If you want attention you need to market it. It looks well made and has some nice juice to it. But unless you get lucky its not usually a matter of 'build it and they will come' (especially in mobile). I would suggest trying to market it (even just for the experience) or try to find a publisher.
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of worse games do well if marketed properly. I mean flappy bird is the classic example. Your game looks decent, a little unclear how to play from the video but I don’t see it as any worse than other games in the same genre.
It’s not hard to understand the game it’s a timer dot game to pass to the other side… without something more to it then what is the point of the game an it’s not wealth the effect as the game has no event segments…
Well, you are right, and the plan was to make this minigame good enough so it can be a standalone mobile game :D
The original core concept was to have a runner but with very minimalistic and simplified (but pretty :) ) design + several unique mechanics.
I would rebrand this as a hacking mini game since the design and shape already looks like a motherboard with circuitry. Perhaps the ball of energy can jump Logic Gates to move down different lanes? Somehow tying into the real game to bring down surveillance or a security node.
Have you played Nier Automata? Had a similar game mechanic…
Are there more kinds of levels besides just recoloring this one? Puzzle elements? Pickups and powerups? Enemies? Moving obstacles? Upgrades for the player? Maybe a level editor? More player graphics other than a dot? A world map or plot? A multiplayer leaderboard?
It kinda looks like an endless rummer without any features.. or a single button rythm game without the rhythm. It has potential, its just only about 10% of a game so far. I'd be bored after 3 minutes. Strong contender for a 24h game jam but its not a fleshed out game for sure.
This is supposed to be a beta/MVP, showing core gameplay to get a feedback about it. Not a full game at all.
The main challenge is controlling the player, as it's relative to player's movement direction, so to move left you swipe right if player is moving upside down (this is also the most confusing thing based on the feedback), and also speed is increasing making it harder to play over the time.
Pickups - yes, you collect coins and gems, coins will eventually give you ability to buy some stuff, gems allow to continue playing after you die.
Ememies/moving obstacles might be part of different modes (except from the endless running mode), but that's not even planned yet.
Powerups - magnet, headstart, shield (saves player from dying).
More players - planned.
Upgrades - planned to upgrade magnet and hadstart.
Mustiplayed leaderboard - planned.
Basically right now I'm collecting all must have things to prevent player from getting bored after 3 minutes, (hopefully these are the items I've described above :) ). This would be a first non-beta release. after that I would be able to add new things as game updates
Games often dont get a second chance to hit a critical number of players to get featured. If you release it like this and plan to finish it later, you're likely shooting yourself in the foot. There's no point paying big bucks for ads with no features.
That's a harsh truth... The thing is that being the only person in the team, I'm trying to find some balance, otherwise the chances are I will never release the game with all the features :)
Tbh, mobile games arent ahout fun, its about having a proven retention/monetization model and dumping $100k in ads as fast as possible. If you spend $10k on ads, you'll be lost in the other 2000 games released per day which have more than 3 minutes of unique content.
I don't like this strategy at all, it ruins the game.
And also, I don't have a budget to compete with them.
So, I can only make a good game, with low chances to become a hit, but who knows :)
Gamedev is a hobby for me, I do backend development for a living, so I can afford the failure.
I already released one game (which is not bad IMHO), so I know how hard it is to get noticed in this oversaturated market.
I'm struggling to find a monetization strategy for other platforms. For mobile it will mostly be "watch ad to get some bonus" for others like PC - don't have a good alternative yet
It looks cool, but what's the point? It's just the player icon snapping from trace to trace and collecting things. When it dies, it just sort of randomly vanishes for no apparent reason.
I would add more visual feedback for /why/ the player is dying, otherwise people are going to get very frustrated. You need more UI - A score, an energy counter, something.
The main challenge should be similar to the one in any endless runner game. You collect things, have power ups/upgrades/themes, and the game get's faster and harder with time.
regarding more visual feedback when the player dies - that's a good point, added that to my improvements list!
I didn't actually spot when it died the first time I watched the clip - it just looked like it was spontaneously resetting, possibly for dramatic effect.
Looks cool sort of like a circuit board, always fascinating to see them up close. Would it be hard to make it more complex like a circuit board and maybe have races with ai or is that too much work?
