There is quite much to read! Sorry for that. Sometimes, I exaggerate to stress a point and sometimes, I'm just joking a little. It's not meant to hurt you, its just to make it more fun to read. Please don't ban me. End of Disclaimer.Alright then! It's showcase criticism-time! Oh, how I love to do that. There are lots and lots of screenshots here, so I'm so going to have fun here. Let's begin.
First, the models. So... we are going to play as a tin? Can? Whatever the appropiate term is? Thats certainly unique, I'll give you that (not that unique, though. Wasn't there, a long, long time ago, a different Acknex-jumpnrun with a tin as well? And a horrifying name? Like, Purpsi? But then, thats the distant past. Oh, so distant). But other than that, why a tin? Is there any reason to this? Other than it was easy to model, that is (although there could be improvements here as well). For example, can it turn on its side and roll around killing enemies at a certain speed? Or does it have to collect things or fluids, which changes the behaviour (more inertia, more mass, etc.)? Or... is there no reason to it?
Oh, and - hang on, it's a tin! Thanks for telling me, because honestly, I wouldnt have known otherwise. There is little to no detail on it. Okay, so there is absolutely no detail on it. Put a little label on it (if you feel super-special-awesome adventurous, make it display the name of the player). But please, for the love of god (or whatever is holy to you), add details and something to look at. Right now, the game could just as well be called "Rudi the grey cylinder with freaky humanish hannds sticking out", because thats what it looks like. Maybe adding little grooves (for the lack of a better term) would help. And, although I feel bad for suggesting that, a little environment mapping - other users will surely jump at me and suggest other, more fancy technologies like specular mapping and awesome-mapping and whatever their names are - to make it look metallic (by reflecting light). Maybe just playing around with its material settings, without any effect, would be enough as well. Maybe a quick google-image-search for "dose" will help to show you how to make it appear like a tin!
Whats with the hands? Ohmygod, it looks like Rudi is actually a very violent tin and ripped it away from a human being, although a long time ago because, WOW, are those hands grey. I havent graduated in medicine, but it probably takes a while until hands ripped from a human body turn this color. Or, maybe, that happens pretty early. Who knows.
But the hands like this, its kinda unpractical. What can you do with those? Sure, it's fun if you do it to a loaf of bread (I'm sure most people reading this won't understand and
don't worry, thats not a bad thing, its a reference, albeit a worse-than-average one, to a german television show. Running on the childrens program. I feel stupid now.). Why shall I play as a tin with hands that can't use its hands? Maybe, you could make them Rayman-like by making them float magically next to the tin. or keep it like that, but move them a bit further down, it looks like he uses them for ears (which makes me wonder why he ripped it from that poor sod in the first palce).
His face is like we know from so many comics. Oh, how we laughed! It sure brings back memories. And... well, it's not much, actually, and you could certainly make it dynamic and awesome (now is the time to promote my blog!
I explain a little more on that topic for my game), but depending on the style your after (its kinda sad, but I can't tell from the screenshots), its not needed - or, in other words, shouldn't be your highest priority.
Maybe, making the feet a different color would help to spice it up a bit. At least, make it a darker grey. You know Kirby? Aww, hes so adorable and most definately pink (maybe a too girly color for you?), but his feet are red (a manly red!). It mixes things up, and thats a good thing. Your tin is mainly grey and... thats it. There is room for improvement, but man, I've really written more than enough on the tinmodel. I'm sure you agree.
On to the... what is that? Looks like a garbage can. Oh man, thats clever. Your enemy is TRASH! Hah! It's hard to tell, but is that garbage can actually as big as the tin? I can't tell for sure, but then, thats either a freaking monster tin (which lets the whole ripping-the-hand-off-thing appear in a whole new, slightly scarier light) or its the garbage can of a dwarf (an angry dwarf, though, because his garbage can doesn't hold enough trash, being so small). But then, who cares! It's magical, it has eyes! Nah, I kid. It's okay, it's a game. You can get away with eyes on things. And, all joking aside, its not bad, actually! Yeah, it's a little boring as well, being just one color (Aww, not again!), but the 3d-ish eyes and his amazing eyebrow spice it up. A little. It's much better than the tin, but then, it's still kind of boring.
