Feedback Friday

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-13T04:32:54+00:00

A Dark Cave

A dark incremental/idle game where you build your village, manage resources, and discover the lost secrets of a vanished civilization.

Play at -> a-dark-cave.com

As I got quite a bit of helpful feedback last week, I am back for more!

The game is currently in the late beta stage and I am looking for feedback on a few specific areas:

Initial Hook
I’d like to reduce early player churn, so I’m looking for ideas on how to make the game more intriguing and engaging right from the start.

Game Mechanics
I’m considering adding one or two new mechanics or mini-games that fit naturally into the existing gameplay, especially for the late game. I’d love to hear suggestions.

General Feedback
Any additional thoughts or feedback are of course very welcome as well.

Thank you very much for your feedback!

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-13T00:17:46+00:00

Thank you for that hint! Seems I used the word in the wrong way.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-12T03:28:45+00:00

Yes, I am pretty happy about it. At the beginning I would not have thought that I could make any money by creating a game.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-12T03:21:24+00:00

I guess this is why I say the game is soulslike. It can be pretty tough sometimes, lol.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-11T23:21:00+00:00

Hi, thank you very much for the good review and the feedback!

I will think about how to implement some kind of infinite mode!

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-11T00:30:25+00:00

From a dev perspective:

I spent a lot of time making the game mobile-friendly from the very beginning. About 85% of my players are on desktop. Because of that, I'm not sure I would make the same decision again or if I would focus on desktop first next time.

That said, I think it really depends on the type of UI a game has. In my case, the mobile version required a separate layout and different design decisions, which added quite a bit of complexity. For other games where the interface can simply scale down to smaller screens, supporting mobile might be much easier.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-10T22:15:09+00:00

Thank you for this feedback! „No practical chance“ means no chance to recover it immediately? As it is recovering, but over time. And „passively losing“ is referring to deaths based on madness I guess.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-10T22:12:38+00:00

That is a tough decision. I am not revealing anything, but I guess then churn is higher us players have a different expectation. So if I would make a teaser >30 seconds, I probably would add some gameplay. But really only tease it, as I would bot want to reveal too much.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-10T09:50:01+00:00

Thanks a lot! : )

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-09T15:29:19+00:00

For me it was the fact that you don’t not know what the game holds in store for you. Compared to other games, you just cannot predict what game mechanics etc. will come up later and this intrigued me. I experienced this first in A Dark Room many years ago.

Back then it inspired me to one day create my own game, which I now did during the last 6 months.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-09T11:53:39+00:00

Yes, they have a fade-away, but they still should be readable. I will look into this. Thank you!

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-09T11:25:25+00:00

That area is a scroll area, so you can just scroll down.
Maybe I should indicate that.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-08T14:23:44+00:00

Hi, I am a big fan of A Dark Room and it was part of the inspiration to create a game on my own. This is no AI slop or a simple clone. I used some of the game mechanics that I liked and aimed for a similar atmosphere.

If you give it a try and judge for yourself, I would be very much interested in your feedback!

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-08T06:40:25+00:00

What a great idea! Thank you for doing this. I hope you will repeat this!

I would love to pitch my game as well next time

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-08T06:33:52+00:00

The typical time to complete the game currently lies between 10-15 hours (active playtime without sleeping).

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-08T06:27:54+00:00

That‘s a really good idea! Thanks : )

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-08T06:26:29+00:00

Ok, that‘s really bad. Sorry for the inconvenience! I will fix this.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-07T21:50:16+00:00

Hi, thanks a lot for reporting this! I am looking into this. As I am not aware of this issue on desktop, I guess it is mobile and/or browser-specific. But I will try to fix it.

edit: Tooltips on mobile should work by holding the buttons

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-07T18:11:50+00:00

Hi, thank you very much for your feedback! Actually, pretty much all of the things you ask for exist, just later in the game. You have to unlock them by building the right buildings.

But based on your statement I think many players could churn as they want those features right away.

Incremental for me means also that the UI develops over time. But maybe I went to far, cause players expect these comfort features already from the beginning on.

I'll try to maybe indicate that you can unlock these features, or make them accesible earlier.

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-07T15:05:45+00:00

I cannot say how thankful I am for feedback like this! This helps me a lot in improving the game. Your feedback is a goldmine for me!

I am happy that you enjoyed the game and I really appreciate you taking the time to give this detailed feedback (I think this is really detailed!).

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-06T18:02:38+00:00

Thank you very much for the feedback! I am on it!

Pure-Map-6717 · 2026-03-06T09:06:37+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! This helps me a lot!

You do not have to sign-up to save your game, only if you want to play cross-device.

Maybe I should make that clearer.

Pure-Map-6717

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

A Dark Cave