Hello people from vosatron comunity! I need your help -

So I made this little game on the arcade game studio engine (because voxatron is not an engine yet T-T) for the new year's weekend jam on gamejolt and I need feedback.

In a nutshell, I need you guys to play tha game and comment, what was bad, what was good, so I can concentrate on it on other projects (this one is finished so I won't change anything more than a few numbers).

I'm counting on you people! happy new year's!

Cross-platform.

I know it's a pain to do but I can't play it ( Linux ).

well, the engine didn't allow that or scripting so I can't do anything, sorry .-.

Okay, I've played it and here is what I have to say: (GET READY, WALL OF TEXT!!!)

There are numerous problems with the game, and you say it is finished? I think otherwise, but unless you are aiming for an "Almost Impossible" game, you've got work to do.

For starters: there is no "recover time," no blinking when you get hit! I died three times IN THE TUTORIAL (twice to carelessness and one to the sneaky blue critter at the end) before I knew what the problem was. I didn't even know I had a last chance, I just got instakilled those three times! The fourth time I survived with a tiny dot.

This brings up another point: The beginning hit box is too big! I found that playing with the smaller ball is easier than the bigger ball at the start, despite the smaller trail size. If you are going to fix this, either add more "health" or shrink the starting size.

One more big thing: The speed is SO FREAKING SLOOOOOWWWWWWW. I bet the only thing that is normal speed is my ship's hyperdrive if it was in this game. Back on topic, the checkpoints are way too far apart at this speed, not to mention there aren't any checkpoints in the tutorial, so I had to replay from the beginning THREE TIMES at such a slow pace, I almost had the urge to skip the tutorial altogether! (Looking back, I should have when I got killed by the sneaky blue dot.)

The rest of my problems are really minor:

• When trails fade to black and then dissapear, they still kill when black and are hard to spot.

• When the checkpoint appears, you have to hit it in order for it to register or else you have to start from the previous checkpoint (only happened to me once, but was still pretty bad)

• The "Special Shield" has a huge chunk missing, and even then doesn't protect from all enemies 100% of the time.

• I barely knew what level I was on, a level counter would be nice!

• one powerup (There was only one other powerup I found, the big yellow one) is extremely confusing when it comes to what is safe and what isn't. Also, It could use some spinning around.

• some enemies are extremely cheap without special attention (I mean, come on, there was one enemy that was impossible to get close to because it also had a "special shield," and the only way to kill it is to have a "special shield" of your own!), they should be easier to combat next time you update it.

But there really is a silver-lining to this game here, It reminds me so much of "Tron" light bikes, and the style you put it in is pretty grand! You also had a variety of enemies that were both interesting to look at and interesting to fight (Or at least attempt to have run into your "tail" :P). The controls are very smooth and simple, and the powerups, when altogether, are GLORIOUS! All in all, you have a great idea, you just need lots of work to shape it up to a masterpiece.

I have made a game in a similar situation to yours on yoyogames. Your game, "Tail," is good on graphics, but could use a few more gameplay tweaks here and there. My game, "Ace Pilot," Has very good gameplay aspects, but a rather poor graphics situation. (By the way, it is multiplayer only, so if you have a friend that would be nice, otherwise I hope you practiced your ambidexterity or this game will be very one-sided :P) You don't have to check out my game, I just wanted to say I know how you feel.

Overall: I can play this as a simple time-waster if nothing else. Otherwise I would have put it alongside Super Meat Boy and Icewind Dale, both too hard for me to complete and which I vowed never to play again because I'm known to cause a tantrum when stressed out by games. I can actually stand to play a hard game like this, all the way to the end if it has one, and because that is both rare for these kinds of games I play, and this game contains a ton of potential if finished properly, I have to say this is a real gem that I came across, despite how hard it is with the eyesores, and I thank/blame you for it.

thanks commander! THIS means that my game is PERFECT! I did get the idea from tron because initially the game was supposed to be like the gradius series, but I wanted my enemies to come from every singe side of the screen so my player should have a super powerful gun - the powerups are glorious indeed ESPECIALLY the last yellow one (thats a special special shield)
yes, the game is supposed to be that hard and slow as hell, yes the checkpoints do act like a final speciall level (and yes you need to wait for it to vanish to check, I had problems with that part too but I couldn't fix it).
seriously, you died on the tutorial? there is no blue enemy on the tutorial, the blue orbs are actually power ups so you can recharge your shield (seriously, read what is written) which IS supposed to be that way (I mean, I already gave you an amazingly powerful weapon as your tail what else do you want?)
yes, the beggining hitbox should be that big, is supposed to decrease if you get hit once but if you yolo trough your level it would never work (I do think I should drecrease it a little bit too, it's ugly!)

there is actually a secret power up that I want to share with these people on the forum, there are points where the game is a lot harder than the normal, when that time comes, look on the screen for a shiny little white start, it blinks on the end and some may think it will kill you, but if you pick that up, your enemies (some) turns into power ups (top secret! don't tell anyone)

about the trails fading to black, that actually depends on the persons monitor, I can see the black clearly but maybe other people can't I'll make sure not to commit this mistake next time.

you said that I had work to do but I was actually aiming for an almost impossible game.

thanks about the gameplay, I was angry from my last game http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/trial/20419/ because the player could only move on 4 directions and I couldn't do anything about it T-T.

one thing that also got me pretty angry was that when I was on a really late stage of the developmen I realised that the level weren't randomly generated (just imagine how it would be if they were!) so I'm thinkin on a sequel but this time with at least randomized enemies (because play the same thing over and over again isn't that fun) but I'll take your suggestions on consideration and make it easier last time (by the way, at least rate the game, the only rate I got was that 1 which made me pretty sad T-T) by the way, if you need help wih graphics I could help - I love to draw stuff .-.

Really? I swear there was a blue enemy in the end of the tutorial swarm somewhere... It was way smaller than the blue powerups and it had a tail. I might be seeing things though @_@

By little white star, do you mean like a pointed star (It could be 5, 6 or 8 pointed)? Because otherwise I would think it looks like one of the regular enemies. I know there are enemies colored white that really DO kill you, is that why it is so secret?

Randomly generated enemies of different varieties will be EPIC! You should think about that in that sequel of yours (If you are planning on making it, that is...)

I don't usually "iron man" through levels of a shooter, only when it is part of the game mechanics (Take Hydorah for example!), but I find myself having an easier time being smaller in size. I don't know, it just has to do with my reflexes (I'm usually good at shooters, the lack of a projectile weapon just throws me off :P)

Also, you should throw in a checkpoint in the tutorial, preferabbly after the first enemy, and have words describing what it is in the tutorial too. That would be my only game-changing suggestion.

I might think about sending you the original image files of my game so that you can improve it. I like drawing things, too, and my drawing actually improved over the years, but I couldn't get around redesigning the game :/

thanks for your support, my game is now featured on the homepage of the site (I got so happy when I saw that)

about the start I will give one clue and one clue only: it is the only white thing that doesn't have a tail and is a bit smaller than a normal comet tail so it will be really hard to find (thats why is so secret)

again, thanks for everything! (hope to do the same thing with voxatron someday)

What programming language have you used ? Java ? C ++ ? Lua ? I cant play it right now but I'll try someday.

If you used a language tu build it how long did it took you ?

If you used a software to make this game well ... :(

Also if you wanna be featured on voxatron good luck ! You'll probably need to make a better map then D and I'm also working on beating him ;)

I used a simple software calle arcade game studio but I'll soon start to learn lua, since voxatron will use it, no I wasn't planning to do that, I just needed a specific feedback only the users here can make and the game only works for windows really, sorry.