Played 0.2.14. I'm still trash at it, mostly just run around aimlessly and can't find my way back haha, too unfocused I guess. So I don't know how much you'll get from my, uncommented, video.
New music is nice. It seems you're starting to implement some 3d stuff for your menus which I think is great. I'd like some buttons to move all your gold to and from the treasury. Sometimes I feel like I get stuck on things that I shouldn't, I dunno... I wish the "reinforced" crates were much clearer, I mistake them for regular ones all the time and keep wondering why they don't break. Why do I need to use the hearts next to the goblins to guess instead of using the goblins themselves, maybe both could work? I'd like the hands to do a "ready animation" when you're close enough to grab a crate in addition to the crosshair changing. Maybe make the raycasts more generous too so you don't have to aim exactly on one to grab it.
Other than that it'd be nice with more doodads, clutter, etc everywhere so you can better differentiate areas but I know you're working on that.
Thanks for the video. It's not rated, but I could watch it embedded on itch just fine.
You play pretty fast, the only problem is you get lost. You were doing well until you unlocked Baby Steps++ template which adds a side path. It's actually very eye opening to me how much of a difficulty spike one side path adds to the game. The template description on loading screen tells you how you can recognize it - I must make it clearer.
I'd like some buttons to move all your gold to and from the treasury.
Yes, I am going to add something like "deposit" and "withdraw" buttons. Do you think the buttons should be added as extras, or should they completely replace the bar?
I think it was nice to see you unlocked the kobold, and that was the guest you needed to find on multiple runs. I noticed you stopped spending your gold, and I don't know if you were just saving for something, or there was another reason. It was also nice to see you put some other seals to use, even thou you stopped getting new ones, and the ones you got were too expensive for you to use.
I feel like I get stuck on things that I shouldn't
was it the couple of jumps in vertical rooms, or something else? By the way, it was good to see you were using the power jump to get to those levers in that room with big water, but spoiler: instead of using the power jump to get to the lever, you can use it to get to the next floor instead.
I wish the "reinforced" crates were much clearer, I mistake them for regular ones all the time and keep wondering why they don't break.
Yeah, I could see that happening a lot, and was wondering what you were doing. I thought there were enough visual differences between crates, but it looks like I might need to replace them with something more unique.
Why do I need to use the hearts next to the goblins to guess instead of using the goblins themselves, maybe both could work?
It probably doesn't make sense with just placeholders that stand around right now, but later on there are going to be multiple characters per heart doing their own thing, which may become harder to get to them i.e getting to a heart that is "linked" to multiple characters is going to be easier.
I'd like the hands to do a "ready animation" when you're close enough to grab a crate
I might do something with the hands to make it clearer, but I cannot think of a situation when waiting for a very short animation to play would be better, than just moving closer to be sure. I'm thinking about rotating forearms so that the palms will point up.
it'd be nice with more doodads, clutter, etc everywhere so you can better differentiate areas
I got plans for wall hanging decorations, shelves and eventually statues in those bigger empty spaces. I think they are going to help with that.
I also noticed you were kinda lost in all the hub locations, and kept skipping explanations every time instead of just switching them off.
I must say, I feel like you are much better at my game, than I am at yours. Your video is very helpful to me.
That looks awesome. I couldn't start it, tried pressing the Play button but it didn't register the click at all. On linux. Maybe because I'm on a wide screen? Resolution 2560x1080
On a serious note, thank you for letting me know. I had that problem with ultrawide resolution before, and I thought I fixed it (by removing ultrawide options), but it looks like the game still launches at ultrawide for people with those screens.
I uploaded a new version, which should launch at 1280×720.
I hope it works for you now, and the game doesn't switch automatically to ultrawide again when you open options/graphics in game.
i'll make this quick since i've written essays for GResort before and i figure you know my general thoughts/views
so:
>UI is better with icons. still has some ways to go, but every step counts. go MORE visuals in every possible option. things like (Female) can be replaced with an icon (the simple circle + cross standard woman symbol works). put as many things in dropdown lists as possible. the UI should be tiny and clean when not interacted with (ie: when you first present it to a new player)
>difficult is stabilizing. did not encounter any bullshit rooms or composition in my early runs. slime pools perhaps still a bit too punishing, but things are much better than before. new (to me?) rooms are also good. did not have any "oh come on" moments. feels like i have more time to reach objectives.
>story (without visuals) is risky. people will get bored before getting the fun stuff. while I know things will have visuals later, i'm speaking about DDs. bored testers = testers who quit on the first failure. probably a good idea to either: add any possible visuals, no matter how bad (i've said this before i know, but i really feel strongly about this), or just scrap it al and start with the game, then reintroduce once visuals are ready.
>i didn't do the tutorial again, since i didn't notice anything new to me in the streams/ YT clips
>i mentioned this before, but i think time limits should be something that are introduce later, or something that you opt into for extra rewards. asking a player to remember layout + face on a time limit is stressful. i think it's worth it to pull a "darkest dungeon" move, where you have the intended difficulty, and the babymode difficulty which is clearly marked as such, but still available for players who just want to coom
>super minor issue: being super close to the heartmirror can show a low res face image. most people will faceplant the mirror, so i'd consider getting another, super high res image to use there. i assume this is WIP, though, but still thought i'd mention it.
otherwise you are clearly progressing and improving with each DD, keep up the good work
I am glad the UI is getting better, and yes, I got more visuals and placeholders for cutscenes planned. There is just a lot of things I always want to do before DDs, and I always run out of time.
Good to hear the difficulty curve is less steep now. I removed most rooms with tricky slime pools from Baby Steps template based on previous feedback. The more rooms I make, the more I am going to be able to choose which ones are easy enough for new players.
About the difficulty and no time limit: I understand people would like to have difficulty settings, and most people would probably prefer to play slowly, but that really goes against what I am trying to make. Right now the only real punishment for playing poorly is just slowing down the progression, kinda like in e.g. lego star wars games.
I was thinking a lot about how I can change the game for the better, and I think I got a good idea what to work on for next DD.
I really love the art, animations and music. The UI too. Everything that's here feels really well-done and very polished. I found a small typo in the movement tutorial - "Press <Righ Mouse Button> to Dash!" Using milk to regen mana is cute. I'm terrible at these types of games so I haven't gotten terribly far, but it's been a lot of fun so far.
on your confirmations you have 'yes' on the left and the 'no' option on the right. Generally people expect the 'yes' option in UI to be on the right when confirming a choice.
My first instinct is that a mouse click should advance dialogue.
I think instead of a tutorial that threw all of the mechanics at me at once (way too much to process) I would have rather learned by play through the game and just having mechanics introduced one at a time in levels.
on your confirmations you have 'yes' on the left and the 'no' option on the right. Generally people expect the 'yes' option in UI to be on the right when confirming a choice.
I'm looking at confirmation windows on e.g. windows operating system and it's always left to right with yes/no/cancel.
My first instinct is that a mouse click should advance dialogue.
yes, you are not the first person who mentioned that. I will need to add that.
I would have rather learned by play through the game and just having mechanics introduced one at a time in levels.
