Feedback + Changelog For Pong Arcade

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

Improved the mini golf, there are now 5 holes, you can leave the game by pressing L, and the ball resets when it is hit hit out of bounds. Also, players can buy different golf balls. The golf balls are shared with the bowling balls, so if the player buys a bowling ball, it can also be used in mini golf (this includes the Shiny Bowling Ball gamepass, but the size does not change in golf.

Added the Game Noob claw machine to Tier 3. The Game Noob plays the game Snake, and functions like a handheld arcade machine.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

Now that the game has more content which players can work up to, I am trying to make it more accessible to new players.

Players seemed to go directly to the 8-player games, then play for a few seconds and quit, so I moved them behind the 2-player games, only accessible through the main arcade:

Another player was continuously walking into the wall blocking the tier-2 games, so I added a message that appears on the screen:

Some time ago I added instructions that appear when players start a new game. I don’t know what to do about these, however, as it seems that every player immediately clicks out of it. For example, the following GUI gives the instructions “WATCH YOUR AMMO” in big red text, but everyone proceeds to just spam all the missiles.

Are these instructions useless? Maybe a better options is to show instructions on the game screen itself, but players may ignore that too…

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

Added a custom leaderboard:

This allows players to see the scores of other players without needing to be in the top-ten list. There is a “normal/powered” button to toggle if it should show normal games, or games with power ups. It is also collapsible with the arrow button or the tab keybind.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update
I am working on adding tournaments that will give prizes to the top-fifty players. Currently I am doing bug testing with low prizes in a 24-hour tournament. When I know there are no bugs, I will make them week-long tournaments with large ticket prizes and special items for the winners.

I also added some badges for players to collect. Here is a list of them:

Description of each badge

Employees Only: find the secret entrance to the locked room behind the prize counter.
Turkey: Get three strikes in a row.
Very Rich: Buy every item at the prize counter.
Lucky Spin: Get 50 tickets from the Spin-To-Win wheel.
The 6th Derivative of reality: Make it to the arcade at the end of the Roblox Obby game, playable in the Tier-3 room.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update
I have done further testing for the tournament feature, and I am almost ready to start the first tournament. I changed the thumbnail and description to feature the tournament, and I prepared a skyscraper ad:

The prizes will be:
First place: 300 tickets
Top ten: 100 tickets
Top fifty: 30 tickets, and a trophy
Participation: 10 tickets

The hope is that an competitive event will improve player retention, as players come back to improve their high score.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug that made two-player games sometimes say draw when someone won.
Attempt to make the mobile joystick not reset when fire is pressed (now it only resets when the ended input was in the left half of the screen)
Anchored the character’s root part when golfing so it is not always falling in holes. Also fixed an area where the player could get stuck and have to reset.
Made game input only update if it’s not GameProcessed, so characters aren’t moving around if the player is typing in the chat.

Changes:
Slightly increased the payouts for one-player breakout and invaders.
Added a small sound effect whenever a game ends.
Added the “player serve” message to breakout.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update
The tournament ended, and seemed to work without bugs. There were entries into the tournament, but it didn’t seem to help with retention, however, as the week 7 retention graph remained at 0% despite the game getting visits from the ads I ran.

I added a lower floor, where there is a laser tag game:

In this game, players get a laser gun and try to get the most hits. There is no timer at the moment; players join whenever they want and the game lasts forever. The number of hits players get is displayed above the head, so maybe that will help it feel more competitive.

I added some ceiling fans and lights to the ceiling so it feels less empty (in addition to other decorations around the building):

I made improvements to the Commander game:
Exploded objects also explode, allowing for better chains.
The difficulty rises faster.
Added a UFO object that drops bombs, and can be killed for 50 points.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

Bug-fixes:
Fixed collision in 3D obby game, fixed lag in laser tag, attempted to fix the pointer on the giant wheel so it doesn’t remain still (only works sometimes).

Changes:
Commander game now ends immediately when all cities are lost.
Reversed the direction of the escalators.

Additions:
Prizes won from the claw machines can now be sold to an employee for 2 tickets each.
Started adding controller support; most games (but not GameNoob) should now work on console, but there are no instructions yet.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

New Games:
Whack-A-Noob: Try to whack as many noobs as possible in 30 seconds!
Simon: Remember the pattern, and copy it by pressing the colored buttons.

