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Produce Prophet's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals(Graphics) | #8 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Sound/Audio | #10 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
| Fun | #13 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #14 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
| Overall | #14 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://classykraken.itch.io/produce-prophet/devlog/749542/path-notes-12-improve-my-game-jam-34
Developer Feedback Questions
I'd love to get opinions on the current version vs the previous version (available as Produce Prophet Classic on the page).
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Comments
Art
Your art is super cute, and I think you're hitting on the right vibe to interest a lot of players. The colors are nice, the layout is clear. This is obviously your strong area, and lean in to your aesthetic!
Tutorial
I think your are you're feeding information to the player way to fast, I open the game to a wall of text and a lot options, you should break that down into small tasks and have the complexity ramp exponentially if you want to make the player feel overwhelmed.
Simulation
On the simulation, none of the prices or numbers make much sense and the terms don't line up to reality very well. For example Profit = Revenue - Cost, it seems that you're using "profit" to mean "revenue" in this case. Your ingredient historical performance doesn't make a lot of sense, the cheese sold 40-45 unit per quarter for the past 4 quarters, when I ended my first quarter without changing anything it sold 73, it didn't pass 100, so increasing production literally would help (since no-one would buy more than by base production).
Balance
Also, the balance is off I literally didn't engage with any of the systems for a play through, and my budget went up, my profit/revenue went up and my deficit didn't affect my budget at all, I ended up saving the company with 5 strikes with a score of 833, and continuing I made it more than 40 quarters and bumped the score to over 10k. Again this was without playing the game, just hitting advance. It seems that the business wasn't really failing (maybe that's the point?)
Story
On the story side, how your financials do doesn't really seem to affect the outcomes for the strikes which doesn't make a ton of sense. If the point is that Boards & CEOs do layoffs after record sales (which is a fair point), I think it should be if you have a sudden bad quarter (maybe model in a random recession or an event where you get hit with a food poisoning scandal that spooks the board into pressuring you into layoffs or what ever).
Suggested Next Steps
I'd recommend looking at some real annual earnings reports (companies legally have to public report their financials to be traded as a stock) and reading up a little on economics (like how supply and demand work) to close that gap, at least if the goal is for the player to be able to make good decisions. If it helps you can find all of the equations online for how all of the numbers you're trying to represent would work in real life. It'll also help make things feel more real, and help the suspension of disbelief.
Overall
Overall, I think you have a really interesting game, but the simulation really needs a lot of work along with the balance along with ease the user into to keep them from bouncing. Best of luck and i hope your game succeeds!
Thank you for the incredibly detailed feedback!
I did intend to build the tutorial to be fully interactive and chunk the game up, but ran out of time. I agree it is definitely too dense and wordy in its current iteration.
Good catch on Profit vs Revenue, I changed around the labels, and it looks like I never corrected that! I also have Demand listed twice, even though one should be Loyalty. Do you have other examples of where the information is incorrect? The economics are admittedly very rudimentary and gamey (production increasing demand doesn't make much sense, but it is a way to reward players for completing research), and rely too much on random numbers, but I might be able to make some minor tweaks if there are big issues.
As for the previous quarters starting at 40ish, that's a good point. I just have it generate numbers around 50, I honestly didn't think anyone would pay much attention to the information from before their start! I could bring that more in line with the player's likely first quarter!
It is intentional that you can win by just Submitting Quarter repeatedly. Since this was made as part of the Fuck Capitalism Jam, I've tried to stick to that theme (potentially to my own detriment), so I actually tweaked numbers until you could win by default (basically making a joke about CEO being unnecessary). I probably should've added something to call the players out for doing it!
For the story elements, that was actually in the original plan, but got overlooked along the way unfortunately.
I think you bring up a really interesting point that I haven't seen yet, I may have made something that's neither realistic nor fantastical enough, and put the game in a kind of weird limbo! If I ever dig back into it, I'm definitely taking a good chunk of your feedback in with me!
