If the game worked okay I’d buy it right away despite there being several freeware arkanoid clones of similar quality readily available – I’m all for supporting Independent developers especially if they show promise as you have done. (for example Beat Ball DXBall, and Chak’s Temple – all of which used to be commercial arkanoids until the developers put them out to pasture). Unfortunately it doesn’t work properly on any of the three computers I have working at the moment. All three have recently been cleaned up, the root drives re-formatted and windows reinstalled. All my drivers are up to date and I’ve ensured the latest graphics drivers for my graphics cards are installed. I did roll back the drivers on one of the computers to the previous graphics driver and the same problem persisted. Basically apart from the name of the game and the select one or two player option all other menus and in game dialogue is impossible to read. You can see what I mean by checking out the screenshots I’ve taken. When expanding the window to the bounds of the screen the game remains a small window, much like you’d expect of a game designed for small screens like a mobile phone. Again I’ve taken screen captures of the size of the game window relative to the whole screen (in several resolutions). Setting my screen resolution to 800 x 600 was the best option, but it doesn’t cure the dialogue and menu problems.
I thought the game played really well; the ball physics were excellent and the default difficulty was good enough to have a reasonably challenging game, especially with the objects floating around. I think the speed at which they ricochet of was a little too fast, but that adds to the challenge I suppose. I also thought the background music was fabulous; who was that female singer? And what’s the name of the album it was taken from?
The graphics were fine; (comparable to Acky’s XP breakout, one of my all time arkanoid favourites), yeah maybe a little retro, but that’s not a bad thing. Game play is the most important thing in my opinion.
I’d strongly suggest you add some extra’s like a levels editor (if possible) otherwise I think it will be hard to sell. (Of course get the graphics problem sorted first.). The computers I played the game on were as follows:
2.2GHz dual Core Athlon 64, NVidia 7900 GS 256Mb graphics card and 2Gb of system RAM with an Audigy ZS sound card. Win XP with SP2
3.0GHz dual core Athlon 64, 2 x NVidia 8600 GT 256Mb graphics cards and 4Gb of system RAM with on board sound chip – C-Media CM6501 sound device. (can’t fit a sound card as the two graphics cards take up too much room). Win XP with SP2
3.2GHz dual core Athlon 64, NVidia 8800 GTS 640Mb graphics card and 4Gb of system RAM with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality sound card.
Because my XP pro version is 32 bit I’m actually only using 3326Mb on the 3.0GHz dual computer and on the 3.2GHz dual I’m using just under 3GHz (I should transfer one of the memory sticks over to the 2.2GHz computer as it only has 2Gb - I’m sure you know that the 32 bit version cannot utilize more than around 3.6Gb of RAM).
Unfortunately I’ve just deleted the latest beta version of Windows Win 07, so can’t tell whether it worked on that platform.
I also tried running the game in compatibility mode setting it to Win 95 and Win 98, but neither worked. (Tried it on all computers)
Here’s some screen captures of the game:
All on one page
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/furoid%20problems/?albumview=grid
As a slideshow
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/furoid%20problems/?albumview=slideshow
If you do sort out the graphics issue I’d certainly buy it, though I reckon you’d be better creating a new version (Furoid 2) and putting Furoid out as freeware once the glitch has been sorted; (just my opinion).
I’d also consider changing the shareware aspect to an hour unlimited rather than limiting it to 5 levels. I can’t say much more as I wasn’t able to see the options menu or help menu. For all I know there may be bonus levels already included.
A few years ago, Arkanoids and space shooters were the only type of Arcade game I played (apart from my DVD based games). I used to write to developers suggesting how I thought they could improved on their games, for example give the player the ability to select what power ups are going to appear and in what quantity. Expand the power ups to include ball and bat changing power ups - not just the shrink and expand bat or the increase/decrease in ball size; (one arkanoids I have has several bat shapes and three or four ball shapes, all of which affect the way the ball bounces). Create multiple types of guns and rocket launchers. Enable the bat to float free of the bottom of the field and create hidden levels or mini games that further enhance the game. (For example one arkanoid I have called Incrediball has these mini games that are still arkanoids, but play differently to the main game, so it feels like you’re getting two game sin one. You couold have a power up that reverses the playing arena so everything is urned upside down, or reverse the way the mouse moves the bat. There are other ideas but I’m sure you have plenty of your own that could be implemented. I do think for an arkanoid to be a success now it requires a lot more options that what yours appears to have.
The levels editor would be one of the best ideas to implement i my opinion as it gives the user the ability to create their own levels, which (IMO) would make them feel like they have unlimited possibilities with the number of levels available. Just take a look at Reflexives Ricochet series. There's over 20 thousand levels been created by the community, all are available from the developers web site if you know where to look, though since Ricochet Infinity, you can download them directly into your game.
I hope my post hasn’t disappointed you. It really does have potential, and as I said above, I would still consider buying it, I buy games every week (the other week I bought over 20 games), whereas many of the community probably only buy a few games every month or so or even less, so the games you're selling need to be spot on.
Regards
Whiterabbit