CLOSED! Thanks for the feedback, the game is now back under paid access!
I am currently working on an roleplay exploration game involving riding and raising horses. You purchase horses from a shop, quests lead you into different areas of the map, and you have some stats to incentivise taking care of your horse, and the ones at your ranch.
The game is targeted toward a young audience and is made to work well for social interaction, exploring areas with friends, and viewing each other’s horses. Furthermore, you can race at the horse track to see who has the best horse.
I’m still working on this, adding stuff like permanent stats (things that always stay such as levels and xp) but would like some feedback on what has been made so far.
Normally I have this game in paid access for 249 robux (obviously free for now) and has had around ~150 purchases but not the best average playtime so I am currently debating whether it has to do with not having many people in the game, as it’s still in development, or if there’s that needs to be done to improve it? Feel free to spark some ideas my way.
Some of the main things I’m interested in knowing about, but of course feel free to mention anything else:
How does the gameplay feel, is it smooth?
Any frame drops, if so what device are you using?
Anything that feels confusing? Do you now know how to find x or do x?
Is there a clear goal in mind while you’re playing? Is it hard to understand what to do? I have several game loops but the main one is: Ride Horses > Explore Areas > Care for Horses > Upgrade Horses > Repeat.
If you’re not comfortable replying there’s also a feedback option to the top right of your screen when you play the game.
Hey I actually own a horse myself and would love to check the game out, but don’t have the robux for that so if it becomes free please let me know and I will check it out!
When jumping, the horse runs in the jumping position for a short time after the jump.
I wouldn’t buy it, I have no robux and wouldn’t spend it on the game yet
So much has happened since September so I’m bumping this again to get some more feedback. I’ve put the game into free access for the week, and I average 200-500 players CCU. My only issue is the avg play time dipped from 12-14 mins to 8-9, want to get some feedback on the general onboarding for new users
I’ve added better horses, trading, wild horses, breeding (next update), grooming stalls at your ranches, a tutorial that gets you into the main gameplay loop of wild horse capturing, ranch and horse customising, and a custom training area.
Hey there, I know that this was posted a while ago, however I’ve just spent the past hour in-game to find areas which could be improved.
My first look into the game wasn’t the best, the tutorial badge has a rarity of 14.2%, which in perspective with real stats, as of writing 88 have finished the tutorial in the past day, and 318 new players have joined in the past day.
Considering that the game is usually 400 robux, this is a huge red flag.
Here’s my findings in order:
Title screen could be improved, it’s just a video and a skip button (It could be improved with a loading bar, screenshots of the game and a “hints” box)
Pressing skip there’s no fade animation, very subtle
Tutorial follow arrow is aimed upwards ?
Minimap could be improved by making it circle with rotation and north icon
There’s no keybind to continue npc interactions, even though majority of the game uses them (such as the lower navigation)
Hovering the book in the bottom navigation shows clipping box of text (not scaled properly, image attached) and doesn’t actually do anything atleast during the start of the tutorial
The story is confusing, the very moment you spawn in reminds me of Genshin Impact, but there’s no lore backing anything, also why do you need to “tame” your own horse, which (according to the story) you were riding just moments before…?
The horse I tried to tame was just moonwalking in-place as I walked towards it
Upon completing the tame section of tutorial your horse just collapses before the fade ?
Getting on the horse, you fall off before it actually enters the “ride” action
Game says “follow the arrows to head to your private stables” but unless you press “okay” on the ui then it won’t show any arrows. Maybe have the “follow the arrows” part in an objective up the top of the screen to avoid confusion there.
Exploring the ranch section of tutorial doesn’t seem to flow, tutorial says “your horse is hungry lets head back” but it leads you in the opposite direction towards “Maddie” the guide. Afterwards you’re left with no arrows, what happened to the “your horse is hungry let’s head back” part?
Within this part of the tutorial, it doesn’t tell you where to get food or how to feed your horse.
Pressing E to interact on the front of your horse (when in stable) will show a ui on the left, clicking close on that will show it again making you close it once again
Action menu interferes with the front E menu, make them different keybinds
Why do I have 160 apples and all of this other stuff ?? I just started the game. If quests reward you with food, make it have some sort of text saying something along the lines of “Congrats! you’ve been rewarded with X”
What are you supposed to do after feeding your horse? There’s no dialogue or arrows. Talking to the NPC next to the horse, it just says “you are on a quest, please complete that first”
After looking around the UI, there’s a “quest” button in the top left, which doesn’t stand out much, I see that there’s a popup for not moving on your horse, why not have one for if you’re lost in a quest?
In the chat there’s a “wild horse” notifier which tells the server what horse people found, why not have it say “a common X” or “a rare X” so that new players know the rarity?
Continuing the tutorial, walking towards “Maddie”, I was floating in the air, someones horse appeared then disappeared, and I returned back to the ground …???
Why is “no thanks” an option to “how can I help”? Why not “nevermind”
Tutorial says “remember your horse is hungry, have a look around and find an apple” uhh I already fed my horse, and I have another 159 apples in my inventory why do I need to find more ???
Finishing the tutorial you’re prompted with a 349 robux gamepass… classic
The actions UI on the left is still on your screen and you have to close the chat every time to close the menu (ui overlap) baring in mind that I’m on a laptop right now
So, what now? there’s no more quests of npcs asking for help? try to take a Genshin Impact approach, having numerous quests and npcs so that the player doesn’t get bored, the only thing that seems to be here is training areas and the occasional popup in the bottom right such as trainings, horse shows and tressure hunts
Crashing head on with someone elses horse flings you upwards, put them into a collision group so they can’t run into one-another. Especially helpful in crowded areas such as the spawn.
Pressing lead just attaches a string to your horse as it runs away from you - it says “WIP” but why have it in-game if it’s this buggy
My nametag says “N/A” for some reason, I don’t know what this is supposed to be
Severe UI inconsistency, actions ui text is big and easy to read, however in the horse mood bar the text is very small and some players may find this hard to read
There’s no notifications to say your horses needs are low, there’s no “emoticon” billboard uis to have a food icon or a sick icon
You use a free model wind effect to direct users to some places, but they don’t exactly serve a purpose from the looks of it besides “atmosphere”
Running your horse into the water, you fall out of the map then it teleports you to the town, why not just fade out and teleport them instead of having them watch their horse fall to their death? - or even a barrier around water. Afterall, this is a kids game
I see that the game still has “valentines” in the title, and I’ve also noticed that you’re one of the developers behind LifeTogether, so I imagine your focus is mostly there now.
I’ve worked on games with hundreds of thousands of visits myself, and I’d love to help with this game whether that’s becoming a developer, or even taking over ownership if you’re open to it.
Even though I have pointed out a lot of areas where the game could be improved, I still think that it has a lot of potential, and I’d be willing to take it on. Feel free to send me a message on Discord @appravo and we can talk further about this further.