Game Variations
Super Pong: Pong but each player gets an extra paddle about halfway across the playfield.
Crazy Pong: Each player gets many paddles, in a style similar to Foosball.
Easy Pong: The paddles are longer and the ball is bigger.
Gravity Pong: The paddles are horizontal and the ball has gravity. Try not to let it fall on your side!
2-Player Team Breakout: The players work together to break all the bricks.

[KrimsonWoIf]

Hello, I’ve given some feedback before on your game. I’d like to give more feedback now.

First Impression

As I first joined the game this was my first impression:

• I didn’t know how to earn coins
• I didn’t know how to progress
• Finding stuff was difficult and things were a bit unorganized.

Some issues:

• Your game has issues appealing to player types
• Your game has issues with its feedback loop

What are player types?

Player types are such:

• Achievers. The people who like progression (XP, Unlocking new stages, etc)
• Killers. The people who like intense PVP.
• Socializers. The people who like to be social and talk.
• Explorers. The people who like to explore and see new and cool things.

Source: Bartle's Taxonomy of Player Types (And Why It Doesn't Apply to Everything) | Envato Tuts+

Players can be multiple at the same time and even a bit of all of them at the same time. Its important to note though that there are cases where a player might fully be a killer and all they want to do is get in pvp.

How your game handles player types

• Achievers - You have a coin system
• Killers - certain gamemodes feature PVP
• Socializers - Your game is largely social based
• Explorers - Players are introduced new content as they explore the game

However the way you handle the player types if fundamentally flawed. Most of these rely on other players being present however the feedback loop in your game made its difficult for other players to replay the game. If a user had a bad experience with their player type, they wont rejoin. Furthermore, if they had a good experience but then continued having bad experiences afterward they will wont rejoin.

How your player types give the player a bad experience

• Achievers - While you have a coin and shop system, you really are not getting a meaningful progression through this. Coins have little value as the rewards they buy do nothing. To give the coins more value you could do stuff such as allowing them to buy a house (as seen in work at a pizza place) then they can customize the house. You also need to increase the risk in your game and make it possible to lose coins as your game is too easy. Achievers hate progress that is too easy. They didnt really achieve anything if that action was extremely easy and the result was extremely easy.

• Killers - While you have gamemodes that appeal to these players they are largely unplayed. In order for a killer to be able to get their requested content they must convince a friend or something. This directly makes the game worse because the feedback loop is hard to obtain which makes the brain not repeat it.

• Socializers - Your game is largely social but because players can be multiple player types relying entirely on socializion ultimately makes those social players leave which ruins the social aspect.

• Explorers - While its true your game taps into explorers by making it difficult for them to find new things which counts as “exploring” this makes the feedback loop in your game more difficult because its hard for players to do specific things.

How your game handles feedback loops which give the player a bad experience

What are feedback Loops?

A feedback loop essentially is the brain telling itself that the action it did was good and it should repeat it. Your brain determines whether the action was good based on these things:

• How hard that action was
• The reward for that action

A feedback loop is repeated from these things

• How obvious the feedback loop is
• How successful was it in the past (for example was it too difficult or was the reward not good)

source: How to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

In your game, you want to appeal to this feedback loop model to engage users and make them come back.

=
Lets create a model which depicts your game’s feedback loop. when they first join.

How hard that action was
The player first joins and looks around for a game to play. They must walk around and go through multiple floors to find something. They may play something and be disappointed if its not what they liked. This is bad because it can take them a long time to find something that appeals to their player type. This will cause them to not want to replay.

The reward for that action
The player plays a short minigame and gains a few coins. At this moment they do not know what coins do except for buying unknown items in the shop. The reward is bad because as discussed earlier the coins are essentially valueless (as they cant be lost and only gained and can only be spent in the shop)

A feedback loop is repeated from these things

How obvious the feedback loop is
Its hard to determine this because this is physical (real world) but one example is the icon of your game. you want the icon of your game to look exciting and have bright colors (such as red, yellow, etc) so the feedback loop becomes more obvious.

How successful was it in the past (for example was it too difficult or was the reward not good)
This success is weakened by the previously mentoned topics.

How you can improve your feedback loop

How hard that action was
You must switch your system of finding things. Walking around to find gameplay is too difficult. Most games that are successful “feed” their players gameplay. For example if the game auto selected what game they were to play it would make it much easier and repeatable in the future.