What do you mean? One run introducing jumping, another introducing ledge climbing and so on? Basically what the tutorial is, but stretch over dungeon runs?
The tutorial introduces mechanics one at the time. It's just there is a lot of them, which makes the tutorial quite long for new players.
The platforming feels crisp and satisfying!
I am happy you think that. Thanks for all the feedback.
I'm looking at confirmation windows on e.g. windows operating system and it's always left to right with yes/no/cancel.
Huh you're right. Maybe I'm thinking about how the average webpage does it. One thing windows does is it highlights the "yes" option but at this point I'm just picking at unimportant UI stuff so ignore me.
What do you mean? One run introducing jumping, another introducing ledge climbing and so on? Basically what the tutorial is, but stretch over dungeon runs?
Yes, I don't play video games really anymore (just program them) so I get overwhelmed easily. Just my opinion, there's a good chance someone who's a regular gamer won't feel the same.
I see. This game is probably for non casual players, but you are not the only one who got overwhelmed by all the mechanics. Your feedback is still useful to me.
Icons make UI more readable, the seals with the separation for the cost is also easier to read now. The vertical menu quick slots is new to me, I think it's an improvement.
Progression felt like last time until BabySteps++ which felt like a bigger jump and I had to retry several times before getting a winning run, I also got lost several times due to my poor inner compass.
A random thought that came to mind, maybe add a mini map that fills as you enter rooms as an easy mode? That would solve some people's being lost issues, though it may go against how you want the game played too much.
Can't think of anything else, keep up the good work goblin dev.
Thanks for playing. I am happy to hear UI changes are improvements.
BabySteps++ which felt like a bigger jump and I had to retry several times before getting a winning run
It's the first template that adds a side path, which can make some players potentially run in circles. Template description gives hints on how to recognize them (if a hear room has 2 rooms, that means it connects to a side path on that template).
I am strongly against minimaps, but there are different compasses, and radars. Radars can be sort of used as minimaps depending on how you play, and compasses really help narrowing down the direction you need to head towards.
Basically if you get lost a lot, I recommend Navigation Seals, if you run out of time a lot, go with Time Seals. Not enough gold - unlock Gold Seals. Other Seal types help with time and other things too, but they are more dependent on play styles.
Played v0.2.12 for 53min, afterwards played v0.2.13 for about half an hour.
Note that I never played this game before that, and look at it from the perspective of a total newcomer, without even any experience with 3D platformers. I believe this will be an accurate representation of how completely new players will experience your game. Here's a short SWOT analysis, which will be the basis for the conclusion.
Strengths:
All UI aspects seem to be there on a technical level. While visual clarity is lacking, the main coding is clearly there.
H-concept and integration seems well done, even though it fully lacks content.
Good that there is a way to play without the time limit. Although you need to re-enable it every time and losing 80% of gold is a lot, making it not worthwhile in its current state.
Enough mechanical depth to be long term interesting.
Finished main gameplay loop, decently fun once you get used to the rooms. The fact that the difficulty increases automatically is also very well done.
I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches, even minor move related once. So good job!
Weaknesses:
Slow and confusing intro text (due to current lack of visuals, and similar looking names [???]). I'd be happy with just sketched placeholders to know what's going on.
Music style doesn't fit (change between option menu and hyperactive one during gameplay), OK since placeholder, and a subjective opinion.
The tutorial doesn't integrate well with the main game, so you may forget mechanics once you are in the game. Too many abilities are introduced at once. I'll come back to this in the conclusion.
Jumping on vines feels weird. Jumping in general feels imprecise. Apparently you need to fiddle with the FOV, but new players aren't going to do that.
Sound effects are clearly placeholder.
Seals remained very unclear to me (not mentioned in the tutorial), despite the fact that these can be used to smoothen the early difficulty curve.
Lost the first dungeon run extremely early on due to time loss. Very unforgiving for new players who don't know the room layouts.
The newer version just made the first dungeon a lot more difficult. Not a good change.
Opportunities:
Adult games always do well, and this has a different main concept.
Just needs a lot more content (primarily visual, UI, and H-related), but main scaffolding is in place.
There is a clean segregation between H and non-H content. This makes it easy to skip it for those only interested in the gameplay, and you can even release on Steam.
The main reward system is obviously underdeveloped, but is a solid base for keeping players engaged.
Threats:
I am missing (a start of) a workflow for the visuals. There aren't even even placeholders. This is an important aspect in adult games, and creating these visuals also takes a long time. This will certainly slow down the project and may even cause burnout.
Additionally, I hope that the current 3D-models are placeholders, I can't really imagine pornographic scenes with those things. If they aren't, you'll probably want to move to a more ecchi, implied, style of game.
There seems to be a certain scope creep related to the movement abilities, which is always a dangerous sign.
Heavy focus on difficulty and precise movement can turn off players who are here for the porn.
Deep Dives:
I also want to focus deeper on two aspects which I seem like primary issues:
Tutorial:
Separating the tutorial from the gameplay is always a bad sign. By the time I jumped into the dungeon runs, I had forgotten all about the different jump styles, and for the entire remainder I only used the multi-jump. The tutorial also isn't fun, nor indicative of the actual gameplay. There are no timers in the tutorial, it focusses purely on movement mechanics. I would propose to spread the tutorial out over the main gameplay. Start the player with only the basic jump, and then introduce other styles later together with rooms that require their use. Currently even baby steps is a difficult leap for a new player, even after playing v0.2.12 I had trouble with it.
The same holds for the other introduction of mechanics. Seals for example are only explained via text when first entering the seals chamber. And you start with several of them already equipped. A more logical progression would be to start the player off without seals, and let the first ones during play to allow them to appreciate their effect. Seals are also divided into different categories without a way to just see all of them (and filter later once you get more). This brings me into the point of:
UI Design:
As an example, take the reception. You have a large amount of coloured buttons. There are no icons, and no explanation what anything means. Green doesn't necessarily mean unlocked, it sometimes means negative, etc... You should add icons, add more than colours (e.g. a lock over locked stuff).
Also, I wouldn't show everything at once. Start small, currently it is overwhelming. I don't need to see all races and racial aspects, let me unlock them throughout the game. Preferably in a story driven manner.
Take some inspiration from other management style games, or UI heavy games (like Paradox Games) that need to show a lot of complicated stuff to the player.
Conclusion:
It's a game with potential, and the core systems are in place. But the user experience and onboarding process is lacking. It is also unclear how feasible it will be to actually create the H-content for this game.
I did enjoy playing it eventually, but if I weren't replaying it for DD49 I would've bounced off of the game already. Additionally, there is no reason to keep playing since the main H-content isn't there yet.
all music, or just specific songs? I got different songs for different templates, training room, and menu.
Apparently you need to fiddle with the FOV, but new players aren't going to do that.
Default FOV is at 60. I personally play at 80. What was the FOV you found best?
Seals remained very unclear to me
I must do a better job at explaining them.
The newer version just made the first dungeon a lot more difficult. Not a good change.
