At first, I kept wanting to stop cause of the repeating gameplay loop, but I saw all these comments and I...couldn't. The music, the story, the chaos...it was so awesome, very well chosen on all these fronts. Wish I could make the wife happy but alas, I couldn't. Hey at least the game jam got done tho! Very well worth the play.
Viewing post in Life with a Newborn jam comments
The ability to spam 0 on level 3 once I'd managed to piss of the wife too much XD
I think the main thing that makes it feel long for the first two levels is the limited options, but the choices are repeated multiple times. It feels like since I've already managed to get a good outcome out of a choice, i.e. changing the baby's nappy, I'm thinking less about what to actually choose and it starts to get monotonous.
The opposite thing happens in level 3, where now I've got too many options to choose from (which I know is the intent, and your message is portrayed well here), but this meant I was now spending a lot more time thinking about the choices. Since it seemed to be the same level duration as the other two, I really didn't want to spend double the time of the prior levels just to beat level 3.
TLDR I'd say that the number of choices could go down for each level by a little bit, but especially for level 3, where more thought needs to be put into each action which takes more time.
Oh, that's actually a really good idea!
I've been getting feedback that the game was too repetitive; and I was worried about that during development.
However, my idea for a solution was to add *more* options, but at different times, to increase variety.
That idea didn't feel right; because I already felt like act 3 was overwhelming enough.
BUT, if all the levels get actions reduced, then maybe the player just kind of speeds through acts 1 and 2...
I guess I wanted to put more options in earlier because I was worried people would think "oh, this is all" and quit early.
Game dev is all a big balancing act, I guess (like life, in general XD).