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madodev1 year ago(+1)

I'm basing this mostly on my experience from playing the DD48 version. This DD I only played the test levels.

Normal Content:

  • Very cute game, primarily carried by the characters and character animations. 
  • The puzzles are decent, but are clearly held back by the requirement to have (extremely nice) animations for the fairies. I imagine the game would do very well on Steam, as well as with streamers, given enough marketing. Did you try to get featured as a Godot game? Being in one of their blogposts or showcases would help a lot with marketing.
  • Do you already have an idea how many mechanics, levels, and fairies you want to add? I assume that creating new fairies takes a lot of time, and it's probably not worth creating too many extra levels for the extra revenue that it would generate. Your main draw will be the cute animations and aesthetic, not hardcore puzzle solving. So be careful not to fall into the scope creep trap.
  • That said, I would include some more difficult (optional) puzzles early on. The first time playing I remember thinking "Huh, this game is pretty easy." If that happens during the Steam refund window, it would be a problem of course.

Extra Levels:

The extra levels just unlocked after being the first level. Fortunately, since I have no idea how to actually die there. I played through them and put down my short thoughts.

  • 0: Performance test I guess. Worked fine.
  • 1: I see you increased planet background size, didn't mind/notice the background going forward. Good tutorial for witch fairies.
  • 2: Good puzzle.
  • 3: Neat, took me a while to finish, but really straightforward. The fact that you couldn't evade the blue jump arrows due to the frogs when coming from above feels odd though. Feels like that's the first time that the frog hitbox is relevant.
  • 4: Neat.
  • 5: Finicky to get right since you need to let the frog target main fairy then move her out of the way, swap to magic fairy and let her dismiss her illusion. It is rapidly clear what the solution is, but actually implementing it took time.
  • 6: Again, seems like you're moving away from time insensitive puzzles. Which is fine, because some of the puzzle that require quick switching are very fun.
  • 7: Decent tutorial.
  • 8: Good puzzle, feels like the first time I have to double poke a toad.
  • 9: Very fun puzzle. Again, time sensitive, but I feel that there's no reason to restrict yourself with that.
  • (what's the point of the long dotted line if you're just going to move the indicator straight to the flag?)
  • 10: Very straightforward puzzle, required no thinking.
  • Spade: Fun puzzle, but the fact that the fairy slept at the start didn't matter right?

The new idle animations are amazing btw.

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La_Fafafa1 year ago

Thanks for playing and trying out the new levels!

>Very cute game, primarily carried by the characters and character animation
I'm amazed this seems to be the case at the moment, I have heard people say similar things. Specially since in the past it was the opposite. I'm happy about it though.

>The puzzles are decent, but are clearly held back by the requirement to have (extremely nice) animations for the fairies
I don't quite understand this since I haven't modified puzzles for the animations. I did make the action part easier and easier increasing times though.

>Did you try to get featured as a Godot game?
I don't believe it will make much of a difference. The few times I tried to promote the godot part things went nowhere. I could give it a second shot but I'm not holding my hopes up. Also it is basically promoting the game to other devs. Promoting it to streamers and youtubers could be lot more useful though, which is a nice idea.

>Your main draw will be the cute animations and aesthetic, not hardcore puzzle solving
Yeah, my puzzles will be on the easy side of things. Cute characters like the fairies will draw a more casual audience after all.

>So be careful not to fall into the scope creep trap
I'm aware of that and I'm guilty of adding mechanics for adding mechanics' sake. I do have most implemented already and I have denied myself from adding more. Apart from the fairies already in this demo, there is only another one. There are 3 more toads though and I'm thinking how to reduce their amount if possible.

>That said, I would include some more difficult (optional) puzzles early on. The first time playing I remember thinking "Huh, this game is pretty easy." If that happens during the Steam refund window, it would be a problem of course.
I have been putting the more complex puzzles as bonus to not stump casual players. I will bet on showing that there are a lot of levels and mechanics to keep the player hooked.

>Fortunately, since I have no idea how to actually die there
Keep annoying the gray toad. I put the method in the post just now, in case other people don't know it.

>timed puzzles
These puzzles are very lax on timing, even more using the time stop mechanic. Maybe I'm used to puzzle platformers with brutal timings though. Also one thing that people don't seem to realize is that you can wait for the second time a toad attacks to position yourself properly. No need to do everything in one go.

>8: Good puzzle, feels like the first time I have to double poke a toad.
A puzzle in the second world also requires it. You didn't mention it was easy/hard, how difficult did you find it? I feel it is too straightforward and solves itself.

>(what's the point of the long dotted line if you're just going to move the indicator straight to the flag?)
Silly fun.

>Very straightforward puzzle, required no thinking.
I will need to monitor this puzzle, it is not supossed to be so simple.

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

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madodev1 year ago(+1)
I don't quite understand this since I haven't modified puzzles for the animations. I did make the action part easier and easier increasing times though.

I meant it in relation to other puzzle games. Compare adding content to Baba is You, to what you have to do to add content to your game. So obviously you will be limited in mechanics since every fairy needs its animations. It wasn't a criticism, just an observation.

A puzzle in the second world also requires it. You didn't mention it was easy/hard, how difficult did you find it? I feel it is too straightforward and solves itself.

It was straightforward indeed, I thought it was just to show that you can double poke toads, but apparently not. The solving itself part seems to be the case in many of the newer levels, but I guess that's just because you haven't added alternative wrong solutions yet to make the actual solution less obvious.

I'm amazed this seems to be the case at the moment, I have heard people say similar things. Specially since in the past it was the opposite.

Seeing the art of the mage fairies, I can understand why :)

These puzzles are very lax on timing, even more using the time stop mechanic.

I guess I'm just not used to it. Especially since it was never the case in the other levels and I think you even had a textbox explaining that that would never be the solution (or something like that). But it isn't a problem to include such things though.

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La_Fafafa1 year ago
I meant it in relation to other puzzle games. Compare adding content to Baba is You, to what you have to do to add content to your game. So obviously you will be limited in mechanics since every fairy needs its animations. It wasn't a criticism, just an observation.

Yeah, it requires a lot more work in that regard.

Seeing the art of the mage fairies, I can understand why :)

These fairies will always hold a place in my heart.

I guess I'm just not used to it. Especially since it was never the case in the other levels and I think you even had a textbox explaining that that would never be the solution (or something like that). But it isn't a problem to include such things though.

The problem with timed puzzles is that people will try to find them in places that doesn't have them. Some of my testers found convoluted solutions that involved very narrow time frames and ton of reflexes. So I need players to understand the timing will always be generous so they don't try to follow complicated plans (and get frustrated in the process).

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