I did not make changes for beginner template between version 0.2.12 and 0.2.13, which means you just got different random generation. It would be interesting to know which rooms at the start of the game you found more difficult, so I can make move them to more difficult templates. I'm also going to make the entrance room easier in future.
Adult games always do well, and this has a different main concept.
Just needs a lot more content (primarily visual, UI, and H-related), but main scaffolding is in place.
Most in-development adult games make lewd content first, and then work on gameplay (if they do at all). My aproach is the opposite. I aim to have a working game before I start adding adult content. Also I am terrible at UI.
There is a clean segregation between H and non-H content.
Yes, I want players to be able to choose with how much H-content they want to play with.
The main reward system is obviously underdeveloped, but is a solid base for keeping players engaged.
Obviously the main rewards are going to be unlocking lewd content in future, but I am also the sort of player who enjoys unlocking seals, and min-maxing.
I am missing (a start of) a workflow for the visuals. There aren't even even placeholders. This is an important aspect in adult games, and creating these visuals also takes a long time. This will certainly slow down the project and may even cause burnout.
All heart rooms are going to be very different when I get to replacing them e.g. imagine running inside a dungeon, and on opening a door you are going to see a beach with a bar and "sunbathing" sexy fantasy creatures doing lewd things. It's going to take a lot of time, but one of the advantages of being a solo dev is you can rotate between completely different tasks.
I hope that the current 3D-models are placeholders
Most guest placeholders' heads are going to stay the same, but their bodies are going to be changed. I enjoy chibis, and mobfaces with more detailed, lewd bodies.
There seems to be a certain scope creep
Yeah e.g. when I first introduced seals, I only had about 15 on them, but it's over 120 now. I really enjoy adding that sort of content. I still got some game features I got not implemented like side objectives, and skill tree, so I am very much in the scope creep territory.
About the tutorials.
I don't really have a good way of gradually introducing game mechanics, which is why I got long movement and dungeon tutorial. My reason for that is with randomly generated rooms I have no way of predicting what sort of information would be the most useful. The game has many little machanics, which make differences, but they are just dependent on too many things. I also don't think I could remove default abilities with how rooms are crafted.
UI:
Green doesn't necessarily mean unlocked
Green means you can afford it, it's yellow that shows reception tag was unlocked. I went with colours because that's what I was familiar with from another game, and I lack icons in general.
I will try add more icons in future.
Also, I wouldn't show everything at once. Start small, currently it is overwhelming. I don't need to see all races and racial aspects, let me unlock them throughout the game. Preferably in a story driven manner.
There are 2 reasons for why I do it that way:
The most efficient way of getting the most guests in dungeons is unlocking the guests that players found empty hearts for (you can check heart requirements while in dungeon).
I want players to just choose what they want to unlock, and be able to prioritize them e.g. not everyone may be into kobolds, and they would rather concentrate on unlocking elves.
Default FOV is at 60. I personally play at 80. What was the FOV you found best?
After you suggested it, I played 0.2.13 with 80 FOV which felt better. Although I can't be sure that it isn't just because I got more used to the game.
all music, or just specific songs? I got different songs for different templates, training room, and menu.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. This only talked about the difference between the dungeon run music and the music that pops up when you open the menu. Feel free to ignore it, but I would have expected just a more muffled version of the dungeon run music.
It would be interesting to know which rooms at the start of the game you found more difficult
Early on, the most difficult rooms are those where you can't see all doors (like having a wall in the middle or smaller sidepaths). Rooms with green sludge are also difficult since you lose a lot of time as a beginner, unlike the lava rooms where you might not care about the coin loss.
I aim to have a working game before I start adding adult content.
I'm just afraid that at that point you will burn yourself out, since there will be nothing else left to do.
All heart rooms are going to be very different when I get to replacing them
In that case, please stop time when you enter the heart rooms. I imagine I'd be too stressed by the time limit to check them out.
My reason for that is with randomly generated rooms I have no way of predicting what sort of information would be the most useful.
One way to handle this is to make specific "tutorial" dungeon rooms. So the first dungeons the player runs through would actually be specifically crafted to serve as a tutorial and introduce new mechanics. Afterwards you start up the random dungeons. The player, not knowing anything about the game, won't notice that the first few dungeons aren't randomized.
(you can check heart requirements while in dungeon)
I never thought to check honestly due to the time limit.
ok, I am going to change some default settings like the FOV and turn on automatic tooltips.
I might not change music when pausing the game as well.
Early on, the most difficult rooms are those where you can't see all doors (like having a wall in the middle or smaller sidepaths). Rooms with green sludge are also difficult since you lose a lot of time as a beginner
yeah, it is my intention to not always show all room, but maybe those are also too hard for beginners. I just don't want new players to see all rooms as just cubes. Most rooms with sticky slime pools should not appear until template Baby Steps+. I am going to change the spawn room to make it less punishing.
I'm just afraid that at that point you will burn yourself out, since there will be nothing else left to do.
It's ok, I could always start coding another game while making assets for this one. I am more likely to slow down development due to ilr things, than burning out on my passion project.
In that case, please stop time when you enter the heart rooms. I imagine I'd be too stressed by the time limit to check them out.
I don't know about completely stoping the timer in heart rooms, but there is a seal in the game which maxes out exra time when you approach hearts for the first time (it's really good when you increase your max extra time too).
One way to handle this is to make specific "tutorial" dungeon rooms.
Yes but teaching things during dungeon runs would completely break the flow of those runs. If I put optional signs for reading in front of some jumps explaining all the possibilities, players that would read them would feel like I am just extending the tutorial with more writing about some edge cases.
I never thought to check honestly due to the time limit
The timer pauses when you open those windows.
Thanks for all the feedback, and ideas on how I can improve the game.
Yes but teaching things during dungeon runs would completely break the flow of those runs. If I put optional signs for reading in front of some jumps explaining all the possibilities, players that would read them would feel like I am just extending the tutorial with more writing about some edge cases.
I wouldn't add signs there. Just give the player the big jump, and include a room with a very large wall that requires that jump. Maybe add the explanation in the pause menu. But I can also see your point of view.
Good luck with the further development, I'm looking forward to it!
oh, the thing with my dungeons, they can all be beaten with no mana. All rooms are designed that way. So there would never be a room where you have to use e.g. power jump.
Players overusing abilities when they don't need them is something I saw many times, but that's something they just gotta learn on their own I think.
I finally got around to playing the goblin game. It's pretty cool although the amount of goblins is lower than anticipated. The graphics remind me a little bit of Immortal Redneck, probably because of the coins.
The platforming is pretty good. I suck at it but it feels like there's a lot I could do if I didn't suck so much. I also like how progress isn't centered around flat upgrades you need to beat the game like other roguelikes do.
The upgrades, trade-offs and such in question are nice. However, I can't help but feel that it could be more interesting if there was a random element to them. It's a bit "min-max" for my taste. I haven't unlocked all of them so I don't know if this already exists but perhaps a seal that afflicts you with a random -1 penalty at the start of a run in exchange for +2 or something like that might be good.
Finally, I don't understand why this needs to be an explicitly adult game instead of just generally lewd. I feel like that's limiting unless a game is exclusively a vehicle for pornography, but you do what you gotta do to bring your vision to life.
