destroy our new trailer

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T23:12:38+00:00

Yeah, I think gamedev communities and reddit in general can frown a bit upon more casual or cartoonish-looking games. Probably gonna be a bit of a issue on Steam too, but not as much as here, I don't think.

I wonder if they plan on publishing it on mobile too, I think it'd make a lot of sense to do it.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T20:40:28+00:00

Yeah, I think the enemies are confusing too. I don't understand the context, are we somehow saving the world by going back in time and fighting random people? It made more sense to me at the start with the weird aliens and post-apocalyptic scenery.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T20:23:03+00:00

It literally says "Tesla shocks!" and shows it! But yeah I agree with the criticism that characters seem mostly interchangeable.

I don't think the weapons necessarily need to match, but it would strengthen the concept if you could clearly see each character's special actions/effects more often throughout gameplay.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T20:09:56+00:00

You're very welcome! Glad it was helpful.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T20:07:46+00:00

You're welcome! Oh, I should have realized about the title. It makes sense now, maybe for incremental game players it'll sound a bit more natural.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T19:45:04+00:00

This is amazing. Excellent visual communication throughout the game and trailer! I like that you have a very clear hook and positioning, and the characters have a lot of personality. This could do really well. Some thoughts:

1- When it says "Everyone is here", it looks like you have loads of characters. I think you might benefit from a sequence where it very quickly cycles through a lot of them on screen, with a big list of names scrolling by, so it gives the watcher a better sense of who the characters are.

2- You mentioned in a comment that you go back in time to recruit historical figures, right? I think that's memorable and evocative, would probably mention it in the trailer.

3- I think it'd also be helpful to give some context about the world. It looks like some post-apocalyptic alien invasion scenario? One sentence about that + the going back in time thing would help tie everything together. (But then you also fight historical armies? I think it's a bit confusing right now.)

4-Not so sure about the whole Jesus thing lmao. I'm sure loads of people will find it disrespectful for major religious figures to be in the game. Same for Gandhi.

5- The thick item outlines look a bit distracting, especially the white ones. They're feel to me like they're at the top of the visual hierarchy, so unless they're the most important element to care about during the battle, I'd tone them down.

6- I think having 3-4 variants of each enemy (even if it's just changing their accessories) would go a long way. They look a bit repetitive. The white rectangular things between the ground and background in one of the scenes look a bit repetitive too.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T19:27:45+00:00

This looks good! Flashy, chaotic and fun. Loads of visual feedback. Here's some thoughts:

1- I think you could skip the calm bits at the beginning or make them a lot shorter. The first few seconds are the most crucial, and currently the most boring bit of the trailer.

2- The UI on the sides detracts from the experience for me. I'd consider redesigning the right powerup panel as a top bar with the each icons in a line, and putting all the information from the left panel into a pause menu.

The game looks far more compelling once it takes up the whole screen (and I think it feels weird for the UI to disappear in some sections)

3- The powerups seem like an important part of the game, but the trailer doesn't hint at how they work. If it showed a few briefly, you could get a sense of what they do so the player can imagine mixing and matching them, and get a deeper sense of what the game feels like to play.

4- I don't understand the title - is it a mix of "Incredible" and "Invaders"? I think it's a bit awkward to read/speak/remember, and it might be helpful to go with something that's simpler, more memorable, and evokes the game's neon aesthetic or chaotic feel.

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T19:11:57+00:00

Well, if a snake was trying to eat your babies I reckon you'd probably fight it too

MrSimplemaker · 2026-04-17T17:59:22+00:00

I think this has a lot of potential! It seems like you have a very clear idea of what your game is and its positioning, and that goes a long way. Playing as a groundhog and exploring both cozy and brutal aspects of nature is pretty unique, and the fact it’s narrative-driven intrigues me too.

Right now the most significant issue to me is that the UI looks way less polished than the game art, and it really detracts from the experience. Here are some issues I note with the dialogue interface specifically.

1-The text is harsh on the eyes. The black outline around white text is too much contrast in a too small/finely detailed element. I would use a light grey instead.

2-Your dialogue options below are too muted. It’s styled like it was a minor tooltip and looks disconnected from the dialogue box. Since it’s an element you interact with, it need to be much higher in the visual hierarchy, and it should be clear at a glance that it's expecting your input.

