Morse Course MidJam Improvements


I have gotten a lot of awesome feedback on this game that I think would significantly improve the game, as well as some issues I have found while playing it over and over(listed in order of what I think is easiest to implement to hardest)

  1. Level 1 should have more restricted movement and less options to introduce mechanics.
    1. This is relatively simple to address. I'm thinking short corridors with simple solutions like push boulder, use pickaxe->push boulder, shoot monster, then the original level 1 on the jam. I think making it obvious you can push boulders and how the items interact with the sprites will make it a lot easier to grasp. It also gives a low tension opportunity to try out the morse code. Having to learn all these new items AND morse code AND btw that left was actually up because of heading at the very beginning is too much.
      1. To do: 2/3 more levels highlighting features and movements in really short intervals
  2. Boulder 'feature/bug/glich'
    1. If you roll a boulder over a tile it turns into a green tile. A cute graphical glitch at times or a run breaking glitch if it breaks your staircase leading to a frustrating retr"y"-.--  Someone thought this was a feature and I honestly like it as a feature. It can add more puzzle options but it needs to be communicated as such.
      1. To do
        1. A level showing how stairs will break
        2. Sound effect of stairs breaking
        3. Red/Blue tiles should be unaffected by boulders
  3. Undo command
    1. Self explanatory, most puzzle games have this. Since this is such a pain to move around, an "U"ndo command would be extremely nice
    2. Decide if "u"ndo works more than 1 time
      1. I believe there should be a point where retr"y" should be used instead of "u"ndo. However, the slow movement may limit this. I think for now, 1 undo should be enough and perhaps add an undo currency in the future (3 max uses or something like that)
    3. Decide if "u"ndo or u"n"do or or un"d"o or und"o"
      1. "f"orward ..-. "l"eft .-.. "r"ight .-. all start with dots; "b"ack -... and retr"y" -.-- start with dashes. I knew people would input the wrong command (because of how many times I did) so I tried to limit the options of incorrect inputs. Retry should never happen by mistake if you were trying to move in the 3 more common directions (though the comments show it still happened to a few players). "u"ndo ..- is too close to "f"orward ..-. leading to "missed a beat? haha! lost a move". un"d"o is one away from the "b"ack command and und"o" is too long --- in my opinion. My favorite is u"n"do -. because it mirrors the "a"gain .- command in dot/dash. It is also short which I believe is needed for a "whops need to undo ->   -.   -> done". "b"ack is typically used for mistakes and I found people hardly ever miss dots between other dots, instead missing dot after a dash, so I think incorrectly inputing u"n"do when you wanted "b"ack will not happen often enough to be frustrating

There are other small issues but I think these are the three most critical improvements to the game right now. I appreciate all of the feedback and would always appreciate more! As more feedback comes in I will update the list if needed and thank you to GMTK for hosting the Jam and to all the participants and community members playing, rating, and just being awesome!

-PPP

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