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Circadian Dice

A single-player game of turn-based dice building combat! 路 By shuffleup, Strumbones

Bugs & Suggestions

A topic by KeronCyst created Mar 09, 2020 Views: 509 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 2
(4 edits)

I found this through the Reddit post and have been digging it, although some icons have been too small for me.

Bugs:

  1. To be pedantic, the opening title when first launching the game doesn't actually say "Click anywhere to continue"
  2. Going full-screen prevents custom CursorFX mouse cursors from showing. Alternatively, just force entirely custom mouse cursors with awesome graphics for this great game 馃槏
  3. Add descriptive mouse-over popups for wave rewards
  4. The "NEXT TURN" button should not have a celestial animated highlight while there are still dice that you can use (IMO)!
  5. When starting a game in full-screen, the first loading screen is still windowed

EDIT: I found a significant screen-rendering bug which can be duplicated as such:

  1. Play Circadian Dice in full-screen
  2. Use ShareX's "Capture region" hotkey to open a screenshot preview
  3. ShareX fails to render properly and draws a white screen in the preview and Circadian Dice goes nuts. Resolution-wise, CD looks like it changes to occupy a size corresponding to windowed mode, but mouse-wise it still seems to think it's in full screen.

Suggestions:

  1. Could Alt+Enter be enabled as an instant full-screen/windowed switcher?
  2. Put the "Install upgrade on a die!" text prompt lower, like around where the "NEXT TURN" button is, for easier visibility
  3. Add an option to make descriptive popups show immediately, Slay the Spire-like
  4. The buttons to end your turn/keep dice are too small
  5. Keyboard shortcuts to play with the dice mouse-less would be great, like 1-4 for dice selection and then arrow keys to select targets. So "Keep" would need a keyboard shortcut (ideally user-customizable). I also don't actually remember Space Bar being mentioned in the tutorial for "Re-roll" and such, though I may have missed that
  6. It's a little bit confusing to have to click-drag attack-dice to enemies, but to have to click and then click again to use offensive abilities, and similarly for dice upgrades. Could we get both or neither? Or make these styles a settings option decided on by the user?
  7. Add to chain description: "... ALL faces of this roll," so that it's clarified that previous re-rolls in the current turn don't add to the chain, since I didn't understand how it worked until I rolled two chained dice.
  8. I would appreciate rolled dice to be larger than the dice faces at the bottom. That way I don't have to be as careful about mouse-clicking. Slay the Spire card sizes come to mind (they don't need to be that large, but somewhat larger would be nice).
Developer(+1)

These are great suggestions - thanks for taking the time to post them! I will definitely take them into consideration for future updates. Some might take a while though since this is a spare time project :).

I'll have to look into the rendering issue - if it's a problem with the Game Maker runner it could be hard to fix on my end, but maybe there's a workaround.

Thanks for playing! Happy to hear that you're enjoying the game.

Some of these text changes might be too pedantic, lol...

  1. I think petrification removal could be clearer; "keep this face" maybe could be clearer by "end a turn with this face," as I didn't understand it until several waves in.
  2. In wave rewards, the number of hearts should be one heart icon 脳 a number, instead of several heart graphics in a row (it can be a pain to manually count them all).
  3. "Target" as a descriptor has been confusing to me all the way until now, a few plays in; it made me wonder, "Who is targeting what?" I think all instances of this word could better be converted to "the selected," which perfectly correlates it to the power affecting a target die face.
  4. For Golems, a damage cap reminder with, say, maybe like a big rock icon or an X crossed out on its card after it takes 1 hit would be a helpful reminder. I'd also amend the damage cap description from "taken to 1" to "taken this turn to 1," just to be as clear as possible.
  5. The Eye Beast card graphic incorrectly says "frenzy 1" when it should say "Frenzy 1."
Developer

Again, great suggestions! Making ability descriptions clear, brief and precise has definitely been one of the biggest challenges throughout development :).

The "target" template for abilities is directly taken from Magic: the Gathering, but I can definitely see how it can be confusing for someone who hasn't played that game. I'll try to find a better way of expressing it that remains clear! I think a potential problem with "the selected" might be that it implies that the selection has to be done before using the ability, but I might be overthinking it.

Damage cap doesn't work exactly as you describe it, which is all the more reason to ensure that the game communicates it clearly. Each time you damage an enemy with damage cap X, that damage is reduced to X. So Golems take 1 damage each time you damage them with something, and you can do this several times during a turn. Maybe "When this takes damage, reduce that damage to 1." would be a better way of explaining it?

Your other suggestions are easy fixes that I'll make sure to add in the next update. Thanks again for playing and giving feedback!

Ahhhh, this MTG foreigner now sees the danger in "the selected." In that case, maybe just "a die face" is plain enough.

Huh, I thought a Golem completely blocked a 1-point attack I did, after I dealt another 1-point attack from another die. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but sure, "Limits max damage from each attack die to 1," would probably work.

Anyways, fantastic game, especially with the vanishing enemy who moves to each next round. It has so many intriguing elements that I haven't seen in similar games. I keep finding myself wanting to experience extended dungeons in which: it takes longer to accumulate the two additional dice slot, shops are rarer and an actual event, and so on (like Slay marathons). I'm too much of a newb and it takes me too long to reach four dice so I'm barely able to tinker! Haha.

Sweet updates. Just to confirm where the mouse is, it would be nice if there was a mouse-over effect on dice, the red "Charge" gem, and anything else, in the same manner as how the "Keep" and "Reroll" buttons enlarge upon mouse-over.

Developer

Thanks! It's great to get your feedback on the usability stuff in particular and I keep a list of your suggestions nearby when working on the updates. I'll keep adding stuff to future patches even if some things will take longer than others.