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(+1)

Video review: 

(+1)

DAMM this helped me ALOT!!
First of all thanks alot for playing this for 30 mins lmaooo

Also, im SOO sorry, cuz only after i submitted i updated the build to show a warning when u try to play with an empty deck and left a few bugs in there xD
Also, you had even worse luck cuz u started with the point to point race.. It seems i reduced the random obstacle timer for testing there and forgot to reset it back to normal.. Basically making it unplayable.. :sob:

And yes, this video helped me learn ALOT about  how a new player will look at the game..
I knew there would be alot of mis-interpretations, and a lack of knowledge as to how the game works for the player cuz i knew that i had communicated the gamepllay VERY badly and i really wanted to see how players would react to this

I already fixed most of the bugs u faced which i truly apologize for :sob:

For starters.. 
- The race description when u select your cookie were bugged which already confuses the player..
- I realised how hard it is for a new player to find that shop xD I already got a small fix for that so itll be more obvious

Ok so ill try to timestamp and reply to stuff :P
- 3:31 - Yes indeed, I tried to tell all the different interactions through these small hints in the desc.. Tho i need to improve the communication on that fs
- 5:31 - Ok so i 100% botched communicating this to the player..
Ok, for the jam, I was scared that players would play too safely.. So i added that random spawner, so the player would have an incentive to place obstacles on their own.. and the timer RESETS if you place an obstacle
This essentially kinda forces them to take control of the race..  The price to place ofc helps to not overdo this aagressiveness
So its main aim is to tell the player that THEY can control the race and you are NOT meant to save money
(Tho this is also used so the player at the start can use the random obstacles to their advantage with their deck, more on that a bit later)

-11:11 - I missed that idea, I like the auto zoom idea!

- 14:55 - yaaa dumb bug :P fixed now 
- 16:23 - Ok so you thought you died cuz of that obstacle.. NO xD, that target thing is a part of the canon to show where the cookie will land, you lost cuz all cookies crossed the lap finish line and you were the last.. Thus ur cookie died

- 17:50 - Yes, that IS intentional :P So like I wanted the player to start simple and the conveyor is very simplle to use + cheap + VERY useful! So my thought process wass that the player will start with that (or the river if u want tbh lol) use the random obstacles to not just save your cookie.. but you are supposed to PUSH OTHER COOKIES in the OBSTACLES, that is why elimination race is at the top :P
I WANT the player to be more aggressive towards the other cookies! Like yes u use it correctly to save yours, but u can ALSO use it to push other cookie in a canon launching out of bounds or a broken bridge plank or smthing..

- 19:47 - Again, YES xD.. ok i KNOW ppl dont like having to spend more money for every place.. BUT, look at the first win in the point-point race, u didnt even finish the race (which gets u more moeny) and u STILL got 2x your investment.. So yes i add restrictions but it is VERY easy to earn lots of money 
I.E. Im lenient with reward cuz im harsh with prices so that i can reduce that obstacle spam :D

- 21:25 - wellll yee, but the lucky lane and the river plank are specifically there to avoid other obstacles :P but  much more situational so i completely get the point 

- 22:21 - cuz the oven launched it :P

- 22:49 - I do show the meaning of those icons in the controls section, the small x Means "RMB" to cancel this obstacle purchase :P. The obstacle will go red and a bigger x appears when u are NOT allowed to place an obstacle.. Also i kinda agree bout the placement being restrictive.. i think i can try to slightly decrease that restriction so u can place them closer

- 23:48 -  Yee exactly! This is basically the risk/reward idea I was going for- obstacles can help you, but they can also come back to hurt you, so you have to balance attacking other cookies with saving your own (like i said for 17:50 at the end)

- 24:08 - Ok so this is SOOO un-intuitive xD, and i need to communucate it better.. 
BUTTT for the oven, u see when YOUR Cookie enters it, a clickable popup appears which is used to make it launch/cook the cookie.. If you ignore it, it randomly chooses how far to launch the cookie and can also cook it, thats where the "dissolving in the river part comes into play")

- 25:23 - Yee, something is DEF wrong if it takes more than 20 mins for a player to get into a flow in a game like this :P
I mostly agree that its in a weird midpoint of ebing random while promoting player agency.. But i genuinely think what makes it worse is how BADLY i communicated or just FAILED to communicate certain mechanics and how in order to reduce aggresiveness, i made it so seemingly ALL players play TOO passively
I feel like the player right now CAN get control.. But cuz of the way how the game is structured, playing passively takes alot of that agency away from them..
I DO wanna keep that passive gameplay for a new player so they dont have to decide between 7 VERY different obstacles and learn slowly, but i also want the player to grow out of it as they go along which has proven to be quite difficult for me haha

- 26:44 - Hmm yes, that IS a problem ive been trying to think off, tbh ive been kinda working on this for wayy too long at the point its kinda getting a bit too boring for me xD. But i have tried to give each obstacle SOME use to be able to change the course of the race.. Like they are in basically 2 categories where they either kill cookies, or help avoid a certain obstacle

- 27:26 As i said like, i want them to be balancing between being aggresive and defensive, if u are aggresive, it CAN come back to bite u in the next lap.. So like either u finish the race befire it bites or  be prepared to avoid them when they do..
And looking at this video.. your playstyle screams passive/defensive xD 
which isnt bad but in this game, being solely on one side makes it completely unplayable which is 100% a me problem and not your fault ofcourse

Also Im VERY sorry for this giant wall of text, no pressue for reading it all xD
But if you have any thing to add to this, Id also appreciate it!
But uve already done MORE than enough, so Thanks again soo much for playing for that duration and the feedback
I tried to avoid alot of text walls in the game ( as u can see here i have a bad habit of writing a thesis :sob:), but i think i need atleast some more of it and better use of my words 

No need to apologize! That's what playtests are for, to surface these things so I feel like if you found the feedback useful, that's all that matters.

I totally agree I play too conservatively 😂 in this game or any game.

I also admit I played the game backwards. You had the modes in the right order, but for whatever reason when I read the description I thought the difficulty was reversed--but after playing the modes I see I was wrong.

Yeah I feel like being able to communicate things clearly to a player is such a challenge, especially as the developer where everything already makes sense to you. But that's why I wanted to record the video, it makes the players thoughts more obvious.

Yee! Yee!

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Nahh, none of it was your fault haha

I gotta communicate the stuff better and playtest a bit before exporting with new changes 
Ye i have the elimination at the top cuz i think that should be the first mode a player tries but there is NO real order to it and I just forgot to fix the race before another export

And yes, I absolutely cant thank you enough for that video! It really helped point out problems in the game!