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Weekly Update - Compiling Tester Feedback!

4 years ago3,386 words

It's the end of the first week that people spent alpha testing what I've made so far of Atonal Dreams! I've given out 18 keys, and got feedback of very varying lengths from 10 of those people so far. There's a lot to sort through! Here are some of the things that people have reported, and what I intend to do about them.

Quick Personal Note

∞ As I wrote about on Friday ∞, I got the results of my brain scan back, and it turns out the head sensations I've been having aren't my brain tumour BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! This time, at least. I've got another scan in six months. I've still been quite anxious though, since it's been a while since I've really interacted with anyone, and now I've been having to deal with what feels like an overwhelming amount of feedback, even though it's not objectively an enormous amount.

This isn't a bad thing! I greatly appreciate it, and feel so lucky that people would want to put this much effort into helping me out with feedback. Plus it's great hearing things people do seem to like about the game! I've even been eagerly eating up the constructive critique and complaints, since none of it's been rudely or aggressively delivered.

I suppose I just feel bad that my anxiety gets in the way, and I'm not able to do as much as quickly as I might like. Makes me wish I wasn't someone who required people to be patient with me... but I am what I am, and I'm doing what I can despite the crippling mental flaws, so thanks to those of you who are patient! I'm just trying to take things at a pace that won't lead to too much burnout.

I won't be giving out more keys for now. I get the feeling that at least some people lose interest after an initial run through, and won't be interested in going through again to test changes - or they might see it as a chore if they do - so it'll be valuable to get some fresh perspectives after I've implemented those changes.

With that said, let's look at some of the biggest things that people have brought up. I'll mention a few people by (user)name - some more than others since they provided much more feedback - which I always feel awkward about in case I get names wrong or even misremember who said what!

Input issues

I spent most of the week adding a keyboard control system; I talked about this last week, and it all works now. I need to clean some things up, and add more visual control hints/prompts (are these a new thing, or have games always used them? I only started noticing them in Breath of the Wild a few years ago, I think).

Mechanics Complexity

The main point that most people mentioned is that the game comes across as complicated - largely due to the dense UIs - and this should be introduced more gradually. Which is a fair point!

The beginning is supposed to be a tutorial in which Savitr mentors Collie, though I was very uncertain while developing it how deeply to go into everything. I first used runes and arousal/excitement in Taming Dreams, the intro of which does go into them in detail, as you can see in the first part of this longplay I posted a while back:



I was under the impression that going into heavy descriptions like that - rather than letting the player figure things out themselves - would put off more people than it'd help, so I tried to keep the hand-holding to a minimum this time around. But apparently I've swung too far in the other direction, and still haven't found the right balance!

Hiding UI Elements

I could hide many UI elements until Savitr introduces them. Other games do this.

I could also have a toggle to show or hide numerical UI elements... though I suspect this won't really solve the issue, since upon revealing them, people will still feel overwhelmed if they don't understand them.

thetrashman had a great suggestion: hiding all but the relevant stats when selecting a target. So your attack and the target's defence would show, but all other stats would fade out. With something like that, I could even just simplify the UI completely and only show stats when you're selecting a skill like this.

Stats limited to predictor

It might not even be necessary to show them on the 'statues' at all, since this thing already shows up when you're selecting a skill:



It's also not obvious what all the numbers here mean. thetrashman included this revised mockup he made to suggest how it could be improved:



I think what I might do is revise all the UI displays to not include most stats, but I should revise how this 'predictor' (as it's called behind the scenes) looks and works. It's only so narrow - with everything squeezed in - because the 'statues' were originally at the top and bottom, and I had these show for all targets, as in this old screenshot:



I no longer have the space restriction though, so I can expand it and include labels. Using the percentage multipliers does make you wonder what the total is being changed to at each step, though that's not actually how the calculation works exactly. So I might replace those with words instead - "Great", "Good", "Meh", etc - since I feel those might be more appealing anyway.

Analysis mode

Another idea I had was to have a kind of analysis mode, where you could move a cursor over any object in the UI to show a description of it, probably with a diagram. This could also be possible in the menu.

Runes Explanation

Runes in particular seem to be perceived as more complicated than they actually are - there seems to be the misunderstanding that you have to memorise a bunch of them - and I wonder whether some mnemonic description Savitr could give to Collie might help with that. Something about pairs of siblings:

- A envies R's large bosom and the doors it opens for her, but A's too busy doing science and art anyway so she doesn't actually care, hmph!
- T holds his arms wide and imposing, while F holds his forward in a hug.
- G constantly chides J for his mispronunciation of the word 'gif', which the reclining J says he should stop being so tightly wound about.

