I was wondering if anyone would mind giving me feedback for a game. If any one has the time anyway (I understand how that is tight). I'm looking for good, honest, constructive feedback. Don't worry about sparing my feelings. I just want to know how I can improve. I'm not looking for feedback for code, but more on the game itself. How does it play? Is it fun? What sucks about it? What could be improved? What would make it fun? I'm specifically looking to the mechanics and the perceived amount of "fun" for the game. Any criticism is welcome please.

The game is an HTML 5 game. It's hosted at my domain. I put this as fair warning because some people are iffy about going to other websites. I just don't want to catch anyone by surprise and off guard.

This is my first completed game. I'm playing around with varying game engines as a hobby. My academic focus is CS and information systems. I'm still learning a lot here. It's called Attack of the Squares. It's a very simple arcade game. It's primary goal is to accumulate score. It was an exercise in balancing game mechanics. That's pretty much the point of the game.

It can be found here: http://www.kurie.us/Games/AttackOfTheSquares/

Let me know what you think, both the good and the bad. And please don't worry about being nice. I'd rather people be honest.

The intro screen and the moving background made me a little dizzy, but I think overall it was ok. It was messing up the music I was listening to (music became noisy and hard to hear).

Good job, the audio was especially really nice. Hitting the wavy blocks didn't do anything, are they just supposed to be confusing?

The game didn't load for me, just stayed at the splash screen. I was using win8.1 & chrome

@Ultraman I purposely made the background to mess with your eyes a bit. It was an attempt at balancing the game. Without it, the game was a lot easier. Do you think it was to much or a put off? I've noticed issues with the audio before. I thought I had a lot of it worked out, I've only been testing on my own machine though and haven't considered playing other music through the browser or else where on the system. It's a good learning experience though and the feedback is nice.

@minibutmany Thanks for the compliment! The warping square moving in the arc pattern is meant to be a distraction. Seeing that, I think I need to start thinking more about introductory stuff somehow. It's a learning curve for me.

@ferrous Interesting. Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to look into it. I honestly have no idea where to start looking for that. It might have been a temporary or hosting issue. I'm using 8.1 and Chrome as well. I appreciate the heads up!

Game didn't load for me on win XP using chrome.

Things that felt unintuitive:

Intro Screen: I can see how the static is used for balance, but at the same time it was distracting, and made the title (which I've heard is important!) a bit hard to read. Maybe have the name more filled in, or not display static at the start?

The buttons: For a short second, I thought the game was frozen, or my mouse was having an issue. Having some sort of dynamic button (even just a slight pop-up, or colour change) can really add some 'pop' to them.

The instructions and Options: Succinct enough, I found no issues here. Maybe some examples of powerups; mentioning that they exist, and that they're everything non-square, isn't quite as fulfilling as giving a rundown. It also relieves some burden of knowledge. (See: Shooting, below!)

The Controls: I feel like I should've been able to move horizontally. Other than that, I didn't notice any glitches, and the response times were sharp and felt good. Collision could have been a bit more forgiving, perhaps even a bullet hell-esque mechanic where 'grinding' squares can give you extra points?

Edit: Aaand holy crap, just found out you can shoot! Whelp, now I really feel like the lack of horizontal controls are the only 'dislike' I have for the game. Although, experimenting with different Ammo systems might be another angle to attack - in my opinion (I'm a believer of Carrot > Stick) bullets could be a reward for playing (Get a bullet for every 25 points).

Time to see if there's any other hidden depths to plumb!

Worked at home w/ win8 & chrome, i think it might be a popup issue or something?

What does shooting do? It didn't seem to do anything but lower the score.

The sound & music quickly deteriorates into noise (ubuntu/firefox)

The scrolling was a bit jerky for me (using firefox). The instructions could use some work: put a picture of a sample bonus, and explain that the spinning rectangles count as squares. Explain that shooting costs points. I'd personally make the initial red squares cost one shot and the spinning rectangles cost two or three, then soon introduce a different color square that is tougher.