Feedback on Course Adventures

[MooskaisFlawless]

Hello! I would like some more feedback on the game I recently updated, Course Adventures. This update includes a new lobby, a new course, and tons of bug fixes. I’m not asking for feedback on the new course since it may take a while to get enough coins. However, if you do get there, then I would appreciate the feedback.

Here is a little synopsis of my game. In this game, the player collects coins to unlock courses. These courses are like obbies. On each course, there is a timer. Depending on the time a player gets depends on what type of star a player gets in there score panel. There are 4 types of stars, bronze, silver, gold, and insane. I have been working on this game for a year and a half.

Pictures of New Lobby

I have written another post for feedback on this game 6 months ago, however there were several bugs then, which made it hard for someone to give feedback. So I felt it would be okay to make another post.

Have a good day

[GalaxyGourmet]

So I’ve tried out the game, and honestly, it’s pretty fun! Here are my thoughts:

First Impression

Before actually clicking open the game, I was already interested by the title. The words “Course Adventures” is vague in a way where it gives me a need to click it.

The little tutorial dialogue when you first play is quite helpful, and very smooth. I liked it. What really caught me off guard was that the lobby itself has it’s own collectibles like in the courses, such as diamonds and coins. That’s so cool! You’re forced to collect 10 coins around to play, and that’s the perfect amount to give the player a sense of the game, but not too much that they get bored.

I was roaming around the lobby for collectibles for a good amount of time, and I had just as much fun doing it as playing the actual courses.

Grassland Course

After collecting 10 coins in the lobby, I headed towards the first course of the game, and I was not disappointed. I’m a guy who likes platformers, so this really got me engaged. Some of the secrets were cleverly hidden, like the diamonds where you have to click a button on the side of a cliff, and the bridge it reveals leads to inside of the mountain with a diamond. It’s the kind of thing that makes players want to go back and get everything. I ran through this course again because I didn’t have enough coins to get to the next course, and it was just a fun as the first time.

I can tell you put time and effort into making this course. It felt like a pleasure to play.

Desert Course

That desert music hit the spot. I’m still jamming to it in my head as I’m writing this!

I loved the desert as much as the grassland. It took on new concepts, like clicking buttons to activate another button nearby. That’s a very creative way of doing something new for the second course. There are better secrets with better obstacles, like the cave conveyor obstacle.

I also liked the pyramid section of the course, where you had to click buttons in different rooms to get out. I really enjoyed that. Nice job with the building!

I stopped after the desert stage since I had to go, but it was a very pleasant experience!

Overall, this game was fantastic! It really reminded me of games like mario 3D world where you traverse a linear stage but also find secrets along the way. Awesome game!

[MooskaisFlawless]

Thank you so much for your feedback. I’m glad you really enjoyed it. I have noticed that 1/3 of the players that play the grassland course continue onto the desert course. Do you think the reason why is because the courses are too over priced? Do you think I should lower it?

[GalaxyGourmet]

Yes, since most players are likely to not have enough coins after completing the grasslands to unlock the desert. I’d say lower it to a minimum of 40-50 coins, which should be just the right amount.

[MooskaisFlawless]

I have also noticed people stop playing the game after the desert, even after lowering the price of the next course. Do you happened to know an reason why?

[Sir_Highness]

Its a really fun game, the coin unlocking is a bit confusing.

My kid tried to play and she got stuck at the end of a level the teleport back to lobby didn’t work. After that, it wouldn’t let her unlock the 100 coin level even though she had 180+ coins I think. Collecting more in the ‘coin collecting area’ didn’t help. Then we thought, maybe it required lobby coins to unlock and she collected up to 100 lobby coins and it let her in.

Maybe it was a glitch but its kinda confusing if lobby coins vs total coins matters.

I have 200+ coins, I can unlock every level except city (which is 150 to unlock, no?). My lobby total is less than 50 I think, so it doesn’t match what her game was doing.

Also, I see a lot of ‘noob’ dummies(maybe) under various maps. I don’t know if that was intentional.

[MooskaisFlawless]

Thats a bug that i havent seen yet. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’ll try fixing it. Plus lobby coins matter so that you can unlock the achievements in the lobby.

@Sir_Highness

My lobby total is less than 50 I think, so it doesn’t match what her game was doing.

Every coin is localized in this game. I’ll look into the teleporter bugs.

[Sir_Highness]

Does it make sense that I can’t unlock the city when I have 200 coins? Is it the level 3 that is required? If so, you may want to clear up the wording of what is required, see screenshot, the coin unlocks are confusing if they are working as intended(and not letting me in):

[Astr0Derp (Astr0)]

I think the graphics and the obby-puzzle like vibe are all great. The foundation is there for something good.

