Just released my first solo project - any constructive criticism is welcome
Hello Stredexz,
the game seems (really) complete: thereās the setting, there are features, rebirths, shops. Everything seems to be working properly.
Having said that the game is a normal simulator, I donāt find the selling point, however this is a very subjective consideration.
Objectively the experience is nice, I love simulators, but there are several elements that currently hold me back from playing it (beyond the competition in simulators):
- Why gift pack?
As long as they were few and far between, like a real surprise, with rare and optional content to be had, I would understand.
But inside are all the game resources! (money, gems, fuel?).
Also, they are few gift packs, all compressed into one area of the map.
If you really want to put them in place put many more spawns in the map.
And in my opinion you can limit their content to gems, maybe more than 5-50 is a pittance.
Less but more substantial, so one has to explore the map to find them and get a nice surprise.
- In the tutorial it is said that we find fuel in the gift packsā¦ that is, the most important resource in the game, without which everything stops, you put it randomly in the gift parcels (which out of 15 parcels opened I did not find a single one).
This concentrates the player on mining gift packs.
If the game had been called āgift packs opening simulatorā I would have found more consistency.
What I would recommend is to put, for example, rocks, like coal, that one can mine with a pickaxe (everything is more consistent and understandable) in order to operate a machine.
Believe me, with that already the tutorial is no longer needed.
If you still want to keep the gift packages for everything, be aware that the major activity of the players will be mining packages in that specific area. At least put more of them, of different sizes (therefore with different durability) and that they have a confetti-like particle effect when opened, otherwise it also becomes boring.
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In the personal establishment, make the sign with the total earnings more obvious, it is really small and not very noticeable, considering the type of game, seeing those figures increase can be one of the reasons that keep players in the game. Enhance it.
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Make it so that you can get all the cash at once, if you donāt like this, at least make it so that you donāt have to hold down a button to withdraw the money from the individual printers, just one click, it has to be a quicker collection process.
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Assigning a basic printer when you first log in, I would tell you not to have it appear directly in the inventory, but to have it appear in the middle of the screen in large size (like when you open a pet egg). This will help users find their way around better by seeing the earning tool indicated, plus having it appear as a āwelcome bonusā is more rewarding than having to see in the tutorial that you have to buy it and see your money go down already.
Better to start from 0 with a ābonusā item than to have 100 money and lose 3/4 of it.
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Thank you for taking your time to give some really solid feedback, Iāll get to working on everything youāve mentioned.
Id also like to note the reason I put emphasis on the gifts is so players have something to do instead of idling as the printers generated money.
Yes, giving the player something more to do, while waiting for passive gain, in a simulator is crucial in order not to make him lose interest.
But it has to be remodelled according to how your game works, it does not have to be the main and compulsory activity.
Here you really have to indulge your imagination, finding a creative and perhaps consistent way to keep the player in your game.
This is just an example, but you could add a money laundering-themed obby, where if you win you get a x2 bonus to production for 1 minute.
But even this is unoriginal, you have to think about it.