Frog Rescue

Crashed (like you describe in the Readme). Could not get it to work.

Wouldn't run for me.

I like the concept, as others have said, but it was just incredibly difficult to do much of anything. Cars were just going anywhere no matter what and I did and most of the frogs seemed to escape anyway. I agree that having them go down a road (a much smaller road) in a line would make a lot more sense.

Doesn't run for me in vista.

I felt a little helpless, since I couldn't really control if the frogs will get squished or not.

very nice game, some features are very polished. baaad scrolling, very nice zoom. the game is very clear and the gameplay is easy to understand

i enjoyed the graphics and sound of this one.. plus the title picture that I recal when you posted that in IRC when that happened.. crazy! Anyway, I agree with the others critiques as far as gameplay goes and what could be done. Strangely, I also got a 77 score like DrPetter....

Kind of a cool mechanic, though it took me a couple of tries to figure out that the map was larger than one screen. Serves me right for not reading the README.

It's a really interesting idea that doesn't work... I think doing nothing at all will score you about the same as cleverly roadblocking. Part of the problem is the limited scrolling, having to slowly get around. If you could grab n' pan, that would sure help, as would arrow key scrolling. But I just don't think the roadblocks provide enough control over whether frogs get squished to make a difference. I'm not sure what you need. Maybe more tools, like frogbait. Then you could lure frogs away from an area where you had cars trapped. I guess it's the fact that frogs literally end up everywhere (a perfect circle expanded infinitely=everywhere!) that is the problem. No matter where you trap a car, a frog will be there eventually.

Very sad title picture.

couldn't get it to run in xp, abnormal program termination. tried a few times.

I got my best score of 77 while writing this comment, not touching the game window at all.

Consequently, I would say the gameplay design is somewhat flawed. But I still really like the game though. The sounds and graphics give major flashbacks to cheap crazy NES games from the mid-80's.

Not quite sure what you could do to make the game more challenging/rewarding... a smaller playing field would be a good start, since it's impossible to manage this large area given the strict time limitations. The frogs are so many and so randomly distributed that it's unclear which parts of the level you should block off to get the best result - often it's not even beneficial to block a car into one place since it will still smash a few frogs.
The main problem is that all the frogs are concentrated to the center region when you start, and the roads + cars are initiated randomly, so chance will decide if you get a hostile or friendly situation during these critical first few seconds, while there's nothing you can really do to affect it. Blocking a car in this area is obviously not a good idea since the frogs will pass through in large numbers.

I love the frog graphics and animation, and I really want the game to be fun, but it would need heavily revised gameplay. Perhaps it's enough to slow everything (particularly cars) down and reduce the size of the playing field, so you have time to assess the situation and make choices. The number of road blocks could be limited so that you have to focus on one or two areas at a time. Like maybe having 5-6 blocks and reusing the oldest one when you've placed them all.
Definitely prohibit roads in a region around the center of the map as well, so you get an initial breather and a chance for the frogs to spread a bit.

I like Hamumu's idea regarding bait. Frogs could be attracted to it and maybe stop to eat for a few seconds, so you can delay them while preparing the road ahead.

Great concept, but its impossible to control the full expanding radius of frogs. If the frogs followed some path, it may be somewhat easier to control.