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What's so bad about this game that I'm missing?

A topic by StandOffSoftware created Oct 11, 2017 Views: 573 Replies: 5
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(3 edits)

Hello folks. I couldn't figure out where to put this post, and here seemed like the best place. It is a finished game so not technically a dev log, but what I'm looking for is not to announce its release (it was released 4 months ago) but to try to get feedback and understand some of the scant feedback I have gotten.

It has been like pulling teeth to get feedback on this game, and I haven't really gotten any, but I have gotten a few comments, and I cannot understand what they mean. From the comments I have seen, it sounds like the person is playing a completely different game. And they never provide any details about what they mean. I won't print the comments I have gotten here just yet since I don't want to influence anyone who wants to help me out, but I find them truly baffling.

Can some people *please* play this game and tell me if it's actually horrible and I'm somehow not seeing it? It's free to download. Sure, it's not a AAA game or anything, but it's pretty fun... I think?

It's primarily an adventure game with a few side-scrolling action segments. If you love adventure games, I especially want to hear from you, but feedback from anyone is very much appreciated.

Anyway, I would really really love to hear any feedback you have, the more detailed the better.

https://stand-off-software.itch.io/youre-my-hero

Thanks!

Hi, sorry I didn't actually download your game due to it having a somewhat large file size, but I can tell you it's hard to get feedback on itch.io. You have to attempt to promote your game through the use of a dev log, release announcement, etc. I'm having some success with my current project, but the two I uploaded before it each only received 12 views after being up a couple months.

As for your particular game (this is based off watching the trailer), it may very well be super fun but it doesn't form into a particular genre. Because of this, your game may be in a niche of it's own which likely means there are less potential customers (players) looking for a game like yours.

Hope my mini spiel is of some use, feel free to ask for clarification or let me know if you disagree with anything I said. Best of luck.

Thanks for the feedback. You are right that it is somewhat odd in that it doesn't fit neatly into a particular genre. Although it is primarily in the point and click adventure game genre, it has elements of other genres that may turn off some hardcore adventure fans. If this were the nature of comments I had gotten, I would completely understand that. Thanks very much for taking a look.

I completely understand, it seems rare to get constructive feedback. My pleasure.

Having seen the trailer and not downloading yet I'll give you my first impressions of what I've seen.

First and foremost is that it doesn't look like a game that I would want to play. This is because it looks very generic like the characters were purchased from a site. The trailer doesn't highlight effectively what is exciting about the game. It takes a while to get to game play and the game play presented doesn't look fun and is held too long instead of conveying the message of what you do then highlighting the next thing. The games aesthetic also seems to be all over the place, I saw roman soldiers, gangsters, and robots but that doesn't seem to have an underlying theme to them. The game play looks cheap as well, I saw enemies moving really fast back and forth in a platforming section and it just felt silly.

Ok I'll stop there for negatives because I don't think that's fair and isn't constructive. What I think you can do is celebrate that you finished a game and shipped it, that's hard no matter the project. 

Here's some things you can do to improve yourself.

I would say to focus in on a main game play mechanic and to polish that to high quality rather than pushing for multiple game types. If you are using purchased assets I would say those are good for prototyping but try to find someone to work with on art. If you are doing art I would say find a style that's not realistic since it's really hard for a small project and will get a lot of flak from an audience if it isn't great.

Congrats on finishing your game and releasing it, and good luck on your future games. I'll download it and if I have any other feed back I'll post it here.

Thank you for your comments so far. I look forward to reading what you have to say when you have had a chance to play it.