This is my Obby Battles game. It is a game where one plays a round of an obby, use their powerups to try to win the game.
I’ve noticed a lot of things when I’ve seen players play:
Players often do not “switch” or “change” their powerups, even though they have a sufficient amount of points to get other powerups, which is weird since it is the point of the game to do that.
Some players are quitting instantly after they fail to make one jump, or they just quit very easily. I tried nerfing the obbies. Some obbies are so ridiculously easy that it gets boring, but players still seem to have an issue making a simple jump!!!
Players still in fact gain points even if they do not win the obby, so I don’t know why they quit so easily if they gain points anyways.
I still get some dislikes due to people who rage quit.
People play, try the obby, and if they fail a single jump, they leave. Why are they very quick to leave like that?
I understand that obbies are the games that get dislikes, but please understand this:
The obbies in my game are way easier compared to other popular games on the platform, and my game still gets disliked because of my obbies. For example, my obbies are WAY EASIER than Tower of Hell, yet Tower of Hell has a better like ratio than my game has.
A lot of people in the game say my obbies are really easy. But there are still some people who can’t do my obbies, and they can’t do the simple ones either.
This game contains powerups to make the game more fun, but it isn’t being recognized for that. (The powerups are fun and they help a lot! For example, “low gravity,” “ghost,” “stunner,” etc.
If I’m totally wrong and I’m being delusional, please tell me. I want to improve my game and make it better. That’s my end goal here.
To start, I like the idea of powerups to add a twist to an obby. Also, in general, obbies do not tend to have the best rating simply due to the nature of the game- so do not be worried too much about that. With that said, I do have some suggestions:
Immediately, when I joined, I felt as though there was too much text on the screen. I would try and limit the amount of signs and instructions given to the players.
Add colors and images/icons to the UI.
Remove or decrease the UI telling you the amount of points you have. This can also be replaced with your points values displayed next to a coin icon.
Instructing players how to use powerups before every round is not necessary, given there was already a tutorial.
Make the lobby obby an extension of the main lobby.
Combine buying and equipping powerups under one menu.
Rework the power up icon shown during the rounds. (shown below)
Rather than having powerups disabled at the start of a round, incorporate a cool-down system. As the powerup comes to an end, have the icon fill up. As the cooldown ends, have the icon clear up:
Theres many critiques I can have. First off, you need to focus more so on visuals. Its obvious that your main audience is mostly children if people quit due to failing a single jump.
In your builds you have varying styles. Some trees look distorted, some models have texture, some are lowpoly. You have to choose one. Either texture or lowpoly. As well as making sure you’re models aren’t distorted. It is also important to remember your UI and UX. Your ui interface is good, with matching. However I believe that you should infact change up the font. As your font is the default. Well, it’s boring. Change it to something modern looking and simple. For example, maybe like Gotham Bold. Or fredoka one. Something like that.
Going onto UX. The game is well, very slow with some aspects feeling clunky. As I said before, your core audience is children. Children have short audience spans. You spend what 10 seconds at every game and 5 seconds before every game explaining powerups and the keys. Simply put, remove this and have the powerup butotn there. Instead maybe have like chat messages randomly which gives tips about what to do.
If you do this, aswell as change your description and everything I referenced. Your game will have potential.
I would like to add some clarifications or reasons to why I’ve done some things and what your thoughts to my reasons!
The reason why there is so much text is because I seem to have to keep reminding players of information because a lot of them just play the game and ignore the information (it is evident as I’ve seen people play), so I have to keep pushing information to them on the screen. But yes, I’m starting to think there’s a lot, so I should limit them.
I have points to the UI because a lot of mobile players cannot see the leaderboard as they must open it manually (compared to PC), therefore I need to notify them the amount of points they have so they don’t ignore the concept of the game
Again, players ignore information on the screen and spam “Close” a lot which players will probably quit because they don’t know how to play due to their indolence.
I am just wondering, may I ask why? A lot of people are playing the lobby obby so it seems alright.
You could already buy and equip powerups under one menu. Can you please elaborate? (If you’re talking about the notification of “Unlocking powerups,” that is because players again, ignore information on the screen such as buttons, so they literally do not know powerups exist!!!)
