A 1 month review
One month after release, I'm happy to say that the game sales have performed better than expected! It has been a rewarding experience to see people play and submit feedback, and I'm grateful to the community for their interest.
However, I do agree with some of the most common assessments of the game - the game feels like early access. Some evidence of its prematurity are reflected in the following sections.
What we've done
After release, the fixing of game breaking bugs, platform compatibility, and crashes, were top priority. Fortunately, not many were reported, so presumably the game as a whole launches and runs.
In lieu of those problems, quality of life issues began to accumulate, and I switched to addressing them piecemeal, one by one. These changes are included in the past 9 patches since release, but they are mostly small fixes and tweaks.
In parallel with these fixes, a simulator was written and added to help test combat mechanics, of which there is a high degree of complexity. Many bugs were uncovered during this process, and while the simulator is functioning, it still needs time to bake to be fully useful and streamlined for players.
What we're working on
The game's user interface and user experience are not up to standard compared to other incremental, idle, and casual games. There are too many things a player can do, without much guidance on what a thing does and why the player would use it.
For the past few days, I've been working on a minor overhaul of the tooltips in the game, as well as setting up dynamic updates in tooltips so they respond to the context. In addition, keyboard shortcuts have been requested and while implemented, still have a few bugs in them.
Where we're going
With most of the quick band-aids done, I'm moving towards larger updates that hopefully address reported issues more holistically. Some of the common themes among issues reported include:
- The tutorial system is too sparse and doesn't cover enough of the game systems
- The redeploy system is incredibly confusing and at the moment, has exploitable functions that break the game balance completely
- There are too many unexplained things or not sufficiently highlighted
- The UI is sterile and oddly proportioned, with inconsistent visual language
To be clear, this is a complete game and no new major features will be added. Reworks however are completely reasonable, and here are some of the ideas I'm considering:
- Rework the tutorial interface to be part of the communications system, complete with reviewable notes as well as refresh the "?" help buttons in the various UI windows
- Completely redo the redeploy system, and move towards skill trees similar to Path of Exile or other incremental games like NodeBuster. Special resources can be accumulated through battle or crafted using scrap, and then upgrades can be purchased. The "resetting" aspect of the game will remain by allowing players to respec, as each incremental upgrade increases the cost of all upgrades.
- A UI review, changing all windows, colors, and proportions to be more consistent and visually appealing. I am not a UI designer and I will not be hiring one, but there are still a lot of things that can be tweaked
Other items on the list are cloud saves, linux support, endless battling (past level 300), and a rebalancing of modifiers and weapons for battling, but those are less of a priority at the moment.
Given these goals, I anticipate at least three more months of development, up to six before this game is in a polished state. None of these ideas are set in stone yet, and I welcome feedback from the community on what they would like to see improved or changed.
Thanks for your support, and hope to see you around!