Pointless work and Options?

I am sure some people will think the last 30 minutes I spent coding in my new game a pointless and waste of time. I do not agree with this of course for a number of reasons. Oh, first I should tell you what I spent that time on I guess.

I have added a couple of new Options to my Options screen in A Shooter. Here is a picture of the Options screen as it is Now.

A Shooter Options page as of 5/2/2010

As you can see there are quite a few of them. The new ones are the bottom two. Both are related to the starfield. I have put them in because I think they are both fun items. They do not alter the gameplay in any way, but People can play with the way the game looks, and how can that not be fun? I have done similar but more over the top things in some past games. Krakout had some of the wackiest phsychadelic modes I have ever come across and that was a breakout type of game. More of the Jeff Minter style color cycling etc. Anyway, why did I add the functionality? For two reasons, One is that it is more fun with them. Two I really wanted to see what colored stars looked like, and so wrote the code. Sometimes when you write code you really want written, it is like it didn't take any time at all. On another plus side of course I now have more options making the game look bigger than it did.

You might have noticed the order of the options and wondered why I have not ordered them to be a cone shape or something artistically appealing. The order is denoted by how important I think an option is. So difficulty mode has to be Major, followed by volume controls. My new Fun options are least important, so go at the bottom.

Laters

First 'A Shooter' playtest feedback

Tonight I thought I would post about something that is now happening with my latest XBLIG game. i have already mentioned that i have put it into Playtest, a place where my XBLIG Peers can check out what i have been busy doing, and give feedback in the forums if they so desire. This is a good place to take your game, anytime especially if you are new to creating games. As these peeps will find some bugs for you, and make suggestions that could greatly increase your chances of success when the game goes live.

Onwards...
On Monday i placed the game into Playtest. About an hour later I realised that I had left the default difficulty at HARD and not Normal. ARGH! I was at work now, so was unable to pull the game. However by the time i got home (late), someone had already given my game some feedback. Now i will not name the Peer that did this, as i believe in their privacy, and i don't want to go around asking permission all the time.

Here is what the FIRST Peer said:-
-I did some testing with memory card pulling and didn't find any issues.

-I noticed one title safe issue. While playing the game the player name is cut off of the screen on my television.
-This is a personal one but the controls bothered me (and my buddy I tried coop with). We really wanted to push A to shoot and kept accidentally using the special.

-Another issue with controls, specifically in coop. At the end of a level both users naturally push A to advance to the next level but what ends up happening is one user's push results in advancing the level and the other user ends up using their special. We ended up needing to designate someone to be the level advancer.
Playing through the trial I found myself wanting to keep playing after the time limit ran up. I think it's definitely hard enough, though that was on HARD, and in coop.
Overall a fun, well polished game. Good luck.
 
Woah, i was so shocked anyone got there so fast. Now let's break this down into what i did about this post.
1. I was very pleased to see no immediate issue with MU pulling. Phew.
2. ARGH i forgot to finish the SDTV screen safe stuff. I have it in the code but never gave it the right coords (so they only use widescreen coords). What an Idiot!
3. Ahh the controls. They feel switched to me also. Having someone remnd me they are the wrong way around is good. Though they are that way because people asked for it in my previous shooter. this time i will deal with this properly.. Thinking cap is ON.
4. Hmm, i have run into this. Stupid wrong firing of the smart bomb. First thought is to not allow smart bombs to be fired in teh first few seconds of a new level starting.. Thinking cap is now getting orangely hot!
5. Woot! they wanted to continue? This is excellent news, though i still feel there is more to go on this front.
6. The final thought was a very kind one. I appreciate this kind of thing, and always try hard to write something positive at the end of a review myself. I hope they mean't it 8D
 
Now I was thinking about all these issues. I hated the idea of other peeps testing it while in HARD mode. So I pulled the game. Then set about fixing my issues. Here is what i did about each one, numbered for your convenience.
2. Setup and tested the screen safe coords for my in game HUD. Looking good.
3. I switched the control to A=Fire. Then i put a new Option in the options to switch to the B=Fire haha! Solved! (thinking cap start to go back to grey!)
4. Solved this by puting the button through onto the X button and removed it from the smart button. Easy and solid. Thinking cap now at blue and cold)
 
These items took me a while, but ALL of them make my product better. This is very important to me.
 
When i get more feedback i will continue to post about what i did and why etc. This may be inetersting to some devs going through the same thing.
 
G'night