Game was very fun and slightly difficult. I reminds me of Tettris somewhat
Reviews for "Faerie Alchemy"
Good game, very addictive. It was a bit vague on the controls but figured out that i could use the arrow keys rather than relying on the mouse to move the elements.
Maybe reward the player when they combine 4 or 5 elements at the same time or do a combo and have the high scores compared with other players other than just your own.
It's very pretty and polished, but the core gameplay mechanics need some major overhaul:
- give the player a better sense of progression. Watch how Bewjeweled structures its difficulty curve/level sizes.
- give the player more and better rewards for gameplay choices. Even if it's just a small glow, jingle and extra points when they combine 4+ objects or fuse another object together.
- as said below, make it clearer where the new object spawns
- dynamically alter the difficulty curve by introducing seemingly random tide-turners that have a higher rate of spawning if the player is in a pinch (a lot of unused objects for example). The lower the level, the more likely it's gonna help new players out when they need it.
- give players rewards for doing well, for thinking strategically or simply playing for a long time. Maybe tell them at the beginning of the level they can have 1 free tide-turner if they execute X combos. This doubles as an invisible tutorial in the first levels.
- give the player some sort of achievement after a game over that will make them want to play again, maybe a tide-turner, maybe a skin, maybe just an XP bar that fills up. Any kind of progression that the player knows will lead to something - unlike the seemingly infinite elemental fusion - will keep them going
- give higher level players additional challenges instead of tide-turners if they're doing /too/ well. Like petrified blocks that will only become usable if a reaction happens nearby.
- finally, depending on how long you want to stretch the game, build in checkpoints or make it easy for experienced players to get back to their limits so they can take pride in breaking that limit.
- nobody cares about highscore lists. Seriously. It's only relevant for like the top 10 players and this game really isn't of competitive nature. It's a casual game, your audience just wants to play something fun. If you want to give them a challenge, think about time challenges or the aforementioned "do these tricks and earn a tide-turner".
What an unrewarding game. I can tell you were probably pressing for difficulty but you've overstepped that a bit and gone onto something where you need far more luck than skill.
Here are some suggestions:
- Allow to see further ahead (gives more ability to plan ahead).
- Allow to swap current selection with the upcoming (just making it a little less frustrating).
- CHANGE THE ICONS. Okay, this is a big one... There are TWO sun symbols and TWO bi-colour-with-turquoise. Very pretty and I know you've subtly got them numbered but they LOOK too similar and it makes it that much harder to get a feel for the game as well as subtracting from any feeling of progression.
- Give some sort of indication of where the new element would form. Every time I think I've got the hang of it goes a strange way, which takes away from the ability to plan and is generally annoying.
- Maybe add in an exclusion on what tiles are generated, i.e. once I'm up to element #8 I really don't need more of sun #1 or leaves and I don't want to fill up half the screen waiting for a new purple flower to spawn.
- Add in some special pieces/abilities (maybe that you can earn via combos) to CLEAR bits of the screen instead of just shrinking it.
- Have the score go up as combos continue, at the moment it either doesn't care or counts it as 1, which adds to the unrewarding atmosphere.
OR... Add a separate mode with one or more of the above, if they're incompatible with the game you want to make.
At the moment the game has a lot of potential and is rather addictive but the lack of satisfaction makes it a less than enjoyable experience.
i have seen many games like this. this game could be very good but the controlls are bugged.