I can't help but feel that it could be more interesting if there was a random element to them.
The randomness comes from dungeons itself, and which seals you unlock, but none of the seals have any randomness to them e.g. none of the x% for y to happen. I can see why you might see it as a bit "min-max". Different seals work better on different templates, and there are many that are not just stat increases. I think part of the fun is figuring out best strategies, and efficient ways of progressing depending on what you are given, so yeah pretty "min-max" on that front.
a seal that afflicts you with a random -1 penalty at the start of a run in exchange for +2 or something like that might be good.
Maybe in future I could make a game mode where seals you got in use get randomized from the whole pool, but that would be like those daily challenges in Immortal Redneck. Maybe as an end game bonus. I got bigger plans for the whole seal system involving side objectives.
Finally, I don't understand why this needs to be an explicitly adult game instead of just generally lewd.
There are six tiers at the Fun/Lust Tower. Each tier is going to make the game lewder, so players are going to be able to choose the degree of lewd content. In 4chan terms it would be like choosing if you want to go on /c/, /e/, /h/ or /d/.
i really like it, timer thing is a bit though but i guess that's the main part that makes it fun. have you ever thought of combining the multi jump, power jump & hover thing? so instead of having to select it manually, you can activate it by doing things on a certain context. for example, multi jump is obviously activated by just pressing & immediately releasing space in air, power jump is activated automatically if you hold the space on the ground & hover is activated when you hold the space button in air. cause i feel it's a bit clunky to switch between those skills. or maybe there's a gameplay reason for the switch skill thing that i didn't know of?
Jumps are separated abilities, and there are different seals that modify them. There are also modifiers for Dash, and other abilities.
You can think of jump abilities as weapons in fps with mana being their ammo. Another reason is I want players to plan ahead if they need to switch to a different ability as they are running. It's another thing to keep in mind, just like dungeon layout, room order, door placement, coins and crates, and of course objectives. One might say that's a lot of things to keep in mind, but that's exactly what I am going for.
oh yea, i mean, technically even if you combine it like i said, you should still be able to have seals modify each of those since it's activated at different times no?
>Another reason is I want players to plan ahead if they need to switch to a different ability as they are running
I normally love these kinda games but when you add in randomly generated maze like elements with backtracking with a harsh time limit it just falls apart for me, the actual platforming feels great (even if I don't like the mana system) but that doesn't matter when I end up getting lost a ton, and due to the way the time limit works based on collecting gold, getting lost and going through a room again basically just kills the run. I enabled a bunch of extra time seals which barely helps, so my only option would be the unlimited time option which guts income by a ton, but no pressure at all also kind of defeats the point of the game as well since otherwise you are just repeating the same rooms over and over again without anything to make doing them again interesting. A big part of it also seems to be the massive difficulty spike between baby steps+ and baby steps++ which doesn't make for a smooth transition at all. Maybe it can all work better when you ease the player into mastering the rooms so they can go through them super quick, but as the demo currently stands that easing doesn't exist. And even if they do master each room perfectly the player can still get lost in the maze anyway.
Honestly I'm just very confused on what the target audience for this game is supposed to be, it just has a ton of mismatched ideas that don't really work together at all, not just with the supposed lewd management content but just the dungeon gameplay itself has a ton of systems that don't don't make much sense; Why is picking up and throwing boxes a mechanic? Why do I need to stop to manually interact with switches? Why are there three additional jump types to cycle between when it never seems I need any of them? Why is there a random memory game I need to play between getting to the end and getting back to the entrance? None of these things enhance the speedy platforming experience, they heavily clash instead.
Additionally there seems to be a ton of text teaching you about systems or mechanics that barely matter at all, maybe keep that stuff out of the demo until that content is actually in the game, or just simplify them until the systems are in place to make them matter. The seal system is overly complicated when it should be easy to understand and use to help the player make the game difficulty right for them.
I always wanted it to be a fast paced memory game, where players are rewarded for thinking quick on their feet. I find successful runs very rewarding when playing under pressure, because I know there are many little things that can make the difference.
You don't have to always aim for completing all main objectives. If you find the game difficult, it's fine to cut down your losses, and don't explore all dungeons. Eventually would would unlock seals that could be more useful to you.
I enabled a bunch of extra time seals which barely helps
the thing with extra time is, it is only good if you are good at collecting coins and destroying crates.
A big part of it also seems to be the massive difficulty spike between baby steps+ and baby steps++ which doesn't make for a smooth transition at all.
It adds a side path, which could in theory double the time needed, but the template description should give enough tips on how to recognize it. Unless you just got a seed with more difficult rooms, that's the only thing I can think of that could feel less smooth. How many runs did it take you to get to that template? Were you forced to increase the difficulty, or did you choose it yourself?
And even if they do master each room perfectly the player can still get lost in the maze anyway.
It's really hard to judge how much worse new players are. That's why watching streams is very important to me.
Why are there three additional jump types to cycle between when it never seems I need any of them?
The thing is, all rooms can be beaten without using any mana, but knowing how and when to use different abilities can speed up the process. The jump abilities that seem not important have their uses depending on rooms, and seals. There are many little decisions like bouncing on 3 mushrooms vs using power jump, or spending one air jump vs crouch jump with a ledge grab. Some of them are faster, others are less riskier, or they got mana cost differences, or seal interactions and more.
there seems to be a ton of text teaching you about systems or mechanics that barely matter at all
Like I mentioned above, things that appear small can make big differences depending on many factors.
The seal system is overly complicated
Any ideas on how I could make it less complicated? I don't think it is complicated, but that might be just me not doing a good job at explaining it.
Thank you for playing. I like the hard criticism I get.
I definitely like the idea of needing to execute things well under pressure, in fact I tried the game again after reading most of the tips in the loading screen and paying more attention to the description of the dungeon template. I now managed to get past all the baby step templates pretty easily with plenty of time to spare in most of my runs.
I think a lot of my issues with the game still stand, hell some of the more complicated rooms have some really annoying switch hunting which I absolutely despise, those wall levers really do not stand out at all and I highly recommend you make those way bigger or something else to catch the eye easily. The door tip is also extremely important and I would highly recommend teaching this to players in a better way.
the thing with extra time is, it is only good if you are good at collecting coins and destroying crates.
I think this is a thing that should be clearly communicated to the player, in my first playthrough I was trying to just get collect all the coins as I saw them, instead of spacing them out so I could manage the timer better. I think this is vital information that shouldn't just be told in a loading screen tip, but as a fundamental part of the game that should be explained in the tutorial because the game is clearly balanced around the idea that you have to do this. If the game is based around the timer, and a lot of design decisions are made around that timer, then why does the tutorial not have a timer? Why does it not teach any of the important information the player needs in order to play with the timer?
Some of them are faster, others are less riskier, or they got mana cost differences, or seal interactions and more.
Then I would like to see this properly shown to the player, the tutorial only shows use cases where they are required to use those jumps to proceed, but it does not teach how these maneuvers can be used to go faster in other situations. This creates a disconnect between the tutorial and the actual game because the use cases of the abilities in the actual game is different compared to what the tutorial teached the player to use them for.