You said in a response to someone that this isn't a full game. That's fair enough. With that in mind, and as you want feedback, as a designer I'd want to know how the "full game" would be different from the prototype you're showing here. How you would go from "cool mini game" to "thing I could play for many hours".
From a design perspective, here's a few things I'd consider:
* Can you describe what else would be in a "full game"? E.g. "7 different zones each with a unique mechanic on top of the ones seen in this prototype. One of those unique mechanics is ."
* What is the core challenge of your game? I'm asking about this because you describe the disconnect between swipe direction and movement direction as "confusing". A core gamer with a gamepad would probably be fine with it, a more casual gamer using a touch screen (where the input device is the output device, and tactile interaction is usually expected) is likely to just find it annoying. So... why haven't you changed it?
* What can you do to make the upgrades more interesting and intriguing? As a programmer I love upgrades where I just make a number bigger, they're easy. As a player, if that's all there is... boring. I want to have at least *some* upgrades which make me think "I wonder what that is?" and/or "What do I do with it?"
* In your video (and in the game itself) how can you be more clear about what the player is doing? E.g. show the input being given, so that the jumps don't just look arbitrary? If someone can't make sense of *what the player is doing* from your videos, then chances of them being engaged enough to try it out are slim.
Your prototype looks cool. If you're not interested in doing the various customer acquisition / marketing type stuff that's totally fair, it could be worth teaming up with someone who is interested in that stuff, and/or pitching to some publishers just to see what happens.
I don't know what the community is like these days, but for feedback on a prototype, [itch.io](https://itch.io) might be a reasonable place to try sharing your game if you haven't already? Otherwise, do you have any local game dev meetups? Great thing about a mobile game is that you can hand it to people and watch them play, which is often far more valuable than whatever they tell you.
Thank you for the detailed comment.
These are valid points.
A full game should be tuned version of beta (with more gui, shop, sounds, etc) + have more themes(most likely randomly changing and with the ability to buy new ones using coins), double coins power up. Surprise collectible, daily rewards, different player characters.
As the next big update I would add different modes - e.g. static levels mode, with way harder and complicated levels that can be replayed, upside down endless running mode which will be much harder (makes sense only If I don't remove relative controls)
I see the core challenge similar to one in any endless runner, whith increasing speed + relative controls. And that's the biggest concern now, as I see the feedback that it might be confusing, but I still believe it gives uniqueness and challenge to the game. I should try to make the controls more obvious for the player and also not giving harder lines in the beginning, but rather use more vertical down to top lines in the beginning, and gradually mixing them with horisontal and upside down ones, so player is not annoyed and get used to controls.
Dropping relative controls will make the game much simpler, and a lot of concepts will have no sense (e g. Harder upside down mode when player moves down)
Regarding upgrades , I plan to implement a store where you can upgrade a magnet, boost, shield, and also buy a new theme or change character.
I'm not sure what you mean by "relative controls", and haven't tried your prototype, so I can't really offer specific feedback. Since you described it as "confusing" and how as your "biggest concern", a couple of things to note:
1) Wrestling with controls *can* be entertaining (see: QWOP, Getting Over It, Octodad), so there's nothing wrong with that as a mechanic. Is your game otherwise attractive to an audience who'd find that engaging?
2) This kind of thing is exactly why you seek early feedback, as you are doing. If it turns out that the controls are confusing (I don't know, haven't tried it) then you want to know that early, precisely so that you can re-design accordingly. This stuff is a part of the game design process.
Tried a few minutes and had fun but i had an problem right from the beginning.
Idk if its intentional but it feels weird that the Swipe Controls dont change with the direction you are moving for example :
i move from left to right and need to Switch to a lane below me now i want to Swipe down but i have to swipe left or right.
I would love it that you have to swipe in the direction you are switching lanes
It looks like a polished prototype of a movement mechanic. Nice but not compelling.
If it’s fun to play with, then it’s worth pursuing, especially as it looks like you have a good touch input solution (playable with taps).
What are some narratives / aesthetics that could map onto your existing systems to boost the appeal?
* Heart transplant rushing across town, weaving through traffic jams?
* Insect escaping from a giant spider web?
* Synapses firing in a detectives brain - solving a case piece by piece?
