I have just made my game Space Spectrum public in the last 2 weeks. We have had over 2000 visits, 40 favs, 16 thumbs up, and 4 thumbs down.
As new players enter our game we play with them and watch how they interact. I have added instructions in as a message on the screen to tell players what to do, and included tutorial slide shows on the wall under the banner “Learn to play”, however a lot of players will just run around all over the place, not look at any of it an leave after 5 min.
My main concern is about the design of the game, and how to engage the player as soon as they enter.
We are advertising the game, and have regular visits, and I have tried to be present in the game to guide new players if they choose to interact, At this point I am feeling a little disheartened as we have put a lot of work into the game, and would really like to get feedback from some fresh eyes, with some constructive feedback about how we might improve the design, mechanics, or gameplay to help make it a success.
I think one issue is that getting a helmet does not work. I ran through the place which is supposed to give a helmet but did not. Therefore I could not enter the red tunnel. This may confuse players and make them leave the game.
Why is there a need for 4 helmet givers? Whats the point. One of them even hides the first tunnel.
The amount of things that are neon can be abit straining for the eyes to look at for some users as they are so bright. The UI is bland. Change up the colours of it.
I’d definitely agree with the other comments. It’s overwhelming, and the repetition of the helmet givers makes it hard to orientate yourself. I’d dedicate each wall to a different thing. It’s not exactly the largest lobby so you don’t need to have a bunch of givers next to each laptop.
I’d avoid having things overlap with each other, as it’s hard to navigate around the lobby without being able to clearly see all of the labels. Avoid obstructing things with the givers.
I’d make the helmets automatic. If you’re going to restrict which helmets can wear, and you can only wear them after touching the laptop, then just give the player the correct helmet at that point in time. Just because it said “Collect 5 red”, that didn’t immediately make it obvious to get the red helmet. I actually tried green first because I’d chosen the green laptop.
I think your game is good, but various UI issues like the gems being half covered, and a general lack of clarity about what to do and where to go just leads to confusion, and makes what could be a fast-paced game into a slow and clunky experience of trial-and-error.
Totally agree! After discussing it last night we are going to remove the helmet givers all together and just put the correct helmet on the player when they touch their laptop. Also going to have the start door open immediately and only close if a player has not claimed a laptop. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.
Hi! Don’t know if you’re still looking for feedback but I figure I might give my opinion:
A lot of the answers the others have given you are very technical. For example, @00f_developer mentioned a bug with a helmet, and @BanTech went over some UI issues. I agree with all of these points, but the way I see it is that the problem with your game is more fundamental.
When I first joined the game, it was pretty apparent as to what I was first supposed to do. The massive laptop had the text saying to touch it to claim it as yours, which I did. However, what I was supposed to do after was muddy and unclear. I saw some text appear near the bottom of the screen as to what seemed like a tutorial, but that didn’t offer me much clarity. The text appeared and disappeared too quickly for me to be able to learn the game.
Based on your game’s description, it sounds like you’re trying to create some sort of puzzle game, which is a unique concept and not commonly done on Roblox (thank you for being innovative ). However, the tradeoff for this is that you must be able to explain the goal of the game and how to achieve it clearly and efficiently. This area is where your game is lacking. Even if your game is fun and engaging, if players aren’t able to even start the game and get to its core, then the chances of the player actually staying to play is low.
I won’t give you an exact answer as for what you should do in making your game more concise and clear. Part of a successful game relies on you being able to communicate with your team about the problems your project is facing and resolving it, instead of having someone else spoonfeed it to you. However, I would like to try and point you in the right direction and get you started thinking with the right mindset.
Good luck! There is definitely some potential you and your team have .
Hi Alimegacorn, Thanks for taking the time for the detailed feedback. I have been working on the game this morning. I have removed all the helmet givers and made the laptops give them to you automatically. I agree with you about the clarity of the puzzles, for this reason I am adding a new NPC player that will center its quest around acquiring the 10 pets in the game.
Each pet gives you an added ability. We were selling them for gold, however I thought to add interest and give the player time to understand the puzzles, and how completing them increases your level, that the NPC will give the player pet eggs to care for, and when they have enough gold they would return to the NPC and he would hatch the egg for them turning it into a pet that then follows you and give you an added ability.
There is already 1 NPC that spawns from time to time, and by adding this new one I am hoping it will get players engaged with running around collecting gold, and develop an understanding of how to collect gems, and complete the puzzles.
Have made lots of changes, should anybody else wish to have a look and give further feedback. Thanks to all so far, I believe the changes will help make a big difference. Cheers
