Hey guys,
I have not had the time to play tumbleseed in a while, but I am glad I took the time today! Booted up the game after a two month abscence.
Here are some notes on the opening parts. Most of it is really minor because you have an amazingly polished game already
- I love how much care is put into the introduction of the game - which I think is needed considering how unique the gameplay is.
- In the opening scene - you start up the first tutorial bit without any sort of menu or settings. This was a bit annoying for me bcause I wanted to set the game to be on my 2nd screen. I realize now I could have just paused..wait have the settings always been in the pause menu?? Now I feel silly.
- Tutorial bit - when exiting and entering houses, the music pieces are individually nice but somewhat jarring to change between in my opinion. It was fine but the transition felt quite stiff music wise. Kinda like skipping a track on a playlist.
- The flagseed initially requires no diamonds but ends up requiring one diamond. Ahhhhhh inconsistencies! I can see your reasoning behind this though, hm!
Wait why is this hat kid a scholar? They don't look like a scholar! Is there a backstory here I have not uncovered yet or do you guys not have established character personalities? I think you guys have a pretty neat opportunity to set up some nice characters considering one meets them every time one resets - but I understand that's in the super super polish department! For now this kinda took me out of it, especially since the same person was just hanging out outside a bit later. I've also been spoiled by breath of the wild's characters which may be why I'm more sensitive to this lol.
- I want the deflect shield to have more juice when it deflects!
- When testing powers - maybe have the seed to be tested fly into the teleportation thingy so that it is communicated the power "comes with" the player? Aside from that I am a bit worried players will just grab a power without testing it considering the testing area is above them - but maybe it's fine for players to figure that out afterwards.
- I still did not feel 100% safe when testing powers - losing health was super scary! Maybe..communicate that the player is replaced by some sort of dummy character? The original seed could hang out at the bottom of the screen in a mind control device while a dummy rolls around..but it's tricky to communicate too. All I'm saying is - I knew the rules but was still scared because it was still me rolling around. Color filter is super smart. Shit maybe it's an ancient seed showing how to do it? :O
- No explanations for what the bank or wheel of fortune is? I got to the 2nd area on my first run, maybe that is why? Or is that coming up in a later update? There were no speech bubbles and I was confused.
- SHOPS! Showing three items- alright! However balancing left and right to see the middle item while simultaneously trying to figure out a GIF while evaluating benefits and costs is super stressful! It's super uncomfortable to do two things at once for me - made the shops feel stressful rather than like a treat. Maybe simplifying the shop to only two items (either roll left or right to view item, up to grab it) or finding a less stressful way to preview items could be nice? This is minor, I know!
- On the leaderboards - I got no data. It's all empty. Not sure why. I use the itch.io client. Ohhh that's just steam right? Dang!
- Maybe this is due to itch - when using a PS4 controller on the scoreboard screen - "everyone" and "friends" will have the same X button attached to them, but pressing X does nothing for me?
That was a whole lot of nitpicks! I am getting super specific because this is getting so damn polished it makes me cry a bit. Keep up the good work and best of luck in these final..months? Weeks? I dunno! :D