Kinda popular around here

The game seems to be getting some traffic for being an Idle game that is on some featured lists on itch.io

It shows in the first page yet, something like this

So I decided to give it some attention ;D I still plan to do something for the Pizza Jam but while I can't figure out something to do for one of their themes, I will do some small adjustments in Animal Shards to make it more interesting. Some of the things I am thinking about

1. Simple Tips when player hits the pause button. And change the current X (close) button to a || (pause).
2. Show the current movement speed on the screen so player's know it can be increased.
3. Feedbacks on the screen when the player taps it (so player knows something is happening - speed increases).
4. Do a better job indicating the animal's issue and the time to cure it (right now it is on the UI on the right but it feels like people don't get it).
5. Also do a better job to indicate that while Helena is walking, she is actually looking for new rocks. That is why the rock spawn timer pauses when she is curing an animal.
6. I have a whole pack of animals, see if I can add. As well as more levels (the game only has 1 so far). As I could see, most of the game variable are hard coded so would be a good idea to remove them and add Level Definition files.
7. A power-up to increase Helena's walking speed
8. Would be nice to show the player the list of animals available in each level.

I am not sure anyone stop to look at the walking/curing part of the game. Gameplay, most of the time, happens in the "merge" area. With that in mind, the pace of the curing can be a lot lower and the spawning of new rocks more frequent. The biggest stone I have is the number 8, might need to do more but I am no artist 😋 So I might opt for a different path like once you hit the 9th level, player might get some kind of permanent boost or a reset with faster Helena (curing and walking) as well as the possibility to go to another level.