I’ve actually played it a few more times, it is quite addictive, and I feel it fit the theme of the jam very well. On my first run through I think I was a bit confused about the dearth and surplus stars. Maybe the fact they were stars threw me off, but I do know it took me a few villages to realize what all the barter UI represented - but it was fairly well explained by the tool tips and at some point it all clicked. There’s always going to be a learning curve with strategy games.
I also like the log, but my only feedback there would be to have some delay or spacing in the relating of messages. A lot can populate in the log at a given time, and having some separation between events might help. I think you are headed in the right direction with the color coding.
Overall, I really enjoy it. I’d love more tile variety, some additional obstacles to overcome, and maybe larger towns, but there is only so much one can accomplish in 72 hours, and I think you did a fantastic job. Do you plan on continuing development?
I'm happy to hear that the UI started making sense after a while. I was worried that in the absence of a tutorial it would be confusing so I added the tooltips as an intermediate step. Do you have any recommendations on what would be a good replacement for stars? Originally I had planned on doing a bar that shifted color tones, but I wasn't sure that it would be very accessible for color blind individuals.
Adding some buffer between the logs is a good idea. Under the Lamp (User), had some other feedback such separating out the inventory portion from the story elements that I may tweak as well. I'm glad to know that the color coding was helpful in keeping relevant information apparent. I tried to break it down between Informational (White), Story (Cyan), Warnings (Red), Buying (Magenta), and Selling (Green).
My hope is to continue development and do some major UI overhaul. As you know in these JAM games once you commit to a certain path it's hard to pivot design decisions even when you recognize they can be improved when you are running out of time. My hope is to have a hand crafted map with some narrative elements sprinkled around which will include new features/obstacles/towns/ports/etc. I was planning on adding "larger" towns in this iteration in the form of villages being next to each other, but they merge their resources together, but again, time was limited and the current system was functioning well enough to get the idea across.
Thanks again for the additional feedback!
