We first realised that Crispy Circuits could be a game worthy of 10k WLs when we noticed how people engage in conversation with us via social media. The comments with suggestions that people have really gave us the first feeling of a community forming. When we first messaged each other that we hit 10k, I remember it being very weird for me to actually see 5 digits in the interface. Obviously this means a whole lot for a small dev team from Croatia, but we know there's still a long way for us to cross before writing this project off as a success. When I read about what it takes today, I feel that nothing below 100k translates well to sales. Then again, not that long ago 10k felt very far away and here we are...
Community and player questions
There were quite a few questions from people all around our channels that have legitimately made me stop and be like 'wow there cowboy...'. But still it is very cool to see people that are familiar with the topic of electrical circuits taking jabs at us. It's all in good faith ofc, for instance there was this one guy who called me out on my very wrong and inaccurate edit of a serial vs parallel way of connecting the circuit:
"But, do you really put the on/off button in parallel to the lamp? 😉"
To which we replied:
"Ding ding we have a winner folks! Really cool that you noticed, which means people are paying attention. Our editor (me) was in a hurry to put something out asap and did not think. The next morning my colleagues gave me the stink eye for it, totally deserved ⚡️🐹 Oh yes and the answer for anyone who was left wondering: no, it should be connected serially."
My point is that we really need to tread lightly when respecting natural laws of physics when developing this type of game. Otherwise we can lose all respect in heartbeat. Especially since we noticed that a lot of correspondence with players has to do with the actual electronics that will end up in the game. For instance one person wrote:
"hey PLEASE add transistors both pnp and npn and nonpolarized caps"
It took us a few days to discuss and see what's viable because we don't want this game to have that huge of a dev cycle. But people are definitely drawn to our hamster helper the most. There were even a few sinister comments such as:
"Hope i don’t fry crispy. 🙏"
I think it is all of our collective responsibility to make sure this does not happen. Especially since there is a 5 digit number of us now...
Game identity
Surely there will be people just joining in only now to see what the project is all about. That's the whole point of promoting it, right? The pitch is:
We’re making a game about fixing an RC plane for your hamster. But to repair it, you slowly learn how real electronics work.
We think this game stands out in the fact that the puzzles 100% follow the laws of physics. So when you think about it, it could show potential value to people that are simply just STEM enthusiasts. Or let's say you are a teacher looking into creative ways of showing your students how electricity works... This is the core of why we decided to design it in a cozy style with a wholesome story. So people do not feel 'threatened' by otherwise foreign concepts. Every single time the player gets stuck, a cute and mischievous hamster appears to give them a nudge in the right direction. The feeling we want players to have when they see the game for the first time is within the realm of two words that come to mind: boundless possibility. Tacky, I know...
Development journey
The main thing that happened to us as a team since announcing this project back in October is that we get to work on it full time. It's that feeling of commitment once we showed it to people and realising we are not the only one's who care for this to actually come out. While reaching this milestone we came into contact with players asking us will mechanics and aerodynamics be covered. While those are very valid questions, we will be keeping the promise for the base game that we initially made - make it about circuits. But I would be a big fat liar if I said that those questions did not open up our minds to future possibilities.
But the main thing we are focusing on for now is getting this thing ready for a proper playtest. More info on that coming soon...
Thanks for sticking with us from the whole team at Turing Studio.
Cheers,
Marko