I relate to you a lot, communicating with and understanding people is hard. When it comes to more elaborate games (I definitely want to check out what you've made!) it can be best to work on things one step at a time, both in development and in introducing the player to the game. In development, if you get feedback as you go, you can work to make things clearer to the player.
In the final game, a good strategy is to start with something familiar and build off of that to reach somewhere unique. This means they have something they know and aren't overwhelmed by too many new things at once. To build a bridge, you need part of it on the near shore.
And furthermore… people engage with your game in a different way if you’re actively seeking feedback from them compared to how they engage with it if they find it in the wild, so I’ve learned the hard way that even if you’re reliably seeing comprehension and engagement during playtesting, that doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the same thing after launch…
Not exactly a game per-se, but I do resonate with the emotions here. I am absolutely nauseated by the repetitive game design I keep seeing around video games, with all their "incremental" tags and endless rehashing of successful formulas that boil down to uninspired mimicry. I do feel the dialogue may have dipped into the pretentious side at times, but it was genuine, and I agreed with a lot of the ideas there. I figured out it was meant to be two people by the way the conversation was formatted, and then made the distinction that the characters were delineated by font and color, a choice reflected in the background. Communication is a tricky thing, and at the end of the day, it is truly about the communicator, not the one communicated to. It's simple, but I can see the truth in the work. I truly appreciated it.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I relate to you a lot, communicating with and understanding people is hard. When it comes to more elaborate games (I definitely want to check out what you've made!) it can be best to work on things one step at a time, both in development and in introducing the player to the game. In development, if you get feedback as you go, you can work to make things clearer to the player.
In the final game, a good strategy is to start with something familiar and build off of that to reach somewhere unique. This means they have something they know and aren't overwhelmed by too many new things at once. To build a bridge, you need part of it on the near shore.
I appreciate the attempt to help, but “get feedback as we go” has been standard operating practice for a long time and we still have issues
And furthermore… people engage with your game in a different way if you’re actively seeking feedback from them compared to how they engage with it if they find it in the wild, so I’ve learned the hard way that even if you’re reliably seeing comprehension and engagement during playtesting, that doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the same thing after launch…
Not exactly a game per-se, but I do resonate with the emotions here. I am absolutely nauseated by the repetitive game design I keep seeing around video games, with all their "incremental" tags and endless rehashing of successful formulas that boil down to uninspired mimicry. I do feel the dialogue may have dipped into the pretentious side at times, but it was genuine, and I agreed with a lot of the ideas there. I figured out it was meant to be two people by the way the conversation was formatted, and then made the distinction that the characters were delineated by font and color, a choice reflected in the background. Communication is a tricky thing, and at the end of the day, it is truly about the communicator, not the one communicated to. It's simple, but I can see the truth in the work. I truly appreciated it.
Valid crashout honestly