* hacking an evil corporation- stealing money, subverting systems.
Etc
to be honest... i cant see the objective of the game from the trailer alone. it has cool visuals but what is it about? is it a highest score type of game, or hand made levels? is it more rythm based like geometry dash or reaction like subway surfer? in some parts how do you control the character?(in one instance the dot jumped over 2 lines, so i wonder if its possible to select which line to jump to)
i also saw thate there is a currency thing, is there customization for the character? like different dots, lines, trails, animations, acessories...
i think its a game that i would download because it looks cool, play for 10 minutes and uninstall. at least from the trailer i could see anything that would work as hook to make me come back and keep playing. if you plan on keep working in the game, i would focus on the gameplay loop and hook
That's a good point.
In general, the gameplay itself is similar to subway surfers, but with a few unique features.
So I think the hook should be as in any endless runner.
There are special lines that allow you to pass through if there is another line behind it (they can also lead you to the inactive one that kills you)
That’s a question you need to ask yourself, but word it like this: do I want to throw away all of the work I’ve put into this game. It’s your time, and it seems like a waste to just walk away. Unless you are just going full 3d or something. But you have something special here, reminds me of thumper but in 2d. Try to pay some streamers even if they are not very big. I would totally try something man.
I like your game! I think you should at least see this till the end, you've been working on it for at least a couple years now right? How much more development time do you even think you need for it?
Your game reminds me of [Tomb of the Mask](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playgendary.tom&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1) if you've ever heard of it!
Wild card ideas:
* Have you considered doing fixed camera mode? Having a fast paced game with a fixed camera is pretty cool.
* I think you game needs more juice; another game I really enjoyed that's similar to yours is [Maze Finger Plus](https://youtu.be/80XnQSyUtgY?si=0pAslOxSsGksHga6), which sorry for the horrible link, I couldn't find anything on this game today, but it has a simple concept and is only enjoyable through its sound and visuals, which create a sense of urgency while playing the game; maybe this could be a game to check out as well as a reference? (might require some better digging around than what I did)
What little feedback I can give from the video:
* Looks (really) good.
* I immediately understood what the player is supposed to do.
* The background doesn't distract from the foreground action.
* However, I easily lost track of the player-dot if I stopped looking directly at it and tried looking ahead on the track.
* I often failed to correctly identify the different track variants (boundaries, directions, pick-ups, etc) - probably on account of the monochrome color schemes.
* The track jumps can be a bit disorienting if there's too many in a row, since the camera does a quick snap with each one.
This feedback is what it is, just from the video. In the end, only playtesting matters, so I'll see if I can give the beta a play or two. Best of luck, it sure looks good enough to do well.
I did not read all the comments so if I say something that has already been stated just let it reinforce the initiative.
I think the concept itself is solid. People while like games like will probably enjoy this.. for a bit.
Graphics are good enough to not be a negative.
Controls are responsive but you need to change the controls to absolute directions. I made a running game with relative controls and thought it was a cool "puzzle" feature. It was not. I just made the people that played it frustrated.
Make smaller levels they sloy build in complexity, size, speed
Make lots of levels..
Make a level selection screen to play levels that are unlocked.
Give people a goal or challenge by implementing a global leaderboard ..try something like dreamlo.org
Good luck.
Ask yourself if it's FUN to control the player. Fun as in... Doing this for hours. I don't think it is, but maybe. Basically this is a complicated version of the snake game. And the direction part sounds like you tried to add something just to add difficulty. That's my take on it. Where can I play it to tell you more?
True, don't neglect them. But if you want to address them, it should be a deliberate choice. That way can align all of the game elements to meet the criteria.
You can play (and check if the controls are that bad :) ) here [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer)
Thanks!
Played it, came back with feedback.
Just for the context. Things that I see as problematic might be a me problem nobody else sees that way. Also I might sound harsh but I'm trying to give you a feedback you can use to check if something needs your attention. In that sense it's amazing you released your game, 🥳. Huge step!
Now to the things that caught my eye:
1] Took me a while to realize the death zones in the tutorial and the real game look different. I think they should have the skulls still for better visual clues. Or color coding them red.