Happy to help! I think you hit on a core area to unlock for the game, what type of game do you want to make? Are you shooting for a story driven, satire with some simulation elements, or are you shooting for a simulation, with satirical elements? I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, but right I think you're half-way in between which makes it a bit confusing to the player.
For example, giving a ton information about demand that doesn't do anything either can be a way to heighten the satire, or it could be a useful way to make decisions, but it would require some sign posting (maybe delayed by a couple quarters) that it's not working to not confuse the player. (Personal I did this poorly in my project) A great game that does primarily a simulation but also satire well is the Tropico Series. A great game that did satire well with a bit of simulation would be Papers Please.
If you want the experience to be more story driven and satirical, than I would pull back a little and simplify the simulation elements & ui to focus on your impotence as CEO. If you want to make a more simulation focused game (perhaps still with a satirical overtone and message), you'll need to do so more research and make sure you can use the numbers to make good decisions and maybe give a bit more player agency (so it's clearly the players fault if they fail, or clearly the boards fault they fail etc).
For better simulation & making it more real, you can look at company earnings reports (like Tyson Foods for example), and look at the metrics they use in quarterly reports, and then you can use investopedia to understand what each number is and how it is calculated to help make the numbers make sense. (you can always also simplify it a bit if need be, but at least reading through it will help a ton).
The other thing for the economics you could do is use a random range like you're doing, but then multiply it by a curve so every quarter demand grows x% * random_number. This will help things feel more real. For example, the amount people will buy is a curve and at any given price only a certain amount will be bought, and if you produce more the price goes down.
You have really neat idea here! I don't think I've ever seen a game that turns quarterly earnings reports into a CEO simulation game, so I'm excited to see which direction you go and how unlock the potential!
Welp managed to get fired by the directors then just drove the company into bankrupcy in my following try :P
This is definitely a more unique and original game, there's quite a lot of dark humor and cute character portraits to cover the part where you're supposed to be playing a ruthless CEO ready to burn down the planet to try to keep profits increasing just one more quarter for the cold and cruel board of directors, this is definitely not something you see everyday. There's quite a lot of lore in here too from the different newspapers to the different director reactions. Also numbers, lots and lots of numbers.
(of all the great jokes, my favorite must be the "no, you can't write down bribes to a director as company expenses")
The tutorial definitely could use some more spreading out, maybe have a "scripted" first quarter where the player is guided more step-by-step over the different sections.
Another not-so-good point is the music that started to feel repetitive shortly.
All in all, definitely original, great to see games exploring new themes, and this one has quite a bit of nice content already for those looking for this kind of experience!
Getting fired and going bankrupt are the most moral routes you can take in game, so we'll just chalk it up to you wanting to genuinely be a good person!
The tutorial was going to be fully interactive and chunk up the game, unfortunately I just ran out of time to fully implement it.
I really appreciate the kind words about the lore and jokes. Our Artist and Writer did a great job of fleshing out the characters and I think it ends up being one of the biggest strengths of the game, but not many people mention it, so I'm glad to see someone is enjoying it!
I really like the sound design by E-Mertz, and unfortunately didn't do it much justice with my programing and planning skills. There are 4 total tracks, but only 1 plays at a time, I may have to unlock all of the tracks from the beginning to bring some variety to the background music.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
Hi!
I'm really sorry to say, I am a little overwhelmed. I really like the art and music, but for a non-finance, non-business type of person this is all a bit too much info all at once. Admittedly, I sucked at bonds in all the Railroad Tycoon games too..
However, to make it immersive (and accessible) for someone like this, it might be feasible to bend this game in a direction in which you introduce the elements one by one... so maybe you don't start out as a CEO, but as a trainee, learning the ropes. (?)
Then again, there are probably quite a lot of ppl out there who love all the dials you can turn in this game and want to know what happens next... Am am intrigued, but I did get flashbacks from when I bought a Europa Universalis game -- which apparently still has quite a fanbase.... but I was overwhelmed
No need to apologize, it's definitely not an intuitive game, I just appreciate you taking the time to play and leave feedback!
