itch.io

Just played, here are some stream-of-consciousness impressions while playing. I get that this was made in 2 weeks, but I'm going to tell you everything I like, or see issue with, just so you are aware of it.

NOTES:

Zooming out to see the skill tree constellations is a great moment, love it.

Not clear immediately I could dig tiles manually. And clicking them with left click dragged the map sometimes, which didn't feel great. I assume you're trying to make it mobile compatible, but an extra right-click keybind to mine for PC might fix this little issue without breaking anything

Would be cool to have a 'digging' animation, even if its just Godot's AnimationPlayer shifting position slightly, for now.

Would be good to have different visuals for ants that aren't purely colour-based - could be their head shapes, as I was initially unclear what the ant type population icons were meant to be on the sidebar.

I was going to type that I think digging sfx would be nice, but upon closer observation they do seem to exist, but only play sometimes - seems to be finnicky falloff range?

Wasn't sure what the 'gained money' sfx was from initially - the text popup disappears quite slowly, and also isn't visible when zoomed out.

Combining ants feels very good, actually. Just got the Blaster, sick.

Visuals feel a little incongruent. The little market hut feels odd sitting on top of nothing. The very anti-aliased sun feels weird compared to everything else, The (very nice) landscape doesn't feel like it fits with the ants, terrain, or UI.

Not immediately clear where I get talent points, I assume its from the 'prestige +1 meta' panel in bottom left, but the words don't match up, so not sure.

I think I found an exploit >:). Clicking home, then clicking play, will return me to the same upgrades, same ants (now not carrying anything), same time of day, but a fresh map. This lets me farm the top of the map repeatedly. It seems that more rare resources are found at the bottom (?), so I'm not sure if this is even worth it, numbers-wise, but it was cool to find, and I used it several times.

Yeah this is nice. You got me, I don't want to stop playing lol.

Just unlocked prestige and first talent point, picked the fungus one. Don't remember the prestige I picked, and I can't seem to find a menu to check. From reading the description, I was not expecting to lose upgrades, oh well. I also think the prestige and talent point sfx don't appear to adjusted by volume settings.

Movespeed penalty from carrying ores might be a little much, starting with one ant at $0 feels a little slow. Sent a screenshot of what the end of my day 1 looked like after prestiging (with no clicks from me) - felt far less developed than it should be.

I used the home-restart trick in day 2, and found that the fungal network persisted, and noticed they were now dragging ores up to the hub - cool?

Ok I read the itchio page. text is really not readable with the colour, and I'm only finding out from the comments that I can drag resources. I'm honestly a little bummed finding out you use AI for (some) coding, but whatever.

I need to stop playing for now, I had a really good time. Definitely something promising here with only 2 weeks of work on it. The prestige/talent point progression does feel very slow, I know its an idle game but still. May be worth speeding up the first few prestiges, at least. I also think you need a real name for the game!

(I found the keybind for toggling devmode by accident while fumbling for my screenshot keybind lol)

Having to acquire the resources via creature behaviour could create a cool loop of acquisition > spending > use, but it would end up being a very different game, I think, both mechanically and thematically.

I will think about it though, as I do want more placeable items, and I do want them to do more things, and more interesting things.

Thanks for playing, and the feedback! o7

There will be saving eventually, but it will probably be at the point where the game is 'done', as I want to focus on making it good first. Your antivirus protecting you from the exe is on your end, fairly common (for better or worse), there should be a way to allow the application somehow. Thanks for playing 

There are a few interactions between items, like with flowers, but you are right in that they're rarely things the player places directly, I will think about it. I will have to move from weekly updates at some point, thanks for the feedback

Looks good! I will add 'stats' to the to-do list, I like the idea, thanks for playing

They will duplicate if they eat meat, which can lead them to spread across the map, its fairly normal. You can destroy them with Golden Rods if you want, or just be careful with food supply around them.

Thank you!

Lag has been an ongoing issue, I'll keep working on it. Glad to hear you had a good time, thanks for playing!

