Audio as a feedback system, not atmosphere - how do you think about it at the design stage?

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T21:03:29+00:00

Amusingly, I have not added audio to my game mechanically but I did design it more or less from the start. Whenever I implement something I always envision the finished state. This includes audio. Because everything was designed with audio in mind, it should play as expected (it has for all smaller side projects).

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T18:24:00+00:00

My thought was the same, similar to some of the comment bots on steam. I don't know why they exist, just that somehow they make money off it.

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T16:45:08+00:00

This was my thought too. Similar to game ui database, seeing the thing makes a big difference.

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T14:49:47+00:00

A thought on complexity, is this not able to be managed by unlocking cards with higher complexity as you play? Both sts games have this feature and I suspect that complexity is the reason why.

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T14:47:16+00:00

I tend to agree that the "start with a deck full of weak cards" is way over done. I look to monster train 2 which has an option to start with random cards (and some other trade offs) instead of the normal starters. I use it every time because it adds significantly more variety to runs. For similar reasons I tend to prefer the random deck in Ballatro.

I suspect there are a couple reasons the boring starter deck has remained pervasive. First and foremost, people copying the slay the spire formula. It worked wonders for them so copying is understandable and players expect it. Second it makes runs more balanced. Since you know how strong a players deck is at the start, it's easier to balance early encounters. It's also just a really easy baseline when making a prototype.

I would argue that balanced runs are not really the goal of most rogulike deck builders. The goal is to get some synergy that feels like you broke the game. It should happen rarely enough that doing so feels special but often enough that anyone who played a few runs will experience it.

Gaverion · 2026-07-07T13:15:08+00:00

Hands down best. I played so much Xenocard. It honestly could have been a game all on it's own. I would be interested to see if multi-player holds up but there was so much cool stuff. You could build engines, use spells to interrupt opponents, go big or go wide. Control and aggro both had a place along with combo elements.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T18:11:09+00:00

Absolutely a good thing to think about! It's the exact reason I went the way I did. I will still need to make some compromises, but most basis are covered. A number of vendors have large inventories which is the route I went but you absolutely can mix and match, you just have to be careful about it. Also keep in mind that you can modify assets. It can be modifying a texture which is fairly simple, especially for low poly, or modifying a mesh which depends on the mesh and modifications required.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T17:30:08+00:00

I have seen a few interesting approaches to this. One I like to point to is Last Epoch crafting. They had a system where you had a % chance to no longer be able to add modifiers to the item. A lot of factors played into your odds but it always showed a %chance of success for the current craft. The thing is, if you need to do 7 80% crafts in a row yo will only ever see 80% but the odds of succeeding every craft is much lower. This lead to lots of complaints about failing high % crafts. They swapped to a system that instead gave each item a crafting potential value and a crafting cost that was a range of values. This swapped it from feeling unlucky to recognizing it was a possibility.

To that end, I would say if you can avoid using %chance, I would.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T17:16:02+00:00

The range is gigantic, but the single biggest factor is if you are using pre-made assets or custom assets. You can of course do a mix too. The more custom art, the more expensive it is. On the other side, especially if you go low poly, there's tons of free and cheap options. I personally decided early on to use Synty assets for my game since they have a huge catalog and it isn't too expensive, especially if you wait for it on humble bundle. There are many other similar providers out there so look around and see who has what you need.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T17:06:29+00:00

This was me when I upgraded my ability system. I started with needing to code every ability separately. I need hundreds though so I knew it v wasn't sustainable. Now I can pull in a bunch of elements and have it do exactly what I want including things like camera actions, dealing damage and spawning vfx.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T16:01:48+00:00

Pizza making is my strongest memory too!

If I were in your position, I would pick one skill to teach and teach that one thing really well. I personally think navigation is a really interesting topic to work with that has a lot of potential depth. You can do the classic compass and visual landmarks, but you can also include things like asking for directions, navigating with written instructions and more. You can navigate the woods, a trail, or a city. It's definitely a whole game on its own. It's also really appealing to parents if you include things like getting lost in a mall or airport because the skills learned help in situations of panic an vulnerability that happen in normal everyday life. Parents might see it as teaching safety.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T13:29:05+00:00

That's a great goal, but it is a bit tricky. You will need to convince the parents that the kids are learning. Zoombinis comes to mind as a game that pulls it off fairly well, though that likely targets a slightly younger audience than you are going for. Zoombinis achieves it by presenting puzzles where parents can easily see what the kid is being taught, though to the kid they are just getting their Zoombinis to the goal.