Any ideas on how I could make it less complicated?
I still don't really get how the system works either, a lot of the seals seem poorly worded (I had no idea I wasn't able to collect more gold due to the gold cap seals, I thought that the gold cap would mean how much you could possibly obtain per dungeon run) and they are buried under multiple menus. Then there's the way you obtain new seals which just seems weird to me, not to mention the equipping of seals and obtaining of seals are completely different menus just make it confusing in general. But in general I think the game also does a poor job of telling me why I should use this system in the first place.
Overall I think I definitely enjoy the game a ton more now that I understand how you are supposed to actually play it, I still think a lot of the systems I mentioned in my original post still don't really match the game, but I now definitely have a way better grasp of the intended experience and with some tweaks I can definitely see this being a fun game.
Thanks for checking it again. I did not expect you to do that, so that's very appreciated.
I'm happy you can do Baby Steps templates now.
some really annoying switch hunting which I absolutely despise, those wall levers really do not stand out at all and I highly recommend you make those way bigger or something else to catch the eye easily.
most levers are not crucial for progressing. As for visibility, You are given a seal which helps with that right after you unlock Sealing Chamber. I see lever placement as just another layer of room memorization.
The door tip is also extremely important and I would highly recommend teaching this to players in a better way.
I am not sure if I should be more "in your face" with all the text. There is a lot of reading, and the game ironically takes time to learn.
why does the tutorial not have a timer?
I feel it would upset even more people. You can do the tutorial in under 2 minutes, but I have seen people spending ten times that amount.
At the end of the day, I don't want players to succeed every run, and I want to reward experimentation. Of course I shouldn't discourage players before they can start experimenting, so I am trying to smooth the difficulty curve.
Then I would like to see this properly shown to the player, the tutorial only shows use cases where they are required to use those jumps to proceed, but it does not teach how these maneuvers can be used to go faster in other situations.
Do you think it should be something like an empty room requiring one jump, and a sign telling players different ways how they can do it? Telling that information would be against what I am going for.
I still don't really get how the system works either, a lot of the seals seem poorly worded
Did you hold right mouse button over seals? Holding right mouse button opens tooltips. You can switch to automatic tooltips in options.
But in general I think the game also does a poor job of telling me why I should use this system in the first place.
I see, I should re-write my explanations.
Overall I think I definitely enjoy the game a ton more now that I understand how you are supposed to actually play it, I still think a lot of the systems I mentioned in my original post still don't really match the game, but I now definitely have a way better grasp of the intended experience and with some tweaks I can definitely see this being a fun game.
Thank you, I very much appreciate you spending time playing my game and giving me feedback. I hope the core parts of the game you find mismatching are just things I poorly explain.
Comments
Played 0.2.14. I'm still trash at it, mostly just run around aimlessly and can't find my way back haha, too unfocused I guess. So I don't know how much you'll get from my, uncommented, video.
New music is nice. It seems you're starting to implement some 3d stuff for your menus which I think is great. I'd like some buttons to move all your gold to and from the treasury. Sometimes I feel like I get stuck on things that I shouldn't, I dunno... I wish the "reinforced" crates were much clearer, I mistake them for regular ones all the time and keep wondering why they don't break. Why do I need to use the hearts next to the goblins to guess instead of using the goblins themselves, maybe both could work? I'd like the hands to do a "ready animation" when you're close enough to grab a crate in addition to the crosshair changing. Maybe make the raycasts more generous too so you don't have to aim exactly on one to grab it.
Other than that it'd be nice with more doodads, clutter, etc everywhere so you can better differentiate areas but I know you're working on that.
Thanks for the video. It's not rated, but I could watch it embedded on itch just fine.
You play pretty fast, the only problem is you get lost. You were doing well until you unlocked Baby Steps++ template which adds a side path. It's actually very eye opening to me how much of a difficulty spike one side path adds to the game. The template description on loading screen tells you how you can recognize it - I must make it clearer.
Yes, I am going to add something like "deposit" and "withdraw" buttons. Do you think the buttons should be added as extras, or should they completely replace the bar?
I think it was nice to see you unlocked the kobold, and that was the guest you needed to find on multiple runs. I noticed you stopped spending your gold, and I don't know if you were just saving for something, or there was another reason. It was also nice to see you put some other seals to use, even thou you stopped getting new ones, and the ones you got were too expensive for you to use.
was it the couple of jumps in vertical rooms, or something else? By the way, it was good to see you were using the power jump to get to those levers in that room with big water, but spoiler:
Yeah, I could see that happening a lot, and was wondering what you were doing. I thought there were enough visual differences between crates, but it looks like I might need to replace them with something more unique.instead of using the power jump to get to the lever, you can use it to get to the next floor instead.It probably doesn't make sense with just placeholders that stand around right now, but later on there are going to be multiple characters per heart doing their own thing, which may become harder to get to them i.e getting to a heart that is "linked" to multiple characters is going to be easier.
I might do something with the hands to make it clearer, but I cannot think of a situation when waiting for a very short animation to play would be better, than just moving closer to be sure. I'm thinking about rotating forearms so that the palms will point up.
I got plans for wall hanging decorations, shelves and eventually statues in those bigger empty spaces. I think they are going to help with that.
I also noticed you were kinda lost in all the hub locations, and kept skipping explanations every time instead of just switching them off.
I must say, I feel like you are much better at my game, than I am at yours. Your video is very helpful to me.
Just realized I forgot to reply to you, I doubt I can give you any good info now though heh. Let's see how next DD turns out!
That looks awesome. I couldn't start it, tried pressing the Play button but it didn't register the click at all.
On linux.
Maybe because I'm on a wide screen? Resolution 2560x1080
Yay
DAMN IT!
On a serious note, thank you for letting me know. I had that problem with ultrawide resolution before, and I thought I fixed it (by removing ultrawide options), but it looks like the game still launches at ultrawide for people with those screens.
I uploaded a new version, which should launch at 1280×720.
I hope it works for you now, and the game doesn't switch automatically to ultrawide again when you open options/graphics in game.
I tried the game and I don't have much to say that the other haven't say already, so just know that I like it and you should keep working on it.
I'm happy you like it, thanks for playing
ahoy
i'll make this quick since i've written essays for GResort before and i figure you know my general thoughts/views
so:
>UI is better with icons. still has some ways to go, but every step counts. go MORE visuals in every possible option. things like (Female) can be replaced with an icon (the simple circle + cross standard woman symbol works). put as many things in dropdown lists as possible. the UI should be tiny and clean when not interacted with (ie: when you first present it to a new player)
>difficult is stabilizing. did not encounter any bullshit rooms or composition in my early runs. slime pools perhaps still a bit too punishing, but things are much better than before. new (to me?) rooms are also good. did not have any "oh come on" moments. feels like i have more time to reach objectives.
>story (without visuals) is risky. people will get bored before getting the fun stuff. while I know things will have visuals later, i'm speaking about DDs. bored testers = testers who quit on the first failure. probably a good idea to either: add any possible visuals, no matter how bad (i've said this before i know, but i really feel strongly about this), or just scrap it al and start with the game, then reintroduce once visuals are ready.
