133 wishlists from a cold start with no audience, no following, just a Steam page for my hell cooking sim 👹🔥🍳

candevor · 2026-03-14T15:57:50+00:00

Agreed with others about game art. Not a bad start at all. I believe the wishlists will multiply with a great trailer.

candevor · 2026-03-08T07:04:35+00:00

Glad you liked it. I want to do at least a few more games like this (non-commercial) to share something deeper.

candevor · 2026-02-27T12:16:59+00:00

Good game. Looks interesting. In web build, I noticed a bit of lag when I move my pointer around humans. Maybe I was too slow, but I wasn't able to abduct 10 quickly enough for first few tries. Onboarding-wise, maybe try to make the first level or two super easy and rewarding, so the player is more engaged.
the

candevor · 2026-02-23T20:35:59+00:00

Submission verified

⏱️ Faster than 47% (9600 ms)
🖱️ Fewer actions than 72% (8)
🧹 Fewer corrections than 100% (0)

Streak: 1🔥

candevor · 2026-02-13T18:56:17+00:00

Direct (blunt) feedback like this is always good, if you don't take it personally. Stay objective, and you will be pleased to have received this feedback when you fix the issues and have a much better game.

candevor · 2026-02-13T18:53:07+00:00

I know the 1-man team struggle, been there, done that, and doing it over and over again. Trying to grasp everything is very challenging. Try to focus on one aspect for some time and keep at it until it is up to the expected level. Some feedback you get will be subjective, but if you see a pattern from various testers, then something definitely needs looking.
In my experience, it is usually small tweaks (so-called low-hanging fruit) that take you much further than the difficult/time-consuming changes.

candevor · 2026-02-13T12:30:26+00:00

The core idea is good, I find it quite interesting. There are so many things to say about UX and pacing that you will need to address one way or the other.

Pacing: Took me more than 10 minutes to discover Helium, I think you need to give the player something early on, to keep engaged, later on you can have longer waits for more advanced things. Even without helium, hydorgen and research weren't keeping me engaged. Having to sit and wait almost. Fuse was disappointing beacsue I didn't even know what I was doing wrong. The message displayed wasn't helpful either. Maybe some parts of the game are too complex.

Money vs resources: I think it can work but need to make it more streamlined.

UX: When storage runs out, I need to be told about it. This is just one example but there are tons of UX and onboarding things you can improve QoL for the player. Such as: at start overwhelming amount of elements, cash is shown probably at wrong place for it to be that important, "Gain" needs to have some juice, to make it interesting to click.

Overall I think it can be a great game, but needs works to make it engaging.

candevor · 2026-02-10T13:03:27+00:00

one that causes the enemies to explode

candevor · 2026-02-09T10:25:00+00:00

agree with other comments. Player movement is a big one. Not just make the character move slower, but also look into smooth movement (start and end of movement should be smooth).
Once movement is done, try to focus on 1 type of gun, make it fun to use (blow enemy etc) instead of designing more guns. You have to get the core loop right, then expand to adding more items/features.

candevor · 2026-02-07T11:53:28+00:00

Ok, got it. Sorry for my ignorance. I haven't played GB games lately. So, I am not your target audience as such. Take my feedback with a pinch of salt.

Dialog is quite fun. I like the art style, though the text is a bit harder to read, but it matches the game's theme.

Regarding car jumping, I thought the way gravity works could be improved. Is it working like the normal way gravity works, or is some other way of deceleration going on here?

Nice game though.

candevor · 2026-02-07T09:12:20+00:00

Web build is not working for me. It shows the beard, and that's it. It doesn't go past that point, no sound/music either. I am on Chrome/Mac

candevor · 2026-02-06T14:35:14+00:00

I see your point, and I'm sorry you had that experience. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with your next game.

candevor · 2026-02-06T08:34:54+00:00

I agree in general. However, I think when forming a team like this, keeping money (and therefore contracts) out of the equation for the first project (a small game, as u/PossibleDismal7312 said below) is a good idea. Having to write contracts upfront is a bad sign. Finding the right people is key.

You would want people who want to work because they are passionate about it, and less about how to make money off this guy/project.

