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smndsmth3 years ago(+1)

hi! first of all, good news: i could finally play your game! and it wasn't easy haha i'm not saying it because i didn't have access to a windows pc until now, but because when i opened the game i got this error:


luckily, i found this post so i just needed to install this and i was good to go.  obviously, this has nothing to do with you or the game itself, i just wanted to point it out because maybe it's something you may want to add to the install instructions.

[i'll continue with my feedback in the replies]

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smndsmth3 years ago(+1)

now, as for the real feedback: i really think that this game is good. i'm not talking in context of the jam, i'm talking in general: i found the idea behind the game really clever, since the way you revisited the pinball concept was honestly interesting. as such, in the next lines i won't be speaking about what you did right, but i'll say what can be done even better, to really bring the game to the next level. obviously, it's just my opinion, so don't take it too seriously, but i'm saying all this because i think that with a little polish this could really shine. also, what i'm going to say it's mostly about the player's point of view: as a developer, it's your job to decide if there's something to change or if what i experienced was in line with the experience you wanted the players to have. finally, probably you already know some of the weaknesses i'm going to point out and you just didn't have enough time to work on them - which is totally fine because again, this game is good.

my main grip with the actual version of the game is that at first it's all a bit confusing. the tutorial felt long and not very clear. i had to die the first time to understand that i didn't understand what the goal was. when i started placing objects, i didn't know exactly what they did, nor what or how many objects i had left. not knowing this kind of stuff can be something you decide to keep (at least partially), but giving the player some kind of bigger picture can help them better planning. also, about the tutorial, i'd definitely lose some words and keep it more graphical: the steps and controls are not that easy to master, so i'd say that it's easy to lose yourself at first.

another thing you may want to (maybe) reconsider is the balance between frustration and reward. it's not easy to reach the goal in general, also because there's a bit of luck involved, so starting each time from scratch can be more frustrating than rewarding for someone. i'm not saying you should totally remove the limited-balls-per-level idea, but maybe it could be nice to choose: an easy mode with infinite balls, so that when you die you just restart the level, and a hard mode, like the actual version. there could also be just the easy mode, and the less balls you need to complete the level the more points you get. obviously this kind of mechanism is nothing new (see this for example), and i'd say that people tend to like it (i would), so it's something i would experiment with.

besides these two main points, there's not much that needs to be added. the graphics are simple and maybe a bit rough, but they do their job. the music in the beginning tutorial doesn't loop (at least on my pc).

what's left to say? ah, yes: you really did a good job.

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ThisSignGames3 years ago

Thank you so much for the feedback! It's a really thorough and in-depth analysis, that's so awesome! It's really interesting to me to see what you pointed out and what highlights caught your eye. I fully agree with everything you said: the game was rough. This is the first time I really got into time trouble in a jam, and it shows. I generally expect a higher level of polish from the games I release (or at least, I like to think so), but some unforeseen time sinks (making the game use a retro resolution, various switches of bounce systems and the re-doing of all art assets, especially) got me in slightly more trouble than I actually could manage. Having said that, it's very informative for me to know what parts show most when they don't get enough attention.

Specifically, I couldn't agree more with your two main points. I was afraid the game would be confusing, and I fully concur with your statement about the tutorial. I hold a big grudge against tutorials. Usually, when a game I bought has a large, extensive or intrusive tutorial/prologue (e.g. XCOM 2, Warsaw, Middle Earth: Shadow of War), I just quit them. I have to force myself to start playing them again (which can be really rewarding: XCOM 2 is one of the best strategy games I've ever played, I think) but introductions like these barely ever work. I'm more of a "show, don't tell"-kinda guy, so I totally see how this could cause confusion.

Your point about frustration and reward also makes complete sense. I didn't playtest and iterate enough - I barely playtested or iterated - to find out whether or not the core gameplay loop felt fulfilling. That information is really insightful to me! It helps me straighten my priorities for my following projects, which are undoubtedly to come,  and hopefully allows me to improve my game devving and the product I create. So once again, thank you so much for the feedback you're giving.

Additional notes of interest: I found it really funny to notice we had such similar ideas for our games. In effect, we both made pinball variations that allow the player to change the terrain rather than just use flippers. That immediately got into my mind when I saw your game, and I thought it was a fun similarity. Other than that, I'm definitely spending more time on technicalities for any larger release I'd do, such as the installing of DirectX like you said, and I would look into exporting to Mac.

One final time: super much thanks for your feedback. It helps a lot. I hope you have a great day!

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