PyWeek - The Selfish BirdBreeder - feedback

Fun Prod Inno Disq N/W Comments
4 5 4

Impressive work.
3 3 3

4 4 4

Some unfortunate UI quirks prevented me from playing this game as easily as I would like.

Selecting a chicken is harder than it needs to be, especially if the chicken is in flight. Also, flying chickens are far enough removed from their stars that they may as well not have any.

Too much clicking in different places is required. Keyboard shortcuts to breed and select/deselect the hatchet would improve gameplay dramatically. (For me, at least.)

That said, I enjoyed this game. Good work.
1 1 1 yes

Didn't work I think you broke the cocos!
2 5 4 yes

Despite showing highly polished promise, the game crashed when I started slaughtering chickens. Ratings given are based on what was played.

$ python Main.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "Main.py", line 76, in <module>
run()
File "Main.py", line 49, in run
cocos.director.director.run( go_scene )
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/cocos2d-r875/cocos/director.py", line 296, in run
event_loop.run()
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/pyglet-1.1-maintenance-r2524/pyglet/app/xlib.py", line 82, in run
window.dispatch_platform_event(e)
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/pyglet-1.1-maintenance-r2524/pyglet/window/xlib/__init__.py", line 1169, in dispatch_platform_event
event_handler(e)
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/pyglet-1.1-maintenance-r2524/pyglet/window/xlib/__init__.py", line 1387, in _event_motionnotify
self.dispatch_event('on_mouse_motion', x, y, dx, dy)
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/pyglet-1.1-maintenance-r2524/pyglet/window/__init__.py", line 1219, in dispatch_event
EventDispatcher.dispatch_event(self, *args)
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/pyglet-1.1-maintenance-r2524/pyglet/event.py", line 340, in dispatch_event
if handler(*args):
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/MatingLayer.py", line 131, in on_mouse_motion
self.hoverActor.birdnode.add(self.hoverMarker, name="hovermarker")
File "/home/flan/Desktop/pyweek-9-all/BirdBreeder/Birdbreeder/source/cocos2d-r875/cocos/cocosnode.py", line 374, in add
raise Exception("Name already exists: %s" % name )
Exception: Name already exists: hovermarker
3 4 4

White font a bit hard to see. Too short. Its too hard to click on the flying/jumping birds
(although this is a good trait to avoid wolves). A fun and innovative game.
3 4 4

Liked it. Would be nice if you actually had some goals in the game though.
5 5 5

Great! The difficult part was keeping my eyes in two places at once: the chicken I was pointing
at, and the HUD. If there could be some way to show the data on the field, that would be better.
Nice learning curve, and fun graphics. My favorite part was how the wolf moved. Good writing,
too. The first time you said NOMMINESS, I rolled my eyes. But the way you kept saying it as if it
was a normal thing to say, I laughed in spite of myself. You even use it in the source code. Ha!
Just for future reference, 1200px is too wide to make an unresizable window. Not everyone has
monitors that big.
3 3 3 yes

A substantial part of the window was out of sigh ( I am at 1024x768 )
A look at the code showed hardcoded dimensions for some actors, so I left there.
3 3 3

Cool style, fun game. Pity the second level is unplayable.. they ate everything before i could
even breed once!
2 3 4

nice sounds XD - also a neat idea, but it did not feel like I had control over the genes - especially as when the wolfs were coming I was more working on breeding as much as possible instead of figuring out the best breed combinations.
4 3 4

very cool but it needs music
3 1 3 yes

not running...
3 2 4

Good concept. Needed more levels.
2 4 4

Sorry, I just could not figure how to breed! I clicked and clicked and clicked and nothing seemed to happen!
4 4 4

When I tried the 2nd level the wolf ate all but one of my chickens before I could do anything. Maybe you should allow buying new chickens if you have only one left? I didn't find a way to restart a level, so I had to quit and restart the entire game every time I lost. And I lost often because I played a lot. It just seems a little unbalanced for now. ;)
2 3 3

Funny, but clicking on the constantly jumping birds is a bit annoing.
3 3 4

Like the breeding concept and the different genes. Cool chicken artwork. Game played marred by being a bit sluggish.
3 5 3 yes

Couldn't read the instructions because the resolution was too big for my 1024x768 screen and
they were getting cut off horizontally. Dig the music though.
2 3 3

I like the chicken graphics very much, and their phenotypes are well depicted! The animations and sounds create a cheerful mood. The game mechanic does not sound bad on paper, but I did not find it enjoyable as implemented. A number of problems that I think marred the experience were: 1) crossing of genes has too much randomness, 2) it is difficult to click on the specimens when they are jumping around, and 3) jumping is not a very reliable protection against wolves (selling the chicken they are about to eat works better).
3 4 3

Apparently these birds are hermaphroditic.
3 4 2

Like the sound effects :)