Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Unruly Bounce

Bounce through levels in this physics puzzle game · By mocha4coding

Feedback for Long term goals

A topic by mocha4coding created 17 days ago Views: 103 Replies: 8
Viewing posts 1 to 4
Developer(+1)

Hey everyone! A big thanks to all of you who tried my game! I think I am pretty set with the art aesthetics and core mechanics. I would love to convert this into a long-term project. However, I need some true feedback on things I can fix.


Suggest any improvements that you can think of! You do not need to sugarcoat—just be civil and polite.



I feel physics-based puzzle games can get a bit frustrating, and that is by design choice. I have noticed quite a few people have rage-quit from level 6 (where the tutorial basically ends, lol). So, I would like to know: should I introduce easier levels before level 6?



The physics sometimes behaves oddly because Godot's 2D engine sucks. I will see if I can integrate Rapier. If you know of any good 2D physics engines, please let me know.



Regarding the guidelines that some people expect, I really want you to use the game elements already present, like the grid in the background for remembering cursor positions that worked fine and the trail that the ball leaves. I can work on fixing the trails left by the ball.



Max force to the ball: I have decided to keep it as it is because, anyway, the mouse position is not captured beyond the screen.



Finally, what would be the right platform to publish this game?

Mobile / Web

Steam / Epic Store (I haven’t played a lot of games on the Epic Store, so I can’t really say).

Hi so since you asked ill be extremely nitpicking and going over some details I would add/change. But before that wanne let you know you made a real fun game and for the short time you had you did a really good job. For the feedback:

- Simple things like not resetting the level after failure: If I place the door in the correct place or what I think is the correct place and then just fail the shot it shouldnt reset the door imo. You have the reset button so in case I want to reset I can just press that. I would love that you could drag more of the level making it even more puzzle like, right now its place this and try to shoot correctly wich works for a few levels but I dont think youll be able to make a fully fledged game out of it. Maybe by adding new domains or smth you can switch up what you move or do. Of course a lot can be added for what manipulates the ball but ill let that up to you.

- Ofcourse some music would be fun, it was not necesarry for this entry but it does make a game come alive. Also the overall UI could be more attractive, for a gamejam it looks great but if you want to sell this youll need to attract players and you wont have the luxury of people automatically playing it like in a gamejam.

- The star system, I would maybe implement it otherwise but thats just my opinion: Instead of making it 3 stars to clear the level just count the stars someone got. Then make a level menu (for the issue you got with level 6 being to hard) and let the player pick wich level he wants or doesnt want to play. You can then use the amount of stars to lock certain new levels or lets say you need 30 stars from the total 50 available to progress to next level. This would also let you make harder levels without making the player feel like hes stuck.
- The physics felt fine so I wouldnt change much about that tho its true the bounce doesnt always represents the force I used (its very bouncy).

- For release Ill be honest at this stage I wouldt spent money on it (wich is normal since you only had 2 weeks) but for mobile go for android and for pc go for steam. Android is like 1 time 25 bucks and Steam is just the goat. You do need to pay 100 bucks upfront wich youll only get back after youve earned 1000 but steam does a lot more. It can arrange the correct prices for you so it fits certain countries economy and most of all steam keys. Steam lets you sell your game on other platforms as long as you keep it at the same price as on steam and steam wont take a cut.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask me any questions and please dont 1 star me :)

Developer

ULLLDR. Also thanks for being honest without making me cry lol 

Developer

Also I am not sure but do people pay for this type of puzzles cuz i have mostly played these as web games. Do you know anyone? I will do my market research but just asking

I dont know about paying to play but as a mobile game you could add some way of adds

(1 edit)

Okay first of all, I beat the first 6 levels before writing this. Most of these are my own opinions so there might be something that will not work for other players, but I tried to think the game as objectively as possible. Like I previously (maybe) said, I liked the idea and enjoyed the gameplay, so my comments are mostly about adding more visual cues and tweaking some small things.  