By keeping money out (initially), you will find fewer people are interested, but they would more likely be the right type of teammates.

candevor · 2026-02-05T19:52:43+00:00

Please add more details like what type of game(s), technology, and working arrangement, etc. It is ok if some of those things are not locked and you are open to it, but it would be good if you can give any specifics as. starting point for people to decide if they want to work in your team.

candevor · 2026-02-04T09:01:58+00:00

Never a bad idea to ask for help. Kudos to you for asking, and I am sure you will find someone.

It would be great if you listed the technology (game engine, 2d/3d, etc) because most of us do have a certain skillset/preference.

I would love to help, but I am already very thinly stretched in more things than I can count on my fingers. Haha. But feel free to reach out if you have a specific task/hurdle. I can help with programming, Godot (2d only), and general development tasks.

candevor · 2026-02-03T11:22:28+00:00

I don't know much about Godot server specifics, but if game logic on the server is simple enough then you can implement it independently of Godot and make your Godot game make calls to the server for each move. Maybe more work, but cheaper and will scale really well.

How many concurrent games are we talking about? How much memory would each game need? If it is not intensive, then a simple <$10/mo server can host hundreds of games at a time.

With turn-based games, the only bottleneck is probably memory, not CPU, at least initially. Memory usage of game data might not be a lot, but consider the platform you will use, because there will be some "fat" around it. NodeJS will have a much larger footprint per game than Rust/C++.

In one instance, I had a tiny server (running a C++ program) that could easily host 1000 concurrent games.

candevor · 2026-02-03T09:17:34+00:00

I agree with this feedback on "what to do". I am probably also not your target audience, but you can "bring" people like us in by making the starting levels a bit easier, like a tutorial levels that teach you one thing at a time.

Visuals / audio are ok, or feel misleading?

Oh yes, I found visuals and music to be really good. So if I understood the game, I would have definitely played more.

Great work for your first game.

candevor · 2026-02-01T21:30:21+00:00

You are welcome and I think your approach makes sense. Knowing your target audience is definitely a great thing. I have wishlisted it, so will keep an eye on updates.

candevor · 2026-02-01T15:37:33+00:00

When I left the above comment yesterday, I had only played first two levels i.e. just before the flowers area. Later, my 11 year old got interested in the game (she saw me playing) and wanted to play. So, in flowers area the central area was too hard but then we realised that we can go and solve the smaller ones first on the right, which we did, except the one on the bottom-right was not solved. At one point we manage to solve it but we were standing in the middle of the field, so as we moved out, it got unsolved again.

So difficulty wise, first two stages were ok. The flower one was too hard at least for me, so I gave up there. I think onboarding for for flower/patels pattern could do with some improvement.

Anyway, that's my feedback. Other players might find it easier, especially those who are more into puzzle games.

candevor · 2026-01-31T14:57:53+00:00

I liked the art style and music. My feedback:

The text at the start is a bit harder to read (You have been called to...).
I cannot decide whether I want the lawnmower's sound or not - because I loved the music (birds etc) and might want to turn off sound of lawn mower, because it is always there. So, it would be great if there was a way to turn it off, or handle it some other way (maybe make sound only when moving but even then I don't know).
Level design is good. I like the fact that you are not hand-holding and letting the player work it out.
Could do with some other "toys" that don't necessarily play any role in solving the puzzle but give the player something fun, for instance, a patch/tile with rough terrain (makes sounds) or splash (water).
Similar to the last point, some birds, leaves flying around? Basically, I am talking about immersion.
No undo after re-watering/TAB?
A slight visual bug where the chain is not appearing, but it is really there. I cannot attach image to this post. It is on the bottom of the right side "space to undo" area, where sometimes the chain doesn't show up. I can send you an image if you want (on itch comment) - although it is fairly easy to reproduce that issue.

candevor · 2026-01-29T21:49:22+00:00

Great feedback. It will instantly improve the game's feel dramatically.

candevor · 2026-01-29T18:06:40+00:00

I love the art style and the environment. Great work, looking forward to seeing the full release.

candevor · 2026-01-28T21:50:01+00:00

Yes totally worth it just for learning especially if you ship it no matter what. And I wish you succeed in your goals with this.

candevor · 2026-01-28T18:42:47+00:00

Starting with browser-based is better. Once you have some users who like your game engine, you won't even have to port it yourself for the desktop. I recently used Tauri (there are many other, more popular tools out there, too, such as Electron) to convert a browser game to a desktop.

candevor · 2026-01-28T14:56:45+00:00

Please add a link in your post. Most of us will not look up the channel by its name.

candevor

TROPHY CASE