No fancy formatting or links here, plain and simple. What is it that you think that every flash game should have? It's clear to see the differences between a rushed, and poorly made flash game and a well thought out one. So let the developers know, what do you think a flash game should have?
- A mute button - Easy controls - I love upgrading things, makes me feel special - Different levels of difficulty - Multiplayer games are fun with friends too, if you can both fit your hands on the keyboard. I hate it when we can barely have fun because the controls are so close together.
1. Customizable controls -- this should be a no-brainer, but it's too-often neglected; every time I see "WASD for movement" I usually knock about 4 points off a game's rating, because I don't HAVE a QWERTY keyboard, and I can't use WASD to navigate. Less important for games which have mouse only controls, or just a few random hotkeys.
2. The mandatory options: pause, sound toggle, "return to menu", etc. If I have to mess with my speakers, or reload the page to restart, the game's obviously incomplete.
3. Intelligent collision checking -- it may be easier to approximate, but there's nothing more maddening than dying from a bullet which didn't touch your character, or missing an enemy that your bullet touched.
4. Accurate weapons -- ever since Counter Strike, games have gotten into this bizarre arms race to see who could have the least accurate weapons without completely alienating players, and this seems to have infected the Flash game world, too. PROTIP: this isn't the 1700s; guns have this awesome thing called rifling. Don't insult the player's intelligence by using ridiculously low accuracy as a crutch to make the game more difficult.
5. Smooth, intuitive controls -- making a game's controls laggy, or clunky, or harder to manipulate than necessary, simply makes the game less fun. Make the enemies the player's enemy, not the interface of the game (unless it's one of those "take nothing for granted" games).
6. Reasonable art -- if you're a poor artist, then simple art is fine: look at Infectonator World Dominator -- it's not fancy in the least, but it gets the job done. Don't try to be a Michelangelo in MS Paint. If you want "real" art, make friends with an artist, or hire one if it's that important to you.
7. Substance, not pretense -- if the game has more pointless exposition than it does actual content, you've got a serious problem. Fancy logos and self importance aren't what make a game worth playing.
8. Originality -- if you're unwilling (or unable) to make a game that has something new or interesting to offer, then don't bother. Even if you're just doing something better than anyone else has, that's still a form of novelty.
9. Polish -- test your game; don't just assume Everything Works(tm). Bugs, glitches, or simple inconsistencies are a serious problem which can severely detract from enjoyability. Ask a few friends to try it out before uploading it; get suggestions; fix problems after uploading.
10. Gameplay > Story -- sorry, RPG fans, it's true. Battles and game interaction are 99% of any game, and it's a lot more fun to play a brainless kill-fest with no story than it is to slog through awful gameplay to get the next tidbit of comic-book-level story. If you're the next Shakespeare, games aren't the right medium in the first place.
A couple of things that would be nice are: - nice graphics - a fast loading - character customization - a lot of achievements and unlock able - easy controls - different backgrounds, sounds, enemies, actions (like not always repeated stuff) - upgrades (in-game) (like guns, clothes, partners, transportation, etc) - a long campaign - a multiplayer option - and much more
If you want the rest of my ideas comment on my profile and I will reply to you ASAP (as soon as I make a file with all of my ideas) [i]