Powerups do have a cooldown system. Powerups are disabled at the start to prevent spawn camping but then they rely on cooldown (each powerup has different cooldowns) after the 5 seconds. But am I just not understanding you, I am missing something? Please elaborate. I don’t 100% understand.
Thank you, I have some clarifications and some confusion with your response so it would be great if you would reply back!
I see your point, consistency is important in building styles. I wanted to add variety, but I sticked to the lobby having low-poly style and the maps having texture, though each map is very different. Some may be just a really simple less detail of buildings, some may be way more detailed, but my thoughts go to that as consistency is key in this.
Because powerups have to be used parallel to the gameplay, it is necessary to use keys or controls so you can move but use powerups at the same time. Having a powerup button where someone on Xbox has to press on it or PC has to press on it makes the gameplay harder and it’s not as easy to go quick. I am not denying anything, but it’s typical to see other games have ‘E’ key presses and all that to make the gameplay nice so I followed their path as they are doing well as games.
In general, even though young children play obby games like Tower of Hell or games that contain obbies such as Epic Minigames, they have harder, far more difficult obbies versus this game. Kids don’t quit if they fail. They don’t leave right away in those games! But, it’s really frustrating that they will quit after one single jump, because they can’t jump over a kill part, in my game! It is often confusing and irritating for me.
This has already been said before, but I really do not like how the game pauses right before the round starts to tell you about powerups and the controls It really slows the pace of the game down and it started to get slightly annoying after a couple of rounds or so. Simply have the controls on a GUI that shows up in-game. In my opinion, I didn’t really find the powerups too useful. I’m not sure how to explain how I feel about it but the maps were pretty short and I won the obbies without much help from powerups
Limiting text can be hard at times, but it should be done to the best of your ability. Try relaying as much information as possible through UI rather than text. For example, instead of explaining which button to use for powerups, add a small label next to the powerup icon telling the player how to activate the powerup (like the “E” in the diagram from my previous response)
Try avoiding text when displaying points. Instead, use an icon.
If a player is unwilling to read a tutorial, they probably aren’t too excited to read instructions either.
This suggestion is more of a personal preference. The way I see it, incorporating the obby into the lobby limits the amount information a player first encounters when playing the game. Also, though this is rooted in speculation, I would assume more players would play the obby if they see other players already playing it. However, if the obby is doing well as it stands, this change is not necessary.
When I first played the game, I assumed the “Powerup” tab allowed you to equip powerups and the “SHOP” allowed you to purchase them. However, looking back, I see this is not the case. Apologies for the confusion.
On my last response, I failed to mention that I was referencing how the cooldown was being displayed on the powerup UI rather than the creation of a new cooldown system. Once again, apologies for the confusion.
I hope this clears things up. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Yeah, might decide to remove those annoying controls said before the round starts.
The maps were easy because I had to make them easy and short. Trust me, tons of these young kids cannot make simple and easy jumps. So I have to be on their level, and as a result, these obbies are incredibly short and easy. I’m making a “pro version” where the obbies are actually harder, making it more fun for intermediate players.
Other people have found powerups useful, and often it also depends on the powerup itself (some may arguably be better than others, depending on your strategy of winning the game, and how you are going to use it at its best potential). So a lot of it is strategy. (For example, Boost is best for a “ground-level” obby with barely heights. Jumper is best for obbies that have tons of height. Each obby is different. You get what I mean? It’s very different.)
Also, the cheaper powerups are the worst powerups (and that’s how it goes with all other games in this platform; the cheaper “items” or whatever are usually the worst), and the more expensive powerups are the best.
The focus is winning, but to also land in first place. These powerups help you finish obbies quicker. That is the point. But if you have no players around, then yeah, you can take your time and easily win. But the more players there are, the more points first place gets.
The game is the most fun when there are many players. This game is competition and combat with a variety of other people.
I am just stating here the purpose of the game so it is clear-cut how the powerups are essential in this game. Just so you can see why I see the powerups are helpful. If this is not clear-cut at all, please let me know.
Thank you for your feedback though! It opens my eyes into experiences of others.
Oh yeah, my time to shine! I like giving feedback.
