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Short browser game Chicken Farm Clicker needs feedback for tuning

A topic by Durian Smoothie Games created Apr 17, 2024 Views: 376 Replies: 7
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Hi guys, finally have my game in a playable state with all elements intact. Looking for feedback on feel and pacing so that I can tune the numbers a bit. Specifically, please let me know if you find the game too hard or too easy and if the pacing allows you to stay motivated through the process of completing the game (via buying all three coin pieces). Please also feel free to leave a link to your game and I will return the feedback!

https://avocado-smoothie.itch.io/chicken-farm-clicker

I'm always a bit biased when it comes to clicker games because my old bones don't last long. 

I got water to level 9 and the coin is full.

What I would possibly improve:

  • I'm not sure yet what the coin upgrade does. Maybe a little help ingame.
  • A display of how many chickens I have.
  • For old people like me, a helper upgrade so that some coins are picked up automatically. Maybe not all of them, but only a couple every X seconds.

Otherwise, I don't like the night so much, but that's probably a matter of taste. All in all, I think it's a great game for a quick game in between!

(+1)

Thank you for your feedback! The coin upgrade is meant to be the end goal of the game; once you fill up that upgrade, you are meant to "win the game" but I left it without a win-state so that you can keep going. I will take your feedback into heavily consideration and implement these changes! Thanks again!

c u t e

It is really easy though. I didn't feel compelled to get more than 6 chickens, and didn't even upgrade the water at all. I almost left it at 3 chickens, but when I realized the price of the coin was going up I decided to speed up the process.

My question is, why am I not picking up eggs? I happen to have chickens IRL and as much as I would like it they don't drop gold coins :P

It would then make sense thematically to be either hatching the eggs or selling them for sweet sweet coin $ (big coin for a dozen??)

It would also be cool if you could buy a rooster, after all the only way to have fertilized eggs is to have a rooster around ^.^ also they of course defend against predators so this would give you the opportunity to increase the pressure from foxes. (for real, they can attack hawks and stuff, its crazy [also they literally feed the hens by picking up worms and clucking at them to come eat it, is freaking adorable])

This would make it so the player has to balance their egg selling with protecting and restocking the flock. I didn't lose a single chicken so even as it is now the challenge could be higher in my opinion, especially as time passes. Just having foxes become more numerous as time goes on (and as you keep putting more tasty nuggets in front of them) would accomplish that. It should be extremely hard and/or impossible to win with just 3 chickens. Even better if there's a lynch-pin like not being able to get more chicks without at least one rooster and one hen.

Thank you so much for the in depth feedback! The specific numbers you gave me and the improvement ideas are tremendously helpful. Being able to buy a rooster is a good idea, it is something I've considered as kind of an intermediate between having chickens and buying upgrades (my partner was also super confused why she was picking up coins instead of eggs haha). The recommendation of making the foxes harder by having more of an ability to combat them is very interesting as well. I have been trying to find a way to make foxes (and in general the game) harder without cramping players' fingers spamming click/space, so the idea of an entity that attacks the foxes for you once they are too strong to click is def the way to go.

Yeah I mean by keeping my number of chickens low I also had an easier time focusing on the foxes when they did appear.

There could be a break in the action periodically, such as at night, if you want to give a rest to players... but there is a pause button anyway so I wouldn't think its a huge issue. (I used spacebar which is definitely superior for me)

Hello Avocado Smoothie, these sorts of games are always more motivating to play the more there is to unlock. Having said that, given the scope of this initial game and your feedback requests, making suggestions for further additions probably isn't useful. Aside from the wonderful suggestions above, here are some things for your consideration that might help with motivation:-

  • Adding some other numerical values: displaying the amount of gold earned (in the location where the coin previously was) when it is collected alongside the jingle; displaying the current and maximum values of the water trough, as well as the increment gained when upgrading or refilling it.
  • Adding some additional colours, jingles, etc, to the purchases. I noticed that when eye concentration is intently focused on the field, it removes focus from the shop window. Doing something such as changing the highlighted colour in the players periferals or playing a short sound to show something can now be afforded could be beneficial. A different approach would be to show the amount of coins where the water trough level currently is, and instead show the trough level in the shop window. This would make the more valuable information more prominant. The solutions are numerous, as you wish. 

Triggering dopamine is king!

Thank you so much for the feedback! I agree with getting the player to notice that they have new purchase options. I was wondering how to do it given the current UI size but a sound and some kind of color highlighting would be an amazing idea. This is all extremely helpful I very much appreciate it.