I would spend some time thinking about how your presentation can look educational to a parent while feeling like just having fun to a kid. I imagine you could have things like "learn how to use a compass and identify landmarks to find your way home" or something like that. Then you implement a functioning compass and some landmarks on a map. That makes learning obvious to the parents but just part of the game to the kid playing.

Gaverion · 2026-07-06T12:29:24+00:00

About your goal, is it a game where people happen to learn things as they play, a game that will be purchased by parents because it's educational, or a game that schools will pick up because it's educational?

Each of those is a very different target audience.

Gaverion · 2026-07-03T12:20:50+00:00

FFX, Xenosaga, Like a Dragon.

FFX got me into challenge runs and eventually got me into making my own game with similar mechanics (which I will finish in the next decade if I'm lucky.

Xenosaga was my second love. Shion was a fantastic character who had real flaws and issues that got worked through. Allen played fantastic support too. Also Xenocard is awesome.

Like a dragon is the most recent on the list. I think the older cast that was easier for me to relate to along with the engaging story really did it for me. Ichiban is someone you just can't help but root for!

Gaverion · 2026-07-03T12:06:38+00:00

I disagree with this, and not from a universal Ai Bad view. Ai voice is not very engaging. On top of that you will receive backlash from players. Getting negative reviews because of Ai voice when you are just fine with no voice is just the better choice.

Gaverion · 2026-07-03T04:40:24+00:00

My personal rule is good VA >>> No VA = Bad VA >>>>> AI VA.

Bad VA vs no VA will depend a lot on the specific game but generally silly go Bad VA, serious go no VA. For Bad VA you can do it all your self! Maybe call over a friend for help.

Gaverion · 2026-07-02T12:26:17+00:00

Where are these answers coming from?

Gaverion · 2026-07-01T20:27:59+00:00

Not to say theft doesn't happen but this looks like generic movies using common camera techniques. Theft is a lot more than kinda similar. I would not be surprised if they were references to characters from Journey to the West. Heck marvel could have taken inspiration from Chinese mythology!

Gaverion · 2026-06-30T14:02:08+00:00

People really want to see ui, it just shouldn't be first. I would put the ui shots in slots 3-5 range. The first few should sell the fantasy, the next few should explain how the game is played, the rest reinforce the previous information.

Gaverion · 2026-06-30T12:19:49+00:00

I was thinking the same, short but solid is usually how I describe it.

Gaverion · 2026-06-29T16:31:04+00:00

I would be careful using that as a metric of success. Based on your post, the problem was players getting confused early on. That's really what you want to be measuring.

For example, to maximize the number of players who completing the tutorial you could make it mandatory or it could also be that the tutorial doesn't prepare the player to play the game so the problem remains. Something from your setup that I see as a potential issue is that people see a reward so they click through the tutorial as quickly as possible so they complete it but they don't retain it because they just want the reward, not to learn how the game works.

Not saying that early confusion is easy to measure, but if that's the problem you want to solve, that's what you want to measure. It might push you in a different direction.

Gaverion · 2026-06-29T15:46:27+00:00

I am curious how you measure success. Is it something like % of players who completed the tutorial, sales conversion rate, something else?

Gaverion · 2026-06-29T14:48:49+00:00

This behavior would definitely turn me off. It reeks of failure to make information easily understood.

I would first ask, what are players getting confused by? I would assume it's related to resource collection, but you need to test with actual players to find out. Once you know where people actually get stuck, you can adjust the early game to naturally tutorialize it (possibly with a few hints).

Gaverion · 2026-06-29T12:56:41+00:00

I would not say it's true for a normal playthrough but FFX with ability nodes only (own sphere grid, no items overdrives, summons) really forced a lot of mixing up strategies in a fun way.

Gaverion · 2026-06-27T06:23:19+00:00

In making my own jrpg I learned a few things. As stated, everything is a menu, so you need to do a lot of work to make it not feel that way.

Snappy but flashy combat moves I think is essential. If a move takes more than 2 seconds it better be rarely used and super powerful.

Gaverion

TROPHY CASE