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hythrain253 days ago

Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 6! My name's Hythrain, and I'm one of the hosts and streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live on my stream.

So I'll be honest. I don't know how, at all, to judge this game. Like, I played through it and I got the gist of what to do (collect blue and green things, more green things spawn as you get more blue things), but everything about "chain reactions" doesn't make sense. No joke, I opted to just start a game and keep myself in a corner while I watched everything else, and as time went on I just saw things magically appear out of no where. Sometimes they'd be from certain grey balls touching other grey balls, but other times they would bounce off each other normally. In addition, the number of grey balls if I did nothing just exploded to vast numbers for no discernible reason.

In addition, there's the whole "formulas" thing which I couldn't make sense of. There's also the secondary screen I see running behind it that's constantly taking screenshots and I don't know why. Then there's the weirdness in the controls, where WASD moves at a normal speed but if I use my mouse then suddenly it's at a speed FASTER than my mouse cursor regardless of how fast I move it. It makes controlling yourself with a mouse very difficult and at times gets you killed simply for that, yet you need to use the mouse to move fast enough sometimes.

This is to say nothing of the over-stimulation from so many objects and visual effects going off constantly, which make it even more difficult to figure things out.

In short, I really don't know how I can rate this because I have NO idea what's going on or how things work. My attempts to figure it out have been met with a lot of confusion on my part.

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Kait Wang253 days ago (2 edits)

The game is not as complicated as you might think. The only thing you need to do is avoid the alpha (white) particles as much as possible to survive longer and achieve a high score. Other mechanics, such as C (green) and H (blue), exist to help eliminate alphas and increase your chances of survival. At the end of the game, several different judgements are recorded, including your score, survival time, the maximum number of alpha particles on the screen simultaneously, and the maximum chain length of C / H .

The true intrigue of this game lies in devising methods to achieve various Marks (achievements) within such mechanics. Each achievement may require vastly different approaches, and some even demand strategic thinking. For instance: To attain the “Get a max-level H” achievement, you must rapidly touch the same H particle within a short timeframe to increase its level count. However, for the “C-Chain length >= 48” achievement, you must continuously interact with C particles while simultaneously avoiding alphas (which lead to game over) and H particles (which break the chain).

As one of the scoring criteria, the “maximum number of alpha particles simultaneously on the screen” is used. Personally, players often want to capture the moment when they break a record and the screen is filled with alphas. Therefore, the action of capturing occurs when the alpha count changes. However, upon closer examination, this indeed appears to be a bug. It would be more reasonable for the capture action to trigger only when the current count exceeds the lowest historical value for the “maximum number of alpha particles simultaneously on the screen.”

This game offers various control options, and the way different devices handle movement can vary significantly. However, I anticipate that players will likely choose one method they are familiar with for playing. Since this game may require precise control, using the WASD keys on the keyboard for control can indeed be challenging. The most recommended way to play is using the mouse in conjunction with the Shift key. Additionally, on the Options page (Variables), you can adjust the control sensitivity.

The name of this game, “Chain Reaction,” embodies two aspects. First, it involves alpha particles colliding with each other to create new alpha particles. However, in reality, new particles are generated only with a certain probability, intentionally set by the game design. If alpha particles were to grow too rapidly, players would experience an instant game over without much action. The second aspect revolves around the “C and H chains”. Besides serving as a scoring criterion, creating chains of C and H particles naturally occurs if you aim for a high score within the current game mechanics.

Sorry to hear this game has caused you any confusion. I hope you can find enjoyment again in the game by approaching it from a different perspective.

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hythrain253 days ago

So having read this, what I get from this is that the "formulas" stuff, which looks to be what's intended to teach the player what is what, is just intentionally confusing. It tries to teach in a way that connects with the game, but without some idea of how things work already the information can be overloading and hard to discern. I personally would recommend making things more clear for new players.

I did give a quick test of how things move with holding shift while using the mouse, and now it goes slower than the mouse. If you're after precise controls, why not just make it move with the mouse cursor itself at the same speed? That way, you don't need to rely on shift nor even have a setting to change the sensitivity.

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Kait Wang252 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Yeah, the feedback received for this game so far indicates that it’s not easy to understand how to play. Although the formulas have been modified several times, they still seem inadequate. Perhaps some elements that appear like ‘formulas’ should be removed (these were originally designed for the game’s theme) to make them more readable.

Because everyone’s mouse devices and settings are different, having sensitivity options in this game is quite important. However, this also highlights another area for improvement: users should be able to adjust sensitivity BEFORE their first game. Actually, I personally rarely use the Shift function (which is actually a suggestion from other players). Most of the time, I only play the game at a consistent speed. However, I can understand that some hardcore players may need more ways to control the game to get high scores. BTW, maintaining a certain numbers of C is crucial for achieving high scores in this game, it means that having a reasonable speed to consistently build up C is required. That is why I tend to prefer higher speeds.

There is something I forgot to say. Participating in this game jam has been very rewarding for me, and I truly appreciate the effort and time you’ve put into playing each game. Thank you so much!

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hythrain252 days ago

I will admit I tried to play with the sensitivity to try and make it 1:1 with my mouse movements, since it felt the most accurate, but could never quite get it.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. It helped me get a better sense of the game and what to do so I could give it a fair rating.

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