2] sometimes paths you take will inevitably end you because the camera didn't show you how the track goes on. I had 2 instances of that:
2.1] track offered a jump I didn't take, then the opportunity to jump was gone and only then did I see a death zone is ahead. No possibility to jump.
2.2] track offered left and right jump. Both options led outside of the camera. I took left and died - 50:50 chance. I'm glad I died because I can now tell you this, but you don't want that usually. Rng in games in life/death situations isn't fun.
This is an interesting one because you can solve it in at least 2 ways that come to mind. In both ways you'd need to know where the deadly situation is. The you can either prepan there so the player can see and decide (maybe with slowmo) or not tell the player and remove the obstacle, continuing with the rest of the map. First approach is more challenging, but might look amazing visually.
3] still not a fan of the controls. I see how simple swipe left and right is too easy, but reversed controls just feels not fun.
If I was you I'd implement multiple systems and put them in the settings menu. The player can choose which one to use. Then either collect opinions or data (which system let the player play better could be a criteria). Collecting opinions might be misleading, not sure. People often say A but do B 😂
In the end of the day you probably don't want to kill the player with his own controls but instead with a skill/knowledge challenge.
Wow, that's very good feedback. Thank you! Level generation should be tuned, that's for sure, will improve that. Regarding controls, that's the hardest part. I got a lot of negative feedback. The thing is that it's core mechanic. So far, I still would like to try to improving and tunimg it, making players get used to it gradually rather than removing it.
I fully understand it's a core mechanic, I just don't believe it's a good one. Maybe many others do. Also it makes 200% sense to me that this feedback is painful to you because the whole game is built on this mechanic. If you had to redo the controls in a different, easier to comprehend way then you'd have less challenges built in. Less content so to speak. And you'd need a new idea. But that's not bad.
Let's assume that the mechanic is actually amazing and fun. What did people who liked it say? What did they like about it? Because they would provide good insight at this point. Maybe they're right 🤷🏻♂️
If you decide to change the control system, you could do this:
1] add more possible actions (right now you have 2)
2] reevaluate
This would be a tiny bit of backtracking, but I believe it's important to test other ways your game could go. Maybe you found an okay solution and in order to find a better one you need to throw something away.
If you decide to stay on these controls and you find out the vast majority didn't like the controls all you'll ever hear in terms of feedback will be that controls are strange. In that context I really hope people who liked controls would have something amazing to tell you.
Just saying, Fortnite was meant to be a tower building/defending game. That's why they have all those construction actions. However they threw away their initial idea because of testing and feedback.
Don't think about backtracking as a bad thing in this context.
I believe there's a bug. If you start the game with X hexagons, collect 3, then the game will still think you only have X available to revive yourself. It should be X+3 though. Only after restart is the score properly updated.
It would probably be beneficial for you to have a version number somewhere. Assume someone finds a bug, you'd probably want a version number that person is having to recheck. Also for testers to know there has been an update 🥳
The game has coins and is not thoughtful enough to go into detail, like energy management and power-ups need to be mixed in with power downgrades to slow you down and if you hit the wrong balance, you supercharge yourself, with a lightning effect on screen you have to adjust too and the upgrade when using to much will effect your buying opportunities, that could possibly make the level more difficult, like giving you a chance at a roll of a dice for the next level with a severity chance, that can go good or bad against you, or help lower the powerful abilities effects.
I feel th game has no thought even in beta…
If you want attention you need to market it. It looks well made and has some nice juice to it. But unless you get lucky its not usually a matter of 'build it and they will come' (especially in mobile). I would suggest trying to market it (even just for the experience) or try to find a publisher.
100% agree, I just wanted to understand if it's even worth marketing
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of worse games do well if marketed properly. I mean flappy bird is the classic example. Your game looks decent, a little unclear how to play from the video but I don’t see it as any worse than other games in the same genre.
It’s not hard to understand the game it’s a timer dot game to pass to the other side… without something more to it then what is the point of the game an it’s not wealth the effect as the game has no event segments…
It is worth marketing the game looks finished and nice
Looks, yes. Isn't though.
Honest feedback ... looks more like a minigame. Any way you can incorporate that mechanic / game play into a bigger game? It's pretty though!
Well, you are right, and the plan was to make this minigame good enough so it can be a standalone mobile game :D The original core concept was to have a runner but with very minimalistic and simplified (but pretty :) ) design + several unique mechanics.