>i didn't do the tutorial again, since i didn't notice anything new to me in the streams/ YT clips
>i mentioned this before, but i think time limits should be something that are introduce later, or something that you opt into for extra rewards. asking a player to remember layout + face on a time limit is stressful. i think it's worth it to pull a "darkest dungeon" move, where you have the intended difficulty, and the babymode difficulty which is clearly marked as such, but still available for players who just want to coom
>super minor issue: being super close to the heartmirror can show a low res face image. most people will faceplant the mirror, so i'd consider getting another, super high res image to use there. i assume this is WIP, though, but still thought i'd mention it.
otherwise you are clearly progressing and improving with each DD, keep up the good work
see you at DD50!
Hey osur, thanks for playing as always.
I am glad the UI is getting better, and yes, I got more visuals and placeholders for cutscenes planned. There is just a lot of things I always want to do before DDs, and I always run out of time.
Good to hear the difficulty curve is less steep now. I removed most rooms with tricky slime pools from Baby Steps template based on previous feedback. The more rooms I make, the more I am going to be able to choose which ones are easy enough for new players.
About the difficulty and no time limit: I understand people would like to have difficulty settings, and most people would probably prefer to play slowly, but that really goes against what I am trying to make. Right now the only real punishment for playing poorly is just slowing down the progression, kinda like in e.g. lego star wars games.
I was thinking a lot about how I can change the game for the better, and I think I got a good idea what to work on for next DD.
Thanks a lot for all the feedback.
I really love the art, animations and music. The UI too. Everything that's here feels really well-done and very polished. I found a small typo in the movement tutorial - "Press <Righ Mouse Button> to Dash!" Using milk to regen mana is cute. I'm terrible at these types of games so I haven't gotten terribly far, but it's been a lot of fun so far.
Thank you kistol for checking out my game and being so nice. I'm happy you say you had fun.
Great animations and art style.
minor UI things I can't help but point out:
I think instead of a tutorial that threw all of the mechanics at me at once (way too much to process) I would have rather learned by play through the game and just having mechanics introduced one at a time in levels.
The platforming feels crisp and satisfying!
Thanks for playing
I'm looking at confirmation windows on e.g. windows operating system and it's always left to right with yes/no/cancel.
yes, you are not the first person who mentioned that. I will need to add that.
What do you mean? One run introducing jumping, another introducing ledge climbing and so on? Basically what the tutorial is, but stretch over dungeon runs?
The tutorial introduces mechanics one at the time. It's just there is a lot of them, which makes the tutorial quite long for new players.
I am happy you think that. Thanks for all the feedback.
Huh you're right. Maybe I'm thinking about how the average webpage does it. One thing windows does is it highlights the "yes" option but at this point I'm just picking at unimportant UI stuff so ignore me.
Yes, I don't play video games really anymore (just program them) so I get overwhelmed easily. Just my opinion, there's a good chance someone who's a regular gamer won't feel the same.
I see. This game is probably for non casual players, but you are not the only one who got overwhelmed by all the mechanics. Your feedback is still useful to me.
Icons make UI more readable, the seals with the separation for the cost is also easier to read now. The vertical menu quick slots is new to me, I think it's an improvement.
Progression felt like last time until BabySteps++ which felt like a bigger jump and I had to retry several times before getting a winning run, I also got lost several times due to my poor inner compass.
A random thought that came to mind, maybe add a mini map that fills as you enter rooms as an easy mode? That would solve some people's being lost issues, though it may go against how you want the game played too much.
Can't think of anything else, keep up the good work goblin dev.
Thanks for playing. I am happy to hear UI changes are improvements.
It's the first template that adds a side path, which can make some players potentially run in circles. Template description gives hints on how to recognize them (if a hear room has 2 rooms, that means it connects to a side path on that template).
I am strongly against minimaps, but there are different compasses, and radars. Radars can be sort of used as minimaps depending on how you play, and compasses really help narrowing down the direction you need to head towards.
Basically if you get lost a lot, I recommend Navigation Seals, if you run out of time a lot, go with Time Seals. Not enough gold - unlock Gold Seals. Other Seal types help with time and other things too, but they are more dependent on play styles.
Played v0.2.12 for 53min, afterwards played v0.2.13 for about half an hour.
Note that I never played this game before that, and look at it from the perspective of a total newcomer, without even any experience with 3D platformers. I believe this will be an accurate representation of how completely new players will experience your game. Here's a short SWOT analysis, which will be the basis for the conclusion.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
Threats:
Deep Dives:
I also want to focus deeper on two aspects which I seem like primary issues:
Tutorial:
Separating the tutorial from the gameplay is always a bad sign. By the time I jumped into the dungeon runs, I had forgotten all about the different jump styles, and for the entire remainder I only used the multi-jump. The tutorial also isn't fun, nor indicative of the actual gameplay. There are no timers in the tutorial, it focusses purely on movement mechanics. I would propose to spread the tutorial out over the main gameplay. Start the player with only the basic jump, and then introduce other styles later together with rooms that require their use. Currently even baby steps is a difficult leap for a new player, even after playing v0.2.12 I had trouble with it.
The same holds for the other introduction of mechanics. Seals for example are only explained via text when first entering the seals chamber. And you start with several of them already equipped. A more logical progression would be to start the player off without seals, and let the first ones during play to allow them to appreciate their effect. Seals are also divided into different categories without a way to just see all of them (and filter later once you get more). This brings me into the point of:
UI Design:
As an example, take the reception. You have a large amount of coloured buttons. There are no icons, and no explanation what anything means. Green doesn't necessarily mean unlocked, it sometimes means negative, etc... You should add icons, add more than colours (e.g. a lock over locked stuff).
Also, I wouldn't show everything at once. Start small, currently it is overwhelming. I don't need to see all races and racial aspects, let me unlock them throughout the game. Preferably in a story driven manner.
Take some inspiration from other management style games, or UI heavy games (like Paradox Games) that need to show a lot of complicated stuff to the player.
Conclusion:
It's a game with potential, and the core systems are in place. But the user experience and onboarding process is lacking. It is also unclear how feasible it will be to actually create the H-content for this game.
I did enjoy playing it eventually, but if I weren't replaying it for DD49 I would've bounced off of the game already. Additionally, there is no reason to keep playing since the main H-content isn't there yet.
Thank you madodev for such a in depth breakdown.
Yes, I really need to add visuals.
all music, or just specific songs? I got different songs for different templates, training room, and menu.
Default FOV is at 60. I personally play at 80. What was the FOV you found best?
I must do a better job at explaining them.
I did not make changes for beginner template between version 0.2.12 and 0.2.13, which means you just got different random generation. It would be interesting to know which rooms at the start of the game you found more difficult, so I can make move them to more difficult templates. I'm also going to make the entrance room easier in future.
Most in-development adult games make lewd content first, and then work on gameplay (if they do at all). My aproach is the opposite. I aim to have a working game before I start adding adult content. Also I am terrible at UI.
