I started work on this game in September of 2020 and got it finished in October of the same year. I’ve updated it, and I thought it would get somewhat big, you know? But in the 2 months of its release, I only accumulated 1k visits. What did I do wrong? (I’m a solo dev if that helps).
The game functions well, but there is nothing for the player to want to really come back to.
Map Issues
The map is really bland, for example the floor, the meshpart texture (?) thingies don’t fit with the over-all feel of the game. Also, many things, like the rocks, oddly float just over the ground. I would also add more things to fill in the empty space.
GUI
The GUI colours are a bit too random, e.g. the colours don’t fit with the game much. You have everything you need though, which is all that is needed, but I would recommend making them all a bit smaller, and making the shop, codes, settings, faces, quests and awards into 1 singular GUI, like a menu. The surface GUI’s on top of the main areas might also get annoying during gameplay.
Apart from that, I see good potential in the game. The only thing after that that needs to happen is more exciting gameplay. You don’t want it to be too tedious, or people won’t play, but you don’t want it too easy either, otherwise it would be boring. It’s just the fact that clicking simulators are just too big, and your game would most likely be drowned out in the flood of them. It is also quite good progress for a single developer. Great job though!
I knew there was something wrong with the map, but I can’t find out what exactly it is. Something feels…off with the map. Gameplay wise, I am thinking of adding more stuff to do than just click for Strength, sell and get Faces. But what exactly I should add, is up for debate. Thanks for feedback, I’ll definitely take it into consideration !
Your game is a decent start, but it lacks refinement, which is probably why people have disliked it.
These are the main points I noticed when I played:
- I haven’t actually been told what to do upon joining, so I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
- There’s lots of floating assets, for example some trees, the front of the shop and the dancing NPCs.
- The UI is very intrusive; it covers a lot of the screen to the point where it’s somewhat distracting.
- For the sell area / trade area / other areas - those parts, I would suggest adding something a bit more visually attractive to draw players to those areas. The current assets there (such as the bags of money or the diamonds - which are floating) are too low poly; since these are such key areas, they should still carry the cartoonish appearance, but they should be higher poly to be more attention grabbing.
- The giant text above the key areas like over the obby or the islands is far too big - this is distracting and degrades the overall aesthetic of the map.
- The UI seems unfinished; each button should change visually and make a sound upon being clicked.
- On top of the point above, the game lacks sound effects in general. I earned some money but no sound played. If you played sound, this would aid telling me I’ve done so without me having to analyse my screen, and it’d be far more satisfying.
- There is also UI hiding behind the chat, which doesn’t look great considering they’re both conflicting.
- Some of the building is a bit lacklustre; for example, the floor has little detail. The shop also looks a bit unrealistic since it appears very flat in terms of depth. The letters spelling ‘Shop’ on top are also quite wonky. The hanging lights also lack detail; the light is just a neon yellow block.
- I clicked to speak to some guy and all the UI disappeared and hasn’t come back since; there’s probably a few more bugs somewhere since that’s the only thing I’ve really done and it’s broken the game.
- The music is getting a bit repetitive.
As I said, I do think it’s a decent start; the trees and the cliffs in the background stood out to me since they’re pretty high quality. I would recommend arranging for a group of people to playtest your game prior to advertising, so you can fix any outstanding issues in addition to the points I’ve listed above, should you choose to.
I see where you’re coming from with the floating parts(which weren’t floating before, but I probably moved the floor?) and sound effects and everything else. Speaking of the sound effects, I was going to add them in the development stages of the game, but I forgot to and now it’s gotten to a point in development where if I try to add sound effects it’ll take hours, if not days, of adding little code to the scripts. Thanks for your feedback(as I’ve never had such feedback on it, only little things like ‘It’s good’ or ‘I like this here’!), I’ll try to take all of this into consideration with my newer projects!