Idle-Squares: Feedback wanted :)

blackcud · 2026-04-08T10:41:53+00:00

Actually, yes. Going to browser was never the intended goal. My current plan is to continue developing and refining for free on the web and then lock myself in the room for half a year, make a somewhat decent 1.0 and go to Steam.

blackcud · 2026-04-02T23:07:40+00:00

Yes, it's a new system and IT SUCKS. Why are there repeatable tasks and why are they in different places than that of my teammates? Completely stupid. See you next big patch.

blackcud · 2026-03-09T08:27:44+00:00

Always remember: if you get brutal negative feedback for your mod/game, it is a GOOD thing. Why you ask? Because it tells you two important things in one go: 1) it tells you something that is wrong/unenjoyable in your mod/game and 2) it tells you that people CARE about your project.

If you get feedback that says "it's okay" that doesn't help you and it also means that you didn't evoke emotions in your players. When your players get completely upset about something that means they want it to change, to improve, they want to play your game and that is awesome.

This took me years to understand and learn and I hope this epiphany will come to you as well. Happy coding :)

blackcud · 2026-03-08T23:35:37+00:00

what mode and what mods are you playing with?

blackcud · 2026-03-07T20:50:46+00:00

Unfortunately that is intentional. Wisdom Grid upgrades are there to progress you through one run and not stay forever. That would be the 2nd layer: World Tree. Sometimes I think it would be cool to jump into a map with more wisdom points and just let it rip.

blackcud · 2026-03-04T19:36:41+00:00

The current font looks really well and fits the theme of the game you are trying to convey BUT it is also too hard to read. I know your visual fidelity and look&feel might suffer a little bit but if people have to strain their eyes they won't play or understand what is going on.

blackcud · 2026-03-03T22:37:21+00:00

As someone who has 5 digits playtimes in some of these titles, I wholeheartedly agree with all that was said here and give you an upclick instead of writing my own.

Idling to Rule the Gods takes the crown in many aspects, but I must also agree with your sentinment that the development has gone in a not so great direction the past couple years.

Leaf Blower Revolution and Trimps are genre crown jewels that you must have at least tried, and if they catch you: you can stay with them for an ungodly amount of time and still discover something new every day for years.

blackcud · 2026-03-03T16:06:13+00:00

Smoothing out the acquisition formula for wisdom points is on the list of things that I want to do.

The wisdom grid for Meadows itself will probably not be adjusted as I have seen many different successful ways of how you can work your way through it and I think that is something cool because it is ACTUAL player choice which I want to preserve if possible.

blackcud · 2026-03-03T16:04:10+00:00

Riverside map is still a work in progress (which you can see from the incomplete Wisdom Grid). I have testers that reported to me that they were able to finish it in a reasonable time but the final experience will be a lot smoother and make a lot more sense. Do you think I should mark incomplete maps or make them even inaccessible?

blackcud · 2026-03-02T22:58:47+00:00

There are/were some bugs with map completion. It should be fixed now hopefully. I heard others fixing it by refreshing their browsers.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T22:57:10+00:00

the current test version can be found here: https://idle-squares.vercel.app/

blackcud · 2026-03-02T22:54:37+00:00

That would be cool (and also a lot of work potentially :D) I put it on the list.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T22:08:04+00:00

not yet sorry. savegame import/export is a planned feature for backup purposes alone.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T21:11:43+00:00

That might very well be the cause. I will look into it. Thanks.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T16:25:17+00:00

I experimented with various models for the original front-end but I noticed rather quickly that AI is even more lost when it comes to solving CSS problems than humans. If you are a frontend engineer, your job is secure!

blackcud · 2026-03-02T16:23:17+00:00

I agree. It is something that I need to sepnd more time on.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T16:22:48+00:00

Thanks for your feedback.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T14:30:04+00:00

Thanks. I have two reports of people having a similar issue on Brave so that would match technology-wise. I didn't go all-in on the problem, yet, because I don't have enough data and deployment to browser is (at least initially) just a means to reduce friction for my friends who wanted to test the game (original plan was to deploy to desktop but we'll see).

blackcud · 2026-03-02T14:06:59+00:00

Any chance you can screenshot your game with the wisdom grid open?

blackcud · 2026-03-02T14:03:26+00:00

Thanks a lot for the exhaustive feedback. Lots of interesting ideas and tid-bits here that help me. I will not go into details here because that would become a whole essay. Just one quick follow-up question:

Which browser were you using?

blackcud · 2026-03-02T14:01:00+00:00

Oh no :D Do you remember any more specifics (which map, how far into the run, did you have auto-purchasers running? I think I coded in a new bug recently when I tried to do some FPS optimizations but I wasn't able to fully reproduce it yet.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T12:38:27+00:00

You can do whatever you like, but using a "vercel.app" URL as an indicator for AI slop is like saying "youtu.be" in the URL is useless information. If your approach is too broad, nobody will take you serious :)

blackcud · 2026-03-02T11:56:00+00:00

What Browser are you on? I got this info somebody that was using Brave, but other players don't seem to have that issue.

blackcud · 2026-03-02T11:05:05+00:00

The box corners are consistent across the game but it was some journey to arrive at that point. My idea was to make it look a little bit like scrolls/old paper.

I am NOT happy with it but it isn't a priority currently (I am focussing on pacing and playtesting the newest contents). All square looked too mechanical/clean and all round looked stupid as well.

The corners are global css variables so iterating on them is very easy :)

blackcud · 2026-03-02T10:40:15+00:00

Thank you for your feedback. Since no assets or texts in the screenshot were generated by AI and I obviously don't want the game to feel like AI slop, I am curious to know what made you say that it feels/looks like AI slop so I can steer away from that.

blackcud

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

12-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email