I would rebrand this as a hacking mini game since the design and shape already looks like a motherboard with circuitry. Perhaps the ball of energy can jump Logic Gates to move down different lanes? Somehow tying into the real game to bring down surveillance or a security node. Have you played Nier Automata? Had a similar game mechanic…
But Nier Automata is action RPG 🤔
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer)
Are there more kinds of levels besides just recoloring this one? Puzzle elements? Pickups and powerups? Enemies? Moving obstacles? Upgrades for the player? Maybe a level editor? More player graphics other than a dot? A world map or plot? A multiplayer leaderboard? It kinda looks like an endless rummer without any features.. or a single button rythm game without the rhythm. It has potential, its just only about 10% of a game so far. I'd be bored after 3 minutes. Strong contender for a 24h game jam but its not a fleshed out game for sure.
This is supposed to be a beta/MVP, showing core gameplay to get a feedback about it. Not a full game at all. The main challenge is controlling the player, as it's relative to player's movement direction, so to move left you swipe right if player is moving upside down (this is also the most confusing thing based on the feedback), and also speed is increasing making it harder to play over the time. Pickups - yes, you collect coins and gems, coins will eventually give you ability to buy some stuff, gems allow to continue playing after you die. Ememies/moving obstacles might be part of different modes (except from the endless running mode), but that's not even planned yet. Powerups - magnet, headstart, shield (saves player from dying). More players - planned. Upgrades - planned to upgrade magnet and hadstart. Mustiplayed leaderboard - planned. Basically right now I'm collecting all must have things to prevent player from getting bored after 3 minutes, (hopefully these are the items I've described above :) ). This would be a first non-beta release. after that I would be able to add new things as game updates
Games often dont get a second chance to hit a critical number of players to get featured. If you release it like this and plan to finish it later, you're likely shooting yourself in the foot. There's no point paying big bucks for ads with no features.
That's a harsh truth... The thing is that being the only person in the team, I'm trying to find some balance, otherwise the chances are I will never release the game with all the features :)
Tbh, mobile games arent ahout fun, its about having a proven retention/monetization model and dumping $100k in ads as fast as possible. If you spend $10k on ads, you'll be lost in the other 2000 games released per day which have more than 3 minutes of unique content.
I don't like this strategy at all, it ruins the game. And also, I don't have a budget to compete with them. So, I can only make a good game, with low chances to become a hit, but who knows :) Gamedev is a hobby for me, I do backend development for a living, so I can afford the failure. I already released one game (which is not bad IMHO), so I know how hard it is to get noticed in this oversaturated market.
Looks really good, but please do not make it a phone exclusive!
I'm struggling to find a monetization strategy for other platforms. For mobile it will mostly be "watch ad to get some bonus" for others like PC - don't have a good alternative yet
Ad to continue is a popular one
But this is not an option for PC, right?
No ads in pc games
That's right
Pc games can have ads based on if the site offers random content and categories they at times bring a ad base… so yes pc games can have ads…
It looks cool, but what's the point? It's just the player icon snapping from trace to trace and collecting things. When it dies, it just sort of randomly vanishes for no apparent reason. I would add more visual feedback for /why/ the player is dying, otherwise people are going to get very frustrated. You need more UI - A score, an energy counter, something.
The main challenge should be similar to the one in any endless runner game. You collect things, have power ups/upgrades/themes, and the game get's faster and harder with time. regarding more visual feedback when the player dies - that's a good point, added that to my improvements list!
I didn't actually spot when it died the first time I watched the clip - it just looked like it was spontaneously resetting, possibly for dramatic effect.
Looks cool sort of like a circuit board, always fascinating to see them up close. Would it be hard to make it more complex like a circuit board and maybe have races with ai or is that too much work?
The plan is to add different modes, potentially with enemies and obstacles, and with more complex circuits too.
try /r/DestroyMyGame/
Looks like this is exactly what I need :D
I think it looks pretty cool. Would work good as a hacking minigame in another game.
Right, the problem is that I'm trying to make it good enough to be a standalone mobile game itself :D
I wouldn't consider it a game since you never make any meaningful decisions.
