Power Ports & Pollution

scornz 2018-08-31 23:06

Slightly confusing at first, I had to click every button on my keyboard to figure out which one was "select" on the menu. Love the audio, very interesting concept, nice work!

ceejap 2018-08-31 23:17

@scornz Thank you!

luckyfeathers 2018-09-01 00:06

Eventually I understood what was going on, but you really need to give the player a tutorial or some indication of what's going on in the game. At least tell me the controls. Z and X is not very intuitive. It took me a whole minute to get past the start menu. Also, that one high pitched tone was really annoying!

Alright, once I understood the game it wasn't too bad. I think you should maybe give the player a bit more starting resources though. It's weird to die after walking two steps and then placing a factory. But honestly, the gameplay isn't too bad. It's just very poorly explained to the player. Try to imagine you're a new player who has no idea what's going on. Or even better, let someone playtest your game while you watch. But don't explain anything, just let them figure it out themselves. Notice when they struggle, and improve those parts.

Good luck next game jam :)

jesusache 2018-09-01 00:23

Some of my favorite games on this jam are the ones that really have a clear risk reward mechanic. Like Lucky said, it could be explained bit better how the system itself works because discouraging the player by making them lose so quickly can hurt how your game feels but I did like how stuff gets slightly claustrophobic as the pollution grows around ya.

Some images on your LD or itch.io pages will also help your game get some traction, since browser games already have a huge advantage over downloadables.

Nice work!

One final note, please never use white text over pure yellow, it's like staring right into the sun :p

coldfire83 2018-09-01 00:28

This had an interesting concept, and was pretty fun once I figured it out. However, it was difficult to figure out which button I had to hit to proceed past the start screen (z is very unintuitive). Also, it wasn't immediately obvious that you had to place a factory, then hit the wait button a few times in order to get enough resources to proceed. Once you get past those flaws, though, it's an interesting and fun game; thank you for making it.

mukult 2018-09-01 00:30

It would be much easier if you put controls somewhere.... takes a while to figure things out. Also screenshots on the page will also help. Anyways..so about the game, its very difficult to understand the game as such. Some kind of help or tutorial would be nice. Still a good effort though.

ceejap 2018-09-01 00:56

@mukult @jesusache @luckyfeathers @coldfire83 Thank you all for the feedback, will definitely keep the easier controls and tutorials in mind for next time. Thanks again!

tj101010 2018-09-01 02:21

Pretty cool idea. I was confused about which structure was built when I pressed X and why, as well as why I was sometimes able to walk through them but sometimes not. The red areas being bad was telegraphed well!

You don't need to build in a tutorial. It's great if you can, but jams really don't need them as long as you explain the controls in an easy to find area. I definitely recommend publishing the controls to your itch.io page so we can know how to play - I was really confused why pressing the enter button on Controls just brought up a pause menu.

jordantanner 2018-09-01 07:21

No clue how this game works, sorry. I tried.

boopsgames 2018-09-01 10:02

^ same

foxisxiii 2018-09-01 14:14

Same as the other players, there are no place where explains how the game works, and when you discover what keys you have to use, the game ends in a few seconds because there are no explanation of what to do..

rangoiv 2018-09-01 14:58

I read the comments first so i was lucky enough to find out how to play very fast! First of all, background and text colors on menu screen should have less contrast, its hard to see if you're not on fullscreen. It would be nice if you're able to place factories on all 4 sides, not just on the right. I like the sound effects. All in all the game is very cool.

vfabien21 2018-09-02 14:56

Well, the idea looks interresting. But I could not really wrap my head around the game... (it is soo easy to die without understanding why right from the beginning) Mayde did we not get enough info... The music was really annying for me. Though, the idea of ressource management optimisation is interresting.

cristihkj 2018-09-02 15:16

Great game! Very cool and interesting! :D

cbdevilla 2018-09-02 15:40

The idea has potential. But there are just too many aspects of the game that cause frustration. First and foremost is the lack of information about how to play the game. Just the menu alone is a puzzle. Do I need to click what I want? Use WASD? Arrow keys? Okay, arrow keys move the cursor, how do I select?

In the game itself, it's too easy to randomly lose the game. Sometimes it's overspending on resources, which the game doesn't stop you from doing. More frustrating is the way RNG will throw a pollution tile right on your position. It makes the game much less strategic and more like an elaborate Russian Roulette.

Like I said, this concept has potential. I really believe there's the seed of a good game in here. The mechanics just need refined to let the idea shine through.

papaver 2018-09-02 20:42

Like many people before me, it took me very long to figure out the controls. First challenge: getting out of the menu, it's very confusing that Enter gives the pause screen. After trying out most buttons on my keyboard, I found out that I needed Z/C and X. I understood when I died because of lack of resources, but other times I didn't understand why. Sometimes I didn't know why I couldn't go in a certain direction (but it did cost resources), maybe that was a bug. I guess that with some more explanation the game could be more fun. Maybe with a quantization or visual clue of 'once the pollution reaches a certain level you perish'? When walking over the red tiles, am I cleaning them up?