Super cool game! I won't like, most of the time I placed things down until things worked, as I couldn't quite picture what would happen with the configuration placed. But it was quite satisfying once it hit the target and worked.
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Hurricane Simulator's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #1 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Gameplay | #6 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Overall | #6 | 3.104 | 3.104 |
| Fun | #11 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Theme | #16 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Discord Username(s)
smoke2408
Comments
Interesting game idea and I learned a bit about hurricanes thanks to it!
I think it could find an audience once it's fleshed out. I can see people designing custom levels for it and such.
Learning how the different systems interacted was challenging. I feel like there are a few too many variables to consider/things to learn in the first level. The way the elements affect each other over time is not obvious despite the helpful explanations you included in the sidebar. Though I understand that's kind of the point as hurricanes and other weather have similarly convoluted dependencies. I don't think the difficulty is a bad thing, but it could be ramped up a little smoother. I won't dock any points for that though, it's hard to balance something novel like this in the time of a game jam.
I think with a gentler curve of introducing mechanics and variables, and more tools to visualize/predict where the hurricane will go, you can have something really cool and innovative here. Great job.
I just wanna make a personal opinion here, for the future. I'm not sure what you have in mind for an "in depth tutorial" but I would say, do your absolute best to take out as much reading as possible.
There's definitely people that can be bothered reading lots, but there are also those who can't. Regrettably, I typically fall into the 'can't be bothered' section, especially if its within the first 5 seconds after I click play.
I find myself skipping a lot of sometimes important stuff in dialogue, or not reading helpful walls of text until I start to get frustrated. Which, ironically enough, was the fault of mine on Zenryoku's (original commenter here) game, lol.
One of the submissions in the jam, https://sairon711.itch.io/rebuilder-cursed-samurai has a big issue with this.
There is so much writing, explaining everything, and I don't think I personally even read more than 2 full lines, and still learned how the game works.
So the way their game is designed, it's easy to figure out, but they still over explain a lot, and its rather intrusive.
So, I would highly suggest trying to design a tutorial using 0 words, first, the adding as few text where it's needed after. Then explain in detail things that might be interesting. Like, how hurricanes work and why things do stuff. But make it something the player can read if they want to, rather than including it in the main tutorial.
If you have new mechanics that get slowly introduced. A single easy level between real levels, that just basically shows the player what that new thing does, can be pretty helpful.
Rather than pausing the game, and giving a big old essay about how it works, just slam them in a spot where it's the only thing they can use and show them how it works.
Very interesting and fun game. I have no idea if this simulation is based on real stuff that affects the hurricanes, but for the game elements, looks very legit: you can see how all the pressure elements affect the trajectory of the hurricane, and looks like a real hurricane model that you would see in the news. I don't think I've ever seen a Hurricane Simulator, definitely hitting innovation there. The gameplay mechanics are simple, yet the correct solution is not that easy which engage me to keep trying. Sadly I've been here around two hours and I was able to reach level 7 only. Audio and graphics are very adequate to the theme.
I took some notes on things that would add to usability:
- When I place a pressure system, I cannot move it again. It could be great to be able to move it again only if I have not started the simulation, instead of doing a Retry to be able to place them again (which I really felt the need at later levels).
- It would be great to have the option to Retry and leave the pressure systems where i put them before starting the simulation, this would greatly improve gameplay, specially when there are multiple pressure systems to place.
- I didn't find a way of seeing again the first information screen, which after a while playing i don't remember its contents and I dunno if there is important information there to play the game.
Awesome entry! Also, loved the names of the levels, which are related to the city that need to be destroyed :D
Submitted
Chain Reaction
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