Yes, I want players to be able to choose with how much H-content they want to play with.
Obviously the main rewards are going to be unlocking lewd content in future, but I am also the sort of player who enjoys unlocking seals, and min-maxing.
All heart rooms are going to be very different when I get to replacing them e.g. imagine running inside a dungeon, and on opening a door you are going to see a beach with a bar and "sunbathing" sexy fantasy creatures doing lewd things. It's going to take a lot of time, but one of the advantages of being a solo dev is you can rotate between completely different tasks.Most guest placeholders' heads are going to stay the same, but their bodies are going to be changed. I enjoy chibis, and mobfaces with more detailed, lewd bodies.
Yeah e.g. when I first introduced seals, I only had about 15 on them, but it's over 120 now. I really enjoy adding that sort of content. I still got some game features I got not implemented like side objectives, and skill tree, so I am very much in the scope creep territory.
About the tutorials.
I don't really have a good way of gradually introducing game mechanics, which is why I got long movement and dungeon tutorial. My reason for that is with randomly generated rooms I have no way of predicting what sort of information would be the most useful. The game has many little machanics, which make differences, but they are just dependent on too many things. I also don't think I could remove default abilities with how rooms are crafted.
UI:
Green means you can afford it, it's yellow that shows reception tag was unlocked. I went with colours because that's what I was familiar with from another game, and I lack icons in general.
I will try add more icons in future.
There are 2 reasons for why I do it that way:
The most efficient way of getting the most guests in dungeons is unlocking the guests that players found empty hearts for (you can check heart requirements while in dungeon).
I want players to just choose what they want to unlock, and be able to prioritize them e.g. not everyone may be into kobolds, and they would rather concentrate on unlocking elves.
Thanks again for your detailed feedback
After you suggested it, I played 0.2.13 with 80 FOV which felt better. Although I can't be sure that it isn't just because I got more used to the game.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. This only talked about the difference between the dungeon run music and the music that pops up when you open the menu. Feel free to ignore it, but I would have expected just a more muffled version of the dungeon run music.
Early on, the most difficult rooms are those where you can't see all doors (like having a wall in the middle or smaller sidepaths). Rooms with green sludge are also difficult since you lose a lot of time as a beginner, unlike the lava rooms where you might not care about the coin loss.
I'm just afraid that at that point you will burn yourself out, since there will be nothing else left to do.
In that case, please stop time when you enter the heart rooms. I imagine I'd be too stressed by the time limit to check them out.
One way to handle this is to make specific "tutorial" dungeon rooms. So the first dungeons the player runs through would actually be specifically crafted to serve as a tutorial and introduce new mechanics. Afterwards you start up the random dungeons. The player, not knowing anything about the game, won't notice that the first few dungeons aren't randomized.
I never thought to check honestly due to the time limit.
ok, I am going to change some default settings like the FOV and turn on automatic tooltips.
I might not change music when pausing the game as well.
yeah, it is my intention to not always show all room, but maybe those are also too hard for beginners. I just don't want new players to see all rooms as just cubes. Most rooms with sticky slime pools should not appear until template Baby Steps+. I am going to change the spawn room to make it less punishing.It's ok, I could always start coding another game while making assets for this one. I am more likely to slow down development due to ilr things, than burning out on my passion project.
I don't know about completely stoping the timer in heart rooms, but there is a seal in the game which maxes out exra time when you approach hearts for the first time (it's really good when you increase your max extra time too).
Yes but teaching things during dungeon runs would completely break the flow of those runs. If I put optional signs for reading in front of some jumps explaining all the possibilities, players that would read them would feel like I am just extending the tutorial with more writing about some edge cases.
The timer pauses when you open those windows.
Thanks for all the feedback, and ideas on how I can improve the game.
I wouldn't add signs there. Just give the player the big jump, and include a room with a very large wall that requires that jump. Maybe add the explanation in the pause menu. But I can also see your point of view.
Good luck with the further development, I'm looking forward to it!
oh, the thing with my dungeons, they can all be beaten with no mana. All rooms are designed that way. So there would never be a room where you have to use e.g. power jump.
Players overusing abilities when they don't need them is something I saw many times, but that's something they just gotta learn on their own I think.
I finally got around to playing the goblin game. It's pretty cool although the amount of goblins is lower than anticipated. The graphics remind me a little bit of Immortal Redneck, probably because of the coins.
The platforming is pretty good. I suck at it but it feels like there's a lot I could do if I didn't suck so much. I also like how progress isn't centered around flat upgrades you need to beat the game like other roguelikes do.
The upgrades, trade-offs and such in question are nice. However, I can't help but feel that it could be more interesting if there was a random element to them. It's a bit "min-max" for my taste. I haven't unlocked all of them so I don't know if this already exists but perhaps a seal that afflicts you with a random -1 penalty at the start of a run in exchange for +2 or something like that might be good.
Finally, I don't understand why this needs to be an explicitly adult game instead of just generally lewd. I feel like that's limiting unless a game is exclusively a vehicle for pornography, but you do what you gotta do to bring your vision to life.
Thanks for playing Bakar.
The randomness comes from dungeons itself, and which seals you unlock, but none of the seals have any randomness to them e.g. none of the x% for y to happen. I can see why you might see it as a bit "min-max". Different seals work better on different templates, and there are many that are not just stat increases. I think part of the fun is figuring out best strategies, and efficient ways of progressing depending on what you are given, so yeah pretty "min-max" on that front.
Maybe in future I could make a game mode where seals you got in use get randomized from the whole pool, but that would be like those daily challenges in Immortal Redneck. Maybe as an end game bonus. I got bigger plans for the whole seal system involving side objectives.
There are six tiers at the Fun/Lust Tower. Each tier is going to make the game lewder, so players are going to be able to choose the degree of lewd content. In 4chan terms it would be like choosing if you want to go on /c/, /e/, /h/ or /d/.
i really like it, timer thing is a bit though but i guess that's the main part that makes it fun. have you ever thought of combining the multi jump, power jump & hover thing? so instead of having to select it manually, you can activate it by doing things on a certain context. for example, multi jump is obviously activated by just pressing & immediately releasing space in air, power jump is activated automatically if you hold the space on the ground & hover is activated when you hold the space button in air. cause i feel it's a bit clunky to switch between those skills. or maybe there's a gameplay reason for the switch skill thing that i didn't know of?
Thanks for playing.
Jumps are separated abilities, and there are different seals that modify them. There are also modifiers for Dash, and other abilities.
You can think of jump abilities as weapons in fps with mana being their ammo. Another reason is I want players to plan ahead if they need to switch to a different ability as they are running. It's another thing to keep in mind, just like dungeon layout, room order, door placement, coins and crates, and of course objectives. One might say that's a lot of things to keep in mind, but that's exactly what I am going for.
oh yea, i mean, technically even if you combine it like i said, you should still be able to have seals modify each of those since it's activated at different times no?
