Project Critiques

Questions to be answered:

  1. What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?
  2. What is your least favorite aspect? Why?
  3. What one change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

Stefan Geiger

LUN:

  1. This might give the fun of Mario Kart. A simple control with some cool pickups gives the fast and addictive character as desired.
  2. Since the chinese wall is just a line, there is almost no room to have any alternative ways.
  3. It's important to make the modules of the road interesting. Probably some modules that are unique and only used once.

TeamYetAnotherWorkingName:

  1. The gravity fields are interesting and are inviting to play around, just for fun.
  2. The isometric view allows to create interesting puzzles, however day might be too repeating or to difficult to solve, since people normally do not have a lot of spatial sense, which is necessary for this kind of task.
  3. Focus on the gravity and object painting part, and only make the isomteric view feature a small addition.

RedLight:

  1. The different powerups sound interesting, they allow the player to apply different tactics.
  2. It's hard to really allow a lot of tactics which make the game fun for a long time.
  3. Try to make an interesting playground. Probably not only a single water plane, but also some hills besides, which can be used as a route.

RumRunner:
  1. The comparison between moving fast and being persecuted sounds like a lot of fun and a high replaying factor.
  2. The balancing between speed and pursuit is probably a key point to be mastered. If it's bad, the game will be repetitive. This of course includes the AI of the cops.
  3. The drunk'o'meter might give a variation to other similar games, thus I would recommend to at least try to implement this feature at an early stage.

OdysseusQuest:
  1. The free world definitively makes the game interesting. This allows for different tactics and preferences of the players.
  2. Is the free world something that is fun with multiple players? In the worst case you will only see the opponents at the buoys.
  3. The shallow water simulation is too hard to control to really use it for the gameplay, such as the "big wave" powerup. A simple sin wave is much easier and for the the open world scenario without any collisions, this looks almost the same.

URO:
  1. I like the idea of trying to hide and run away from the opponents as well as trying to catch the others.
  2. Tuning the power consumption of accelerations is a hard thing, since the mayans are trying to hide from the aliens, they need to break and accelerate a lot. It would be enoying if certain moves would be prohibited by a high power consumption.
  3. Schedule a lot of time for balancing, since this is the crucial part of the gameplay.

Melanie Imhof

LUN:
  1. It's easy to understand how to play, anyhow it seems to be a lot of fun regarding the coins.
  2. Since there is only one possible way to go the coins need to be well tested so that not the one who reaches them first wins anyway. I think this is difficult to achieve with so many different coins also it's difficult to remember all the coins and their functionality.
  3. Take only a few different coins and test them so that it's nearly always possible to still win the race even if one is far ahead.

TeamYetAnotherWorkingName:
  1. I like games where you have to think a little to solve the puzzles, the game idea is very original.
  2. I could imagine that it's hard to understand how a player can control the game.
  3. Maybe it would be useful to display all possibilties at any time, so that the player does not get lost with all the different possibilities.

RedLight:
  1. Simple game idea, which is easy to understand and fun to play.
  2. The game could get boring very soon if there are not enough possibilities to pickup things or to hide.
  3. Maybe you should think about a more dynamic environment, were you can hide but suddendly the wall, bushes or what ever start to move and you can be discovered.

RumRunner:
  1. Getting drunk seems to be a nice feature to make the "racing game" more interessting. Also I like the fact that you have to decide between racing and not attest the police's attentation.
  2. The AI for the police cars need to be very good that it makes fun to try to escape.
  3. Try to focus your work on getting a good police AI.

OdysseusQuest:
  1. Nice story around odysseus and its fun to have a lot of possible ways to reach a checkpoint.
  2. I can imagine that it's very hard to get game fun (such as really high waves) with the shallow water simulation.
  3. Maybe you need to control parts of the water which are important for the game play independently from the shallow water simulation.

URO:
  1. I like the different rolling objects with different behaviour as well as they can change during the game.
  2. I hope you can find an equilibirum between strength the maya's and the aliens so that the game is fun.
  3. Try to tweak the strength and the possibilities of the maya's and aliens.

Thomas Brunner

LUN:

  1. I like the idea to generate randomly a big number of maps / worlds.
  2. A straight line as course makes it difficult to add some alternative way.
  3. Try to add some traps to keep the game interesting. Try to implement a multiplayer part.

TeamYetAnotherWorkingName:

  1. Interesting game idea, i like the number of possibilities to solve problems.
  2. I do not like the isometric view, however it might be very difficult to solve puzzles if you have a faintness in spatial viewing.
  3. Add some secret places to hide, that would be a nice feature.

RedLight:

  1. Interesting game idea. Especially i like the idea to introduce interaction with other players.
  2. The gameplay locks to me a little bit static but easy to understand.
  3. I would suggest skipping the Shallow Water implementation due to the lack of time. Invest more time in to your gameplay.

RumRunner:
  1. Funny story. I like the combination of historical happenings and your game idea.
  2. To make this game really interesting the game AI should be quite good otherwise the game turns to be too difficult / easy.
  3. The drunk'o'meter is a funny idea, but I think it should have the least priority.

OdysseusQuest:
  1. I like the idea to move free throughout the map.
  2. That's a typical multiplayer game. But I do not like split screen games. Even on a big screen it's quite cumbersome.
  3. Keep the water simple. Instead of a split screen game, implement a network multiplayer game.

URO:
  1. Your game seems to promise a fast gameplay, I like that.
  2. Due to the fact that the alien pursuer and Mayan player have a different view of the same scene, it might be a little bit cumbersome for the players since both are looking at the same screen.
  3. To improve the clearness of your map/world try to render you map in a "bird's eye view"

Page URL: https://twiki.graphics.ethz.ch/bin/view/GameClass/PharaohsTombMPC
2025-08-05
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