First impressions
There’s some info for new players, which is what many games fail to add
The UI is very bland and everything looks the same, you could at least use colors to make gameplay-related items stand out
No alternative way to close popups, using the same button that opened them is okay, but the focus usually moves away faster and since all buttons look the same… Hard to notice, can frustrate users who don’t bother to look
Istarted some basic obby to jump around, got a confusing popup at the bottom and got teleported to another location WHILE I was playing and I got to hover mid-air without being able to do anything (apparently I missed an option to turn on AFK)
Multiple popups constantly stack together creating an absolute mess of UI. No need to show winners popup if it’s empty
Obstacles that kill player look the same as the safe platforms, which is a big game design no-no unless you’re making a troll game
No indication of currently selected powerup anywhere, no proper visual indiciation when it’s activated
You could cut down waiting times and add “best time” leaderboards when there are no players in the server, so people would have more to do alone
Overall, it’s okay I guess, just make it easier for players to figure everything out and instead of writing text on popups, make things clearer in UI/game
I have some clarifications and questions, it would be nice if you respond back.
There are two buttons, one is the button that moves the menu left or right, the other is the button you clicked to open with and it says “Close”. But it should be clear and easy to close. Unless I’m just used to it… There is an alternative way to closing pop ups which is the button arrow that moves left to right or right to left.
The “Intermission: seconds” is shown at the top of your screen, so it tells you when the round is going to start. Once it reaches 0, a couple of seconds of information, then it teleports you to the obby map. If I assumed, you were at the Lobby Obby, the obby in Lobby to gain small points for people to do in the lobby while a match is going on (so people don’t get bored in the lobby waiting). You are hovering mid-air because the round hasn’t started yet, and once it did, you would be released. Do you mind me asking how all of this is confusing?
Yeah but I need to show a winners GUI for people who did not win the obby itself, the amount of points they will get (as it all depends on the obby and difficulty itself).
I don’t recall any obstacle that looks the same as safe platforms that kill the players. Can you tell me them? I make it pretty clear.
Your powerup is shown on the leaderboard. Unless I have to make another GUI showing what powerup you have equipped. You should hear a button click when you equip the powerup (assuming you have sufficient amount of points). It tells you “Powerup disabled:” at the top when it’s disabled, then once it gets removed as text, it’s activated. Again, please tell me how this is confusing and what I need to do?
Thank you for your feedback. Please answer my questions. THanks.
As a general rule of thumb, do not think about how you like to use the interface, otherwise it’ll never work for many people. Especially when it’s an intereface you made, so obviously it’s clear to you.
At the moment “Close” button is barely noticable, because the only thing that happens is a text change during the moment when user shifts their focus on the shop menu… and have your ever seen a popup without a close button?
How is it not confusing would be a better question… Do you think if an new person joins the game, they will find this clear? Personally, if it wasn’t for the feedback, I would’ve quit the game instantly after I got teleported and stuck mid-air, because I would think that’s a bug. And the word “intermission” says nothing, because player doesn’t know what happens after break ends and most of the kids from non English speaking countries doesn’t even know the word. “Round start” or something might be better
Not an excuse for overlapping popups, nor empty ones
Spikes are the same color as the ground in one of the training obbies and another had dangerous light green blocks on green paltforms if I’m not mistaken
Of course you should make a clear indicator of the powerup, who even looks at the leaderboard for the information like this You already have a powerup cooldown UI, you can put an icon of the powerup on it or something like that.
Ok, I should put an X button on the corner top right. The popups do have a close button. It’s a “Close” button on the bottom and it’s not too small sized of a button. Did you not see that? Even though I would assume for people to just look around and reading the whole UI, I will assume they won’t, so I will add a close button X button on the top right too. It seems to me that the popups are not problematic because most players I see move around a lot and are not frozen. But again, I probably should add an X button.
I thought “Intermission” word was the normalcy. Again, most of the time pretty much 99% of players did play even though they were frozen and figured it out on the round system. But I will take your advice.