I think my own appreciation of business games that are known for not being particularly user friendly might've bit my in the butt a little on this (I love the stocks and bonds in RRT! Thought EU is overwhelming for me as well).
The original intent of the tutorial was to slowly step the player through all of the functions, unfortunately I just ran out of time, but I agree it's probably a little too much, with too ineffective a UI at this point.
Wow, it seems like a lot of depth here! Other than the noisy UI (I was able to manage it but it wasn't easy or intuitive) and lengthy tutorial (simplifying the UI will probably shorten the tutorial) I think there's a fun sim at the heart of this! The overall concept and the general art direction are a good foundation.
Thank you for your feedback and encouraging words!
I started the tutorial with the idea of making it fully interactive, but just ran out of time, but I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment regarding the tutorial and UI.
I found the UI pretty confusing. The tutorial was not very useful because there were so many tabs that I just exited out, and the "current quarter" interface was not intuitive. I also didn't realize I could perform research until the execs started complaining.
I'd suggest modeling the UI after a browser, as it's a flow that people are familiar with (tabs at the top, rather than at the side, for one).
The other big thing I noticed was that I wasn't sure what was changing from quarter to quarter. The numbers would change even if I didn't do anything, and it was unclear how my input was being reflected in gameplay.
Yeah, I really wish I'd done something better with the UI.
I've heard the complaint about not being able to tell what impact you are having, which is largely what drove the ability to see the history of your products, but it's admittedly a pretty weak representation, and now that I'm reading your input, I'm starting to think I have too many obscure mechanics running in the background.
I really appreciate your feedback!
I like the idea, but I'm not a fan of the user interface.
The newspaper/dialogue section is just too big for the little information you can get from it.
I'm also missing a general style in your user interface. The about page, the settings page, and the main game all have different buttons and styles. I think the UX is a very important part of this game, and currently it's not the best user experience. I think a user interface that consists of panels with information would be better than the current user interface. Show the player a desktop with different app icons, each icon opens a panel in which the player can change some things (panel for the board members, panel for hiring, panel for research). This will allow your player to remove text when he's done with a certain part. This will give your UI a cleaner and less overwhelming feeling.
I played the classic and the new version, and while the new version has some new and improved features, I prefer the amount setting instead of the price setting.
I didn't see a tutorial in the classic version, but there was one in the new version. This tutorial can also use some UX improvements
The UI hasn't been pointed out much but I fully agree. I really went in with UI as an afterthought and paid for that on the back end! Very fair point on the size of the dialogue/newspaper, it was meant to be more integral to the game, and honestly I never even thought about reducing the size once we pivoted away from it... Really wish I'd thought of that to get some of that screen real estate back!
I really wasn't sure how setting the price vs determining the output would work out, so I really appreciate your feedback. On the "classic" version one of the major complaints was that there wasn't enough player agency for the production side, so price changing was my quick fix.
Originally I was building the tutorial to be responsive to the player, but I realized I wouldn't have time to finish it before the jam, so back tracked to making the player click through it
Thank you for thorough and well thought out feedback!
Nice game, I like the theme and idea of it. The visuals especially the characters are good and the writing is funny. Some suggestions for improvement:
Tutorial helper doesn't sync with the screen you're on which can be confusing at the start there's a lot of stuff text thrown at you. Having it highlight the section it's talking about would also improve clarity.
The music is nice but gets redundant after a while, having more song in rotation would be good. Also more audio effects in general, clicking buttons, researching things, voice overs for the character dialogue/tutorial (or like animal crossing esque talking noises), would help it feel less void
I learned the hard way that taking a fat loan and hiring a bunch of people is not the play lol
Nice work, this could be a fun casual management game
Thank you for your feedback!
I really think the character design ended up being one of the highlights, I'll send your kind words onto our artist!
Originally the tutorial was going to respond to the player's input, but I realized I wasn't going to have time to finish it prior to the game jam. Definitely agree that it ends up feeling very lacking. I really appreciate the specifics regarding what's missing audio, it's something I largely ignore so have a hard time identifying where it's lacking. You can unlock more audio tracks, but even then it just loops through 1 at a time :(