Making a Video Game...
Out of context: Reply #82
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- cannonball19780
Played a little bit today. One thing I noticed that struck me as feeling a little off. In the game you are creating these planetary terrariums, but the primary objective seems to be to spread, instead of protect. While playing I instinctually feel like I need to protect the plants, but I don't see the aliens trying to destroy them, so it leaves me wondering why the aliens are landing at all. I have no sense of what the aliens are trying to do apart from killing me and being general bad guys. Maybe I haven't played enough. I feel if the alien goal was clearer or more developed I would have a better sense of how to subvert them. It would instill the game with more strategy and probably feel more enjoyable.
A lot of passive time is spent looking at the little guy planting seeds. That feels boring compared to the rest of the gameplay.
I love how you realize you need to conserve jet fuel when you find yourself flying aimlessly away from your planets.
When I first played, I saw the planet being sapped of heart life to heal my. My instinct was to fly away to let the planet recuperate. It wasn't later that I realized that planets are basically just large health packs, which seems contrary to the premise of the game as I took it, which was to cultivate life in the cosmos. I'd much more prefer that this was more of a balancing act, where you CAN sap the planet, but only by using a button, and the planet recuperates slowly. If the planet is sapped beyond the point of being repairable, the plants die on it.
Also, the jump button seem to have no important purpose aside form being able to get fruit when on the surface. I liked it better when W was the jetpack. I don't mind that I have to spend a little thrust to get the high hanging fruit, since it replenishes easily when on the planet.
I want the asteroids to collide with the planets. I want orbits— planets orbiting other planets. I want to build things off-planet, like a place to put objects or some sort of home station... something very defensible.
There might be a bunch of that stuff already and I haven't found it yet.