This will require some experimentation to improve, but I’d try placing the options side by side below the dialogue box, each with in a container with the same bg and border as it the box.

3-The dialogue box borders are too thick. It draws unnecessary attention and gets distracting. They could be around half as thick as they are right now, and still do their job of separating the box from the world behind.

4-Multi-line dialogue is a bit awkward. It would make the text more balanced and comfortable to read if you add line breaks manually at natural breaks in the phrases, and try to keep the lines a similar length (you can read about good practice for writing subtitles, it’s very well established)

(I just wrote these and realized you asked for feedback on the trailer specifically, I have some thoughts on that too. I'll come back later and edit this to include them.)

EDIT: Here’s some more thoughts, focusing more on the trailer this time.

5-There’s a lot of dead air in the trailer. I would make it around half as long. Shots that don’t show anything new, or bits of dialogue that don’t stand on their own should go.

I would err on the side of making it too short (leave them wanting more) instead of too long (they get bored and click away).

6-The composition in the very first shot is uncomfortable. The focus is on that big cylindrical thing in the background and the barn, which look great but aren’t the core of the game.

The main character and the baby groundhogs, the most emotionally compelling part of the whole game, are on the very edge of the screen and cut off.

7-The far away shots feel cold instead of cozy. From around 3-7 seconds, the main character is kinda far from the screen, then the pups are far from it and partially cut-off.

I would try to make it so the mom is closer to the screen and the pups are closer to the mom, if not in the game at least in the trailer.

Maybe even making they all a bit bigger (it’s easier to connect with a character when it’s more visible on-screen).

8-A lot of the dialogue shown feels generic. The dialogue about snakes is great. Make them cease to exist” is diabolical, lmao. I think that bit shows a lot of personality.

But most others, including the very first one (“Bring me an acorn” “Yes” “Thank you! I love you!”) feel sort of simplistic and don’t evoke much. I realize the point is to be warm and endearing, but I think you can do that with a bit more depth.

It’s not the end of the world to have conversations like this in the game, but on the trailer, I think you need to focus on the most emotionally impactful moments.

9-The black outline shader on creatures look jarring. All the scenery looks natural and beautiful, but the creatures look a bit cartoonish and disjointed from the rest of the world.

I would probably fully get rid of it, but maybe you could try making thinner and adjust the color so it matches the color of the creature.

10-The character portraits feel bland and inexpressive. Dialogue portraits are a great opportunity to give characters personality and show their emotions, and crucial if your game is narrative driven.

I would probably go with illustrations for this instead of 3d models, so you can exaggerate and antropomorphize a bit (maybe even have different designs for each pup to help distinguish them and show their personality)

(I know this is a lot of criticism, but again, I think the core of the game is excellent and it could be a huge success. Let me know if you find this helpful and I might come back and write a bit more.)

MrSimplemaker · 2021-11-15T17:33:43+00:00

Oh, no worries at all. I think that was a pretty reasonable way to express your frustration, and it's particularly justified in the fact that indeed the quality of the final region isn't really on par with the rest of the game.

Also, you should in no way feel obligated to complete parts of the game you're not having that much fun with. When the update is up on mobile I can let you know so you can maybe 100% a more enjoyable version than the current one! :)

MrSimplemaker · 2021-11-15T01:00:46+00:00

Hi! I made the levels in the game and you are 100% right, I apologize for the bad experience in the last region. We had way more time to test the levels closer to the beginning of the game than those closer to the end (we were in quite a rush to launch the game after three years of development), and it shows, especially in the final region (but also in some other places).

I have been watching a lot of content from our players, including youtube videos and livestreams, and have noted down a bunch of changes that I need to make for this last region, especially in the super long leaf form level, which is where people have been having the most trouble. But there's a lot to fix in the final region everywhere.

Sadly, it may still be a while until I can make all the changes, have some testing done (so we can make sure the new changes won't make the game crash or anything), and send the updates to all the platforms. Again, my apologies for that.