>Another reason is I want players to plan ahead if they need to switch to a different ability as they are running
i see, well, as long as it's still fun i guess
I normally love these kinda games but when you add in randomly generated maze like elements with backtracking with a harsh time limit it just falls apart for me, the actual platforming feels great (even if I don't like the mana system) but that doesn't matter when I end up getting lost a ton, and due to the way the time limit works based on collecting gold, getting lost and going through a room again basically just kills the run. I enabled a bunch of extra time seals which barely helps, so my only option would be the unlimited time option which guts income by a ton, but no pressure at all also kind of defeats the point of the game as well since otherwise you are just repeating the same rooms over and over again without anything to make doing them again interesting. A big part of it also seems to be the massive difficulty spike between baby steps+ and baby steps++ which doesn't make for a smooth transition at all. Maybe it can all work better when you ease the player into mastering the rooms so they can go through them super quick, but as the demo currently stands that easing doesn't exist. And even if they do master each room perfectly the player can still get lost in the maze anyway.
Honestly I'm just very confused on what the target audience for this game is supposed to be, it just has a ton of mismatched ideas that don't really work together at all, not just with the supposed lewd management content but just the dungeon gameplay itself has a ton of systems that don't don't make much sense; Why is picking up and throwing boxes a mechanic? Why do I need to stop to manually interact with switches? Why are there three additional jump types to cycle between when it never seems I need any of them? Why is there a random memory game I need to play between getting to the end and getting back to the entrance? None of these things enhance the speedy platforming experience, they heavily clash instead.
Additionally there seems to be a ton of text teaching you about systems or mechanics that barely matter at all, maybe keep that stuff out of the demo until that content is actually in the game, or just simplify them until the systems are in place to make them matter. The seal system is overly complicated when it should be easy to understand and use to help the player make the game difficulty right for them.
Thanks for giving it a try.
I always wanted it to be a fast paced memory game, where players are rewarded for thinking quick on their feet. I find successful runs very rewarding when playing under pressure, because I know there are many little things that can make the difference.
You don't have to always aim for completing all main objectives. If you find the game difficult, it's fine to cut down your losses, and don't explore all dungeons. Eventually would would unlock seals that could be more useful to you.
the thing with extra time is, it is only good if you are good at collecting coins and destroying crates.
It adds a side path, which could in theory double the time needed, but the template description should give enough tips on how to recognize it. Unless you just got a seed with more difficult rooms, that's the only thing I can think of that could feel less smooth. How many runs did it take you to get to that template? Were you forced to increase the difficulty, or did you choose it yourself?It's really hard to judge how much worse new players are. That's why watching streams is very important to me.
The thing is, all rooms can be beaten without using any mana, but knowing how and when to use different abilities can speed up the process. The jump abilities that seem not important have their uses depending on rooms, and seals. There are many little decisions like bouncing on 3 mushrooms vs using power jump, or spending one air jump vs crouch jump with a ledge grab. Some of them are faster, others are less riskier, or they got mana cost differences, or seal interactions and more.
Like I mentioned above, things that appear small can make big differences depending on many factors.
Any ideas on how I could make it less complicated? I don't think it is complicated, but that might be just me not doing a good job at explaining it.
Thank you for playing. I like the hard criticism I get.
I definitely like the idea of needing to execute things well under pressure, in fact I tried the game again after reading most of the tips in the loading screen and paying more attention to the description of the dungeon template. I now managed to get past all the baby step templates pretty easily with plenty of time to spare in most of my runs.
I think a lot of my issues with the game still stand, hell some of the more complicated rooms have some really annoying switch hunting which I absolutely despise, those wall levers really do not stand out at all and I highly recommend you make those way bigger or something else to catch the eye easily. The door tip is also extremely important and I would highly recommend teaching this to players in a better way.
I think this is a thing that should be clearly communicated to the player, in my first playthrough I was trying to just get collect all the coins as I saw them, instead of spacing them out so I could manage the timer better. I think this is vital information that shouldn't just be told in a loading screen tip, but as a fundamental part of the game that should be explained in the tutorial because the game is clearly balanced around the idea that you have to do this. If the game is based around the timer, and a lot of design decisions are made around that timer, then why does the tutorial not have a timer? Why does it not teach any of the important information the player needs in order to play with the timer?
Then I would like to see this properly shown to the player, the tutorial only shows use cases where they are required to use those jumps to proceed, but it does not teach how these maneuvers can be used to go faster in other situations. This creates a disconnect between the tutorial and the actual game because the use cases of the abilities in the actual game is different compared to what the tutorial teached the player to use them for.
I still don't really get how the system works either, a lot of the seals seem poorly worded (I had no idea I wasn't able to collect more gold due to the gold cap seals, I thought that the gold cap would mean how much you could possibly obtain per dungeon run) and they are buried under multiple menus. Then there's the way you obtain new seals which just seems weird to me, not to mention the equipping of seals and obtaining of seals are completely different menus just make it confusing in general. But in general I think the game also does a poor job of telling me why I should use this system in the first place.
Overall I think I definitely enjoy the game a ton more now that I understand how you are supposed to actually play it, I still think a lot of the systems I mentioned in my original post still don't really match the game, but I now definitely have a way better grasp of the intended experience and with some tweaks I can definitely see this being a fun game.
Thanks for checking it again. I did not expect you to do that, so that's very appreciated.
I'm happy you can do Baby Steps templates now.
most levers are not crucial for progressing. As for visibility, You are given a seal which helps with that right after you unlock Sealing Chamber. I see lever placement as just another layer of room memorization.I am not sure if I should be more "in your face" with all the text. There is a lot of reading, and the game ironically takes time to learn.
I feel it would upset even more people. You can do the tutorial in under 2 minutes, but I have seen people spending ten times that amount.
At the end of the day, I don't want players to succeed every run, and I want to reward experimentation. Of course I shouldn't discourage players before they can start experimenting, so I am trying to smooth the difficulty curve.
Do you think it should be something like an empty room requiring one jump, and a sign telling players different ways how they can do it? Telling that information would be against what I am going for.Did you hold right mouse button over seals? Holding right mouse button opens tooltips. You can switch to automatic tooltips in options.
I see, I should re-write my explanations.
Thank you, I very much appreciate you spending time playing my game and giving me feedback. I hope the core parts of the game you find mismatching are just things I poorly explain.All changes since DD48:
https://webcough.itch.io/goblin-resort/devlog/479073/version-029
https://webcough.itch.io/goblin-resort/devlog/485377/version-0210
https://webcough.itch.io/goblin-resort/devlog/488362/version-0211
https://webcough.itch.io/goblin-resort/devlog/494012/version-0212
https://webcough.itch.io/goblin-resort/devlog/497274/version-0213
TLDR: added some icons, more rooms, more seals, more guests. There is a new Training Room, and I tried to balance the early game.
I would like to received feedback on the improved difficulty curve, UI improvements, and general experience e.g. what kind of seals you unlocked.
If you would rather not deal with the early game too much, I prepared a cheat code:
It’s going to unlock some locations, and give resources.
By the way, if you want to see all female guest npcs, you should aim for unlocking:
Minotaur, High Elf, and Eastern Kobold don’t have placeholders!
The game still has no adult content, but if you unlock tier 2, you can unlock Dance reception tag to make some npcs move a bit more.