dysleixc 2023-05-01 08:58
As much as I would love a complex game like this to work - I found the UX too unintuitive to enjoy it.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → Astroxite
By mat4dor
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 374 | 2.84 | 21 | |
| Fun | 401 | 2.18 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 347 | 2.81 | 21 | |
| Theme | 267 | 3.63 | 21 | |
| Graphics | 337 | 2.89 | 21 | |
| Audio | 313 | 2.47 | 21 | |
| Humor | 339 | 1.63 | 20 | |
| Mood | 354 | 2.60 | 21 |
As much as I would love a complex game like this to work - I found the UX too unintuitive to enjoy it.
The game looks quite fun, but also really confusing as to what resources do what on each planet/moon, and what buildings do, and how to properly make routes. There is no proper tutorial to it, or if there is I couldn't find it. It definitely looks like something I would really enjoy playing once it's a finished game, but at the moment it's just really hard to figure out
A solid amount of progression here. I enjoyed the puzzles of navigation and processing materials, but did struggle to bash my way forward at times.
When trying to send stuff to other places, it says "No route to x from y". So I checked the Router, which had routes. After some testing the problem seems to be that there are no ships on x. I also didn't understand how to get Silicon or Iron so I couldn't finish the first missions. Funny sidenote: It is very easy to get lost by just dragging the map away, which I tried and did in fact get lost :sweat_smile:
The planets and the sun look really nice, also the background! Good job on making these!
I liked the game overall, but found the resuorce vs missions and controls pretty confusing. Once you grasp around the context, everything was more smoother. I always stress on playtesting, especially when you have someone else who doesn't know your mechanics to test your game :)
Thank you all for the feedback and for playing. @theguy @mikoziq @kierogi @dysleixc @potatocouch
I agree that there is a lack of usability, it was kinda hard to make it all work and this was my first time using Pixi.js, so it was bit of a challenge to make all the UI, specially rendering from scratch. That is no excuse for some errors in usability of course.
Got a bit carried out in adding some stuff and neglected things like tutorial, tooltips and other small things that make a difference. The balance is also pretty bad, it's impossible to know what is next in the game.
The game generates new planets/stars/moons at random times when it is going to generate a mission, but it's unclear that it can generate stars with different elements that you can use to do more stuff like having water.
The upgradability also is also not there. It's just 2 factories which it not ideal. It's too many ideas for such a short amount of time.
> When trying to send stuff to other places, it says “No route to x from y”. So I checked the Router, which had routes. After some testing the problem seems to be that there are no ships on x.
Fixed just now, thank you.
really struggled with UI and missing tool tips
It feels the game has much qualities, but unfortunately, I was unable to understand how to play it : UI isn't very clear and I couldn't figure out how to make the routes configuration work :( Apart from the UI, graphics look nice and efficient, the music allows to focus on the game, and the game seems to offer a rich experience which is great considering the time you got to make it ;)
I always enjoy a good space game! Like others, I tripped over the routes bit. I could sometimes figure out a way to ship stuff around, but other times I couldn't seem to create a route between places that I needed. I also ran out of carbon in my match pretty quickly, as I tried to build up iron for a station, and felt stuck there. I was hoping I could generate more carbon on earth, but alas!
Thanks for the feedback @dusho @kami-amiga @hwaet
Yeah the user experience is the worst. I'm continuing to develop the game and try to improve that. Thank you.
To echo what others have said, I'd love to have an in-game tutorial or something like that. It looks and sounds cool, but I was unable to understand what exactly I had to do here. But still, you made a game, that counts, and it's good to hear you're thinking about continuing to work on this game!
Really great resource management game, awesome work!
I agree with some of the other commenters, the UI is a bit confusing. I can see the potential in the game and it's the kind of game I would probably enjoy. Trying new technologies for Ludum Dare is always a challenge when you aren't 100% familiar with the tool yet. Sometimes trying something a little bit less ambitious and making it a bit more polish is better. But your game has a lot of potential, and you went all out by even getting the domain name for it, so I assume you are going to keep working on it?
It has always impressed me that people come up with complex sims and resource managements in such a short amount of time. This game might have been too complex for me as I did not perform that good at all, but I appreciate it either way!
I bit too hard for me to fully understand. I managed to complete 3 of the missions. That was a lot of clicking.
I didn't get the route system working. Perhaps that would have helped with the missions.
Thanks for the comments <3
> so I assume you are going to keep working on it? - @likirus
Yes, I'm still working on it, for a few hours a day, the version on the website already diverges a little bit from the version here.
it's a bit confusing to play but I understood most of it after playing a bit, it gets fun and feels like something that could even be expanded!