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hythrain1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

Hello from tonight's stream.

The artwork and UI look fantastic. I love the visual design of this game.

However, I may be in a minority that has no idea what's going on.

Don't get me wrong, I get that the battles are playing Tetris. What I don't get is everything outside of Tetris. So I did the tutorial, I know you're supposed to move around and you can collect stuff and recruit soldiers and so on and so on... but why are we doing this? What is it that I'm trying to do as the player overall? It felt like all I was doing was going randomly around to "fight stuff" then I just play Tetris with some five block pieces added in. I didn't pay attention to what was going on in the fights. I just kept playing Tetris until I won.

Did I just miss something obvious?

Beyond this, my own criticism would be that the battle music gets repetitive. Some changes in song would be nice.

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Przemyslaw Jelonek1 year ago (1 edit)

Hi, thanks for comment. 

I watched the recording of your stream, but I didn't exactly get what the problem was. Let me make a few guesses in that case, maybe one of them will be accurate.

1. While watching the stream I felt like you would like this game to have more story, be a bit more linear, maybe that's the problem? In that case I'm sorry, but it was never meant to be a story heavy game (although some more story will be added in the future), it's just a roguelite sandbox, where I wanted to give players basic informations and let them explore the game on their own, learn about it and utilize new toys during subsequent runs. Bits of the story and informations about the goal of a game are provided in the first dialogue - there is a lingering, unknown danger and the hero is the one who must lead people out of those dying lands.

2. If the problem was a confusion about mechanics - I saw that during the stream you mentioned things that were actually explained in the tutorial (player health and consequences of losing a battle, hero and enemy power, creatures utility, etc.). That makes me think that maybe I should find some other way of explaining these things, like highlighting them during the tutorial talk to make it more memorable.

By the way, you should be able to find some answers in the compendium, the button is on the side bar. The goal is described on the first page of it too. However, if the problem was the absence of the story... I'll add an intro cutscene to this demo in the future, but I have a lot of other things to upgrade before I do that.

Please tell me more about the issue, if it was something I commented on or maybe you just didn't like some of the ideas/mechanics (which is perfectly fine). It will help me find a solution.


I know that it's a niche genre combination and requires specific mindset to enjoy it. Additionally, it's not meant to be played from the beginning to the "definitive" end in a single run. I would like to use something like The Binding of Isaac as an example of similar approach - in such games you discover, learn and repeat while slowly mastering the game.

I hope I clarified it a bit for you. I also hope you'll find some more value in it sometime and give it another try with these things in mind. :) If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

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hythrain1 year ago

So before I get into this, I should note... I was high during that stream. Since streams are just meant to be fun for me, I usually consume a bit of cannabis to help me out. This doesn't affect my ability to give feedback, but it CAN affect my memory if something isn't explicitly stated.

I'm going to check through the tutorial again when I'm not high to see how it teaches things.

That said, it was a bit of both for me. For now, let me cover in terms of the first guess...

When the game starts, there are a few lines of dialogue to get you started which sets a vague goal but gives no idea of how you achieve that goal. You're just thrown to this big world with no guidance of what you're looking for, both in the immediate and long term. This could be your intent, but for me it makes it hard to enjoy when I don't understand what I'm going after. I'll try and use an example to explain what I mean.

Let's say this was an MMORPG instead of the game you made. Normally, when you start a new character there's a quest to give your initial direction of what to do or where to go. In the early stages of an MMO, it's never going to stay with that as the goal but it gives you SOME idea of what to do until you figure things out. In this example, this would be the equivalent of a quest giver going "You have to save us" and then you're told nothing about who you're saving them from or what you're supposed to do. Who are you fighting? What are you supposed to do for the quest? They won't give more info, and all you can do is stumble around until you accidentally find what you're after.

And it doesn't even need to give a direction to go, so long as it sets a goal. Like, going with the dialogue you offered, I would say this is what should follow in narration.

"The people of your city call out for help. You must find a new place for your people to live, but there are threats everywhere. You must both grow your army and yourself stronger in order to lead your people to whatever this new home may be."

That idea at least tells you "Ok, so start doing random fights. You want to get recruits for your army and grow your own power while you seek a place far away where your people can live in safety." It doesn't specify what this place is nor the direction to go, but it DOES set a starting goal for the player while they figure out how the game works.

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Przemyslaw Jelonek1 year ago

Oh, I think I understand now.

It was indeed my intention to leave the players to experience the game and gather informations on their own, so they can slowly start to understand the game as they learn more. I, personally, kind of like that way of learning, but of course it's not ideal for everyone.

I'll try to balance it a bit thanks to your feedback by adding some guidance at the beginning, when the game is played for the first time. I think the message will tell the player to wisely choose enemies they want to battle, to learn about new tools and utilize them and to gather enough strength to progress through the portal (you would find it if you follow the path). It should be enough both to give the player at least some directions and not ruin the way I'd like them to experience the game.

Story wise, as I mentioned earlier, I think that infos from the intro cutscene I'll add in the future will suffice, but for now I have to leave it as it is.

That said, this game is quite complex, which definitely sets a kind of barrier for a new player. Only by learning and memorizing new mechanics and content we can make a meaningful progress. It can cause a confusion and frustration, but I am careful not to make it a "tutorial festival" too.

I will try to make it more player friendly eventually, for example by using special animations in tutorial and by using popup windows when some of mechanics are encountered for the first time. I predict this game to be in development for about a year or more, so it will change a lot for sure.

Thanks for providing more details, it's the first time someone brought that issue to my attention, so it definitely helped :).

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