about the technical term, but I believe the camera movement needs improving. This is one of the reasons I feel the game is jerky. These are the main points that I see when I play the game, however I'm fairly certain that a pro coder would look at it and see fairly obvious reasons why the game is not currently great. Once again thanks for your input and if you have any follow up thoughts I'd love to hear them! Cheers
what engine was it built on? Do you know what the frame rate is (if it is greater than 30 then it can probably be fixed in the code)?
I wouldn't be too quick to blame your programmer. Assuming you're getting a decent fps it sounds like you need to look for a designer. Adjusting variables like gravity, thrust, jump time, etc.... can make a big difference in the "feel" of a game. Tommy Refenes said he spent 2 months just working on the controls in SMB. I'm sure a lot of that was spent tweaking values.
Agreed that is why I asked frame rate. However in a lot of modern day low budget developments the programmers become the designers!
