Post by Raw Egg Studio in Whack-A-Monster comments

Viewing post in Whack-A-Monster comments

Wow. That was really polished, addicting and fun, I loved it! I had a blast playing it and I wishlisted it on steam.

That said I am not quite sure about the way the health system is introduced. If I am correct, I think it mostly works like a timer (?) that decreases even more when you attack an enemy (?). It took me quite a while to realize that. I would personally like to know from the beginning that, apart from the enemies, "time" also damages you.

Also, when I finally understood how health worked, now the "Gain X hp every second" upgrade didn't make any sense especially combined with the "Kills Restore X health". Maybe in the future there'll be even more powerfull enemies and these upgrades will make sence, but as of now, at some point the whole health system became obsolete.

Take all this nitpicky feedback with a grain of salt, as it is just my personal opinion. I loved the experience overall and I would love to see where this game goes.

Wish you the best of luck!

Keep it up!

Brainfog Games4 days ago

Thanks for the thorough feedback. It is truly appreciated :D

The introduction/explanation of the health system had been a thorn in our side for quite a while tbh haha. We have been thinking a lot about how to make it more clear and explain it organically without much of a tutorial. We eventually caved in and added a super small one at the start of the game explaining that enemies deal damage back when you attack them. You probably clicked it away(fair enough I do this myself all the time with tutorials)

It currently works as follows: 1. monsters deal damage back when you attack them.

2. You slowly lose health over time, this degen increases as you play longer. This gets pushed back by your health regen however which can ben quite confusing

example: +2 health regen will slowly move to 0 as you play longer and eventually to a value less than 0 starting the degen.

The degen is also stronger every new level you go into.

Thing is we need this to add some kind of time pressure to the levels, especially as you just unlock them. We just haven't found a way yet to introduce/explain this properly.

Would love to hear your thoughts though. How do you think we might explain this well without adding a wall of text?

Anyway cheers, glad you enjoyed the game so much!

iampdk4 days ago(+1)

Hey! Not the original poster here, but thought id give my opinion :p For the damage over time, you could add evil spirits/poison that you cant defeat and explain that they deal constant damage (that would explain the hp degen). Perhaps a tiny 2-3 step tutorial at the start, with a small scroll with 1-2 lines of text (eg: 1. click on monsters to attack. Careful, they attack you back! (with 1 monster on the grid that they kill in one shot) 2. Poison deals constant damage. (Grid with no enemies, perhaps a heart animation draining?) 3. Collect money for upgrades! (and a few coins on the ground you pick up with mouse)). That would be 30s-1min and explains the mechanics (as far as i´ve seen, ive only played like twice). Also, on the health regen/enemy kill for hp upgrades, you could add some extra text (since people actually do read those) that says maybe Poison still affects you. The longer you play, the more damage it deals. or Enemies will still damage you when you hit them.

Hope this helped!

Brainfog Games4 days ago

Heya thanks for hopping in on the discussion. Definitely curious to hear more thoughts from more people :)

I fear adding more more mechanics like spirits/player poison might cause more confusion. I do lke the idea of adding more info in the health regen tooltip though! We might add some extra info there :D

kbobble643 days ago(+1)

I feel like just one more slide on the tutorial saying "You lose health over time at an increasing rate" would go a long way to explaining this, and players could work out the interaction with health regen themselves if you don't want a long tutorial

Brainfog Games3 days ago

Thanks! Was thinking of doing something alonng those lines as well. Just wasn't sure enough yet.

Raw Egg Studio3 days ago(+1)

Yeah, I must agree with you here. It might be as simple as letting players know that "you lose health over time". Brainfog Games , I actually did play the tutorial (one of the rare times hahaha) and i understood that i took damage when bopping on enemies, but I didn't quite get the "time" aspect of loosing hp, until a lot lot later.

Brainfog Games3 days ago

Again thanks for the feedback. It is duly noted :)

we'll make sure to clear this up to onboard people better!

itch.io

Viewing post in Whack-A-Monster comments