Something like that! That's just off the top of my head; I'll have to give it more thought.

I like the runes system because it ties personality into gameplay, kind of, though I suppose that wasn't clear from the alpha since it wasn't actually explained at all. I thought I'd leave the explanation until later, but it should be sooner.

Taming Taming

There's also taming, which is introduced as a choice in the intro battle... but apparently there are issues with this. For one thing, the benefits of taming aren't immediately clear, since the battle ends as soon as you tame the Pawnite, meaning you don't get to control it. Mania suggested that this scene could continue with Collie using it to attack Pierce, which is a great idea!

Some testers must have gone with the kill option here, and didn't realise that taming was the game's primary mechanic. So when they were faced with this during the maelstrom at the end:




They found it hellish because they only had Savitr and Collie, and the pack of Brigrrnds can take out Collie in one blow.

With tamed monsters, though, it's trivial; I was able to take them out before most of them could take a turn, because the Somunculimps can 'pet the dog' to tame them in one go.

So I'll definitely need to stress taming more so players aren't missing out on a major mechanic! The whole thing got me wondering how much of these blog posts anyone reads or absorbs though, or the Steam description I stressed over. I've talked about taming a lot on both, but people who asked for keys didn't even realise it was a thing, or at least not a big deal? I don't get that.

Mikmaxs said "the taming system is novel but not very useful" after the first few minutes, so maybe that first battle could involve Pierce summoning something else that your tamed Pawnite can dispatch but Collie can't, or something, rather than just making it hit Pierce.

Battle Revisions

Essence Skills

∞ Last week ∞, I talked about some plans I had to drastically revise some of the gameplay mechanics surrounding skills and essences. I made a couple of rough mock-ups for what I meant:



This would hopefully address a lot of issues people had with skills, essences, character growth, etc.

Essentially, characters learn unique 'innate' skills as part of the story, but you can also acquire monster essences to equip as skills interchangeably. When you use these essence skills, you briefly summon the monster to execute it, so you visually see it as part of the animation.

Each skill or essence can level up - as before - but now grants stat boosts based on level, as essences did previously. That stats are also shown with their icons at the side there, for clarity!

There are a couple of issues with the old system that testers brought up, which would also apply here. If levels aren't in any way capped, and any new skills you get would start at level 1, you'd probably feel discouraged from changing to them since you'd lose all your stat boosts.



In Taming Dreams, you could equip monsters either as a 'weapon' or 'shield', and they grew by dealing/resisting damage with them, similar to Atonal Dreams. Once they'd reached a certain amount, they became 'integrated', and you unlocked a permanent buff for that character.

So maybe I could do something like: Essence skills have a level, and when mastered, they become 'integrated', and their stat points are permanently absorbed into the character so they apply even when not equipped. Just brainstorming at this point!

(Or maybe all levels have their stats permanently applied even when not mastered... Hmm.)

I've also been wondering about how these essences would be acquired. In the current version, you get them for clearing all members of a species in an area, but maybe instead you'd get an essence whenever you tame a monster? But then would a full-kill (Beast) run mean you'd have to go without stat boosts? Undertale denied you stat boosts if you did a pacifist run, didn't it?

And what would you get for area completion, then? ElectrikMagenta suggested 100% species clearance could unlock a bestiary entry; I intend to add a bestiary eventually anyway, so maybe unlocking more info for it would be enough of a reward? I'll need to give it more thought.

Equipment Passives

Following on from that: Unconventionally, perhaps equipment doesn't affect skills at all, but each has an associated passive that's always in effect? Very much a wild idea at this point that I haven't delved deeply into at all, but I feel that'd work well for something that should be less important than the skills/essence mechanic. Equipment also granting stat buffs seems redundant to me.

Reactions

What of reactions, then? They used to have their potency tied to weapon/shield stats.

Maybe they'd have fixed multipliers instead? 1x for a hit, 1.5x for a bonus, or something. Passives could improve the strength of these multipliers.

Some testers didn't like how reactions effectively punished you for a lack of skill: if you don't press the button at the right time, you miss completely. Perhaps, they suggested, it'd be better to reward accuracy without penalising failure? Makes me think of the 'participation trophy' mentality - where everyone should be rewarded, regardless of how well they did - but what's wrong with that? This is a game, not an exam! Right? Hmm.

Optimal Strategies

It's interesting how players approach games in different ways. Some just try to have fun, immerse themselves in the world, while others apparently make a beeline towards finding the optimal combat solution... then become bored if they quickly find it and can just monotonously steamroll everything with it. This mentality is very different to how I play games myself, so I wasn't really prepared for it, and I'm unsure what to do about it. It surprised me, since I was fairly happy with how varied my choices were while testing the battles myself.

