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Feedback wanted: is the first minute of Next Soul, Please clear enough?

A topic by Azowyl Games created 57 days ago Views: 391 Replies: 17

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Hi, I’m looking for feedback on my newly released browser game, Next Soul, Please:

https://azowyl-games.itch.io/next-soul-please

It is short, playable in-browser, and most runs seem to take around 10-20 minutes. A few people have completed it already, but I’m trying to understand how it feels to a new player with no context.

The feedback I’m most interested in:

1. Do you understand what you’re supposed to do in the first minute?

2. Does the game make you want to continue after the first few souls?

3. Is the difficulty/failure state clear, or does it feel confusing?

4. If you finish it, does the ending feel satisfying?

Short honest notes are totally fine. If you have an itch project you want feedback on too, link it and I’ll try to return the favor.

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AxalKay57 days ago

1: Yes, but not because anything you did. I am familiar with papers please. 2: No. 3: It does feel confusing. 4: I did and No.

In the words of Yahtzee Croshaw a papers please style game without a time limit is boring. This game is simply bad. I know that is mean, but it is true. It is derivative, boring and confusing. I recently played a similar game that is simply better in every way. I know comparison is the thief of joy. But you set yourself up for the comparison when you titled your game after not only a better game but a genre of better games. I hope this helps.

Ps: As a life long Christian I find this game a little insulting. I have no reverence for the Bible. I laugh when it mentions Goliath is uncircumcised. You are not doing us any favors where sending a good person to heaven for the wrong reason will get you fired. This is a horribly conceived idea. I noticed on the title screen you are asking for money. I hope this is not a cash grab.

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Azowyl Games57 days ago(+1)

Thanks for playing through the game and giving detailed feedback. The points about clarity, pacing, and the justification system are useful, especially the fact that a correct destination could still feel unfairly punished. I’ll review how those rules are introduced and communicated. The religious setting is intended as fictional satire rather than a statement about Christian doctrine, but I understand that the execution did not land that way for you. Thanks for being direct.

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AxalKay57 days ago

I guess I am just jaded. Too many Christians are actually grifters looking to abuse people's faith so I always approach these things with a healthy dose of skepticism.

I am happy I could be of help. You can never be too direct. If this game is satire don't be afraid to make it obvious. You could have a tutorial where someone who is obviously evil get into Heaven on a technicality and someone who is obviously good is sent to Hell on a technicality. And that is just the way it is. Don't question the doctrine or else. And yes I do know the response is AI. I am not an idiot. There has to be a person working on some part of this game. This is for them.

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Justmightbecool.56 days ago

Hey, Im kinda curious what you mean by youre a lifelong Christian, but have no reverence for the Bible?

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AxalKay55 days ago

I believe in Christian values but not the church. Love your neighbor. Give second chances. I believe in a higher power. I do not believe that higher power speaks to or through the pope. The Bible did say being gay is wrong... from 1946 to 1971, My God does not reside in the pages of a book. If it did it would not be the Bible. I went to church. I went to Bible camp. I was baptized. I went to my nieces christening. I respect the traditions of Christianity. The Bible was written to help people understand Christian values, but times have changed. Christian values and tradition are so much more than one book and trying to flatten thousands of years of heritage into a few hundred pages is insulting.

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Justmightbecool.55 days ago

Well I respect your views on it, but I'd advise being careful about using the term Christian, as it's reserved for those who fall under its meaning "follower of Christ" and using it to encompass whatever beliefs you have can be seen as rude, if you know what I mean. It's like calling myself a vegan despite eating meat just because I respect what they stand for. There's nothing wrong with respecting other beliefs, I'm actually happy you do :D but the terminology exists for a reason.

I'd also be careful about establishing what the Bible was written for when we weren't the ones who wrote it, unless you did thorough research ofc. The Bible's purpose is not sharing values, but leading people into a relationship with Christ. It repeatedly makes it clear that everything else comes second, and without Christ, following the values means nothing. It's much deeper than you'd expect and I'd suggest looking into it. You seem to already have an interest in the faith, so I'm sure you'd like it

One last thing, it's true Christian tradition "changes" but one beautiful thing about Christianity is that even when the world around you keeps changing, God doesn't, and you can rely on Him the same as centuries ago. Trying to change that doesn't encompass more of Christianity, but gets rid of one of the main things that make it special. I hope that helps you understand why we find the Bible so important!

