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(1 edit)

Hey Incognito!

I enjoyed playing Mechnic Duo, even with solo play:

Here’s my what I liked and a few suggestions:

What I Liked:

  • Interactive Elements: The hover-over feature for more information is a great addition, offering players insights directly within the game environment.
  • Sound and Visuals: The sound effects, particularly for drop collection, are commendable for their quality.
  • Map Variability: The dynamic map layout and the
  • Upgrade Diversity: Varied upgrade options added a layer of strategic depth and replay-ability. The presence of upgrade trees further contributed to this.
  • Gameplay Diversity: The dual gameplay methods (air vs. ground) introduce a unique twist, catering to different player preferences and incentivizing cooperation.

Suggestions:

  • Introduction and Tutorial: Incorporating an introductory segment or tutorial before the gameplay commences could significantly enhance user orientation. Players quickly find themselves under immediate attack, which can be overwhelming without a basic understanding of controls and game mechanics. Consider displaying the controls information or a brief tutorial for first-time players.
  • Multiplayer Functionality: Expanding the game to support multiplayer interactions across separate devices could significantly broaden its appeal and accessibility, allowing more players to engage simultaneously.
  • User Interface and Accessibility: Some information pop-ups extend beyond the screen, obstructing the view. Adjusting the UI to ensure all information is fully visible could improve the user experience.
  • Audio Balance: The intensity of the sound on the air side might be too overwhelming for players, especially those focusing on ground-based gameplay (at least from a solo play perspective).
  • Game Balance: The effectiveness of sandbags and explosion damage seemed far better than most other upgrades on the tank side. Evaluating and adjusting these elements or boosting the effectiveness of other upgrades could offer a more balanced challenge across different play modes.

I had fun with Mechanic Duo and I’m a huge fan of upgrade paths and progression in general, so this appealed to me. I’m excited to see where the development of the game heads if you continue to work on it!

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

Online multiplayer was actually something that I wanted to add but couldn't get working. I guess with online multiplayer, it's one of those things that you have to build your game from the ground up for. 

I do think that an in game tutorial would have been nice - I tried to integrate the tutorial into the game by printing the hotkeys and displaying warning labels so that players could simply refer to them if they ever got lost, but I guess it can be a little information overload-y for a first time player.

As for UI, I thought that I sized all the text properly to stop them from showing up off screen, but I'll go back and check. It's also possible that different resolutions see tooltips differently. 

Lastly,  the sandbags were ironically one of my least favorite upgrades during playtesting. They usually inhibited my movement, preventing escapes and drop collection. But I guess I'm just unfamiliar with the way of the sand...

Anyway, thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!