The visuals are really nice. The first minute or two felt a bit confusing to me — I wasn't immediately sure what I was supposed to be doing — but it clicked pretty quickly once I actually started playing and got into the loop. Might be worth a slightly clearer nudge in the opening moments for new players, but overall a good first impression!
Really appreciate you checking it out, Nalim! I’ve been working on how to balance onboarding better. On one hand, I want players to have the freedom to explore right away. On the other, certain features are already gated behind "holographic locks" that require specific tasks to open up those features of the game. I’ll keep looking at subtle ways to nudge players in the right direction without it feeling like hand holding too mcuh.
I get it, I'm working on the same balance in my own game. One thing that's worked for me is explaining each feature only the first time the player runs into it, instead of putting everything up front. For example, the first time you pick up a power-up, a short message explains what it does, and then it never shows again. That way players can explore right away and learn things as they need them. Maybe something similar could work for your holographic locks: a small hint only the first time you get near one. Good luck with Idle Eden!
That's a great idea! I'll see how to incorporate it into my game. Is your game available on itch? If you want to share your link I can take a look at it too.
It's a maze puzzle where instead of rolling dice you stop a timing bar to earn your steps, and traps are only deadly if your last step lands on them. It runs in the browser, on desktop and mobile. Any feedback is welcome, even the harsh kind. Good luck with Sovereign Expanse!
@nalim W, I did try out your game and it's interesting mechanics. A few suggestions come to mind:
It's hard to tell how many steps are left since it up at the top right hand corner. Perhaps moving the number of moves remaining somewhere closer to the middle of the screen either top or bottom would help identify it easier for players to plan their moves better. Making that number and text larger would help since it's a critical part of the gameplay and decision making. Overall other UI elements could be made more visible/dominate since the rest of the game scene isn't that crucial to the gameplay since your gameplay mechanic is essentially turn-based and the informational aspects tend to currently play a more important role such as number of steps and the minimap.
Minimap should be given an option to not rotate based on direction player is facing, perhaps that is there somewhere and I may have missed it, but it is disorienting when the minimap keeps rotating.
If ending a turn on a trap is the only time players would take damage, the trap shouldn't give visual indicator that it is triggering because it's not clear what is happening with the trap. Visual indicator should also include a little more "juice" to the effect of being affected by damage some how, such as a damage number, blood, or some other damage effect so it's very clear that damage is/was taken.
The rewards/pickups don't yet feel impactful. Perhaps it can include rewards/pickups that affect how you traverse the maze such as getting a short teleport ability you can trigger, and even random activations such as getting teleported to random location on the map (which could be a type of trap even), would add a lot more dynamic character to the navigation element of your game.
I could provide more suggestions but I think these would help as a starter, but again these are just my own personal perspective. Keep up the great work!
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The visuals are really nice. The first minute or two felt a bit confusing to me — I wasn't immediately sure what I was supposed to be doing — but it clicked pretty quickly once I actually started playing and got into the loop. Might be worth a slightly clearer nudge in the opening moments for new players, but overall a good first impression!
Really appreciate you checking it out, Nalim! I’ve been working on how to balance onboarding better. On one hand, I want players to have the freedom to explore right away. On the other, certain features are already gated behind "holographic locks" that require specific tasks to open up those features of the game. I’ll keep looking at subtle ways to nudge players in the right direction without it feeling like hand holding too mcuh.
I get it, I'm working on the same balance in my own game. One thing that's worked for me is explaining each feature only the first time the player runs into it, instead of putting everything up front. For example, the first time you pick up a power-up, a short message explains what it does, and then it never shows again. That way players can explore right away and learn things as they need them. Maybe something similar could work for your holographic locks: a small hint only the first time you get near one. Good luck with Idle Eden!
That's a great idea! I'll see how to incorporate it into my game. Is your game available on itch? If you want to share your link I can take a look at it too.
Thanks, glad it was useful! Yes, it's on itch: Maze 3D — https://nalimw.itch.io/maze
It's a maze puzzle where instead of rolling dice you stop a timing bar to earn your steps, and traps are only deadly if your last step lands on them. It runs in the browser, on desktop and mobile. Any feedback is welcome, even the harsh kind. Good luck with Sovereign Expanse!
@nalim W, I did try out your game and it's interesting mechanics. A few suggestions come to mind:
I could provide more suggestions but I think these would help as a starter, but again these are just my own personal perspective. Keep up the great work!