I like all the mechanics a lot. The structure inventory tetris blown my mind.
Research tree nodes (and probably other UI elements) need a text preview, like you can do with blocks. It's hard to guess what it is by icon alone, and clicking to get that information is bad for searching through.
I hope, if you aim for something like minecraft or factorio, the final game doesn't have an extensive tutorial like this and instead will help you learn as you go through problem solving. This should be better at teaching, since it will feel more meaningful.
Before you beat the first 4 tutorials in 0.8.2: basics, crafting, research, and wires, the main sandbox game is not at all playable. I'm guessing the main game takes like 10-20 hours to beat ( No one has done a full playthrough yet =, not even me ), so the tutorials are only a small portion.
The other "Info:" tutorials are more of a collection of mechanic footnotes and clarifications. Factorio has a similar setup: tutorial levels, main sandbox, and some guides on specific mechanics like rail signals. I guess I could try making the "info" tutorials pop up when you research specific stuff
Minecraft is impossible to beat without external research.
Thanks for playing and recording! This demo day lets me fix a lot of the tutorial, especially the introduction of placing/removing/welding/unwelding. Only 4 of the tutorials are really necessary to start playing, and 0.8.2 will reflect that.
Note: I don't actually like sandbox-type games, and I haven't really played factorio or anything like that.
The tutorial was kind of intense. Like, it was just long. And some of bits of information seemed kind of... There. Like how cores behaved with forces. I'm just not capable of absorbing everything after an hour of reading about the game's mechanics. I would have also liked a couple of exercises thrown in the middle so I could play while I was in the tutorial.
Some of the mechanics I thought were really interesting. Like the wire having decay for example, so the tutorial was engaging to go through. It's definitely packed with mechanics. It's cool.
I didn't have trouble understanding most things I think. I'm a programmer, though, so I'm probably an outlier in how I understood the mechanics. Or maybe not really for people who like these kind of games, idk.
In the end though, I wouldn't play something that doesn't have like a clear objective, so I'm probably not your target audience beyond the tutorial. I just didn't feel like starting to build things by myself after that.
Here's a VOD of me playing through the tutorial, in case it's useful:
The tutorial is a huge huge improvement from when I last played. I had a great time!
Again, I never play crafting or factory type games so I am unaware of the tropes. I also have a small ape brain. If you are targetting an audience like me to pick this up, use the feedback from this video. Be as explicit as possible with building, what these electronics do, etc.
But if your target audience already kinda "gets it", then don't change a thing and cater to them. I hope this video is helpful, I had a blast!
Nice game Roody! I like these Factory type games. For some reason when I started the new game my screen just went black (all ingame UI intact) and my character started to die for some reason? Maybe it must have been the seed? I typed some random numbers on that field. Nice game overall! Keep at it!
Managed to make it to the end of the tutorial good job making this I didn't find any bugs other than Maby some of the pop up menus being a little to low if the object it was connected to was already low on the screen . Seems like it has a good amount of depth to the amount of interactions and combinations all the items have.
Comments
I like all the mechanics a lot. The structure inventory tetris blown my mind.
Research tree nodes (and probably other UI elements) need a text preview, like you can do with blocks. It's hard to guess what it is by icon alone, and clicking to get that information is bad for searching through.
I hope, if you aim for something like minecraft or factorio, the final game doesn't have an extensive tutorial like this and instead will help you learn as you go through problem solving. This should be better at teaching, since it will feel more meaningful.
Before you beat the first 4 tutorials in 0.8.2: basics, crafting, research, and wires, the main sandbox game is not at all playable. I'm guessing the main game takes like 10-20 hours to beat ( No one has done a full playthrough yet =, not even me ), so the tutorials are only a small portion.
The other "Info:" tutorials are more of a collection of mechanic footnotes and clarifications. Factorio has a similar setup: tutorial levels, main sandbox, and some guides on specific mechanics like rail signals. I guess I could try making the "info" tutorials pop up when you research specific stuff
Minecraft is impossible to beat without external research.
Hey. I played your game as part of a Demo Day stream. If you didn't catch the stream live, here's a link to the video:
You can see my other demo day 46 streams as well on my channel.
(Looks like I forgot to post a comment for this game. Sorry! Hopefully the video suffices.)
Thanks for playing and recording! This demo day lets me fix a lot of the tutorial, especially the introduction of placing/removing/welding/unwelding. Only 4 of the tutorials are really necessary to start playing, and 0.8.2 will reflect that.
Hey. So.... I played through the tutorial.
Note: I don't actually like sandbox-type games, and I haven't really played factorio or anything like that.
The tutorial was kind of intense. Like, it was just long. And some of bits of information seemed kind of... There. Like how cores behaved with forces. I'm just not capable of absorbing everything after an hour of reading about the game's mechanics. I would have also liked a couple of exercises thrown in the middle so I could play while I was in the tutorial.
Some of the mechanics I thought were really interesting. Like the wire having decay for example, so the tutorial was engaging to go through. It's definitely packed with mechanics. It's cool.
I didn't have trouble understanding most things I think. I'm a programmer, though, so I'm probably an outlier in how I understood the mechanics. Or maybe not really for people who like these kind of games, idk.
In the end though, I wouldn't play something that doesn't have like a clear objective, so I'm probably not your target audience beyond the tutorial. I just didn't feel like starting to build things by myself after that.
Here's a VOD of me playing through the tutorial, in case it's useful:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1582929536
Thanks for playing! I always appreciate a VOD.
0.8.0 added the research tree, so thats the "clear objective" for sandbox mode.
Again, I never play crafting or factory type games so I am unaware of the tropes. I also have a small ape brain. If you are targetting an audience like me to pick this up, use the feedback from this video. Be as explicit as possible with building, what these electronics do, etc.
But if your target audience already kinda "gets it", then don't change a thing and cater to them. I hope this video is helpful, I had a blast!
The more confused you get, the better the tutorial will be in the next version
Nice game Roody! I like these Factory type games. For some reason when I started the new game my screen just went black (all ingame UI intact) and my character started to die for some reason? Maybe it must have been the seed? I typed some random numbers on that field.
Nice game overall! Keep at it!
I've never seen that bug before, but I think you spawned inside a mountain that was too tall for the spawn location algo to find the top of
If you saved the game, the seed will be in svars.smp, and I could use that seed to fix the bug.
Hey Roody, it appears I did not. Sorry. I hope you reach your goals! Let's aim high!
Everything seems stable despite my best efforts to destroy it. Don't know if the map goes on forever but I traveled for about an hour with no issue.
Managed to make it to the end of the tutorial good job making this I didn't find any bugs other than Maby some of the pop up menus being a little to low if the object it was connected to was already low on the screen . Seems like it has a good amount of depth to the amount of interactions and combinations all the items have.