Play Cookie Championships!
The Cookie Gambit's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #23 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Graphics | #23 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Overall | #27 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
| Gameplay/Design | #30 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Fun | #34 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What would you like feedback on?
- The gameplay, progression and the reward system mostly
- Also, if what is your opinion on the idea of needing to delete your save and restart in case you run out of money
What did you update?
- Added actual progression in the form of a shop and purchasable obstacles instead of having them unlocked from the start
- visuals
- increased pool of obstacles and new mechanics
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Comments
Interesting game. However I do think the system here is a bit problematic.
I wasn't sure how to approach this, so I thought I'll buy some obstacles, and I spent most of my money on that, being left with 1000, so I decided to bet 500, only to realize that after already PAYING 5k for obstacles, I have to pay AGAIN...
Also am I paying for obstacles out of my bet money? Why? I thought to bet only 100, only to realize AGAIN that I can't place anything.
Then my money ran out, and now I can't play at all. This isn't satisfying.
I think first thing that's needed here is some way to earn money, unrelated to races.
Ahh yes, i left SEVERAL bugs due to a last minute addition in the build, im very sorry for those :P
I do agree with the problem.. Really i just kept the river in that price range so u can buy it at the start so as to make it feel like the player has a choice xD (also cuz it isnt that valuable)
it is definitely a bad design to not inform the player that they also use the bet money to buy their obstacles in the race xD.. Worse, if you spend all your money, you will have to restart..
So yee it does need some guardrails for that :P
But i kinda wanna leave it in so when and if someone does that at the start (where they most likely will) they learn early how it works and learn tthat they need to manage their money.. But it also pushes players to play more passively which is DEFINITELY not what i want so it still will need SOME guard rails at minimum
I kinda wanna start the game passively so the player can learn, then shift to get the player to be aggressive as they grow!
I nkow it can be frustrating to be needing to pay for each use, but it is VERY easy to earn and multiply that investment, after that if the obstacles are free, the player can just spam stuff and end everything too quickly.. which is somthing i was trying to avoid
Tho after getting feedback in this jam i feel i also need to thoroughly re-think the pricing system AND communicate the progression and gameplay better..
I was thinking of maybe adding a mechanic where u can leverage some of your multiplier u get to get some money while being in the race
or something like that where you can do stuff in the race to get more money maybe?
Tbh i dont really have any ideas for that as of now haha
Anyways, i do appreciate the insights :D
Video review:
DAMM this helped me ALOT!!
First of all thanks alot for playing this for 30 mins lmaooo
Also, im SOO sorry, cuz only after i submitted i updated the build to show a warning when u try to play with an empty deck and left a few bugs in there xD
Also, you had even worse luck cuz u started with the point to point race.. It seems i reduced the random obstacle timer for testing there and forgot to reset it back to normal.. Basically making it unplayable.. :sob:
And yes, this video helped me learn ALOT about how a new player will look at the game..
I knew there would be alot of mis-interpretations, and a lack of knowledge as to how the game works for the player cuz i knew that i had communicated the gamepllay VERY badly and i really wanted to see how players would react to this
I already fixed most of the bugs u faced which i truly apologize for :sob:
For starters..
- The race description when u select your cookie were bugged which already confuses the player..
- I realised how hard it is for a new player to find that shop xD I already got a small fix for that so itll be more obvious
Ok so ill try to timestamp and reply to stuff :P
- 3:31 - Yes indeed, I tried to tell all the different interactions through these small hints in the desc.. Tho i need to improve the communication on that fs
- 5:31 - Ok so i 100% botched communicating this to the player..
Ok, for the jam, I was scared that players would play too safely.. So i added that random spawner, so the player would have an incentive to place obstacles on their own.. and the timer RESETS if you place an obstacle
This essentially kinda forces them to take control of the race.. The price to place ofc helps to not overdo this aagressiveness
So its main aim is to tell the player that THEY can control the race and you are NOT meant to save money
(Tho this is also used so the player at the start can use the random obstacles to their advantage with their deck, more on that a bit later)
-11:11 - I missed that idea, I like the auto zoom idea!
- 14:55 - yaaa dumb bug :P fixed now
- 16:23 - Ok so you thought you died cuz of that obstacle.. NO xD, that target thing is a part of the canon to show where the cookie will land, you lost cuz all cookies crossed the lap finish line and you were the last.. Thus ur cookie died
- 17:50 - Yes, that IS intentional :P So like I wanted the player to start simple and the conveyor is very simplle to use + cheap + VERY useful! So my thought process wass that the player will start with that (or the river if u want tbh lol) use the random obstacles to not just save your cookie.. but you are supposed to PUSH OTHER COOKIES in the OBSTACLES, that is why elimination race is at the top :P
I WANT the player to be more aggressive towards the other cookies! Like yes u use it correctly to save yours, but u can ALSO use it to push other cookie in a canon launching out of bounds or a broken bridge plank or smthing..
- 19:47 - Again, YES xD.. ok i KNOW ppl dont like having to spend more money for every place.. BUT, look at the first win in the point-point race, u didnt even finish the race (which gets u more moeny) and u STILL got 2x your investment.. So yes i add restrictions but it is VERY easy to earn lots of money
I.E. Im lenient with reward cuz im harsh with prices so that i can reduce that obstacle spam :D
- 21:25 - wellll yee, but the lucky lane and the river plank are specifically there to avoid other obstacles :P but much more situational so i completely get the point
- 22:21 - cuz the oven launched it :P
- 22:49 - I do show the meaning of those icons in the controls section, the small x Means "RMB" to cancel this obstacle purchase :P. The obstacle will go red and a bigger x appears when u are NOT allowed to place an obstacle.. Also i kinda agree bout the placement being restrictive.. i think i can try to slightly decrease that restriction so u can place them closer
- 23:48 - Yee exactly! This is basically the risk/reward idea I was going for- obstacles can help you, but they can also come back to hurt you, so you have to balance attacking other cookies with saving your own (like i said for 17:50 at the end)
- 24:08 - Ok so this is SOOO un-intuitive xD, and i need to communucate it better..