The design of the level should reflect your chosen theme. So we have a tin and a garbage can. Thats not exactly Shakespeare, but when you adapt the appearance of the levels, it could be fun. In our house, the garbage is in the garage. That could be one level. Of course, the tin isn't scaled as big as a human being, but much smaller, so that "normal" things become huge obstacles: Oh my god! There is.... uh, say, a bucket! Whatever. It's your game
So... maybe that would be worth a thought. Right now, the levels don't seem to be anything other than a platforming challenge. You sure have something to do, but it gets boring fast. Exploring the levels is half the fun! Have you played the new Super Mario Galaxy? That game is full of awesome. Every platforming challenge there is notonly carefully designed, but everything is either looking extremely simple - like a platform that you'd expect to find in an old 2d-jump-n-run (for example, it may just have a checker pattern), or it is part of a real level and looks like it, too (stones in a river, for example). With that in mind, you may want to redesign your levels. Or, you could just ignore what I've said so far and pretend that you want it that way, I'm fine with that as well (not really, but then, its not my game, right?)
FINALLY! I'm finished with the models and general ado, I can now move on to the screenshots!
It's "RUDI THE TIN"! Hi there, Rudi! And... aaah, it's boring already. Let me check, that took... oh, 0,2 seconds. Okay, so the screen becomes boring that quick. Why?
Well, there is the great... title, I suppose. It's not exactly groundbreaking, is it? "Rudi the tin"? Thats like "Masterchief the man" or "Pokemon the pokemon". You could either go all videogamy on the title ("Rudi the tin: REVENGE OF THE GARBAGE CANS: Desperated metal: The armageddon") or try to make something clever or add a pun or something ("Pre recycling" ... okay, so that was neither.). But make it INTERESTING. If I said to my friends (I probably won't): "Hey, would you like to try RUDI THE TIN?", then, probably, they won't. If I said "Would you like to play Metal Rescue?", then they would at least not laugh at me. Maybe, they'd even be interested in checking it out. Who knows!
But then.. how is it presented on that screen? Maybe it is animated and looks
awesome in motion (I doubt it, though), but right now, it's very plain. Oh, look at the color gradient! Maybe, with a different placement of the words and a picture of Rudi and his zombiehands would mix things up a little.
Is the scene animated? It's hard to tell from the screenshots, but maybe, the garbage cans run around our beloved Rudi. Thats... well, even then, it's kind of meh. A chase, for example, would be way more exciting. Rudi runs away! Will he make it? Sure he will, or he will end up at the same exact spot to allow endless loops. Right now, hes standing there, grinning (maybe its not grinning, but the curvature of the tin makes it look like he is, grinning like a maniac, possibly thinking how hes going to rip of various parts of the body of his next victim). So... mix things up! Make it interesting! Right now, were looking at a bland floor texture (wait a minute, are those Shuriken? .... Uh, not? Oh.) and these bland models. It will imrpove as soon as those models look interesting, but maybe, something other than a painfully even floor with no detaily would help.
The buttons already had a comment, so I'm not going to bother, because he is entirely right. Yeah, you wanted to make it look like metal, it didn't quite work out, sorry. Now, try to think of something that makes it look better!
The font... Is that Arial? Really? Thats not the kind of font I'd use for a jumpnrun about a tin (of all things). Arial is the kind of boring font we use when we want to come across as modern, yet mature. But this is a game! It's about having fun! Don't exaggerate and use "Comic Sans MS" (oh, PLEASE don't) or "Curlz" or whatever crazy font you have, but something that has a little more dynamic behind it.
The options menu is... zzzzzz oh, sorry, I fell asleep for a second.
People usually laugh when I do that. Okay, you don't then. But its not exactly exciting? It's... grey. Quick! Tell me a color everyone finds boring. Everyone, and I do mean everyone will tell you that its grey. Black and white are somewhat cool, but grey? Thats like you cant decide between those. It's just so incredibly bland. There is nothing to it. Metal at least has these reflections and details in it, but this... it doesn't. Please consider adding something nice in the background. Anything. even if there was just a circle, or something along those lines, it would improve it soo much! There would be something to look at! Wow!
By the way, I had problems recognizing what language was selected. You should make the effect stronger.
But then, who cares about the menu, right? Its the game that matters!
It's more grey! By now, all I can think of is that one Loriot skit, where they are at the marriage counseling and... heh, heh, and she is asking what their favorite colors are and he says "grey" and then goes on what kind of grey... oh man, it literally goes on for minutes, its awesome. Anyway, its so funny because grey is the most boring color in the world and there is not much too it even though he goes on to say that it is more like the grey of a mouse or with a slight hint of red in there... Here we have the classic grey thats just grey and thats it. Its not only in the font that gives the amount of lives (its arial again and there we have a view entity, but its still not exciting or in any way playful, like you'd expect.
