My game - very hard
stackpoole
Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaMember, PRO Posts: 473
Hi guys,
Im in the middle of making a game - I think its good but I've shown it to some people and they haven't been able to finish any puzzles.
The game has a simple concept, there are a bunch of arrows - 31 different type of arrows and the user has to find the missing arrows in a board of 36 arrows. Basically, every puzzle has a certain pattern/logic to it. Might be a bit confusing, here is one puzzle:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/4ebea7291521947
SO the user has to determine which arrows fit the 3 question marks -
So in that certain level, you'd see that each column has the same type of arrow- thus the user can determine which arrows fit.
BUt I've noticed that its very hard to determine that.
Is it owrth continuing since it is so hard? or what can I do? or should it be fine?
Thanks
Im in the middle of making a game - I think its good but I've shown it to some people and they haven't been able to finish any puzzles.
The game has a simple concept, there are a bunch of arrows - 31 different type of arrows and the user has to find the missing arrows in a board of 36 arrows. Basically, every puzzle has a certain pattern/logic to it. Might be a bit confusing, here is one puzzle:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/4ebea7291521947
SO the user has to determine which arrows fit the 3 question marks -
So in that certain level, you'd see that each column has the same type of arrow- thus the user can determine which arrows fit.
BUt I've noticed that its very hard to determine that.
Is it owrth continuing since it is so hard? or what can I do? or should it be fine?
Thanks
Comments
So my suggestions:
Flow- Ease them in:
Create like the first 3 levels as you would design it, in your opinion, absolute stupid people. Totally obvious puzzles, maybe also less confusing elements on the screen in the beginning. So they get the feeling of being very good at it.
UI:
I would put the selected feedback on the top of the screen together with a sentence that says: Choose arrow direction for each question mark!
Once he has done it for all 3 the sentence could switch to "Press Check to see if your guesses are right"
Color Coding:
Right now there are a lot of different colored button, figuring out the meaning of each already appears like a big wall in front of the actual gameplay.
I would separate them color wise between gameplay color patterns and UI button color.
Like twitter button and the back button have the same color because they are UI.
Also try how it looks like when you break the alignment to the actual grid for UI buttons.
I'll be the stupid one! 8->
From your description and the image, I have no idea even where to begin. And I don't understand what you mean by "each column has the same type of arrow" (in what way?).
Is this a maze where I am moving from one starting square to one finish square? That is, if I get to a square with a left-facing arrow do I move to the square to its left?
Or is this a vertical pattern where some of the columns are already correct and I can use them to help guess the incomplete columns that have question marks?
How are the colors important? I'm guessing they have some significance.
Does each square have 8 possible arrows (n, nw, w, sw, s, se, e, ne)? 16 (8 red and 8 green)? More than 16?
Are the three mystery arrows related to each other in any way? Do they directly or indirectly affect each other?
How would I know if I had a correct solution (without having the app to check for me)?
And I agree that a simpler pattern -- say 4x4 would be a good introduction to the game. For the sake of this thread can you provide a solution either to that image or to another one so that we can see what a solved puzzle looks like, preferably a very simple one?
Edit: I guess the whole point of the game is to be secretive... code-breaking if you will. If you feel that dumbing it down isn't respecting the puzzles for what they are, I think that's fine but you need to (a) market it as such and not say that it's a simple concept but rather rebrand it as an impossible puzzle app or something along those lines and (b) recognize that it's a niche product and it is only going to appeal to a small group of people.
@tatiang @timolapre1998
If you can see from the 2nd and 4th columns for example - they all use the same type of arrow. e.g. 2 red up arrows, 2 green up arrows, thus every column of 6 tiles, should have 2 green up arrows and 2 red up arrows. etc.. thus theu ser should be able to deduce the question arrows =/
Yes this game is very complicated it seems, the arrows aren't meant to cause any confusion, as is the colours, they are simply different types of arrows whereby i tried to make more options, so I could make the game harder [because I thought it was too easy].
Should I do something other than arrows?
By the way, at the moment, there are 31 different arrows
Notice how each 6 columns have the same type of arrows but just mixed around.
#3 is a red arrow with a line facing right, if iam correct i like this game
Did you see the one i put in in my first post?
Do you think this game can get too hard?
I would suggest also make the first few puzzles with a much smaller board. like start with as little as a 2x2.
Gamers love to learn by doing thats why they play games, to do something and be in control. You can type the most amazing explanation of rules on how to play and win a game, but most players might not even read it. They want to be allowed to learn how to do it.
I hope any of this helps. I think it could be a great game, up there with sudoku. But I would definitely need to be taught through a ton of easy smaller tutorial puzzles in order for me to ever even want to take on a 6x6.
I guess ill make a whole tutorial when they enter the app
Thanks for showing us the light!
Completely agree with @SearleSama. Well said.
But as @SearleSama said a good tutorial or well written instructions will just make it click.
You're actually the first one to figure it out then .. haha
Cheers, M@