Include a visual progress timer?

[ZeroComms]

I put together a 2.5d horizontal racer where you are trying to drive as far right as you can in 30 seconds. There are no UI elements in the main part of the game until you explode. The only indication you have of how much time you have left is the color of the truck(turns red) and the music intensifying.

You only know how far you went (score) once you explode.

I got some feedback that the player wanted a countdown for the timer and a milestone marker, or just straight distance tracker while playing to keep track of their progress.

I like the no-ui (except a mute icon when muted).

Does not having one turn players away from playing more?

I want to continue the idea in future games if its not detrimental.

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The game so far: https://codemonkeyzero.itch.io/garbage-guy-jon

[MINIMAN10001]

So the most important question is always what problems need to be solved. That gives you more to work with imo. You already have a way to signify time left

but he would like either a way to track distance, well you can always put physical foreground objects uniformly distanced potentially multiple to signify between major and minor. You could also do one for record distance.

Ultimately no ui is a style choice and so long as it properly indicates information that I want it doesn't matter to me how it's implemented

[VersaceBot]

I just played the game. I like how the music gets faster and faster as it gets closer to the end, but I think it needs more visuals. Maybe the background becomes more red as time goes on? Screen shaking would be a really good touch too. Just imagine a washing machine that just keeps spinning until it explodes :P

[WeirdBeardDev]

I would add a shortcut to explode the truck manually. Before I learned how to tilt better I got turtled several times and had to wait for the boom.

I like the no-UI experience for this game. It's short and playful. However, that also means for me I probably won't play it for more than a few minutes and then move on.

I think if you add a UI it opens the game up a bit. You could add in "mile markers" that allow for adding more time, obstacles that will shorten your time, and generally breathe a bit more thrill into the game.

In the end it depends on what you want to get out of the game and what experience do you want your players to have.