First off, thank you for the compliments, I really appreciate it.
Very thorough feedback, and incredibly punctual. All of the points highlighted are things I'm aware of and plan on fixing / have tried to fix in the past without success, and need to iterate. Let me give you a point by point:
- Money sfx: There is a sound there, although quite placeholder-ish... But now that I have a soundtrack it disappeared in the mix. We're working on it. I'll do a few more audio passes to update the final version of the soundtrack, and to include more sound effects, as many interactions (hitting ship, building, upgrading, ui navigation, etc) don't have a sound and it's quite jarring.
- Tutorial level difficulty: Ugh. The tutorial level is a bit of a legacy level with quite a few problems that have been accumulating, including the difficulty. I'll do another pass on the tutorial to make it less wordy and introduce the difficulty gradually, maybe even redesign the level? Turtle beach is too exposed indeed, and quite difficult to defend. I'm not quite sure what the long term solution there should be, but on a first look I'll just reduce the number of enemies there / their health and call it a day... In any case, if you want a better difficulty curve, skip the tutorial level and go to level 2 onwards.
- UI panel size: Yep, correct. It was made for mobile first, and my fat thumbs quite like the big panel. It definitely obscures too much and affects gameplay, so I'll work on the accessibility there. Maybe just forcing a zoom-out could address that.
- Zoom reset on switch: Ah, so I didn't fix this one on every map. Normally the zoom resets to most-zoomed-out (not your previous zoom level) when you switch, but I will align all the maps so they have the same behaviour; as you've experienced, some maps still reset to somewhere in between.
- No juice: Mate, I know exactly what you mean. The distraction + multitask difficulty was definitely intentional, but without another core fun mechanic, it becomes a bit pointless. I found quite a few people enjoy the core loop of just build / upgrade / collect enough that they don't notice it, but you are 100% on the money with that feedback. I'll go back to the drawing board to try to find another core mechanic to add to the fun. I wanted to bring in a end-level boss, or maybe a mechanic where you have to finish building something to be able to complete the level, rather than just survive X waves. To be seen!
- Note: I just released an update with a new ship that helps you collect money, so there's a game mechanic to reduce this feeling of being overwhelmed via gameplay.
Lastly, let me thank you again for the incredible feedback. You really took the time to think and analyze my choices and mechanics, and I appreciate it a lot!! Hope you give it another chance despite the gratuitous punishment you received in the tutorial...
Best,
FLCB