I tried this bad boy again. I still had some issues. I put the big cooking pot under the 1st station, and I think I'm supposed to wait for it to finish? But I didn't see anything happening so I wasn't sure if I did it right. I did explore the house this time though too. The game is very moody in a nice stylized way, but it's so dim and hazy that I had trouble finding the door again to exit the house. I think maybe what's missing from the gameplay is more clear feedback to know if you're doing something right or wrong? Especially since that sequence is important. I think when I put the pot down under the first station, it should communicate to me some way if I did something right or wrong, especially because the game is a little confusing. Still feel the same though, I love the concept, vibe, and atmosphere, just having trouble figuring out how to play.
Viewing post in Where The Land Don't Shine. jam comments
yep lmfao valid.
Dude the first station is finished as soon as you put it in, it pours water, I just didn't write a notification that it's poured. If you look at it at the top there'd be water in it.
yeahhh
obviously my instructions weren't enough
If you look at the video I think the actual result was kinda cool, just lol people actually gotta be able to figure out how to play it
Hmm yeah didn't see the last instructions. I'll give it another try later in the day, but genuinely did not know anything had happened. I thought I had to turn on the station. Part of it is I can't see. I guess if you want constructive criticism it would be this:
Even though it's frustrating, I do think it's a principle of design to not try and blame the end user but also know that end users are dumb lol. I know I'm not the only person who's mentioned being confused. I've had the same frustrations watching people play my game, where I'm like "come on, it's so obvious", but I also know I've spent 100x more time with the game than they will, and so it's hard for me to understand what's obvious. I think if there was a like a water sound in this case, that would've been perfect to let me know something happened. I genuinely thought the pot was just sitting there and I had to activate the station, but had no idea how to do that. Hopefully you take this as constructive criticism, because I do really see potential in the game, it just needs some better feedback to be less confusing, especially because it is creative and not using obvious mechanics like a platformer would be.
hey bro.. appreciate you putting up with me lmao. I've just gone and made a video tutorial:
It's my fault anyway, my instructions were so last minute. And the product is for the people who play it, not me, so whatever I do in my game needs to be enjoyable by the player. If I don't put good enough instructions in my game, and the player doesn't know what to do, and they can't have any fun? That's my fault.I also just added those last instructions just then so yea dont stress