Flash Game: The Evaluation

So my game is finished but of course like every project it is always good to evaluate it.

Overall I am very pleased with the final outcome of my flash game as I have never touched actionscript to create a game from scratch before. I am most pleased with the way I have managed to get the car to move like a real car as this was rather difficult and I did have to look at a few examples to help me on my way. I am also pleased with getting my outside element with the time working as this proved to be tricky whilst attempting it also. Finally I am pleased with most of collision detection code such as going off the track as this was a vital part of my game.

However, with most things, there are parts I was not so happy with. As I said just the sentence before I was happy with most of my collision detection. I was less happy with my "mud patches" and "barrels". First of all I wanted my mud to be funny shaped and barrels to be round however using the hitTestObject code this was not possible as they were treated as rectangles anyway so I ended up just making them rectangles. Also sometimes the car is effected by collision detection despite it not being near the object so I am less happy with this. The other thing I was not so happy about, yet not so bothered about, is the shape of my car. It is just a rounded rectangle as my drawing skills are not very good at all. I would have prefered if each end of the car was easy to spot. However I am not all that bothered about it because as soon as the user presses a button they know which end is which.

So things I would improve if I had more time/had to do this type of game again. As mentioned in my research post I would have liked to have a random block spawning feature so thet track changes each time. Although time did not allow this it is something I would like to add in the future if I develop this game further. Also my idea of having the track darker with floodlights did not really happen as I was short of time and skill to get it working properly.
Other improvements include going into deeper detail with collision detection to see if I could get it working perfectly without a hitch. I would have the car bounce off the barrels better than just making the speed = the opposite direction. I would also edit my car so that each end was easily detectable. Another improvement I would make would be to have a better way to stop people cheating by reversing over the line. My current way is OK but not the best as it is probably possible to get a quicker time by turning around. However after much testing this takes a lot of practice so i'm hoping users would just go around the honest way to have a better game experience. Especially as this is the casual gamer playing this game anyway.

To quote David Beckham, at the end of the day, I am very pleased with my flash game. The positives, for me, out-weigh the negatives and improvements. Therefore I see this project as a success and must admit I think I have achieved the aim I set myself. This was to have the game have a sort of addictive quality to it and just playing it by myself I believe I was addicted (before I got the best score anyone can possibly get, I am the creater afterall!) and I think others will feel the same. I can only hope people have as much fun playing it as I did making it, for the most part anyway!