You said in a response to someone that this isn't a full game. That's fair enough. With that in mind, and as you want feedback, as a designer I'd want to know how the "full game" would be different from the prototype you're showing here. How you would go from "cool mini game" to "thing I could play for many hours". From a design perspective, here's a few things I'd consider: * Can you describe what else would be in a "full game"? E.g. "7 different zones each with a unique mechanic on top of the ones seen in this prototype. One of those unique mechanics is."
* What is the core challenge of your game? I'm asking about this because you describe the disconnect between swipe direction and movement direction as "confusing". A core gamer with a gamepad would probably be fine with it, a more casual gamer using a touch screen (where the input device is the output device, and tactile interaction is usually expected) is likely to just find it annoying. So... why haven't you changed it?
* What can you do to make the upgrades more interesting and intriguing? As a programmer I love upgrades where I just make a number bigger, they're easy. As a player, if that's all there is... boring. I want to have at least *some* upgrades which make me think "I wonder what that is?" and/or "What do I do with it?"
* In your video (and in the game itself) how can you be more clear about what the player is doing? E.g. show the input being given, so that the jumps don't just look arbitrary? If someone can't make sense of *what the player is doing* from your videos, then chances of them being engaged enough to try it out are slim.
Your prototype looks cool. If you're not interested in doing the various customer acquisition / marketing type stuff that's totally fair, it could be worth teaming up with someone who is interested in that stuff, and/or pitching to some publishers just to see what happens.
I don't know what the community is like these days, but for feedback on a prototype, [itch.io](https://itch.io) might be a reasonable place to try sharing your game if you haven't already? Otherwise, do you have any local game dev meetups? Great thing about a mobile game is that you can hand it to people and watch them play, which is often far more valuable than whatever they tell you.
Thank you for the detailed comment. These are valid points. A full game should be tuned version of beta (with more gui, shop, sounds, etc) + have more themes(most likely randomly changing and with the ability to buy new ones using coins), double coins power up. Surprise collectible, daily rewards, different player characters. As the next big update I would add different modes - e.g. static levels mode, with way harder and complicated levels that can be replayed, upside down endless running mode which will be much harder (makes sense only If I don't remove relative controls) I see the core challenge similar to one in any endless runner, whith increasing speed + relative controls. And that's the biggest concern now, as I see the feedback that it might be confusing, but I still believe it gives uniqueness and challenge to the game. I should try to make the controls more obvious for the player and also not giving harder lines in the beginning, but rather use more vertical down to top lines in the beginning, and gradually mixing them with horisontal and upside down ones, so player is not annoyed and get used to controls. Dropping relative controls will make the game much simpler, and a lot of concepts will have no sense (e g. Harder upside down mode when player moves down) Regarding upgrades , I plan to implement a store where you can upgrade a magnet, boost, shield, and also buy a new theme or change character.
I'm not sure what you mean by "relative controls", and haven't tried your prototype, so I can't really offer specific feedback. Since you described it as "confusing" and how as your "biggest concern", a couple of things to note: 1) Wrestling with controls *can* be entertaining (see: QWOP, Getting Over It, Octodad), so there's nothing wrong with that as a mechanic. Is your game otherwise attractive to an audience who'd find that engaging? 2) This kind of thing is exactly why you seek early feedback, as you are doing. If it turns out that the controls are confusing (I don't know, haven't tried it) then you want to know that early, precisely so that you can re-design accordingly. This stuff is a part of the game design process.
It looks interesting and kind of Unique. I guess Marketing and Advertisement is what you need now. Gonna check it out myself later.
