i might have been too critical, but don't think i don't like the game - i just thought about the game too much and was compelled to write it down. i could keep going but i should probably stop here
reels:
- i beat the leprechaun with a red-only build which seems to be the only way, since yellows only make it easier for him to beat you and he doesn't attack enough with repeated low damage attacks to justify using blues
- leprechaun ruining your reels to the point where there's no chance of a comeback and you have to wait for him to kill you isn't fun
- i don't like leprechaun using your reels against you because it means your build is limited to certain types that can beat him
- since more matching colors means a higher chance of a successful roll, you're incentivized to only pick one color. that color is red, because no other color wins against most enemies and the leprechaun
- other colors that provide strong effects and then dissolve are useful, but you have to match them first, and in the mean time they're clogging up your reel
- jacks will beat me easily if I don’t focus on reds, tourists will ruin my build since I can’t beat them fast enough
- the descriptions of what icons do is very clear, the only one I didn’t understand was one I got after beating the leprechaun that mentioned turn slots or something which didn’t come with a tooltip explaining what that meant
map:
- i don't like how the player's freedom in moving around the board means they're able to choose to not interact with anything
- because of this, it’s unclear to a new player which enemies you should fight first
- when i first played in DD49 i walked straight to the leprechaun since that was my objective
- icons are overpriced, the meta is to save all your money to buy items, but both are bad in that you’re paying for something before you know what it is
- IMO pachinko is too random, pinball is too hard, and both are too expensive and detract from the core of the game
slots:
- it is really unpleasant that you can’t play the slots with the mouse, i don’t understand the reasoning for that at all
- timing the reels is skill based and feels fine, though I think it needs juice that I mention below
- in a way though, the game is like a constant QTE, so I don’t know if it would appeal to a wide audience
- it’s a shame that the reels don’t all pay out when you defeat the enemy
- if you’re emulating a slot machine:
- i don’t think you should play a “you lost” jingle. Slot machines know that it’s a bad thing to remind players that they lost
- i think you should use the increasingly high-pitched reel stopping sound more sparingly. I would suggest that you use it for each reel after the first that has a chain of icons that would pay out
- it’s a design choice, but you might consider using paylines instead of just matching 3+ icons. The difference would be something like:
xxx
xox
ooo
would pay out for low-middle-low and low-low-low separately for a total of 6, instead of just 4
- the “you failed, so you get nothing” item on losing to an enemy that flees or losing at pinball is discouraging
bug:
- if you reset the game while the reel is spinning the sound continues to play