It makes me think though. The optimal strategy in Pokemon is probably just to powerlevel your starter and defeat everything with it. So do these players do that? Or is there something that encourages them to train multiple Pokemon? (Or maybe they just skim through the main game until they unlock the competitive features?)

I'm wondering whether the idea I described above might help with this, though I'm very interested in feedback about what holds your interest if you're this kind of player!

Story and Immersion

Comments about this were almost all positive, which is good! These are the aspects that matter most to me, so it's reassuring that what I've got so far isn't horrendously off-putting or anything. Some points of concern, though:

Thrown In

The game begins with a cold open; you're thrust into a battle which begins with a cutscene of sorts. I did this because I get impatient during the early segments before getting to experience gameplay, and don't really absorb what I see. But this - like everything! - is subjective. Compare:



I'm not sure what to do about that! Maybe as I make more of the game, I'll have ideas for what could come before this bit, though I don't mind the in medias res opening myself.

Look Alive

I found this contrast somewhat amusing too:



These expressions are something I do intend to work on, though they've not been at the top of my priority list. Characters do look at their target, but not others' targets, or allies being targeted. Except when Collie casts Let's Go on her team and stares pervily at Savitr. That's not intentional!

SEXIST

SPEAKING OF WHICH, someone commented the other day that the way Collie's presented - as a woman who's 'tamed' by a guy she's effectively subservient to - could be seen as sexist, so obviously I should do something about that. When the annoyingly familiar insomnia woke me up the night after reading that, I lay awake wondering how best to reply to such things, and came up with a list of like ten very different angles to tackle it from, none of which seemed wise.

I wish these things didn't bother me so much, but they do! I mean, I wrote about ∞ Memody: Sindrel Song's terrible nudity problem ∞, and ∞ how it might be seen as an incel game ∞. This isn't even the first time I've been concerned about Collie; ∞ I wrote a post about potential perceived sexual objectification ∞ a while back, and I think I talked about it in some other posts too.

I'm not 'woke', and it bothers me that some people do seem to actively look for signs of things being -ist or -phobic in ways they can be offended by, because I'm concerned about developing a negative reputation and being attacked or failing to sell games. Plus I want to please everyone, so it's wounding when it seems I'm failing to do that.

I don't want to rant about it or get into it too much here! I just want to mention it because people who actually played the alpha, and saw the characters' behaviour, didn't seem to have anything negative to say about this sort of thing. Some people even said they liked Collie in particular! So that's reassuring.

Miscellaneous

Save point concerns

A few points arose regarding the save crystals: it wasn't clear that they were saving the game, you aren't able to select a save slot, and it's easy to 'exploit' them by fully healing after every battle.

I'll probably just make it so that you fully heal anyway after battle; Savitr can cast a party heal for free anyway, so he could just do that off-camera every time. Save crystals, then, would bring up a menu for selecting a save slot.

I've also considered using them as quick travel points, so that might be added as an option eventually too.

Collision issues

I'm not used to coding 3D games, and I handled the collision detection in a fairly stupid way that I hoped nobody would notice. But people did notice! So I'll need to look into fixing that. It's technical and not worth describing though.

Font issues

I've been using this font called ∞ Metamorphous ∞ for a few years now; I think I started using it with Yden? Can't remember! I like it a lot... but both with this and previous projects, some people have raised concerns that the u's look like v's and make the text hard to read.

I wonder about the psychology of this! You might have seen this meme before:



Our minds don't typically even notice individual letters, so I've been wondering why some people apparently do. I never noticed the v-like u's myself! Is it due to some kind of dyslexia or similar? Is it only the case for non-native English speakers? I wonder!

I don't know, but since I didn't make the font and have used it extensively, it's not trivial to fix. I looked into how to modify a font - I know the Homestar Runner guys did that for the font they used for Strong Bad's handwriting (obscure!) - but I'm concerned that even if I could do it, would it be illegal in some way??? I often wonder whether font creators ever even know how often their fonts are being used, and whether they care, and it's unlikely, but... eh.

In previous projects, I made my own pixel fonts, but I don't want to use pixel text in this, and making vector fonts is trickier. I've thought about it, though, and might look into it. Maybe. But is it worth it? I don't know. I would at least like a font for a unique logo though...



There was more, but it took ages just combing through the feedback again to write this post - and then I spent hours writing it - so I'll just leave it at this for now!

My goal for next week will be to at least start on revising the skills/essences system, and the UI stuff! As I said at the start, I'm not looking to give out more keys at the moment (I ran out of the ones I requested anyway), but it'll be valuable to get more feedback once I've made these changes, hopefully in a week or two!