[Feedback Friday #19] - Mar 27, 2015

Want design feedback for your new game? Then you've found the right thread! Post here to get precious player feedback. Discuss until next Friday, when we'll lock the old and start anew.

How To Ask For Feedback?

• Show - Be Interesting! Pics, videos, or best of all, a playable game!
• Be Concise - Who's got time for Wall 'O Text? Less is more.
• Read This - More great guidance in superpig's post.

How To Give Feedback?

• Be Positive - Finding redeeming qualities in the worst of games, is in itself a game.
• Focus On The Design - Not the designer.
• Be Specific - "Your game sucks!" is for nubs.

What To Show?

• Minimally Viable Product (MVP) - Core game play >>> everything else.
• How To Scope Small (Unity tutorial)

Gigi

[PS - Feedback Friday #18 is here]

 

Hi guys, how are you doing,

In my game Warfront Defenders, I've worked on a whole lot of things I got from your feedback. The end result is Alpha2.1 (many features are still not there yet)

Play Link
http://www.warfrontdefenders.com/Webplayer/Playtest.html


You can get the whole change list here
https://trello.com/b/QypUoB6r/warfront-defenders

Importantly, I've changed the control schema a bit, you can now use left mouse drag, and arrow keys for navigation. Should go nicely with players on Mac. And this version is in Unity5.

Some things are still TBD. Working on it and next build will also have new features. I gave the first pass of game balancing. Looking forward to hear your feedback.

 

@FlyingRobot - Nice improvements, particularly the graphics and the interface. There's lots of little things that have improved, and the game is beginning to take shape. Below are thoughts that might help make the game stronger.

• Menu text - Four screens of text before loading the first mission SHOWS it's going to be an overly verbose game. Even the maps were overwhelmingly detailed. I wanted to quit before I even started. Consider, 'This game is based on real battles of World War II, starting with the battle of Bunker Hill (or whatever).' And leave it at that. Then, sprinkle the flavor text in each mission.
• Tutorial text - "The learner is not a dumping ground for information." Consider cutting 90% of that text. Then, introduce one piece at a time, in quick succession, building up to a few decisions. Look at Boom Beach, or ANY popular mobile title - they know that people have 10 second attention spans. Instead of introducing EVERYTHING in the first mission, consider adding snippets. Put some interesting gameplay in and build pieces up, mission after mission. TL-DR - The text overwhelmed me, and again, I wanted to quit.
• Killing a unit - The tutorial killed a unit. I thought maybe I did something wrong. It felt very bad, and left a 'red' unit there that I kept trying to select. the game intentionally added confusion, when it wasn't needed. Consider teaching death LATER.
• Misguided me - The tutorial guided me to move a unit, so I moved it across the road. Then units spawned and I was out of range. I felt 'tricked'. Though, this could be a fun way to add 'tension' - just make sure that's what you intend. Like, 1) Move across the road'; 2) Units Spawn; 3) uh-oh, you're going to be out of range - quickly move back across the road. Sounds fun.
• End of mission - I killed the two guards, and the game took like 60 seconds to end. I thought it was bugged.
• Feedback - The UI is prettier, though could still provide lots more feedback. Consider that EVERYTHING the user does should have feedback. Pressing a button could bounce. Selecting a unit could wiggle and highlight, and shift the camera. Pressing a dead unit could shake, show a red-outline, and play a 'uh-uh' sound.
• Camera - I don't want to rotate the camera. I also don't really want to zoom in either. Developer's like that stuff, players rarely do. I want to focus on the gameplay, not navigating the camera to find teh 'best angle'. If the camera angle doesn't let players see what they need to see, then consider redesign it.
• Sound - Sound is an inexpensive, juicy, and powerful way to provide feedback. Click a button, select a target, deploy a unit, everything! Spent some time on freesound.org - there's bazillions of sounds
• Deploy a unit - when I deploy the unit, he didn't appear there. It took me a few seconds to realize, 'Oh, he's going to run there'. If that's the way you want the game to work, consider giving feedback that's what's happening somehow. Again, sound, button pressing, animations, etc... are your friend here.

Hearing a player's first impressions is both a blessing and a curse. It's a curse, because it's painful to hear how all your work still leaves the player confused. It's a blessing, because the earlier you learn of problems, the easier it is to fix - the worst case is learning AFTER you ship. You're making good progress on your prototype, and showing it to the community is both forcing you to polish the idea sooner and making you a better designer.

Gigi

PS - For all the reasons above, I did not play past the first mission. Life is short and there are thousands of games. This is the reality of a game designer.

 

Many thanks. This sort of feeback can really turn a game around. Each of those are lines are like a gem to me. And a blessing of course. Absolutely invaluable. It would be a curse to be clueless when your game hits the stores and tanks.

All of your points are valid. Two options are there right now for me. I can polish the training again to hold the attention of the player and get him started with the game. Another option is to bypass training section totally and the player can go straight to the game. The training can come up as popup tips or may be merged in a more seamless manner into the game. Boom beach is a masterful design. But then also the attention attrition is in that game too. So, I can only imagine that if I don't start with the player and engage him right away, I'll lose him forever. I think I'll keep that 'history verbose' out of the face and shelve it in a button which player can see if he has interest and time. Sound is an option I generally doesn't exploit much. It has to change.

I have to turn the table around and do more thinking from the player's perspective. How to treat him well and get him straight to entertainment without much ado.

As a game designer, this would be my first game. So, l'm all ears. Listening and iterating is my reality now.

But it's hard to get useful feedback nowadays. Thanks again.

 

That was a wonderfully spot-on reply.

• Good feedback is priceless, hence the Feedback Friday series.
• Jesse Shell agrees - "The most important skill for a game designer is listening"
• One ingredient of simplicity is "Player's Perspective"

And your welcome ,
Gigi

 

It's APRIL already! And, another week comes to a close. Feedback Friday #20 is here.
Gigi