It is necessary to inform the losing players that #1 they will get points #2 they will get x amount of points, because if they are not informed, they assume they don’t get rewarded, and they will leave because the game seems impossible to win points, as they must win. Popups can be closed, and the winner GUI is going to be out of the screen in a couple of seconds anyways. People disliked because they had to win to gain points, and if the obby was really hard, they were wasting their time. I learned this from experience that no matter what I need to inform the amount of points they will get if they lose.
People did not have problems with the spikes, as I seen a ton of them avoid the spikes. Yes, it can be confusing, and I can see that, though if I see players understand it, most of the time, I do not worry on it. Though, I will make the spikes more clearly dangerous. Yes, the green blocks dangerous light, but I don’t want to make every kill block red neon light all the time because it ruins the design and I can’t fit to the style. People didn’t have problems with the dangeous green light blocks either, since the differentiation is patent. I’ll see what I can do but I’m trying my best to fit the design to the obby theme.
Ok makes sense! Or, I’ll just make a clear indication that they in fact did equip the powerup.
Thank you, if I say some things that are opposed to what you said, remember it’s more of a thought than a counterargument, as I’m not here to argue but I would like to tell you my interpretation and have you see the rationality of it.
There may not be a definitive answer to what you are asking. But the appearance probably means something. Meaning the GUI and the build style are not looking as attractive as in some other games.
On mobile I had a hard time understanding what was going on. There is.not room for very much complexity or UI. It is a round based obby, maybe that did not appeal to players. A casual game and a competitive game may not an attractive combination.
And when there is just a single player in the game, there should not be rounds. I just realized that I need to change that in my own work.
My advice to you would be to give it an upgrade graphics wise, change the music to something relaxing, make a nice single player experience.
And if no luck, start on a new game. It’s impossible to ensure success, and sometimes you just need to try again with a new idea.
Even though I would assume for people to just look around and reading the whole UI
Oh, sweet child of summer This is a free game on a platform with mostly young audience with no attention span. If it’s not in front of them, it’s safe to assume, that they will not see it.
This doesn’t my stance on anything. It’s simply unprofessional to show multiple popups overlaid one on another and, like I tried to say, you even show popups with zero information (when I’m a solo player on server, I’ve seen empty “score popup” multiple times). If you need to show that players are rewarded, you can use mini popups/snackbars. show “+10 points” message next to their point number, etc, you can also make leaderboard popup tall and show it at the side of other popups (problematic on mobile)
I don’t mind to argue because this topic is interesting to me and I like to give feedback, but to be frank a lot of it is wasting both of our time. And it’s not my time I’m concerned about! If you keep trying your hardest to justify every game decision, you will not move forward with your game/UI design skills. You don’t have to agree with everything, but if your game is suffering from low retention and dislikes, you kind of don’t have an upper hand here. Not to mention you could’ve redesigned part of your UI in time it takes you to write things down against it
The first thing I would change would be removing that awkward “intermission” flow and allowing players to chose if they want to run around warmup obbies, do some shopping, exploration or go for the main level run. I would also definitely remove the “mid-air freezing” before run starts. Create little zones for the players to move around at the start of the level and add a forcefield that disappears when timer runs out. I think these two things are frustrating and confusing players the most.
Also, check out this thread to get some inspiration for UI design:
Hm… What “close button at the bottom”? Nope, I dont see one.
The two buttons on the left will help you close it out. It’s shown in the video I have just uploaded here.
This doesn’t my stance on anything. It’s simply unprofessional to show multiple popups overlaid one on another and, like I tried to say, you even show popups with zero information (when I’m a solo player on server, I’ve seen empty “score popup” multiple times). If you need to show that players are rewarded, you can use mini popups/snackbars. show “+10 points” message next to their point number, etc, you can also make leaderboard popup tall and show it at the side of other popups (problematic on mobile)
Makes sense.
I don’t mind to argue because this topic is interesting to me and I like to give feedback, but to be frank a lot of it is wasting both of our time. And it’s not my time I’m concerned about! If you keep trying your hardest to justify every game decision, you will not move forward with your game/UI design skills. You don’t have to agree with everything, but if your game is suffering from low retention and dislikes, you kind of don’t have an upper hand here. Not to mention you could’ve redesigned part of your UI in time it takes you to write things down against it
Never have I stated that I want to argue. I am justifying the game decisions so you see my point of view, so you know my reasons to why I did this or that. I did not justify to argue but for you to see my reasons and the validation of it. You’re just one person. I am just one person. Everyone is too different to have the same thoughts and agreements. This is why I put my opinions and thoughts in as well. If I argued, I would’ve stated everything you said was wrong. I am smart enough to know that being in my own world will not solve my game issues.