I just updated the game with a large rework to the Observation system, which may help with your concerns. Thanks for the feedback

It took some time, but I just updated the game to overhaul the Observation system, which might alleviate some of your problems

I've just updated the game with a big rework of the observation system. Your feedback was very helpful, thanks 

Oh don't worry at all, you were barely rude. I am quite used to people not playing my games at all, so I will gladly read much ruder paragraphs if people are willing to write them lol. Thanks o7

You are right about the current observation system, it's not great. There needs to be a better system for learning/observing/confirming information, I'm not working on it this week, but it is definitely on my mind.

Next update WILL have new cursor item placement icons to hint that there's a combination of item + tile you haven't seen before, which I hope helps a little, as I'd like to add more things like the jellyfish (would suck if you never find them).

I'm also going to be making the golden rod much cheaper, partly as an easier way to 'undo' frustrating item placements.

I appreciate all the feedback, thanks for playing o7

There are bugs to do with nests and population numbers, they should be fixed in tomorrow's update. Thanks for playing, and the screenshots 

I'm working on the lag, glad you had a good time. Thanks for playing!

Ah, I thought I fixed that. Thanks for letting me know

I will be working on the lag, thanks for playing

I really appreciate the shrimp video, thank you. 

I don't know if I can avoid abominations exploding in inconvenient places generally, but they are definitely bugged somehow, as they will explode immediately on spawning sometimes, if their 'Find Remote Location' check fails. I will have another look at it. 

At the moment there is such an abundance of coal it hasn't been necessary to make roots indestructible, but it probably will be further down the line. 

Clay is renewable via creatures vomiting dirt, but it becomes very slow, and I do plan to add a new source for it. I will also want to add a new sink for clay, so the entire map doesn't fill with roads. 

I will be making roads destructible, but it won't be in tomorrow's update, specifically.

Thanks for all the feedback o7

Thanks, new update should improve optimisation significantly, also. Constructs are undead, in my mind. But I will be changing their behaviour on Friday, since I'm not happy with them. The gold speckles are goldenrod flowers, they don't do anything, just add some variety over time :)

Gotcha, I can think about some kind of paintbrush style of placement with touchscreen controls. 

While cold, they have a high chance to shiver, which is an 'unproductive' action, and effectively wastes time. So keeping them warm makes them more efficient. Speed boosts are from mushroom spores and roads/terrain, currently.

Do you mind me asking what kind of phone you're using? Would be very helpful to know the hardware that ~100 population is a soft limit for, as optimisation is still a general problem. Thanks 

They use them to make roads, which speed them up

holyyy big colony, thanks for playing and sharing the screenshot o7

I'm unable to recreate the bug you described. Roots create coal immediately on being fused, so this may be the 'item inside the wall' you're seeing. 

They use bricks to make roads, which give them a movement speed bonus. 

Thanks for playing, how do you find the mobile controls?

I just updated the game and added a feature like you suggested. Thanks for playing!

I appreciate the long post, thank you for playing! 

It's a challenge to have the little guys be mysterious and intriguing, and also give the player enough information to be satisfied, and want to keep playing. I'll keep working on it. There is a way to get renewable clay(in a sense) and food, but no renewable wood currently, as I want to restrict the amount of un-diggable 'impassable' terrain that is created without the player's input.

I'm glad you like the sculptures, next update should have some changes to them you may enjoy.

'Combat' in suggestions was not necessarily something I *want* to add, just a suggestion which I'm considering. I also want the game to remain pretty chill, so any implementation of combat would probably more feel like 'conflict', or a tension between predators/prey, rather than a strategic problem for the player.

Sorry I'm only just replying to this (itch hides some posts for some reason). In the recent update I added a magnifying glass which identifies hovered tiles/teno/items. Thanks for playing o7

Mobile compatibility is on the list. Thanks for giving it a try!

There are indeed too many bone, I'm working on more uses for them. Thanks for sharing the screenshot

Thanks! What specifically about the tutorial would you want improved?

I think there has to be a blend of creature-driven building and player-driven building, and giving Teno a renewable source of the player's placeable items, which are turned into impassable terrain, could lead to a lot of problems - like you're anticipating

I agree, I'll add it to the list. Thanks for playing!

It's on the list o7

I like this, I'll think about it, thanks