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Presto Starto! What do you think of our crazy reaction game?

A topic by tomcheshire created Jul 09, 2020 Views: 195 Replies: 3
Viewing posts 1 to 2

Presto Starto is a crazy reaction game about turning stuff on. 

I'm interested in what people think of our new update. We recently added in a new 'Careful mode' that prevents you from rapidly clicking all over the place. We wanted to test the reaction speed of our players, not their endurance for randomly tapping everywhere and getting lucky.

Too easy? Too hard? Me and Sean would love to know what you all think!

I also recorded a commentary video with a few little insights into development, if anyone's interested!

Moderator(+1)

Hi tomcheshire,

Good job for making a game! Looks pretty fun and random. I played it for a little bit, here is my feedback:

  • The first time I saw the main menu, I felt a little overwhelmed, because there is a lot of text there. I like the humor and what’s written, so I’m not sure if it would be better to remove any of it. Maybe have some copy appear after a few seconds? So the user has time to understand what appears in the menu or not. I wanted to suggest something like the copy next to the buttons to appear only when the mouse hovers over them, but I’m aware this is also available for mobile devices, where that’s not possible.

  • In the settings, there is an “on” and “off” buttons. The one that is active is yellow, which is fine. The inactive one however is white, the same as the rest of the text, making it a little confusing if it’s clickable or not. The same for the “Done” button. It would be better if they had some indicator that they are meant to be interacted with. Maybe give them a background that is the same colour as the menu buttons? This is the same for the “High Score” and “Credits” buttons in the main menu.

  • The games are fun, and force you to think on your feet!

  • On the game with the car key, I noticed the key going through the car, before it is cropped (minor visual bug)

  • There is one game with the guy hiding behind the window, where you have to lift part of the window to reveal him. First time I encountered that one, I got a little confused, as when it was closed, I couldn’t tell what I was looking at. To me, that breaks the immersion a little bit, as the graphics of the game get in the way. The rest of the games have easily recognizable objects, despite the 2D graphics.

  • After finishing the game, there is currently no way to go back to the main menu, unless I submit my score. Some users may not want to submit their score, so it would be nice to have that option.

  • A lot of the games are quite fun. I think for a next step, it would be nice to have a little bit more variety. There are quite a few games that have the same solution of “Click the one button that is a different color than anything else”. I prefer the variety where I have to drag and drop objects around, or click multiple objects.

  • I can’t really say if the games are too easy or too hard. Since there is a score of how many games each user has completed, all users go through the same process. However, this could get unbalanced for some users. I’m not sure if games appear at random or there is a specific mechanisms that decides which game is next, but if user1 gets a lot of 1-button-click games, and user2 gets a lot of drag-and-drop games (for example) this would give user1 a better score, even if both users have the same skills. Of course this game is more on the fun side, so it’s not that important, but maybe something to keep in mind?

  • The background of the main menu is too simple, it could use some more work.

  • If you don’t mind me asking, is there any check when submitting a score for swear words? I’m implementing something similar lately and I’m curious how other people handle that.

These of course are all my opinions, so feel free to pick only the ones you like :)

Wow, thanks so much for taking the time to give such detailed feedback! All really useful points. 

There is a check for swear words in the high scores submission, I don't think we managed to find all the three letter words though! I use Gamemaker, and I found an extension someone made to make it a bit easier. I think it was this https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/3269/profanity-detector

Moderator

Ah that’s interesting, thanks for the link! Will take a look at it.