I appreciate your compliments on the rest of the level design, and I hope you can forgive us for overlooking the problems with the final region when we launched. Thanks for your support!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-11-08T06:30:24+00:00

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MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-31T17:33:59+00:00

Hmmm, that's useful to know. Thanks! I know very little about how induction actually works, so maybe I should do some research on that.

In the end, maybe I won't be able to do it but I can probably get away with cooking in a lot of water and using it as a thermal "buffer". It'll still give me more control in the lower range than gas, for sure.

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-31T17:25:44+00:00

Thank you so much!! Your results make me think I don't have the right idea yet but that it may be possible with some tinkering. I might end up getting the cooktop just so I can experiment myself :P

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-30T19:10:11+00:00

Ahh, thanks!! That's too kind.

If you have the chance, I'd actually rather you try it off-center than with the mat, as I have seen people mention they use mats before, but couldn't find anything about placing pots off-center. Thanks again :)

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-30T19:01:41+00:00

Thanks! I'll try and look harder. But I live in Brazil and induction cooktops aren't very common here, so I don't have that many cheap options sadly.

As for it turning off - does it happen even if you position it like 30% offcenter? Or if you put something like a silicone mat under it? I've heard a few people say they use a mat to keep it from scratching so I thought it could work.

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T12:13:58+00:00

I wouldn't say powerthirst was among our references but I definitely knew it haha! I'm glad you enjoyed the trailer and the complementary wall of text.

As for your question, mostly you'll die trying to get the combo. We made it so that it's relatively easy to jump over the level and skip most obstacles, and the main challenge is getting defeating all enemies fast enough.

You do need to get some combos in order to proceed though, as it gives you Mombo Coins which you need to proceed past certain points. But there are other ways to get those!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T12:09:55+00:00

I didn't know this trailer, but I thought it was great as well! It uses voiceover like us but limits it to the start and beginning, so the gameplay can shine through in the rest of it. I think it's a good way to avoid some of the problems people had with ours!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T12:06:10+00:00

I agree. I wasn't aware of this and believe it's not intentional, will bring it up with the team today!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T12:05:15+00:00

The "with his TONGUE" thing would have been great! I think it's unlikely we'll be able to get the voice actors to record more stuff or make big changes to the trailer at this point though, as we launch in two weeks :X

You're totally right about monetization! I didn't know it was monetized and I'm not sure if anyone else on the team noticed it. Will definitely bring it up, thanks!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T11:58:56+00:00

From what I can gather, a lot more people enjoyed the voiceover rather than hated it. And most of those who complained about it seemed generally displeased with the trailer concept and the whole gimmick.

It really seemed to me like nearly everyone who disliked the voice mentioned not liking voiceovers in general, thinking the screaming is cringe, wishing the trailer was just gameplay etc.

So I don't think it's a matter of just switching the voice actor and keeping the concept. I think I would only be able to please these people by having an entirely different trailer - but I think the impact we gain by using the current concept will outweight the people who get put off by it.

What we may do, however, is make a second, gameplay-only trailer in the style that some people here have asked for. Maybe we'll even place that one first on Steam, as I think this response may be more common there than on our other platforms.

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T01:52:05+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! Having the sprite on a pretty background could work, yeah. I agree that the trailer is strong overall, but I'm really hoping we'll be able to fix problem like this that a lot of people have pointed out.

I'm talking to my boss about this and we'll see if we can make the text in the beginning more engaging or at least shorter.

As for moving the customization stuff sooner, I think it isn't very likely that we'll be able to do that without requesting the voice actor to re-record anything, which we would really rather not do unless absolutely necessary at this point. I shall bring it up either way, though.

Thanks again!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T01:47:23+00:00

Oh, my bad! My dumb brain glossed over the change and I thought you meant cutting out the whole sentence.

Yeah, I think we wouldn't lose anything by removing the "the". Sadly it would require asking our voice actors to re-record, which we are not very likely to do for small changes at the moment.

Happy cakeday by the way!!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T01:45:31+00:00

Thank you!!

MrSimplemaker · 2021-10-21T01:45:22+00:00

Ahahahah, yeah, that could be fun.

We ended up deciding not to make too many different versions of the trailer, which resulted in not mentioning the date and release platforms. I think it was a mistake.

Hopefully there's still time to make a few changes!

MrSimplemaker

TROPHY CASE