The reward for that action
Making the coins have more value and making the consequences for losing greater. If there is greater consequence it gives them value as they dont want to lose the coins. You can also include more things such as making the shop items give an advantage or having a home they can customize and show off to their friends. Furthermore it will increase your game’s robux income because the coins would actually have value.

A feedback loop is repeated from these things

How obvious the feedback loop is
Like I said earlier, its difficult but if you used brighter colors it could increase this aspect.

How successful was it in the past
If the previous things were good then it would be repeated.

How you can take advantage of feedback loops in your game

• Reward players for actions you want (to be repeated)
• Punish them for actions you dont want (to not be repeated)
• Make the reward substancial
• Make gaining the reward straightforward
• Make the reward variable (This means that they dont always get a positive outcome.)

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Hello, I have some comments regarding this feedback:

Many of these criticisms felt as if they were aimed for a particular style of game, while my “game” is going more for the experience of going to an arcade than being a game in itself.

You mentioned that finding things is difficult, can you elaborate on this? I thought I had a good system, where each room has a specific type of game (single-player, multi-player, bowling, etc.), and even included large signs pointing out what’s in the rooms. You also mentioned that walking around to find games is too difficult and they should be fed directly to the player, but isn’t finding the game you want part of the fun of going to an arcade?

The post criticizes the coin and shop system; do you mean the tickets? I say this because I removed the coins some time ago in favor of letting the players play on the machines as much as they want, while still getting some arcade-like reward. In particular, you say that the progress is too easy when there is nothing to lose; the main problems I have here are:

• If I re-add tokens, players will eventually run out and have to get more, which will make the game become a game of getting tokens rather than playing arcade games.
• If I make the games take tickets from players, it will no longer resemble real-life arcades, which usually only give tickets.

On the subject of rewards, you mentioned one problem is that the “killers” have to request a friend to get rewards, and this may backfire depending on the player; just to clarify, the multi-player games don’t give rewards due to the unpredictability of who is playing.

Another aspect you criticize is the shop-items themselves. Most of these are meant to be novelty items which do not affect the gameplay (like standard arcade prizes). I do, however, understand the importance of rewards that change the gameplay, which is why I added 2 rooms which require 100 and 300 tickets to access, and have their own unique games. There are also power-ups players can buy before each game starts. If new games alone aren’t enough, maybe I could make the tier 2 and 3 games give more tickets to make getting prizes easier for those players?

Finally, you mentioned that you didn’t know how to get tickets or progress. This is a problem; I had short tutorial screens in the past, but from what I’ve seen nobody reads those (example: every single user who played Commander wastes all the ammo despite the giant warning sign), so I removed them to prevent the possibility of players getting annoyed. Do you have any ideas on how to get players to participate in a short tutorial without just skipping through everything?

[KrimsonWoIf]

Hello, I’d be happy to clear these things up.

@ArneyFlarney

• If I re-add tokens, players will eventually run out and have to get more, which will make the game become a game of getting tokens rather than playing arcade games.
• If I make the games take tickets from players, it will no longer resemble real-life arcades, which usually only give tickets.

It is true that in arcades games usually only give tickets. However another thing to consider is that in real life those tickets are bought with money. The reason I suggested the possibility of losing is because of the concept called variable reward.

When players go to arcades in real life or casinos in real life, they do this for the dopeamine. The issue of having zero risk is that users do not get dopeamine if they are garunteed to win. This is because your brain will always expect a good outcome and it will degrade the value of winning because its not possible to lose. Its like when everyone gets a trophy in baseball. Variable reward means that the reward is randomized.

In real life, it may seem like they are always winning for arcade games but they actually lose with bad performance. This is because they get less tickets than the value those tickets are worth in money which leads to a loss. This ultimately adds value to winning because they have the opportunity to earn less than they started with. Even if the value of tickets will technically never be higher than the value of money spent on those tickets in real life, its ultimately the concept of scarcity that adds value and makes the game fun.

What happens when users lose all their money?

Add ways to earn more money such as through working or being active in-game. Giving infinite tickets is not a good approach to get your players in your game. You need to have some excitement. Some skill involved to keep players trying to become better.

