My initial thoughts: The GUI element of the game really confused me. I understand that the game was explained a little bit in the game page, but it would have been nice to have labels on the GUI elements, such as Enemy Speed, Cat speed, etc. The sliders being on top of the game as it was very confusing. It took me a long time to realize that the gameplay had already started and I was staring at an idle character. A beginning page menu would have shown the separation between the game play vs changing settings.
Art style can also be more consistent, such as the tower/cat matching the art style for the same game, but the enemies being way out of match with the cat/towers feels out of place. Also, the general feel of the green grass needs to have some more variation than just a plain green as it is now.
Look and feel:
- Does the character feel sluggish? Is it fine for the character to feel slow if upgrades will eventually make the character feel better? It’s okay for the character to feel sluggish. A limited amount of towers for a beginning player will be enough to defeat enemies and help the player save up for speed upgrades later. It can still work.
Enemies:
- Can you see the game becoming too difficult? If so how do you think we should balance it? No, not as it is. The enemies don’t seem to feel like a threat and don’t do any damage at this time. You can have a special object that you have to defend from the enemies or make it clear that the player’s life is what is being projected from the enemies.
- Are there too many enemies? How many unique enemies do you think there should be? I honestly couldn’t see how many enemies there were because the camera was too zoomed in. It’s important to balance the enemy count with the towers so that the player has a chance to pass each level while making the enemies challenging. So not a count, per say, but rather a balance that must be maintained. You can use the custom settings that you have now to play around with the difficult of levels and get an idea on how best so strike this balance.
Tower defence side:
Turrets:
- What upgrades to the turrets do you want to see?
Differing amounts of health, speed of projectiles, strength of projectiles, types of projectiles (some interesting ones, like could be water or fire), area of effect type of attacks.
- Is the firing speed good for the amount of enemies? I couldn’t tell what the firing speed was because I could not see where the projectiles were going. The enemies would just disappear if they got close to a tower. So I can’t really answer that.
- How many unique Turrets do you think there should be? There doesn’t have to be unique turrets, so long as the player is able to choose whatever they want. It’s more about a balance to strike between enemies and player firepower. For now, focusing on the core mechanics of the towers is best.
- How many Turrets per X path squares of path should there be?
(same as above)
- Are the turrets’ sliders easy to use? Yes, these are actually very useful. Just please label them on the screen next time so they are not as confusing or subject to player memorization.
Enemies:
- Is the pathing good for the Enemies? Not really. What’s the point of having them patrol the outside of the map without any purpose? They can instead be moving toward the player and threatening the player’s life or trying to get at a special object towards the center were the player is.
- What kind of improvements should the Enemies have? (same as above). Plus, some increasing threats, such as some having more damage, certain skills, or number of enemies.
Cat side:
Cat:
- Is this cat chonky enough?
Yes! Very!
- When shooting with the main cat do you see any improvements? If so, what are they?
Show projectiles when the cat is shooting and impact. Shooting sound would also indicate if the main player is doing any damage.
- Is the movement of the cat coherent?
The movement can be improved because right now it is incredibly jittery. Smoothing the movement will help.
- How are the cats movement?
(same as above)
We are planning to add these in the future how do you think they would impact the game? Gold and items to pick up, level boss Definitely! Anything that will make the game more interesting and challenging and rewarding to the player is a good improvement. You can also have enemies drop gold to give a sense of accomplishment and to make the effort of fighting them feel useful instead of just having them scattered around the ground.