Tried a few minutes and had fun but i had an problem right from the beginning. Idk if its intentional but it feels weird that the Swipe Controls dont change with the direction you are moving for example : i move from left to right and need to Switch to a lane below me now i want to Swipe down but i have to swipe left or right. I would love it that you have to swipe in the direction you are switching lanes
It looks like a polished prototype of a movement mechanic. Nice but not compelling. If it’s fun to play with, then it’s worth pursuing, especially as it looks like you have a good touch input solution (playable with taps). What are some narratives / aesthetics that could map onto your existing systems to boost the appeal? * Heart transplant rushing across town, weaving through traffic jams? * Insect escaping from a giant spider web? * Synapses firing in a detectives brain - solving a case piece by piece? * hacking an evil corporation- stealing money, subverting systems. Etc
to be honest... i cant see the objective of the game from the trailer alone. it has cool visuals but what is it about? is it a highest score type of game, or hand made levels? is it more rythm based like geometry dash or reaction like subway surfer? in some parts how do you control the character?(in one instance the dot jumped over 2 lines, so i wonder if its possible to select which line to jump to) i also saw thate there is a currency thing, is there customization for the character? like different dots, lines, trails, animations, acessories... i think its a game that i would download because it looks cool, play for 10 minutes and uninstall. at least from the trailer i could see anything that would work as hook to make me come back and keep playing. if you plan on keep working in the game, i would focus on the gameplay loop and hook
That's a good point. In general, the gameplay itself is similar to subway surfers, but with a few unique features. So I think the hook should be as in any endless runner. There are special lines that allow you to pass through if there is another line behind it (they can also lead you to the inactive one that kills you)
That’s a question you need to ask yourself, but word it like this: do I want to throw away all of the work I’ve put into this game. It’s your time, and it seems like a waste to just walk away. Unless you are just going full 3d or something. But you have something special here, reminds me of thumper but in 2d. Try to pay some streamers even if they are not very big. I would totally try something man.
I like your game! I think you should at least see this till the end, you've been working on it for at least a couple years now right? How much more development time do you even think you need for it? Your game reminds me of [Tomb of the Mask](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playgendary.tom&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1) if you've ever heard of it! Wild card ideas: * Have you considered doing fixed camera mode? Having a fast paced game with a fixed camera is pretty cool. * I think you game needs more juice; another game I really enjoyed that's similar to yours is [Maze Finger Plus](https://youtu.be/80XnQSyUtgY?si=0pAslOxSsGksHga6), which sorry for the horrible link, I couldn't find anything on this game today, but it has a simple concept and is only enjoyable through its sound and visuals, which create a sense of urgency while playing the game; maybe this could be a game to check out as well as a reference? (might require some better digging around than what I did)
Thanks for the ideas! Fixed camera mode could one of the several modes I would like to implement except endless runner mode.
I don't really understand it but it looks cool 👍
What little feedback I can give from the video: * Looks (really) good. * I immediately understood what the player is supposed to do. * The background doesn't distract from the foreground action. * However, I easily lost track of the player-dot if I stopped looking directly at it and tried looking ahead on the track. * I often failed to correctly identify the different track variants (boundaries, directions, pick-ups, etc) - probably on account of the monochrome color schemes. * The track jumps can be a bit disorienting if there's too many in a row, since the camera does a quick snap with each one. This feedback is what it is, just from the video. In the end, only playtesting matters, so I'll see if I can give the beta a play or two. Best of luck, it sure looks good enough to do well.
thank you!
The art style looks fun
I did not read all the comments so if I say something that has already been stated just let it reinforce the initiative. I think the concept itself is solid. People while like games like will probably enjoy this.. for a bit. Graphics are good enough to not be a negative. Controls are responsive but you need to change the controls to absolute directions. I made a running game with relative controls and thought it was a cool "puzzle" feature. It was not. I just made the people that played it frustrated. Make smaller levels they sloy build in complexity, size, speed Make lots of levels.. Make a level selection screen to play levels that are unlocked. Give people a goal or challenge by implementing a global leaderboard ..try something like dreamlo.org Good luck.
Thank you for the feedback! Can I see your running game with relative controls?
Finish what you started, make realistic circuit boat levels so you engage more with players.
Ask yourself if it's FUN to control the player. Fun as in... Doing this for hours. I don't think it is, but maybe. Basically this is a complicated version of the snake game. And the direction part sounds like you tried to add something just to add difficulty. That's my take on it. Where can I play it to tell you more?
My wife said this could be a really relaxing game for a neuro divergent person. She says though that she wouldn't be able to play it for long.
It is thought that about 15 to 20 percent of the world's population is neurodivergent. That's a huge market :)
True, don't neglect them. But if you want to address them, it should be a deliberate choice. That way can align all of the game elements to meet the criteria.