(I also posted this without reading the previous comment so there might be some overlapping things)

GAME MECHANICS

  • Ability to drag doors instead of clicking would be more intuitive to me. 
  • Some kind of high score system since currently the game doesn't remember what you got from separate levels.
  • Is score really needed if we already have time counter? It can make the game more stressful to see your score slowly decreasing. 
  • Like someone already said, door position shouldn't reset every time you shoot but only if you choose to reset it.
  •  At least once, the ball moving horizontally and just stayed there jumping till infinity. It would be good if the game detected this and informed the player somehow, like "your ball is stuck, reset? " and a reset button. Or a mechanism that will push the ball a little when this kind of situation occurs. I'm not sure if you woud like to decrease the jump force over time or keep it constant, but you might want to try out both and see which one works better.

DIFFICULTY CURVE

It is possible that some people can't figure out certain levels and will get stuck, especially when not being able to collect all the stars. I think a usual way to fix this would be to make collecting stars more voluntary, for example adding each scene one star you must collect and to make other additional. Then, you could limit possibilities to proceed within different levels by giving certain star thresholds, like after the first 5 levels the player should've 
                 1) beaten all the first 5 levels by collecting the main star and reaching the door
                 2) collected at least 10/15 stars
Requiring that the player always collects all the stars may be too much and you lose an opportunity to put any hard stars for more advanced players.

GRAPHICS

I like the graphics as they are, but the quality of them should be increased to lure people in. Published games usually have a good resolution but now it is kinda fuzzy in plazes, e.g. the player ball could be more hd like in the cover image. Might be about the game engine settings?

I would add some pretty highlights, like on the cannon where the ball is in. A small not so neccessary change but would make the game look more satisfying. 

Also some kind of implicator when shooting that shows you the force used to shoot the ball. Like an arrow that will be bigger when the velocity will be high and smaller when don't. This would make gameplay easier after the player has figure out how fast the ball will be shot by analyzing the implicator. 

PLATFORM

I feel like this has the most potential as mobile game, since most of the casual gamers are on that platform. It depends if you're going to make it free-to-play or not, since on the other hand people don't really spend money on Android games. Publishing in Steam also costs quite a lot, when in Google Play for example you must pay something like 25$ to put up your developer account and after that you can publish as many games as you want for free. There are a lot of other things to take on account too regarding publishing, like making a mobile build is a bit more complicated, but you should at least decide whether your main goal is to just publish your own game or actually to profit with it. 

Developer

Thanks for the honest constructive criticism and not making me cry lol.  I agree that most casual gamers are on android. i am thinking of html5 games and android builds. might go for some ad-based system and cheap adfree upgrades because i just want to have a published game that people are playing. will have to think about the graphics

I'll do my best to not repeat what others have said.

First, the technical stuff:

Technical stuff:

  • The timer should start when we first place the door. I think it's rather unfair to not give us time to read the tutorial.
  • With physics, Rapier could help a bit, but, just installing and hoping for the best won't be enough. You could solve most of them by fine-tuning the numbers; for example, you could limit the speed of the ball, which will keep it from going to crazy, or clamp the angle of reflections to prevent the ball from getting stuck.
  • The sound seems to cut off whenever we finish a level; that can get annoying really quick.

Moving on to design:

The design:

I don't have many notes in this regard, but there's one thing that caught my attention -- that damn door.

Well, I know you said in your video to not tell you why you shouldn't keep it, so I won't. Instead, I'll say this, you should double down on this type of craziness; you call your game "Unruly", therefore things don't have to make sense. Personally, I'd make the ball break the door on contact because that would be a bit funny.

Where to publish it

You don't have to choose, there's no exclusivity deal and the more places you publish your game, the more eyes you'll get. With that said -- if you only want to choose one, Steam is the best option.

Good luck on your journey! \(-_- )

Developer

Good idea on going crazy, i am gonna unleash the wild monkey in my brain. The sound issue is something i did not think of, thanks for pointing out! Yeah I guess publishing it in multiple places makes sense.