Thank you for writing such a detailed comment; it was probably one of the most helpful ones when it came to fixing my wrongdoings! 😅
The main issue with the gameplay loop was the bug that prevented the player from progressing past the first doll stage, making it very repetitive and tedious. I had some struggles fixing it, but now I am proud to say that the game functions fully as I intended. So, I would be very glad if you could give my project another go and share your opinion! :D
Third time does indeed seem to be the charm, and everything seemed to work this time! I'd gladly help you improve your game even further, so I'll be giving some more thoughts for points of improvement below.
The game has a lot of charm, mostly helped through the hand drawn art. Even though idea of combining objects into presents isn't per se unique to this game, I'd say this game has the most unique approach to it. The little crafting minigames are a great addition, along with some other little things like upgrades between rounds, multiple types of dispensers and starred orders, which all help to make the game feel very complete.
That being said, I guess I would still consider this 'a game with a lot of potential' rather than a finished product. Some of my main thoughts were:
- The spacing between orders coming in seems a bit off. At times, the queue is so cluttered that it is literally impossible to finish every order, while there were a handful of moments where I found myself idly waiting for something to happen. The former is the largest issue for me, as it kept me from progressing past stage 2 (where the toy houses are introduced), I'm pretty sure there was just no way for me to finish all orders on time and not suffer gigantic losses.
- It took me quite some time to realize that the anvil is for wrapping instead of crafting (I guess my heuristics got the best of me). Not only did this make the game somewhat more difficult at first, it also initially kept me from completing any toy houses, as the doll would already be sealed away into a present by the time my brick was done. I guess this could be explained a bit more clearly in the tutorial section.
- Speaking of crafting: I found it a bit bothersome that the toy houses can only be crafted by adding a brick to a doll, in that specific order. If you change this order and try to add a brick to a heart (something which seems quite a logical possibility to me), it turns into trash instead.
- As with any long-running minigame, the gameplay runs at risk of becoming the stale. The lack of music doesn't really help in this regard (although I saw that you were still planning on adding that later).
- It would be nice for there to be an option to quit the crafting minigames once you've started.
That's quite the list of complaints, but don't take it as something negative! The fact that my thoughts are so specific means that I found the main game to be fun and satisfying enough to want to see it further improved :)
I hope all of this will be helpful to you!
