Tell us what you like and hate about the game.
Really enjoying the game so far. One bug I noticed is that completion times do not update when you increase workers in the middle of the job completing. So if you hit go on a job with no workers that takes 1 min then max out it's workers the current run will still take 1 min to complete. This also causes the $/s to not update so you can't tell how much of an impact the workers are having unless you wait until nothing is running.
Also the reverse is true. If you start a job with max workers then remove workers the time doesn't increase. The biggest problem with this is that it could be exploited. Give a long running job every worker you have, start the job, move the workers to other jobs.
Dislikes:
-"upgrades" often decrease the $/sec, so what's the point? Why would I purchase an upgrade that makes my output worse? Especially considering the price per worker (to try and improve sales) gets to be insane and inefficient the more you have, same with the price of leveling-up
-xp & skill points take wayyyy too long to acquire. I also hate that you have to waste those skill points on new businesses. Maybe just increase the price of the businesses themselves so you can actually take advantage of the skill tree perks? speaking of:
-so much of the skill tree is about bonuses for manually clicking. I highly doubt as many people are willing to sit there and manually click each job as you think.
-for a game all about capitalism, you really don't seem to be saying anything or making any kind of statement about it. Is the game just supposed to make you feel good about making money? Feel bad for exploiting workers? Feel nothing at all? What's the point?
Likes:
- the advertising system is a genuinely great idea. The tradeoff for the time/$ boost seems fair and I like the stacking system you have
-love the corporate design and feel of the game. nice illustrations and color scheme
All in all, I think you have a game with a lot of potential. My biggest complaint is that you seem to hit a brick wall around 1B, which you can't really fix without starting over from scratch. there's no real way to experiment or see what works best after spending skill points, because everything takes too long.
Overall I'd give you a 4/10
Not the dev or the dev's friend or anything I just like the game. Here's my point by point response.
- Upgrades decrease $/s because they increase the idle time. This allows the player to decide if they want to play the game active or idle.
- I agree with this one. I don't know what the answer is but it feels like the dev is trying to make you have to strategize and plan. I salute the idea but don't know that I agree with the execution. Maybe if the businesses were more diverse so there were obvious strategies to pursue.
- Skill tree has skills that focus on clicking for the same reason. Only 4 out of 22 skills require clicking so it's not like it's a lot.
- I have two responses to your last point. First, it's a web game it doesn't need to say anything. What did Adventure Capitalist say about capitalism? What did Idle Breakout say about.... break..ing...out? If you're looking for some philosophical message, typically speaking, idle games aren't where you want to look.
Secondly, "Is the game just supposed to make you feel good about making money?" I mean... yeah. Idle games leverage a feedback loop of dopamine getting released from the satisfaction of buying/progressing. The entire genre is built on clicking buttons to make numbers get bigger to click other buttons to make other numbers get bigger. For a lot of people this triggers the same satisfaction as purchasing things in real life and micro successes that smash that dopamine button in our brain. Some of the OG idles games (such as Idle Oil Tycoon) literally have no game mechanics besides buying things and waiting and lots of people loved them.
I'm not trying to just be a dick or anything, you took the time to provide your feedback and that's always appreciated by a dev I'm sure, you're also 100% entitled to your own opinion and you can tell me to pound sand and that's completely your right. I just thought I'd through out some counterpoints that might allow you to enjoy the game a bit more.
Either way, have a fantastic day my friend.
Hey there, no problem - you make some good points as well and I am honestly just trying to provide feedback, not trying to hate. Like I said, I do think this game has a lot of potential- just needs some tweaks to avoid frustration and keep people playing
- I get what you're saying about upgrades in theory, but it seems like the penalty for upgrading here (once you get to the point where running each business takes hours) is way too drastic. When you go from making a few K per second to a few hundred per second, even with a bunch of workers, it feels like a mistake; like you lost progress. The active / idle strategies should at least be comparable here, and I don't see how you can make back the amount you're losing when you upgrade, regardless of playstyle. idk maybe that's dependent on the skill tree perks?
- And you're 100% right about the game not having to "say" anything. I understand that devs doesn't owe us any kind of philosophical message when they make a game- It just seems like a wasted opportunity, especially when the game is so inherently linked to an economic system like capitalism. Games like Universal Paperclips (which I strongly recommend if anyone hasn't played) and even Cookie Clicker make good use of this. I can't really speak to Idle Oil Tycoon because I haven't played, but I would be incredibly surprised if the developers of that game had no political ideas in mind when they were developing it- I mean come on, the Oil Industry is what has driven US foreign policy for the last 50 years at least.
Anyway, thanks for replying- you definitely encouraged me to think out my initial reactions to the game. I'd probably update my score to a 4.5 or 5 with your points in mind. Definitely looking forward to revisiting this game again after the next update to see what the changes are like.
Have a good one dude!