I'd like some feedback on the gameplay loop. Is it fun to play? How intuitive are the mechanics? I don't know how players play my game, and that's a bit sad.
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I scored 4082 in easy mode, but I wasn’t able to make much progress in normal mode. It feels like there’s a gap between the difficulty levels.
As for the fun factor, I’ll be honest, after a while it started to feel a bit repetitive. Maybe you could introduce some variations as the player progresses. For example, you could occasionally change the arrow’s color, and that would mean the player has to press the opposite direction, or adding visual elements that slightly disrupt focus.
Just ideas to keep things evolving.
Regarding intuitiveness, it took me a little while to understand exactly what I was supposed to focus on. I eventually figured it out, but I think many players might not take that time. My suggestion would be to add a very easy first level where, for example, each correct input advances progress more noticeably (like 2 neurons in a single pump). That way the player immediately understands the mechanic.
Also, when showing the mouse input buttons, they’re displayed on opposite sides of the screen. It might be clearer if they were placed next to each other.
I hope this feedback helps, nice job on your game 🙂
This is really detailed feedback. Thanks a lot! Yeah, I didn't have time to do many things. When we see them in successful games, it seems so simple to us. But in reality it takes a lot of time. So, a jam game should only have one simple mechanic. I tried to break this rule again. The original GDD had two more parts: a puzzle in the laboratory with a patient (the real world) and a shooter with zombies (the patient's nightmare, which runs after the sector is cleared). So the neuron map is the average world.
The number of mistakes affects the score. So, in order to get a high score on other difficulty levels, you need to make as few mistakes as possible. There are multipliers for this. But they seem to be too small. I didn't have time to calibrate this. Also, the number of clicks directly impacts score.
The fun factor… Yeah, it still needs polishing. There is no reward for progress. Well, except for the slider, stars, and score. But this is more like a statistic for completing a round than a reward. When I polished it before the deadline, I wanted to make a simulation game as a background. The character would shoot the zombies when the neurons are cleared. And would take damage when the pumping stops. But this also takes too much time.
I think I would have done it if I hadn't lost two days. I worked on the game for five days instead of seven because I was warming up on Mini Jam 204. However, this gave me the idea for the game, so it wasn't just a waste of time.
Tutorial mode is a very good idea. I could do this very quickly. There, I just need to turn off the timers if the player enters the game for the first time… It's a pity that I didn't think of this yesterday. I focused on the visual polish and forgot about the gameplay. The start is really too slow.
The buttons are not intended for a mouse input but for phones. They turn on automatically if the device supports touchscreen input. That's why they are located in the corners, which is convenient for phones.
Thank you very much for your feedback! Yeah, it helped me understand the weak points of my game. This game is better than my previous games. So the next game will be better than this one. This is how the Kolb's cycle works. I really missed the tutorial mode; that's my biggest game design mistake. I don't want to fix this after the deadline (besides, the jam rules only allow fixes, and this is not a fix).
By the way, I specified the tags incorrectly. Only four hours later I added incremental and idle because they told me about this genre on Discord. So, my game received less traffic than it could have received. Maybe I'll release an update if it gets popular. But now I don't believe in it.
Really, thank you. I'll post this in a devlog (devlogs have become a tradition of mine). I slept well today. I'll rest a little more and play your game.