What I meant by your stuff is unclear for spawning

When you first spawn outside its a bit confusing on where to go because you can immediately see multiple things in your camera. A better approach would be adding an arrow or making the parking lot bigger so they immediately see the arcade. You could even try just straight up spawning them in the arcade

What I meant by your stuff is unclear

Its generally hard to find out where stuff is because the signs do not catch the player’s attention. Furthermore, I noticed you have a level system that systematically adds news games they can play as they level up. I heavily suggest implementing an XP GUI to show their progress and to make the specialized rooms more accessible (such as right at the entrance)

Your stuff is overwhelming

In your game there is a lot to chose from. Your games are overwhelming you repeat the same game a lot in the same area which can make it seem like there is less games than there actually are. Because your game is already made its hard to suggest remodeling stuff but I think its good to known this concept. Users can get easily overwhelmed when they see a lot of choice.

Some inspiration

there is a game on VR which is similar to yours (using prexisting games) called PokerStars VR. It features a casino like enviroment that heavily taps into socialization (playing the games with other people) and scarcity in its currency as Its very easy to lose your currency if you do not play the game skillfuly which can make it extremelty fun. Remember easy is the enemy of fun.

As for the shop items

My point is that your cosmetic items are subpar in reward. Its not that the designs themselves are bad however a lot of the games being played are going to be single player. Its not a very good reward to have somethign purely cosmetic in a single player game. Just think of angry birds if you could only replay the same levels and the shop was just a bunch of cosmetic items for your birds. Cosmetic does not equal progression.
Cosmetic items are not as good in roblox because users can already customize their avatars. if the avatars were blank by default this might work better. You would also need to emphasize socialization more (like multiplayer gamemodes being easiest to access) to truely show off cosmetic rewards

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

I re-organized the games so they are grouped by type, and made the signs stand out more. This way players are not walking past the same games multiple times. I also moved Tier-2 and Tier-3 so they are directly accessible from Tier-1 on the first floor. The problem with this is that I had to move the PVP games to the second floor, which is harder to find. If this continues to be too confusing it may be necessary to rebuild the arcade again to accommodate all the recent additions.

I removed the outside area so players can only go into the arcade. I also added this large sign directly in front of the entrance so players know where to go.

I made changes to the datastore to be more efficient. The data should transfer to the new system; so far it seems to work without data loss.

I started adding PVP stats. This is only internal at the moment, when it is finished it will track the wins, losses, and win streak from PVP games.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

I decorated the map for halloween, and added 3 limited halloween morphs. I also added a small restaurant where the food items are bought.

I added tokens that are used to play games. Tokens can be obtained by daily rewards, or every hour the game is played. They are used to played games, and now to get power ups and revives. Different games cost different amounts of tokens to play, and games that cost more tokens can give more tickets.

I refined the ticket payouts based on the new tokens. The machines will give tickets more often, but unless the player is very skilled or lucky, the amount of tickets given has less value than the tokens paid. To do this, I made the relation 1 token = 5 tickets, and assigned the values accordingly. For example, a machine that costs 4 tokens to play can give a max of 20 tickets.

Hopefully, basing the tickets off tokens, which themselves are based off a grounded value (time), will help the currency feel more valuable to the users. While I want the currency to feel valuable, I don’t, however, want the tokens to be so scarce that it stops players from enjoying the games; that may be a problem if the token payouts aren’t balanced enough.

I added a 4-player racing game. It can be tested for free, but doesn’t give out tickets yet.

I removed the ticket payouts from bowling, they will be added again when I make further revisions.

The invaders game now has a score bonus for beating waves quickly, allowing faster players to get a higher score, and creating a sense of urgency.

2-player games now give 5 tickets to the winner. Preferably, the 2-player games are based off how well the winner played, but this is challenging with how unpredictable real players can be.

Also, miscellaneous bug fixes.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

Added a block stacking game next to the games area. The goal is to get the timing right so the blocks stack as high as possible.

Players can now buy a score sheet for bowling for 6 tokens, and trade it for tickets after clearing all 10 frames.

Updated the thumbnails.

Daily reward now starts at 100 tokens per day, and the idle payout is 2 tokens every 5 minutes.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

I started adding neon lights to the arcade and the game machines. Hopefully this will make important places more noticeable and make things look better at the same time. I also started changing some of the wood to plastic for a more classic look. If anyone has comments on if I should continue this style or revert it, that would be appreciated.

I changed the sign in the front of the arcade to scroll through information about the different things that are in the game.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

UPDATE

This update will likely have many bugs and unintended behavior. I will try to fix any bugs as soon as possible, and unfinished features will become better after further testing.