BUTTT for the oven, u see when YOUR Cookie enters it, a clickable popup appears which is used to make it launch/cook the cookie.. If you ignore it, it randomly chooses how far to launch the cookie and can also cook it, thats where the "dissolving in the river part comes into play")
- 25:23 - Yee, something is DEF wrong if it takes more than 20 mins for a player to get into a flow in a game like this :P
I mostly agree that its in a weird midpoint of ebing random while promoting player agency.. But i genuinely think what makes it worse is how BADLY i communicated or just FAILED to communicate certain mechanics and how in order to reduce aggresiveness, i made it so seemingly ALL players play TOO passively
I feel like the player right now CAN get control.. But cuz of the way how the game is structured, playing passively takes alot of that agency away from them..
I DO wanna keep that passive gameplay for a new player so they dont have to decide between 7 VERY different obstacles and learn slowly, but i also want the player to grow out of it as they go along which has proven to be quite difficult for me haha
- 26:44 - Hmm yes, that IS a problem ive been trying to think off, tbh ive been kinda working on this for wayy too long at the point its kinda getting a bit too boring for me xD. But i have tried to give each obstacle SOME use to be able to change the course of the race.. Like they are in basically 2 categories where they either kill cookies, or help avoid a certain obstacle
- 27:26 As i said like, i want them to be balancing between being aggresive and defensive, if u are aggresive, it CAN come back to bite u in the next lap.. So like either u finish the race befire it bites or be prepared to avoid them when they do..
And looking at this video.. your playstyle screams passive/defensive xD
which isnt bad but in this game, being solely on one side makes it completely unplayable which is 100% a me problem and not your fault ofcourse
Also Im VERY sorry for this giant wall of text, no pressue for reading it all xD
But if you have any thing to add to this, Id also appreciate it!
But uve already done MORE than enough, so Thanks again soo much for playing for that duration and the feedback
I tried to avoid alot of text walls in the game ( as u can see here i have a bad habit of writing a thesis :sob:), but i think i need atleast some more of it and better use of my words
No need to apologize! That's what playtests are for, to surface these things so I feel like if you found the feedback useful, that's all that matters.
I totally agree I play too conservatively 😂 in this game or any game.
I also admit I played the game backwards. You had the modes in the right order, but for whatever reason when I read the description I thought the difficulty was reversed--but after playing the modes I see I was wrong.
Yeah I feel like being able to communicate things clearly to a player is such a challenge, especially as the developer where everything already makes sense to you. But that's why I wanted to record the video, it makes the players thoughts more obvious.
Yee! Yee!
Nahh, none of it was your fault haha
I gotta communicate the stuff better and playtest a bit before exporting with new changes
Ye i have the elimination at the top cuz i think that should be the first mode a player tries but there is NO real order to it and I just forgot to fix the race before another export
And yes, I absolutely cant thank you enough for that video! It really helped point out problems in the game!
Really fun experience! The gameplay feels smooth and fun, however i do feel like the reward system needs some work.
the progression feels really slow, at least in my experience. starting the player with this much money just doesnt feel right. especially when having to completely reset if you run out. instead, id prefer if there some way to make money that isnt gambling. this game really reminds me of Duck life the flash game, and i think it should take inspiration from it too. maybe instead of betting on a random cookie each time, you can "own" one that you train and grow to eventually win races with. aswell open up ways to make money passively in case you blow it all on one race. that obstacle addition is a nice feature, and can easily be expanded on.
with all that said everything else about the game is great! the art,music and ui are all very good. this is still a great game by all means, but i just think it needs that bit more. 4/5!
Heyyy thanks SO much for this feedback :D
By "starting the player with this much money just doesnt feel right" u mean its too less, right?
Cuz that is kinda intended :P tho i do think i need to increase it a bit more probly.
I also agree the progress at the start is relly slow.. cuz ya u mostly gotta wait mostly for the random spawner to do its work and use those + your starter obstacle to win.. so i def wanna think more about that..
I was conflicted between making this like a "perma death" kinda where your run ends if you get to 0 coins (just like rn u have to delete ur save if you lose all ur money) or just add a way to earn some money other than gambling..
For the passive earning i had an idea where you could cheer for your cookie when it passes by some audience (which isnt in the game yet ofc) and that would maybe get u some coins lol
OR sm like you'd need to sell your obstacle passes to get back some money if u get to 0 OR the easiest and worst idea is what i had before lol, i.e. if u run ouut of money, u just get a small amount like 2k again so u can continue to play.
So yaa im still very confused as to what to do for this part.. But if i do end up adding a way to get money other than gambling i def wanna keep it to a level where it only acts to make it so you dont get bankrupt.
I also saw the duck life games as u mentioned and i can see why u remembered that from this haha
I did think about you owning one cookie at the start of a run where you have to use that cookie for all the races and can only choose a new cookie by resetting your progress like deleting ur progress.. But that doesnt sound very fun :P
Either way, im not really sure if i could add this specific element of the ducklife games of owning a duck here.. I mean this game lives on the idea of horse race betting xD
So i really wanna keep the ability that the player can bet on anyone for any race
Also, i wanted to ask if you managed to win a race or two :P
Cuz i got a few frnds to try it aswell and they were having quite a hard time haha
Anyways, i really do appreciate the feedback and would love if u have anything else to add to this after my reply :D
Thanks alot!