itch.io

Hi all,

Coa: Yeah, it’s not a very complex game. I mainly made it to learn the ropes of publishing on itch.io and Steam.

Simenhs: I’ll definitely test your game. Sorry the video didn’t work out, but I tried to leave detailed feedback in the comments on your game page.

Callmematthewchris: You probably missed the parts about serving beer before customers get impatient, and removing the empty glasses. The tutorial is missing in a big way—these are core parts of the game, and I delayed explaining them for far too long.

Thank you all so much for the feedback.

About the explanations: I was in denial, thinking players would naturally figure everything out. I realise now that clear guidance should have been there from the first upload. It’s my next priority.

For the first few loops, I’m planning to add blinking indicators above the relevant areas, such as: “Click the table to serve a beer” and “Click the table to remove the empty glass.”

The upgrade tree also needs clearer explanations, probably through pop-ups with longer descriptions. For example: “Decorations increase customer patience and make your bar more attractive.”

Long story short: stars represent your bar’s reputation. A higher reputation increases the chance that pedestrians will come to a table. It becomes more useful once you have around six tables that you want to keep full of customers.

It was also meant to prevent a strategy where someone says: “I just won’t remove the glasses—no new customers can arrive, no customers can die, so I can’t lose.” With that tactic, reputation goes down and you lose bar revenue for a long time. But if it still makes the player invincible, it may still be worth doing. I might change the system so you start with 50% reputation and lose if it reaches 0—no more lives. I’m not sure about that yet.

Regarding the feedback that the game is easy at first and then suddenly becomes too hard: I’m sure I’m not done tweaking the balance. But I think I want to keep the die-buy upgrade-retry aspect. The game has a roughly 10-minute difficulty curve, with enemies becoming more numerous over time.

I tried to make the quieter moments less boring with the card game. The cards are bonuses and maluses, but yes, they also need an explanatory pop-up.

Thanks again—this will keep me busy for a while!

Hey, the game mechanics are great.

This isn’t usually the kind of game I’m looking for—I tend to prefer games with more pressure or threats on the player—but I still spent about an hour playing and stopped just before starting to mine gold.

I tried to make a video, but it didn’t work out. I’m not very good at making videos anyway, and it would probably have been silent 90% of the time.

A few things that happened while playing:

• Once, I clicked repeatedly on the upgrade button for a building and then, almost by reflex, clicked “Remove.” I’m not sure if that was just me being stupid, or if my brain interpreted it as the button to close the small building window. Maybe “Remove” could require a double click or confirmation if other players have the same experience. It only happened to me once, so it might just be me.
• For exploring, maybe middle-click or right-click could instantly explore an area. If I remember correctly, you currently have to click a tile to select it, then click Explore.
• For music, you could check an Imperialism gameplay video to hear the world-map music and overall vibe. I think something similar could fit your game well.
• Sound effects, 2D animations, and graphics could also improve the experience. The graphics are already okay, but I feel they could be improved—though that is subjective.

If you want the game to be played by as many people as possible, I think those points would help make the thumbnail, screenshots, and gameplay videos more attractive. Once people start playing, I think the current gameplay can do the rest.

I understood the game without any major issue by reading and experimenting.

The “prestige” part—or the upgrades between ship travels—was a little confusing. I wasn’t sure whether I was buying upgrades with points for the current run, or unlocking them permanently for the next game. But honestly, I was focused on having fun with the building-placement gameplay, so I may have skipped or not fully read the explanation. My guess is that you buy them with exploration points and they stay active permanently in future games.

If you need more feedback, let me know. Your video helped me a lot.

Have a nice day!

Hello,

Thanks a lot for all the details! I’ve already changed a few things based on your advice.

I think I found my game in the “New & Popular” section, although I had to scroll through a few pages—I might be mistaken.

I didn’t know about the shelf and tag systems. I’ll try to finish the game soon, make a few Reddit posts and YouTube videos, and then move on to my next project. I’ll also see whether changing the release status makes any difference.

I’ll be more careful with the initial visibility boost next time.

I also need to update my videos and screenshots to reflect the latest update.

Thank you again for taking the time to answer!

Hi,

I first uploaded my game about a month ago and received around 250 plays thanks to the initial visibility boost. Unfortunately, I rushed the page a little and forgot to ask players for feedback in the description.

This morning, I uploaded the game’s first major update, which significantly changes its mechanics.  I expect the game to remain relatively low-visibility, so any feedback would be especially valuable.

I would particularly like to know which parts of the game you enjoyed the most and which parts you liked the least, found confusing, or found frustrating. This could concern the mechanics, artwork, interface, difficulty, or a particular moment in the game.

I’m planning to make one more major update before moving on to my next game, so receiving feedback now would really help me decide what to improve and prioritize.(So far I am planning to focus on adding weapon, try to balance the game(it feels sometimes too easy or too hard for me...or just boring repetitive) and maybe make the tech tree a real tree and not a "sun")

Thanks, JPA

https://fdc001.itch.io/mosquitos

Thanks.

I just updated it and changed the game loop with a tech tree

But I suppose it still needs some balancing and more weapons/game mechanics

Nice proto you should try adding a tech tree