To be as helpful and candid as I can, the issue for me was that it’s missing something to make it truly engaging. At least in the lower levels that I saw, if a player is relatively adept at avoiding pitfalls and generally not falling to his/her death, then the action mostly centers around collecting coins (gems, etc.). Collecting coins isn’t much motivation in itself unless you already have something in mind that you want to purchase. A more traditional obby often keeps players going by throwing new, different, and unavoidable obstacles in front of them constantly. The obstacles ARE the journey. This one feels more like we’re traveling through a terrain with obstacles to overcome along the way–which a cool concept, but it seems to need something else. I left after a couple of courses for mainly two reasons: 1. I didn’t have anything in mind to purchase that was driving my desire to collect coins. 2. My expectation was that later courses would largely be more complex versions of what I’d already seen (granted with different themes) and attempting harder versions of a similar type of gameplay wasn’t a huge draw for me. I also didn’t have much interest in trying to improve my times on maps I’d completed (and couldn’t readily see the benefit in doing that)

Some things that came to mind while playing:

• Could the timer be centered near the top of the screen instead of behind the chat window?
• If more than one player is in an obby, do the bridges and such stay open so later players just race along behind those who press all the buttons or do they time out and close? Are they seen on client side only…etc.
• More than 1 or 2 “coming soon” areas draws a lot of attention to it not being finished. Might be worth putting billboard-like advertisements for things you want players to not miss in the game or highlight something that can be purchased in those locations until the maps and teleport are ready.
• I really liked a lot of the modeling. The way the caves were constructed was very cool, and the anti-gravity lift areas were nice.
• I didn’t explore as much as I should have because I wasn’t sure if collecting coins was more important than finishing quickly.
• It felt like a complete game (in terms of GUIs and maps and overall experience). I didn’t get the feeling that it needed some big missing element to pull it all together.

For the engagement thing, Idk. How comfortable are you with NPCs or pathfinding? Having something in there that is actively working against you (as opposed to passively like the existing obstacles) might be a nice addition. GalaxyGourmet mentioned Mario, which made me wonder if something like an NPC antagonist (or a few) might make the action more compelling and increase the amount of time players stick around. At any rate, I give it high marks on the whole. You’ve clearly invested a lot of time in this. Might be time to recruit some players who spend a fair amount of time in obby games to play it and give you targeted feedback. I’m certainly no obby expert, so there’s a good chance I’m just not seeing some elements that others would find really compelling. It’s a really solid foundation to build upon, so congrats! GL moving forward!

[MooskaisFlawless]

@Sir_Highness this is a bug that I’m trying to fix. I will change the word “unlock” to “buy”. No, they are not working as intended.

@Astr0Derp thanks for the feedback.

@Astr0Derp

GalaxyGourmet mentioned Mario, which made me wonder if something like an NPC antagonist (or a few) might make the action more compelling and increase the amount of time players stick around.

There is actually a secret antagonist, which is an evil alien. In some of the secret areas of the courses, there would be little notes like, “I’m going to destroy this planet”, or “I am coming soon”. The last course I would make would be the boss battle between you and him. Though I do agree with you, I should make him more noticeable.

@Astr0Derp

If more than one player is in an obby, do the bridges and such stay open so later players just race along behind those who press all the buttons or do they time out and close? Are they seen on client side only…etc.

They are client sided.

@Astr0Derp

the issue for me was that it’s missing something to make it truly engaging

This really got me thinking. I finally decided to start creating Course Adventures 2. I have so many new ideas that it would be impossible or extremely difficult to implement into the original. I could make the overall goal of the new game to be to defeat the evil alien I mentioned earlier. He sends out some of his minions in each course, and the only way to defeat them is with guns. You can buy better guns with coins (so you have more reasons to collect coins) in the shop, which do more damage the higher the price is. Another thing I plan on adding is upgrades. Upgrades will be used to quicken button speed, make coins have multipliers, make gems have multipliers, and many more. You would use gems to buy upgrades.

Coins and gems would be different. Before, if you collected a coin, you never collect that same coin again, even if you join a different server. But now, if you collect a coin, the coin will not respawn on that server, but you can join a different server and it would be there. Another way to earn coins and gems is on how well your time is on a course. If you get above below BLANK, then you will get 100 coins and 10 gems(something like that).

I also noticed that Course Adventures lacked sociability among other players. The game was basically a single player game. That is why I plan on having 2 modes: Single player, and Race Mode. This will hopefully want players to invite friends into the game, which will then make the player count go up.

Lemme know if these ideas sound like they could be successful. I also have other things planned that I did not list, but these are the main ideas. Your feedback really helped me, and I’m excited to create these ideas! Thank you!

[Sir_Highness]

You could start over I suppose. But I think you have a really fun game here that could be popular with a little polishing.

I was thinking some of the courses are kinda long, what if you made the lower level courses shorter then have the longer ones come later as you progress. That way new players feel like they’re progressing faster.

And make sure the coins work properly to open the gates as expected and that its clear what is required. If its total coins then just make sure that works.

Another thing I noticed that you might be able to fix is the coin touch detection. Maybe you have a debounce thats too long or something but a lot of the time i’ll run through a coin a couple times before it picks it up. And on the ‘coin collection’ map, the collection sound is triggered many times for each touch.

