I’ve recently released a game called Unexpected Guests. Currently, it’s more of a hangout game, with occasional badges and secrets, as well as interactions around the house while NPCs periodically come knocking on your door. I feel as though it is a bit boring, yet I don’t really know what I could add to it. Is it lacking in content, or overall polish? Is there some sort of objective that I should add?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Don’t use the happy home model.
And hangout games will always be boring no matter what.
To be honest, that’s how I first defined it, but it’s more of a badge-hunting secret finding type game.
After trying out the game for a little while, in my opinion you should turn the game into some kind of story, and instead of you having to answer the door the game should automatically take you there as a tutorial.
And to fix the problem of you feeling it’s boring, I just recommend adding items like a time and weather system, and in some cases, you have to team up with other players to grab objects from the house and move them around to block areas like a door or a window if a weather type is too strong.
You should always have a clear direction in where your game is going in terms of objective. If you, and especially your players, can’t get a clear picture of what the game is about or what they should do, then you are probably lacking a clear direction or have bad game design.
For example, if Jailbreak’s developers started making the game to be more of a social game, then pivoted to what we know as Jailbreak, a lot of game elements would not fit, and a lot of work would have to be done in order to conform to the cops-and-robbers style.
From what you say in your post, you don’t seem to have a clear idea of what your game is about. The developer should always be able to state the goal of the game in one clear sentence, unless the game is still in early development. I suggest you come to a consensus on which direction you want your game to go in. Adding more “stuff to do” will only serve to confuse the player and yourself about the game’s purpose.
Your game needs a valid core loop, but since it’s a hangout game it might be difficult to find one.
Instead, since you mentioned the game to be a sort of badge hunting experience, why not rename it to “Find the …” and have the UI in game explain to the users to search for different items.
This will not only boost engagement but D1 retention aswell.
A clear project vision is always needed and remember to make minimal core loop change on the backlog after your game design is done.
Hope this helped
While there can be general guidelines to follow, like good UI/UX, having sound effects, and animations, “fun” is subjective. So, I recommend asking yourself what you enjoy or find fun in video games.
Is it the exploration factor? Finding secrets? Piecing together story? Maybe moving or platforming is fun to you.
After you understand what you find fun in a genre or games in general, you can go from there, seeing what parts of your game are not fun to you.
This sounds very interesting, thanks for testing it out and giving some feedback. I think I might implement some of these.
More than anything, playtest, playtest, playtest, and with diverse kinds of players too! After your playtesters are finished, ask them what they wished they could be able to do. No matter what your or your playtesters’ development experience is, your playtesters will almost always find a way to come up with something more fun than you!
Needs direction as others have said>
As far as ideas for this hangout game go, there needs to be something interesting happening.
For instance, Neighbors uses the randomness factor to give you fresh/fun interactions that are always new since players are always rotating in/out.
another approach you can take is the Therapy or Brookhaven approach where players roleplay specific jobs while hanging out.
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