Ok people,
here's the protoype for the clicker game.
https://mega.co.nz/#!8lRzWTIS!Y0z3Fik9WDrVvzFk97uSBsEkvwRAAbSMkA7RUICdlNY
The prototype, as the name implies, it's just a simple test in order to understand how to proceed in creating the game.
Since there's no tutorial or anything I'll give you a little explanation.
You will get a series of action you can do by clicking the buttons:
Dig: generate space and gold
Get food: generate food
Build goblin house: Generate a goblin house (30 space required)
Build stable: Generate a stable (some space required)
Increase prison space: Generate prison space (50 space required)
Add prison cell: Convert 1 prison space to 1 cell
Kidnap girl: Generate 1 slave, consumes 1 prison cell
Hire goblin: Generate 1 goblin, consumes 10 gold and 1 goblin house
Buy stallion: Generate 1 stallion, consumes 50 gold and 1 stable (Note stallion are not useful in the prototype, if you want you can create them but are just a waste of resources. It impregnante slaves and generate more stallion)
Hire goblin miner: Convert 1 goblin to a goblin miner (generates space and gold)
Hire goblin food hunter: Convert 1 goblin to a goblin food hunter (generates food)
Hire goblin breeded: Convert 1 goblin to a goblin breeder (impregnate slaves that generate goblins)
If you see you units disappear it's because food is required for slave, goblin and stallion to live.
Get more food or create more goblin food hunters...
I tried out both the clicker and xMaker. You need to see how to properly balance the costs-profits.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in the clicker, I need a tiny fraction of the goblins to be food hunters to maintain everyone fed. I don't mean to complain, but it does feel a little unbalanced. Maybe they're intended to be so efficient after a few upgrades?
Also, try to tone down a bit the clicking needed, it can kill a mouse.
On the other end of the spectrum, xMaker is practically impossible to play. You start with a rapidly diminishing amount of funds and, by the time you get a slave and make her work, you find out it's unsustainable.
It's hard enough having to do things in a specific order, but to have no chance to actually play the game is almost cruel.
It went like this: Get the first few quests done (including losing a whole month of time looking for the slave market) and when you buy a slave you can finally make her work and get you money!
Only thing is, the money the slave gets is noticeably lower than your weekly upkeep. And then rent comes crashing down.
I'm sure that even if you exploited to no end the fact that slaves apparently cost no money to buy but give money to sell, you'd only get like an extra month of time, if only because the sell price of these free slaves is slightly higher than the weekly upkeep (sometimes).
So there's your feedback. The clicker is too unbalanced in favor of the player, yet requires excessive amounts of clicking, while the xMaker is unbalanced in a way that makes you always lose.
Hey, thank you, I really appreciated that you take time writing a feedback.
ReplyDeleteThe clicker game is just a prototype so resources created by the various unit are just for testing it out. I did notice that it is quite umbalanced but I tought it was only for the breeder. I guess what you're saying is that you would expect to see a somewhat even ratio among the goblins, for example for feeding 10 goblin miner + 10 goblin breeder you would need 10 goblin hunters and you would breakeven or have a small gain in food.
Anyway I already take notice that for the game I would need a simple way to tweak all the values in order to simplify balance.
For the clicking part I can't guarantee it will be better in future. This kind of games are called "clicker game" for a reason (have you ever tried playing cookie clicker for example?).
For xMaker, note that number that appear under an activity? It's the value it takes in days, a week as 7 days, you can do 7 activity a week (except for some that are limited to one a week). That should keep the cash flow steady and let you finish the "Money first" quest.
Probably I should have given a little explanation as I have done for the clicker game :P
... I'll try xMaker again. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "clicker", try to see if you can make it more of a "less-clicker" game, like AdVenture Capitalist or some of those others, where you don't have to click that much. I recall one called CivClicker, (here: http://dhmholley.co.uk/civclicker.html ) where there's an amount of clicking at the start, but it eventually becomes tiny or gets moved to something else. You might find some inspiration from that one