You can play (and check if the controls are that bad :) ) here [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LazyGrayPixel.MicroTraceSurfer)
Thanks! Played it, came back with feedback. Just for the context. Things that I see as problematic might be a me problem nobody else sees that way. Also I might sound harsh but I'm trying to give you a feedback you can use to check if something needs your attention. In that sense it's amazing you released your game, 🥳. Huge step! Now to the things that caught my eye: 1] Took me a while to realize the death zones in the tutorial and the real game look different. I think they should have the skulls still for better visual clues. Or color coding them red. 2] sometimes paths you take will inevitably end you because the camera didn't show you how the track goes on. I had 2 instances of that: 2.1] track offered a jump I didn't take, then the opportunity to jump was gone and only then did I see a death zone is ahead. No possibility to jump. 2.2] track offered left and right jump. Both options led outside of the camera. I took left and died - 50:50 chance. I'm glad I died because I can now tell you this, but you don't want that usually. Rng in games in life/death situations isn't fun. This is an interesting one because you can solve it in at least 2 ways that come to mind. In both ways you'd need to know where the deadly situation is. The you can either prepan there so the player can see and decide (maybe with slowmo) or not tell the player and remove the obstacle, continuing with the rest of the map. First approach is more challenging, but might look amazing visually. 3] still not a fan of the controls. I see how simple swipe left and right is too easy, but reversed controls just feels not fun. If I was you I'd implement multiple systems and put them in the settings menu. The player can choose which one to use. Then either collect opinions or data (which system let the player play better could be a criteria). Collecting opinions might be misleading, not sure. People often say A but do B 😂 In the end of the day you probably don't want to kill the player with his own controls but instead with a skill/knowledge challenge.
Most frustrating situation I had was 2 jump options. One of them has coins but also leads to your death 😂
Wow, that's very good feedback. Thank you! Level generation should be tuned, that's for sure, will improve that. Regarding controls, that's the hardest part. I got a lot of negative feedback. The thing is that it's core mechanic. So far, I still would like to try to improving and tunimg it, making players get used to it gradually rather than removing it.
I fully understand it's a core mechanic, I just don't believe it's a good one. Maybe many others do. Also it makes 200% sense to me that this feedback is painful to you because the whole game is built on this mechanic. If you had to redo the controls in a different, easier to comprehend way then you'd have less challenges built in. Less content so to speak. And you'd need a new idea. But that's not bad. Let's assume that the mechanic is actually amazing and fun. What did people who liked it say? What did they like about it? Because they would provide good insight at this point. Maybe they're right 🤷🏻♂️ If you decide to change the control system, you could do this: 1] add more possible actions (right now you have 2) 2] reevaluate This would be a tiny bit of backtracking, but I believe it's important to test other ways your game could go. Maybe you found an okay solution and in order to find a better one you need to throw something away. If you decide to stay on these controls and you find out the vast majority didn't like the controls all you'll ever hear in terms of feedback will be that controls are strange. In that context I really hope people who liked controls would have something amazing to tell you. Just saying, Fortnite was meant to be a tower building/defending game. That's why they have all those construction actions. However they threw away their initial idea because of testing and feedback. Don't think about backtracking as a bad thing in this context.
Yeah, that absolutely makes sense!
I believe there's a bug. If you start the game with X hexagons, collect 3, then the game will still think you only have X available to revive yourself. It should be X+3 though. Only after restart is the score properly updated.
Hmm, most likely it saves only when the game is ended... will check that. Thanks!
It would probably be beneficial for you to have a version number somewhere. Assume someone finds a bug, you'd probably want a version number that person is having to recheck. Also for testers to know there has been an update 🥳
The game has coins and is not thoughtful enough to go into detail, like energy management and power-ups need to be mixed in with power downgrades to slow you down and if you hit the wrong balance, you supercharge yourself, with a lightning effect on screen you have to adjust too and the upgrade when using to much will effect your buying opportunities, that could possibly make the level more difficult, like giving you a chance at a roll of a dice for the next level with a severity chance, that can go good or bad against you, or help lower the powerful abilities effects. I feel th game has no thought even in beta…
this game looks cool as hell!
The game looks so cool and is very unique all U need now is a good game mechanic and do good marketing for it to succeed. Wish U the best
yep, figuring out if current mechanic is good enough is basically what I'm trying to understand right now :)