[Astr0Derp (Astr0)]

The alien & minions idea sounds like it could add a new dimension to the play. I don’t know if turning it into a shooter is the way to go though. It has a lot going for it as it is.

• If you were to forge ahead with the alien idea, could there be another way to defeat the minions other than with guns? Something like zapping them away when you solve a puzzle or reach a button might match the style of the gameplay better. If you wanted something more direct, a stomp action that takes out minions when you jump on them would also seem fitting. Guns just seem out of place here, for the player anyway.
• Rather than collecting guns, you could, for example, have the player escort a creature who was the real target of the aliens (or whatever). In that scenario, a creature you own (or are trying to collect) could make its way through the course at some set speed that is quite a bit slower than the player. In addition to making it thru the course, the player could take on the added role of working to clear obstacles for the creature and keep the alien aggressors away. If the aliens get too close, maybe the creature could run around and away from the designated path and slow the progress. Otherwise, it could move slowly enough that a player could grab coins and search for treasures before the next obstacle needed to be cleared (creatures might just stop if blocked and would never get zapped or trapped like a player could). The creature could take a meandering path that helped direct a player to other treasures, and the best time would be one where obstacles were all cleared in time and aliens kept at bay. Creatures could come with different characteristics (maybe some are quicker but more skittish, etc.) and be unique to certain modes or courses.
• Showing off creatures in the lobby and discussing which maps have them and tips for catching them could fuel the sociability aspect. Making the capture of a creature contingent upon the overall speed with which you complete a map could motivate players to run the same maps more than once. You could have leaderboards that show best time for different creatures on different maps to give players more chances to make it to the top, or maybe hand out achievements for doing something with a given creature.

Anyway, I’m getting out in the weeds here a bit. Maybe a pet-like approach isn’t the way to go either. Was just trying to think of something other than guns. The idea of moving through a course combined with the ability to add NPCs really opens some interesting possibilities for you, in my opinion, but I think that kind of thing can enhance what you’ve already produced. Starting over from scratch seems a little drastic. If you want to explore the idea of supplementing the action with NPCs, maybe start by giving the alien you have in there a more prominent role and see what players think. If nobody is wild about how it meshes with the gameplay, then maybe it isn’t the way to go. Other than the gun thing, which sounds like too much of a departure from what is already working well, all your CA2 ideas sound interesting to me. I’m excited to see where you go with it. Keep at it. You have some good things going on there already.

[Plethoa]

its ok. kind of basic, I would suggest, Not using the same evergreen trees add some variety

[MooskaisFlawless]

@Sir_Highness thanks for telling me. I will fix the coin sounds. I think I fixed the city teleporter as well.

@Sir_Highness

what if you made the lower level courses shorter then have the longer ones come later as you progress.

What would be a good number of checkpoints for the first course?

@Astr0Derp I can see your point and I agree with you on the guns. What if instead of guns you could buy moves, for example a stomp move? Lemme know if you think of another good use for coins.

[Astr0Derp (Astr0)]

Thinking of things for players to spend coin on that don’t feel transparently contrived is often a tricky problem it seems. A basic stomp might work well as a default move that players could get for free. Maybe coin could be used to purchase other moves that might also include types of guns for players who want them. If you keep the core gameplay focused on overcoming obstacles in the course, and let the alien aggressors stay as something of a side-show to add life to the maps, then you might be able to avoid messing up the balance of play too much regardless of what you do with the weapons (nuke them all and a player still has to complete the map in good time and collect coins). Maybe the aliens could zap a player with something that popped him up in the air or bounced him a short way in some direction. If what they do is more of an annoyance (if it happens too much or at the wrong time) rather than a true obstacle, then you can make all sorts of alien collecting, floating, stunning, vacuuming moves available because they would largely be a cosmetic enhancement to the game. You could also make the moves consumable rather than collectable by giving certain weapons a number of charges before they break or by letting the weapons (rather than the player) take damage as the alien’s hits strike the player.

What else? Maybe you could have some sort of super-fun-run course that is fast paced and meant for several players at once and requires an entry fee for every race. The fun-run maps could loop continuously after a short cooldown between races. Messages could tell the whole server who wins and when the next match starts (“Next race in two minutes!”). Prizes could be unique and otherwise unavailable in stores and such. Doing well could give a player one-time access to exclusive maps, collectables, or alien pacifiers. The goal would be for players to end those races with fewer coins than they started with, but in return they would get something else–a chance at something they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get. I’d keep the aliens out of those races. Maybe the aliens even sponsor and manage the races. First prize could be a rare, one-use alien repellant spray that keeps them from messing with a player in the regular maps.

I think it’s fun for the players to be able to grab coin all through the regular maps. You’ll need something that takes it away just as readily. Consumables and maps with entry fees could help there.

Anyway, stay true to your vision don’t get derailed by all this brainstorming. What you ultimately end up doing may not look anything like what we’ve all tossed around here. As long as you’re feeling charged and motivated and the ideas are flowing and you feel you have a path forward (features to add, bugs to fix, etc.) then the feedback thread is a success.