V0.32 is live please check it out as there have been many upgrades to it from the feedback i had from players who tried it.
I just tried the game again until I got game over around day 23 or so.
The tutorial is a great addition and now I had a much better idea on what to do and how and what the goals where more or less.
Some things that I think might improve the experience:
- Have the amount shown that will be gathered upon click also on wood, metal and tech like you have on food. Although you say that in the tutorial it kind of got mished in my mind with all the other information and I wasn't sure how much I was gathering the first couple of days until I paid specific close attention.
- Have the different upgrades show the current level vs. max level. Although I saw that each upgrade added something new to the room, it's nice to have some affordance that tells you in a brief look the current state of the base.
- Maybe have the % increase in the relevant skill be explicitly stated next to the needed ingredients for the next upgrade (or show current % vs. next % for example). In the same way you show the % efficacy of the wall keeping attackers out between days.
- I think a transition between days showing if attackers will show up and if they manage to kill someone would also help. It could be implemented before any of the characters speak and in a similar manner to the info between days, showing your current defense % and making an enemy throw and showing their percentage. It's just an idea, anyway. It ocurred to me because I felt it was too abrupt, when the last one was killed I just immediately got the game over screen after the last click without any prior notice and it felt really sudden.
- This may intrude into your desired player experience, so you can ignore it if you want. I felt the progression was a tad bit too slow. Before game over I was able to build 1 bedroom, upgrade the wall 3 times and the radio and expedition rooms 1 time. Most of those were after day 15, though, so the beginning of the game was mostly clicking on resources without much thought and having the son complain about things I couldn't upgrade yet. After giving a bit of thought, because progression is mostly limited through chance with the spare parts, the guides and the seeds, it might be a good idea to start with 3 people (have 2 adults with 3 jobs and the son maybe just 1 as he is younger for example) and have the training room be just a bit cheaper to upgrade. I think that would have a positive impact on player engagement from the beginning, as sometimes you get nothing, sometimes very little of something and sometime near 50 spare parts out of the blue which limits player agency for future planning on how they would like to upgrade the base.
- This is just out of curiosity, I had the wall at level 3 and still had son and father get killed in subsequent days. Is that normal and I should have focused on upgrading the wall to 100% efficacy or did I just have very bad RNG?
I think that's enough for today :P. Let me know your thoughts.
Regarding the dev build, sure! If you think my feedback may be of use to improve your game let me know whenever you make updates.