Is there any lighting? Like, at all? There are no shadows and it makes it look bland (good god, how often did I say that already?). The entities don't have a shadow either, although that is crucial for jumpnrun-games (to see where my jump will end). At least consider to add a sprite for that. That would already help. Don't be fooled, shadows do add a lot of depth to the game and make it look so much more exciting! There was - maybe there still is - a nice comparision screenshot somewhere on the main site, that would show you and give you a wow effect. So, maybe you can do that and add excitement to the scene!
Shot 11 might just as well be replaced by the text "Rudi standing on a small block with a brownish texture, possibly wood?, a cube with metal pattern, a skycube that is kind of hard to identify. A... a mountain? Maybe. I don't know." Thats all there is to it. There are no details to speak of, the cube isn't that exciting - you should really consider doing other textures. Again, either integrate them in a working scenario, or make them really abstract. But not a mixture like that, it just doesn't work.
Then we have the following highlights (in order of apperance): The high tower of shuriken/Brick texture with floating brownish-plattforms, army of garbage cans (Lighting and shadows would help
SO MUCH here! Its insane). Hang on a second, the platforms disappear randomly? What the heck! How mean is that! There is no pattern that I could learn? It's mean enough if you use a real long or complex pattern, but just doing it randomly is just a cruel joke. Make it depending on total_ticks or something, but just randomly, that just doesn't work. You can't coordinate with that. If I make it or not is just a coincidence. Thats not how games are supposed to be.
By the way, whats with that amount of enemies? Hello enemies! There are like, over 30 on the screen. What the heck! Is that the place where garbage can live? On metal plattforms in the sky?! What are they doing there? Just standing in my way? How boring is that. How could the other tins be abducted in the first place, then?! That must be the dumbest tins of all time. It's unclear how the garbage cans managed to abduct them in the first place, given that they dont have any hands (which makes me wonder if maybe they are the good guys after all, as they dont appear to have ripped off the hands of unsuspecting little children (lets face it, hands of adults are too big compared to a tin!). What do you force me to play as?!) And if they chase me, OHMYGOD how am I going to avoid being caught?! Thats the smallest platform of all time, there is no room to flee to, and the enemies are everywhere! It's madness! My only hope is to jump on the platforms, only those may disappear at random. How awesome. Same goes for the next one, really, only that there seems to be one of those "leaps of faith" everyone hates. You may have to jump here. Or not! We're not telling! Jump and find out! *jumps*. You lost a life. Hah hah! You idiot!
Thats not nice. But then, what other choice do I have? Stay with your enemies or jump in the void. Your choice. Oh, thanks.
Then we have a big... long... boring cube that is the floor on which the player is chased by enemies (I'm getting tired of writing "garbage can", you know). It's not exciting, but it mixes things up and seems to be "relatively" fair. As fair as games where enemies chase me can be. Do they use pathfinding? Or do they just face me and run? ... Roll? Whatever?
Then we have garbage can nightmare... where it is unclear what actually happens. Is Rudi flying?! Or is he standing on the floor? Oh, a shadow would sure help now! Cough, cough. Maybe, its the secret level where garbage cans breed. Thats certainly an exciting topic, despite all the grey.
The next (and last!) screenshot is the most exciting. The dark grey brick texture actually doesn't look
that bad and is a nice break from all the... light... grey. Okay, so its still all grey with a hint of brown. But the geometry is more interesting now: Its like... well, not like a castle, but it distincly remembers me of something similar to it. But I don't always look into the nothingness, and thats certainly a big plus. Plus, its the level that looks the most fun to me. There is no random-nonsense, its all the skill of the player. That could even be fun.
I'll end this now, but let me stress it again: Add colors! You have so many to chose from, yet you constantly chose grey. Light grey, semi-light grey, dark grey, metal-pattern-grey. Then we have brown (for the wooden thing) and thats it. Make it interesting! Either make it a scenario thats fun to navigate, like the different rooms of a house from the perspective of something as small as a tin, or make it really abstract. But make it look consistent and interesting. Right now, its missing that.
You are a moderator, right? Please don't ban me. This is honest criticism. I'm not making fun of you.
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Ich werde demnächst mal eins machen 