Upgraded Arcade Building
I completely rebuilt the arcade. Now rooms should be easier to navigate, especially without important games being on a second floor. I also modified the style to use more materials so the building feels more like an arcade. Furthermore, players spawn in the outside area again, which can lead to either the arcade or bowling. The arrows clarify where the player should go to enter the arcade. The update is not completely finished, so some areas will feel empty or under-decorated.

Tier Changes
I decided to change the tier access from the general “Tier-2” and “Tier-3” upgrades to “More Claw Games” and “3D Games”. Players who previously purchased access will still have it. The Extra Claw Games also includes the Potato Lounge, with a slide into the potato pool. The 3D Games room is currently unavailable to players who did not previously get access; I will make it available when get the 3D game working with the new systems.

Game Improvements
For games, I added Snake and a Potato Claw Machine.

Unfortunately, some games still need to be upgraded to work with the new systems, including: ski-ball, simon says, 3D obby, whack-a-noob, laser tag, mini-golf, 4-player racing, 8-player games. This will take more time, so those will be added again in newer versions.

I also made improvements to games. There are neon lights that flash when games start and end. The players grip the joystick when playing games. For claw games there is an option to fix the camera at certain positions, and even view from claw itself. Arcade machines feature a leaderboard at the end of each game that shows the top-ten scores and the player’s own score and rank.

Example of a player gripping the joystick:

PVP Stats
I implemented a PVP stat system for the pong games, which increases upon winning a game and decreases upon losing. This is my first time implementing this kind of system, so there may be glitches and balancing issues. Each player starts with 100 points and cannot go below 0. How the system works is based on the following logistic equation, where “diff” is the difference in rating between the players:

The player who lost will lose this many points and the player who won will gain them. Due to the shape of the logistic graph, there should be a large reward for defeating a player stronger than yourself, and a small reward for defeating a player weaker than yourself.

For now there is only one stat for all PVP games, I plan to stats for individual games when I see that this system is functioning.

Other
I added a display above the player’s head which shows important stats: username, tickets, tokens, and PVP rating. There is a new bubble wand prize in the Prize Room. I also reconfigured the prices of the prizes, and the Robux cost of tickets. There is a new animation for gaining tickets (may get buggy, especially when getting a lot of tickets). The bowling alley has 10 lanes instead of 4, so more players can bowl at once.

This update has many major changes which are likely to break. Let me know if there are any bugs so I can fix them as quickly as possible. The removal of some games is unfortunate, but I will add them back to the game whenever I can fix and improve upon them.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

The last update had some bugs which I recently fixed:
math.floor is used on the PVP stat so the decimal is not shown,
prompts do not disappear if a player leaves while playing a game,
fixed a glitch that stops data from saving,
and other miscellaneous glitches

I also condensed all the RunService.Heartbeat and while loops into a main server loop and client loop, and UnreliableRemoteEvents are used for the arm controller movement. Maybe this will decrease the lag.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

I brought back some old features from the previous version.

The block stacking game, which now gives a 15 ticket bonus when the top is reached:

Ski-ball, with smoother ball throwing by setting the network owner of the ball to the current player. The remaining balls are now shown in the container (not yet easily visible to the player).

Eight-player Pong and Tanks, which now freeze when they are not being used (to improve performance):

Two prizes were added: the spyglass (new) and the GameNoob (from the previous version). The spyglass has buggy behavior when used, I will fix this.

I also attempted a fix for the glitchy hands by setting the network ownership of the assembly to the current player. This seems to have mostly fixed it (at least on the client side), but it still occasionally glitches.

[ArneyFlarney (Your_Face)]

Update

The claw machines should be more smooth because I set the NetworkOwnership of the claw assembly and prizes to the player who is currently in the machine. The potato claw machine should also be less laggy, as I simplified the collision boxes of the prizes.

Now, players who are not in a game are displayed as grey instead of the team color. This makes it easier to know if someone left. Also, in the tanks game, players can only hit other players who are in the game. The prevents getting large amounts of points in the eight-player game by targeting tanks which nobody is using.

Added the 3D-game room, which has the 3D roblox obby from the previous version. Access to the room costs 300 tickets, but players who had access to tier-3 in previous versions automatically have access. Now, instead of getting 5 tickets, players are awarded tickets for completing the obby more quickly. I also added some sound effects for jumping, dying, winning.