Game: Revenge in Company

Coolness 71% #120 Humor(Jam) 3.06 #395 Graphics(Jam) 2.73 #400 Innovation(Jam) 2.49 #427 Fun(Jam) 2.43 #431 Mood(Jam) 2.39 #440 Audio(Jam) 1.91 #451 Overall(Jam) 2.59 #509 Theme(Jam) 1.94

Conclusions from results and comments:

1.  Game should be short and puzzling, short and simple, or long and puzzling. I made long game with one puzzle: to find actual target from persons in the office. It’s simply boring.
2.  “Cute” 3D graphic is not rated much when it’s too simple. I was really proud of my graphic(especially because  I’m a programmer;-) ), and get encourage from user comments who find this graphic cute and neat. For me it’s very simple but still nice for eyes. I ended up on #395 place. Comparing rates between 2D and 3D games,  I’m convince that low quality 2D graphic is still rated better then medium quality 3D graphic. If you make game in 3D, your graphic should be perfect.
3. Community rate severely. When I saw my results for the first time I was disappointed. Then I checked games that I rated. Their final results are much below rates that I gave them. That changes the way of looking on results for me.
4. The first objective should be very easy. I put the first target just near the start position, so user could see it without even moving! For me it was easy enough. The point is, many users on the beginning of the game just run out of the room to check controls or whatever! Then, they really have problem with finding even first target, so they gave up. That didn’t give them fun.
5. Make linear progression of difficult. One of the comment: “Hard to find people, or I was just not good at it. Could have used a little linear progression at the start before opening up the whole office.” Players are not in a mood for slowly discover a game. I was thinking about making some kind of navigator that would make easier to find target in the company. Then I dropped it. I assumed the player will have fun searching them in the whole company. True is, that this is Ludum Dare. When player start the game, he want to see progress ASAP.
6. Controls have to be perfect. My have a bug, that when you hold UP button and then press RIGHT, you will still go up until you release UP button. When I played it I just hold one button at the time and it was good enough for me. It wasn’t good enough for others. Bad controls are the first thing to kill fun of the game.
7. Spent more time on audio. Making audio was fun, and relaxing for my brain. It was mistake that I made it as the last thing.

See you next LD!