[Callan S.]

The game is up!

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Noontide/s-rank-slayers

And now I cringe as I wait for bug reports!

Actually I should probably sell it as more than that - get in there and slay thousands of s-rank 'goblins' that have grown to massive numbers after being left unchecked. Developing your strength each time you slay one! See if you can get the highest strength score on the high score list and be mightier than anyone else! For the s-rank are growing in strength themselves...

[Wilshire]

That is an awesome post

[Callan S.]

Continued in new thread

[Callan S.]

The bit I find funny is how some commenters say they have to restart to get potions. When really they'd get them through the normal process of playing for awhile, then coming back latter. But no, they have to have them...

[Wilshire]

I think most of the commenters feel like there isnt "enough to do"... Granted its an IDLE game, but whatever. If there were different things to upgrade, like armor pieces, it might generate the illusion of doing more things, and I don't think you'd have to alter the mechanics much. That said, its a fairly interactive Idle, since you can't get so far ahead in strength or horde potions to be able to walk away and still be alive when you come back. So there is both too much, and not enough, to do .

I think the success of AdVenture Capitalist on Kong is very telling. Its one of the most played games right now.  There is almost constantly something to click on for several hours, and then it slows down a bit and you can click things every few hours, then days, etc. Lots of bars zipping across the screen. The core mechanic is simply waiting for the money counter up top and click to buy more stores. Its so basic, but for whatever reason people love it.



Otherwise, I cringe at the idea of existing online such as your game. People expect a AAA gaming experience for free, and obviously don't understand that a lot of the popular games on the site are made by people,and teams, getting a paycheck.

Thanks for the game. I'm going to attempt to make it through 9001 at least once, see how the end game goes.

[Callan S.]

The thing you run into as a designer - or atleast I do - is you start asking yourself 'Am I just making busy work?'. When there's no thematic material in 'something to do', it just becomes busy work.



I'm thinking of changing potions to charge to 200 (then you have to click), but at 25+ if you refresh you get one - just to see if there still are 'you HAVE to refresh to get potion' comments at that point.

[Callan S.]

I've come up with the idea of s-rank saying mad things...these things may or may not be paraphrasings of comments. Think I've got it into the code (and a potion modification), but am waiting a bit before putting it in in case I think of something drastically wrong about the change in the next few hours.

With potions, I've always played flash games for about 5 to 15 minutes, so to me it makes sense you would just get them by playing normally or you could choose to refresh. I guess that might not work out for people who play in another way than me (ie, for hours at a time)

Thinking of some sort of 'bandage wound' mechanic to add during the searching phase, so as to have some...busy work...then. Like the S-rank occasionally do 2 damage (if you're above 2 HP) but one can be bandaged to heal it early, if you click like ten times on it. Or just leave it because whatev's.

[Wilshire]

I dont know how that leap is made, from "busy work" to enticing game mechanic, in the players mind.

[Callan S.]

I dont know how that leap is made, from "busy work" to enticing game mechanic, in the players mind.

Flattery.

Ok, that's glib of me. That is the easiest way to it! Hopefully not the only way!

I don't know if it shows in the story text, but I'm trying to draw on the theme of parallels between men and sranc.

Also I find the responce interesting - here's the metric I'm using - I'm comparing responces to these games
http://www.kongregate.com/games/GabbyDough/i-love-gardevoir
http://www.kongregate.com/games/sabercow/go-right-for-awesome

With my own.

It's interesting a stronger negative responce is occuring. I mean the latter, "Go right for awesome" has a 2.2 rating. And 2K+ plays. And as far as I can tell you 'guide' a ripped sprite of scrooge Mc Duck to walk right, then it restarts the room, putting you back on the left hand side. Over and over.

"I Love Gardevour", though granted has a boob filled icon, comes in at about the same rating I currently have - commenters say I'm a lazy developer, but I have about over a dozen more features than ILG, which...has a number go up a bit faster if you click. And hearts that flash (well I guess that's two features). I'm pretty sure I could make ILG in less than an hour, but have spent 12+ hours on S-rank Slayers.

It strikes me as a discrepancy. And I was using ILG as a kind of benchmark from the start ("Atleast I've done more than ILG!")

[Wilshire]

lmao that is pretty funny. Maybe, the more there is, the more they want. A game is almost no features is "obviously" some kind of joke, and therefore unworthy of negativity. A game that looks like someone bothered trying, on the other hand, makes users feel entitled to want more. I have no idea.

[Callan S.]

lmao that is pretty funny. Maybe, the more there is, the more they want. A game is almost no features is "obviously" some kind of joke, and therefore unworthy of negativity. A game that looks like someone bothered trying, on the other hand, makes users feel entitled to want more. I have no idea.

That seems pretty plausible. Like some sort of gravatic effect - the more there is, the more gravity, which means the gravity grasps for more...

So like I had the nucleus of a planet

[Callan S.]

Granted I played after adding a 'Ravings kill' mechanic and a bandage making and using mechanic, but I played it more properly today (playtesting isn't real playing, I think) and I quite enjoyed it myself. Hitting the mad ravings for a kill and then if that doesn't come up (it has a fifty percent chance) hitting instant kill and if they run out, then there's bandages to click or the strength store to activate.

In writing a game it's hard to know what it'll take to engage yourself - sometimes you get wrapped up in feature bloat and then the game gets too big and you don't finish it. It's nice to have actually gotten an engaging combo for myself there without falling into feature bloat! Just hope the score keeping system is still working - not quite sure how kongregate handles it. Sometimes it'll alert you you just got a high score and update itself, other times it just doesn't care.

[Wilshire]

I'll have to take another look at it today and see the changes and additions. Glad you made yourself happy with it though. Lets see if the commenters complain more or less with the addition. 

[Callan S.]

Should give props to the centrepiece artist, Somnambulist, while I'm about it!

I made the expansion happen quicker (full size at 100 strength instead of 1000), because it seemed some weren't appreciating it was getting bigger over time.

[Wilshire]

Instant gratification. I like how that is one of the top comments "picture too small"