Hi there.
I made this game/experience for a jam in 48 hours. I would like to keep making these kind of experiments in the future, but I'm aware these are not for the mainstream.
If somebody enjoys these kind of experiences, I would like to know what my game is missing.
If you design these kind of games, a quick tip or link to your favorite source would be helpful.
thanks!
Hi tottori,
I took a look at your game, and a quick look at the game jam (to understand more on what the game was aiming for), here is my feedback:
I understand that this is an experience, not a game, and it doesn’t have a plot (based on the game’s site), but are you sure a project like that would do well on a game jam? I don’t have a lot of experience in game jams, but I imagine people would give higher votes on a project which is a game and follows the psychedelic theme.
I get it that you wanted to make something random(ish), and as mentioned in the game’s page there is no plot, it’s just an experience, but I would still love to see something more involved. Maybe all the shapes and colours could follow a pattern? Something completely random looks low effort.
I don’t know about the eyes of an average user, but to me it doesn’t really look random. It looks like 2-3 different 3D planes with different textures on them, which seems way too simple.
Here’s some advice of how to improve it:
I would strongly advice to find a way to gamify it. Maybe the psychedelism is part of it, maybe as the user moves around, the colour patterns change, and after they reach their maximum potential, they change to a different pattern. Or something similar, that combines the theme of the game jam, which guiding the user on what to do.
For something to be a game, it needs a purpose. It doesn’t have to have plot, but it needs a “reason” to keep the user interested. Maybe there are different “levels” that have more psychedelic patterns, that are more beautiful, but can only be unlocked after doing some actions.
Psychedelism doesn’t mean the user would be confused about what the controls are. If anything that makes the user more frustrated and unable to enjoy the experience. The input should be precise, and let the user know what it is intended to be used for. Currently it is very confusing, and unclear if it does anything.
Hope this helps, I haven’t played many psychedelic-themed games, and I’m not sure if there’s any expectations on them. Also keep in mind these are all my opinions, so feel free to skip the ones you don’t like :)
Thank you for the feedback, but it seems you didn't play it. Or at least not with audio on. The random part is specifically the sounds played in background, which mixed with the visuals, should create the psychedelic effect.
I agree with some of your observations though, like the textures could be more interesting and change over time based on some conditions. I think it would be great to generate them based on the current playing sounds.
The current purpose is just to get people identified with what is going in. Some will, some won't. Maybe that's not enough to call it a game. The game as it is today is very basic because of the little time I spent on it, but with more time, I could add those elements.
Thanks again for your time!
I usually disable audio, so I gave it another try. I couldn’t get audio to work, not sure why. Didn’t realize the audio was part of the experience.
I’m not familiar with psychedelic games, so not sure what is considered a good design choice and which one is considered a bad one. All my advice has been from a game design point of view.
