Post by Leonhard Kohl-Lörting in Vena (Demo) comments

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Leonhard Kohl-Lörting79 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time playing, analyzing and reviewing my game. Your feedback is incredibly useful. I watched your video and wrote an A4 paper on what to improve.

One thing I have to think about a little bit. When there is no timer, there is no way to lose the game anymore. I'm thinking about if this is a bad thing, because the game loses its "challenge" aspect through this.

It seems to me you have a lot of knowledge about game design, do you work something in this direction? I hope if you come back in a few weeks I have changed the way the game works to make it feel more fun.

Fort Kenmei79 days ago

That's a very interesting question.

My first thought is... is 'losing' the game really necessary? You've set a challenge, the player must work their way through the obstacles to complete the challenge... losing is just an occasional forced reset. Other than extending game play time, I don't really see the value.

Of course, the intention behind losing is consequence, and defeating the consequence brings dopamine.

Perhaps instead of a hard time limit to force a restart, there is a soft time limit for certain goals? You still 'win' the round if you achieve the basic goal, but there are timed advanced goals that give you a rating out of stars or something?

Leonhard Kohl-Lörting78 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I have thought about this for a bit longer. How can I keep the game function time-based (as it is a simulation game) while not stressing the player and forcing decisions? I found a hybrid solution for this. When you place a tile, the timer is paused. In this way, the strategic playing remains, as the player can take time on the decisions, while also the challenge of combining tiles cleverly persists. I have already gametested this a bit and I think it improves the game experience. There are also a few other advantages: This doesn't complicate the game further, as it is complicted enough. I don't have to change much of the code.

itch.io

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