How well did I do?
I think did reasonably well this time round. Better than I expected. I achieved a task i thought impossible with this game; to get into the top #100 in a category. This was the first time I have worked in 3D, made a game in Unity, and coded in C#. Ultimately I wanted to show that I had improved in my year out. This table shows my performance over the last two years (4 events participated in):
What could I have done better?
The statistics show that I could have done better in the Fun category, ignoring the Humor and Mood categories which are non-core categories. My innovation score has improved drastically in two years.
These are the specific improvements from the feedback I got from players.
- A bug which lead to the army size to go below zero.
- A long and steep (for ludum dare games) learning curve.
- The inability to move forward in some situations.
- Lacked sound and feedback to the player.
- The reasoning for the battle system was arbitrary and confusing.
Here are the areas I could have improved.
- The graphics. The graphics do not have a unified theme throughout the game. I could have added some more animations.
- A interactive tutorial. While I did manage to make a tutorial it was not clear enough.
- Added in audio feedback and music.
- The game design lacked basic balancing. The other buffs had little effect compared the the advantages of moving forward.
What was done well?
The statistics show that I had significantly improved in the innovation and theme categories, despite this I still remain that this game is the same or even less innovative and as tied with the theme as
Molyneux God.
These are the pieces of positive feedback I got from other players.
- RadMcCool said that he liked the “weird dissonance” of the game and between it’s move set.
- MorganLeFay stated he enjoyed that it was a “Very complex game”.
- PowerSpark remarked that it kept him “hooked!”
- Neoludo thought that I had “invented a new board game”.
While these are lovely to read it is often easier to give positive feedback than negative and constructive criticism.
These are the areas I think that I did well.
- The 3D graphics were good to look at. Especially with my first time to properly use Anti-Aliasing.
- I thought the game was several times simpler than my last two.
- It was accessible to web users, making it quicker and easier to play in the Ludum Dare playing environment.
- It had depth despite being somewhat simple in it’s control. A challenge of the theme I chose.
- I managed my time somewhat effectively.
What have I learnt?
While I succeeded on making a game with proper elements of strategy where the player had to think about their actions. Despite this the lack of a concrete tutorial has led some people to struggle at getting the full enjoyment out of the game (
See here.) I can work on the way I teach mechanics to people and the way those mechanics interact. A uniformity of graphics and lack of balancing is arguably something that can be improved on if I had a longer development cycle. A simpler or clearer level of complexity would improve how fun the game was.
Are you going to continue development, and how would you continue to improve it?
I doubt I will continue development on this unless I were to be shown that people like the game enough, if I were to though, I would improve this game by taking the following actions:
- Remove the tutorial and replace it with an interactive tutorial which contains a character to allow me to speak to the player. This would allow me to include the story and relate it back to the gameplay despite the abstract graphics.
- Address the disparity between the text and the UI and the styling of the 3D models.
- Balance the other buffs / debuffs, making them as useful to the game as the “Move 1 Forward” Buff.
- Restructure the Battle system, possibly including an animation of the two armies fighting – which can be skipped.
- Animate the game. I think this would add bundles of character to the game.
- Transition it to a mobile platform.
These would be the step I would take to improve the game given the critism levied on it.