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Luicel140 days ago

A lot of our recent comments have been mentioning increasing the time, so I’m probably going to do that for the post-jam update haha. We have a history of poorly balancing difficulty in our jam games, though I was honestly quite proud of this one’s difficulty curve at the time of submission, but alas! This is why games need to be playtested! lol

Question though, do you think a blanket +10 seconds throughout each day would be sufficient, or do you think the time increases should be weighted more for earlier days or for more later days? In other words, should earlier days have a bigger time increase than later days, vice-versa, or should it be consistent throughout?

Either way, I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed the game! And we greatly appreciate the kind feedback!

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Matt Chandler140 days ago

I think a blanket ten seconds would be a good start!  It needs to be play   tested with some players who aren't familiar with the game.  The wall for me was the day I had to do the newspaper, electrical wiring, wallet, pet 5 dogs, and catch a fish.  I left delivering the newspaper for last since it seemed like that was the best place to end to prevent backtracking, but I wonder if I should have done the fishing corner last.  

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Luicel140 days ago

This is actually super interesting to me, so I’d like to dive into this more if you’re okay with that. That day would be Day 4. What’s interesting to me is that I’m able to complete this day while completely walking (absolutely no running) with 10 seconds on the timer to spare.

Of course I have the benefit of understanding this game inside and out, but this suggests to me that the underlying issue here may not be the time limit but instead something else. Do you remember what your routing/pathing looked liked for that day? Were you using the run button? Did you frequently get lost in the world? How frequently did you use the maps?

Thanks!

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Matt Chandler140 days ago (1 edit)

I think we just found the problem: I didn't know you could run.  I opened the game up again and sure enough it's right there in the controls but I don't think I was using it. :)  I did consult the maps though since they were on your way to objectives!  I'd tap it quick to make sure I was going in the right direction.

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Luicel140 days ago

Interesting! Do you have any suggestions on how we can better onboard the controls? I wonder if the other people expressing concerns about the timer had a similiar issue.

In the post-jam update, here is what the Day 1 (now Scringlo’s Training Day) controls popup looks like. Is this an improvement? Can you think of anything to add?

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Matt Chandler140 days ago

This is an improvement!  I think bringing more attention to the buttons and important words is subtle but helpful.

If you find players aren't using the run button to be a common issue, I think an elegant solution that's a tiny bit of work would be to pop the run button tutorial widget up again if the player isn't using it.  Something like keep an integer counting how many times the shift button has been pressed, or how long it's been held down.  If it hasn't been pressed more than 5 or so times, or held down more than 30 or so seconds on day 2 or 3 have the run tutorial appear again.  

I really appreciate how in depth your going looking for feedback and solutions to these issues.  It's clear you care a lot!

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Luicel140 days ago(+1)

That makes sense, I like and agree with the popup idea! I wonder though if a more elegant solution would be to detect if the player has not been running for more than 2 seconds in a 20 second window and then give them the popup then.

I do want players actively pressing the run button. In the post-jam update, with a new semi-toggle run system, they are going to be able to toggle running, but it will be disabled once they enter a minigame or stay still for a tiny bit. My goal has always been to make them feel like Scringlo as much as possible with the constant acceleration into high gear, but I don’t want to ruin the player experience by forcing that feeling in a way that annoys the player (which I think I did a little bit in the jam version given the numerous feedback we’ve gotten about people’s pinkies hurting lol).

I’ll implement that popup idea and tweak it around! And thank you so much for your in-depth feedback! Jams are always so fun to me for this specific reason, and we’ve never before gotten anywhere near such a large player pool to gather feedback from haha

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Matt Chandler140 days ago

I like your suggestion for detecting when to pop up better.  Definitely try that. 

If you want players actively pressing the run button, you need to make running feel good.  Not just speed, but juice.  Meaty footstep sound effects, visual effects like tiny speed lines, a slight shift in field of view on the camera.  Adjustments to game feel like that go a long way.  Some games sprint function isn't actually any faster at all, they just trick you.  I think Mass Effect's sprint in the Citadel was just that.  You moved at the same speed, but it felt faster.

You're welcome for the feedback!  I try to give good in depth actionable feedback because that's exactly the kind of feedback I would want on my games.  I don't get to review as many games this way, but I think giving better feedback is worth it.

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Luicel140 days ago(+1)

Your in depth actionable feedback is very much so greatly appreciated! Your intentions are very noble too!

Adding juice makes sense; I do feel silly that I’ve never fought about that for the run until you mentioned it haha. You’re absolutely right, though. I like all of your ideas for how to add some juice; I’ll experiment with those!

Again, thank you so much!

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