Thanks both of you for sharing your thoughts. As of a couple weeks ago the experimental branch has basically this change already implemented (it counts all the letters in all the names not just the first one) and it has been promoted to rare because it got a lot better with that change
Also I have a question for you - it seems like you and the others who commented around the same time all comment on the same games. Are you in a games bookclub or something? If so, seems cool!
Thanks! The helpful hints have been fun to write :)
There's a confusing thing that can happen where if the left or rightmost columns aren't dealt, it looks like there are cards in the corner when there actually aren't (since there are no cards on those corners). We're going to release an update with a visual indication of that soon!
There's a confusing thing that can happen where if the left or rightmost columns aren't dealt, it looks like there are cards in the corner when there actually aren't (since there are no cards on those corners). We're going to release an update with a visual indication of that soon!
Thanks for saying that! I enjoy responding to comments (I think on some level I still am the little kid version of myself that is just happy that people are playing a thing I made).
There's a classic saying about creative work that I agree with: if a playtester has a problem it's correct. If they have a solution it's probably wrong (and so the goal is to talk to folks until you get to the underlying problem that is causing them to say that solution). Many times talking with players I've found real important issues to resolve!
I'm not sure if you were playing the game this early, but it used to not have any hints. I made a perk that added some hints and suddenly that was most players favorite perk to the extent that they would reroll and even restart the game to get it. After that we added hints to the game and it got way better overall!
Anyway all that to say I really value any feedback that players share. Even if we don't end up following the exact suggestions, the sentiment usually winds its way into our design meetings and we try to figure out the feelings underlying the suggestions. So thanks for sharing your experience and for being polite and considerate about it!
1) You mentioned that it's scary in FNAF when you run out of power for the first time. What about the second time and every time after that? Would you say it's not scary anymore because it's now known?
2) In both Buckshot and Mr Magpie you find out if you lived or died directly after making the last choice (flipping the JERRY or firing the bullet). It sounds like the tension you're talking about relates to the surprise of the literal sound effect + visual of the gun going off, not learning the information that you have lost. Is that what you're saying?
Also just so we're not discussing with different assumptions: Mr Magpie is thematically a horror game but we are not trying to make it be actually scary. It's a horror-comedy game, which for us means using horror aesthetics / atmosphere but having the overall tone be more one of humor. It's one of the sacrifices we have to make by doing a mashup genre like this. Many players who would enjoy the roguelike deckbuilding don't like the idea of it being genuinely scary and don't want surprising jumpscares. We also want this to be a game that people can play many times in a row, so having the endings be too intense would interfere with that goal.
I get what you're saying. If the time system was the main thing we wanted people to pay attention to then we would not have changed it.
The way I see it, the game is first and foremost a push-your-luck game. I love those juicy decisions about whether I want to be greedy or not. To me, the time system wasn't important for that, so I'm OK making that part a little less deep in exchange for it being easier to understand *so that* we can add more complexity elsewhere in the game later on.
I agree that slowly learning and understanding the mechanics over time is a plus! I also sympathize with learning the intricacies of a game's strategy only to have them change out from under you when the game updates. You are of course always welcome to play older versions of the game using the itch app (which saves them all and allows you to go back to replay them)
Could you say more about why the bomb is an "antithesis" to what the game was
Ah yeah, that's a funny thing about making a game that heavily features pure randomness! For some people, they will never see the round delay. For some people they'll have it delay every time and think that the game is super easy. It sounds like for you, you just got a little lucky. I assure you, it will even out over time :)
We have a plan to add back something which will visualize the increasing numbers. We're very excited about it and I think you will be too! It's better than poker chips ;)
Yes I'm happy to explain why there's a small (1 in 6) chance for it to be delayed. Before, I found that getting to the end of the time allotted felt frustrating. It felt like I didn't want to click on that last button knowing that I was about to lose. Now I feel excited to click on the last button because I get to see the wheel spin and hope that I'll get another round to try to make the exit cost.
How does it feel to you? It sounds like you kind of plan on it not going off?
Hello, thanks for sharing your experience with the game.
We are planning to add a feature to remove cards, just haven't had time yet.
I'm sorry that you miss the feature that lets you buy more time. We do plan to add back some sort of endless mode in the future, but we need to focus on the core gameplay first. What is it about that feature that you enjoy more than trying to beat many days in a row?
Just so you know, if you play the game through the itch app you can actually go back to *any* previous version of the game!
Hello, thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I hear you that you miss the timer. I miss it too! The new system is less original and less deep. I still think it was the right decision to change it to the bomb and I'll explain why:
We're pretty set on not having a tutorial (because we like the feeling of figuring things out for yourself!), which means we have to make everything very intuitive. It probably doesn't feel that way, but many of our decisions since the beginning have been meant to make the game easier to learn. The time has been something that *many* people have been confused about. One of the most confusing things was that lots of people thought the game was played in real-time! If you think it's real-time it's hard to disprove that notion, since you start playing fast and then it seems like the game is speeding up... it's bad. Putting a timer there sent the wrong message. It was also hard to tell just how much time you really had left since you have to convert everything into minutes. Separately from the understandability stuff, I also wanted to get rid of the cost for flipping cards. I noticed that it felt bad at the end to choose between seeing your build "pop off" by flipping a couple extra cards but knowing that you're technically misplaying if you do that. So if we're removing the cost to flip a card I thought it'd be better to just simplify the whole thing into a round system.
The bomb also makes it more clear what the stakes of the game are. Now when you look at the screen you see "oh shit, if these lights all light up I'm going to die" where before many people wouldn't realize what the time was doing until it was too late.
I agree that it's a bit less deep and a bit less original but I hope you trust us to keep working on it and adding depth and originality as we go (in other places, not the timer).
Wow I wrote a lot - I love talking about the design of this game! I hope this explains why we made the decision we did. For you and anyone else scrolling the comments :)
About Mr Magpie - I'm a little confused about this point because it's the same 3D model. Are you talking about the lighting being different?
Hello! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
I sympathize with the feeling of being uncomfortable as the game changes. It sounds like your main critique of the current version of the game is that it's not as unique as it was before. I agree with you about that! The reason we're streamlining like this is because it makes the game easier to understand for new players. Everything we make simpler frees up room to make other parts more complex / interesting. Rest assured that we'll be adding more complex, interesting and unique things in future updates!
Thanks for the kind words! Could you describe more about what specifically you miss about the time system and the poker chips and the visuals for the puppet dude?
We do hope to add languages eventually but it will be a while. When you're making these kinds of games the text changes all the time, and to add translations early on really slows things down because you have to translate all the changes before making each update.
That's cool that you tried to mod in another language yourself! I'll see if we can add font support for other languages so people like yourself can do this. (might still be a while though)
That is an insightful question! A lot went into the notes. This game came together very fast so most of that was implemented in one day where I was collaborating with our musician Chris. I had to go back to look at the code to remember what it's doing XD
Basically all the score groups are sorted by length, so smaller groups score first. Each type of color and shape has a certain list of notes it can play when it gets scored. They're all from the same key. If it isn't the last score group, there is a little chance to add in a discordant note (which means it always feels resolved because the last group will always be harmonious).
There are also little randomizing factors that make it feel more dynamic. For instance a randomized time delay between notes played and a chance to play more notes at once and slight variations in volume as well. Chris also recorded a bunch of different variations of each note which helps it feel more natural.
I don't think people generally notice it consciously but I think having all that information and variation underlying the scoring (which is the only music in the game as you know) makes the game feel richer.