Players can choose to run around warmup obbies and stuff turning on the AFK button (again, on the left of the screen, the menu).
I would also definitely remove the “mid-air freezing” before run starts. Create little zones for the players to move around at the start of the level and add a forcefield that disappears when timer runs out. I think these two things are frustrating and confusing players the most.
I definitely agree with this and totally will solve this issue. Players have left when they froze or they reset because they thought they were stuck.
I wanted to state though that I totally think my GUI system is terrible and I really need to fix it up because that is one of the issues why my game is so confusing.
Thank you for your advice. You have given a lot of feedback, and it’s going to be a lot of work lol (making games are harder than I thought).
To make the difference more clear, match the name shown on the UI with the one shown on the stall. So, if the stall is used for powerups, change the display on the stall from “shop” to “powerups”.
The powerup ability is working. However, I feel as though there is no clear indication of when the powerup will stop. Incorporating something along the lines of what is shown below may help in creating a clearer indication.
Heres some feedback, from when you first posted this and I played it, and when I played it yesterday.
Short feedback
Your UI design is bad, no scrap that, its terrible
The gameplay isn’t fun, with powerups being my main problem with it, difficulty being second.
The building is also terrible, for the lobby mainly.
Detailed feedback
Imma be real, your gameplay is bad and the game itself looks bad, again, mainly the lobby.
Powerups, they’re cool but really annoying since you can’t really counter anything. So I hate the idea of powerups in an obby, especially how you’ve implemented them.
The tutorial at the start of EVERY DAMN LEVEL is ANNOYING. REMOVE IT.
JUST PROMPT THE PLAYER FOR A TUTORIAL WHEN THEY JOIN FOR THE FIRST TIME.
The game is easy. Too easy.
Play JToH (Jukes Towers of Hell), having more difficult stuff like that would be very good.
Didn’t pay attention, but is there map voting? If not add it.
Please relocate the close UI button, no one would think of clicking the button they used to open UI to close it as well.
I don’t care if you understand how to use the UI, if I needed to look here for you to point out where the button is, I would have just left the game like most other people have.
Adding on, I could not play your game for more than 2 rounds. It was just REALLY boring.
Sure, credit where credit is due, it’s kinda original, a rare sight to see on roblox nowadays, but being original doesn’t mean its good.
Might add some more stuff to this list later, but for now I’m done.
And, with you reading hopefully the detailed feedback, that concludes my post.
Sorry for being so harsh, but I would rather be honest that not.
The game is easy. Too easy.
Play JToH (Jukes Towers of Hell), having more difficult stuff like that would be very good.
I’ve stated this but the obbies are easy because the players find it too hard. Many obbies on the Roblox platform are known to have many dislikes. People like you (usually over 13) tend to think these obbies are really easy, but people (usually younger under 13) think my obbies are really hard. I introduced the pro version that is coming soon later.
How would you fix this problem with not getting many dislikes whilst having difficult obbies? What do you think I should do? Do you think my “pro version” game idea (kind of like how Tower of Hell has it) is good?
Powerups, they’re cool but really annoying since you can’t really counter anything. So I hate the idea of powerups in an obby, especially how you’ve implemented them.
Can you elaborate more please? How can I enhance these powerups?
Please relocate the close UI button, no one would think of clicking the button they used to open UI to close it as well.
I don’t care if you understand how to use the UI, if I needed to look here for you to point out where the button is, I would have just left the game like most other people have.
Yes.
Adding on, I could not play your game for more than 2 rounds. It was just REALLY boring.
How would I make it fun?
I’m just asking for you to elaborate because I would like to know.
There’s some info for new players, which is what many games fail to add
The UI is very bland and everything looks the same, you could at least use colors to make gameplay-related items stand out
You could cut down waiting times and add “best time” leaderboards when there are no players in the server, so people would have more to do alone
