at first it was hard for me to go where i wanted, but i got into the feeling of it and it created some fun tension that i was never quite in control; it added to the feeling of being an out of control taxi racing against time. it certainly heightened the feeling of nerve racking "will i make it in time".
I'm curious how you decided what time to assign as the goal for each run. I found I was always reaching my goal just barely in time, so cheers to the perfect balance however you did it.
I did have a moment after about 4 trips where I got a location name and I though "oh i know where that is" which was a fun moment and I know part of your goal for the theme (expanding your knowledge of the map), so you hit that on the head too.
this is probably on your list of 'to dos', but my suggestion would be some visual cues to help people mentally map the space. it would be cool if there were visual landmarks, or biomes, "neighborhoods" etc. marked so you could start to map it. trees, houses, etc. even just different colors in a gradient across the map would help start to map in my mind. maybe street signs or the names of the streets written on the road.
As i said in the discord a while back, liked the compass implementation. it gave the right amount of information (general direction) without giving too much information. left room to still get a little bit (just the right amount) of lost while trying to make the target.
I tried to make the time feel fair without being overly generous.
this is probably on your list of 'to dos', but my suggestion would be some visual cues to help people mentally map the space.
Indeed it was! The space is a definitely too geometrical and spartan as it stands, but if I work on this further then I'm hoping to garnish the various names in the asteroids with a sense of place too.
Took a while for me to get into a groove where I was making it to my destination on time, but I did get there! Totally zen! You really seem to have a way with data, and I would love to see you lean into that. UI presentation is also excellent.
Well, this is just from the two games I have played of yours, but Kelp on Mars had those statistics at the end of the day, and this game has that cool graph on the right with home satisfaction and goals reached. I think what I mean is that I feel your games are unique because of the numbers that you expose to the player that are perhaps usually hidden, or at least not displayed on the primary HUD. Maybe it's more of a vibe thing, but I get the sense that that exposure is something that you enjoy in games! Makes the game feel more technical, but also more cohesive and full as a world imho.
Right, thanks for the clarification, I really appreciate the insight! I'll be honest—it's not something I'd consciously considered but I do like giving context to player actions in aggregate. This is mostly inspired by things like morgue files from roguelikes and the somewhat cuter+more succinct summaries you get at the end of Spelunky levels, but also having spent a considerable amount of time in a professional context taking significant quantities of data and making sense of them and the pleasure in that reification.
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so fun! i enjoyed the feeling of the movement.
Thanks for the thorough feedback, BillyB0nes, glad to hear my intentions connected with your experience!
It was a combination of just doing a few runs, seeing what the numbers looked like and picking what seemed to be reasonable numbers:https://github.com/broquaint/comrade-cabbie/blob/main/Player.gd#L238-L241
I tried to make the time feel fair without being overly generous.
Indeed it was! The space is a definitely too geometrical and spartan as it stands, but if I work on this further then I'm hoping to garnish the various names in the asteroids with a sense of place too.
Took a while for me to get into a groove where I was making it to my destination on time, but I did get there! Totally zen! You really seem to have a way with data, and I would love to see you lean into that. UI presentation is also excellent.
Thanks for the feedback, tiimtoon!
How do you mean "have a way with data"? I am intrigued 😄
Well, this is just from the two games I have played of yours, but Kelp on Mars had those statistics at the end of the day, and this game has that cool graph on the right with home satisfaction and goals reached. I think what I mean is that I feel your games are unique because of the numbers that you expose to the player that are perhaps usually hidden, or at least not displayed on the primary HUD. Maybe it's more of a vibe thing, but I get the sense that that exposure is something that you enjoy in games! Makes the game feel more technical, but also more cohesive and full as a world imho.
Right, thanks for the clarification, I really appreciate the insight! I'll be honest—it's not something I'd consciously considered but I do like giving context to player actions in aggregate. This is mostly inspired by things like morgue files from roguelikes and the somewhat cuter+more succinct summaries you get at the end of Spelunky levels, but also having spent a considerable amount of time in a professional context taking significant quantities of data and making sense of them and the pleasure in that reification.