Is my game too hard?
Here are some analytics from my Meta Developer account. Based on this data, I have a suspicion that my game may actually be too difficult.
Something I may have overlooked when making this game is that I’m a pretty muscular guy. I’m a former U.S. Navy submariner, so I know what it’s like to do pushups all day long. The leaning rest is crowd favorite when you’re stuck underwater in a long metal tube for months on end. My point is, I have strong shoulders. Since I’m the sole developer of this game, I’m also the testing department, which means my shoulders have gotten a workout for hours on end for the last 2 years. That may be why I can beat the tower defense game, but no one else has.
There are currently 39 people on the leaderboard for Tower Defense Level 1 this month, but to date only 2 people have made it to Tower Defense Level 2, and one of the players is me!
When developing a game, you want to reward players as soon as you can to make them feel good. I thought that’s what I had done by making level 1 easy, but it occurred to me that this is virtual reality…people physically need to keep their bow hand lifted to aim at the bad guys. MAYBE THEY’RE GETTING TIRED! I’ll freely admit that this game is a shoulder workout.
Tell me if my game’s too hard…
If you’ve played my VR archery game, and you think it’s physically too hard to hold your arm up to make it past level 1, leave a comment on this Facebook post and let me know. (Remember to add FB link later)
I added an autosave feature that isn’t good enough, maybe???
While I can make it through all 5 levels of a Tower Defense campaign, I figured others may find it physically difficult, so I recently added an autosave feature and the ability to continue from the saved location, but it only autosaves if you beat a level. I hadn’t anticipated that people wouldn’t be able to beat a level, so it looks like I may have to scrap all that work and implement a new save feature.
Should I let you save whenever you want?
I’m considering a new save system, but I need your feedback. Here’s what I’m thinking:
- Use the menu button to open a menu.
- Let you save whenever you want.
- When you restore a saved game, you’ll start over at the beginning of whatever wave you saved on.
Here’s why I don’t like that idea. I think the game will be too easy. I think players will play individual waves over and over again until they get no enemy scores on their tower for that wave, then they’ll save. If that’s the case, I’ll need to go back and make each wave way more difficult (at least in later levels).
What do you think? Let me know here.
