(no title)
carlnewton | 6 months ago
In my opinion, your game isn't performing well because the gameplay isn't very compelling. In best combo mode, I can see a grid of arrows, I'm informed that clicking one of these arrows will clear more than the others. It says that I should find "creative ways" to clear the grid. I'm not sure that such a thing is possible. At worst, this is a game of guess the 1/25 arrow to click. At best, it's a game of tracking backwards through the arrows. As somebody who enjoys puzzle games, I don't personally find this a fun mechanic.
My initial thought was that the art might be the problem. That perhaps if these were frogs that ate each other in order or if these were bubbles that popped in a satisfying way, this might be more enjoyable, but if you haven't got compelling gameplay, dressing it up isn't going to help. My recommendation is to focus on creating challenging and enjoyable gameplay first.
Perhaps play some other puzzle games and ask yourself what it is you're enjoying about them.
carlnewton|6 months ago
Given the issue described above, if we were to add a translation task to the player, this would feel more like a puzzle. For instance, if instead of a downward facing arrow, we had a blue tile. Blue tiles move down, orange tiles move left etc. This way, we can use the exact mechanic you've built here but start the player off with a 1x2 grid, and progressively grow to a larger grid with more colours/rules. This to me seems more fun than what it currently is, and it lends itself to a more compelling art style -- even Tetris pops with colours. Going off the art idea I had in my previous comment, perhaps blue frogs are always eaten by the frog below them, green frogs are always eaten by the frog to the left of them. It could be called Frog Eat Frog or something.
Wishing you the best of luck with your project.
martinlistiak|6 months ago