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AxalKay54 days ago

I don't think you and I are in disagreement. I did not intend to be rude. I am sorry if it came off that way. I don't see a need to split hairs over who is or is not a "true" Christian. Christianity has existed long before written language. People have been able to find God long before the Bible was conceived. God is celebrated across the world by countless people in countless ways. If the Bible helps you connect to God that is great. And I am not going to tell you that you are not a vegan because you eat meat. I agree words have meaning and the meaning of words is important, but not everything is always black and white. There are multiple kinds of vegans. Whether you knew it or not that is actually a perfect analogy.

"I'd also be careful about establishing what the Bible was written for when we weren't the ones who wrote it." you are saying to the person who is arguing the faith is more than the book. I agree 10,000%. The old testament is also known as the Hebrew Bible because it was written by Jews over the course of hundreds of years as you could probably guess by the fact it contains hundreds of years of actual human history. Twenty seven books were added onto it and it became the new testament. The new testament was written in Greek. St. Mark began writing the new testament about 60 years after the death of Jesus. Who was St. Mark? We don't know. His story was ironically lost to time so we gave him the name of one of Jesus's followers. Same for the other authors of the new testament. St. Paul wrote half of the new testament. Mathew and Luke wrote their portions around 80 years after the death of Jesus. Luke was not a fan of the Jewish people. The Bible as we know it today (kind of) was codified by Bishop Athinazia of Alexandria 300 years after the death of Jesus banning hundreds of scriptures as heresy for not fitting his vision of what he though Christianity and The Bible should be. When I said I was a Christian I meant it.

I never argued God changes. I said the tradition was one of the things I loved about the faith. People change. The way we celebrate our faith changes. The Bible changes. Different denominations have different versions of the Bible. People fight all the time about which Bible is the one correct version. I refuse to be one of them.

As far as I can tell you and I are in agreement. The only difference is that you believe the Bible is important and I believe the teachings of Jesus are important.

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Chuck Michelson56 days ago

I really like the idea of this game and I'm not offended by it. I'll pretend to be the almighty judge for a few minutes. I could see playing it but it's a bit confusing. I suggest simplifying the first screen at least so that there are fewer elements; larger font; make it more clear what the goal is; expand the messaging screen to be taller since it's how the player gets the info. I like the graphics and layout of the screen even if too complex at first. Subscribing to this topic because if the game is easier to understand I would want to play more and meet more of the characters. Please note I'm not a huge gamer so if this game is derivative I wouldn't know it. Seems fun and interesting. What is your goal with the game?

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Azowyl Games52 days ago

Thanks a lot for playing!

I’ll take your feedback on the screen being too busy and try to simplify it a bit. In the latest update I added a tutorial, but I’ll keep iterating on it so the game is easier to understand, at least during the first case.

The goal is to make a short satirical bureaucracy game where you judge souls by strange official rules. I want the rules to feel a little absurd, but the player should not feel lost because of the interface.

Thanks again for subscribing to the topic. That honestly means a lot

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Sinplea53 days ago

I found there is too much information you must learn and figure out by yourself when you jump in, if there was a bit of a guided tutorial explaining the sections for the first soul I would have more of an interest in judging the soul and the next few souls. also when I tried to judge the first soul I did not know what the information it said meant, there was a lot that confused me.

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Azowyl Games52 days ago

Thanks a lot for trying it!

That makes sense. The game currently asks the player to figure out too much at once, especially during the first soul. In the latest update I added a tutorial, but I’ll keep iterating on it so the first case explains the sections more clearly and makes the judgment easier to understand.

I want the player to have fun with the weird and absurd cases, not spend that time trying to decode the interface, so this is useful feedback.

Thanks again for taking the time to write it.

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indielaunch.pro52 days ago

Since you're actively gathering feedback: if you end up running more structured playtests as you continue development, I built a free tool called IndieLaunch that might help. Testers submit feedback (there's even a Discord /feedback command if that's where your community hangs out) sorted into bugs, suggestions, and praise instead of it getting scattered across comments. There's also an optional feature that tracks which of your testers later leave a Steam review, if that's a platform you're headed toward. No pressure at all, just thought it might be useful given where you're at. Good luck with the rest of development!

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Azowyl Games49 days ago

Hi, thanks for the reaching out, I'll will give it a try!

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Azowyl Games49 days ago (1 edit)

Hello everyone - Next Soul, Please has a new update!

The biggest change is a new interactive tutorial featuring a very helpful, very sarcastic demon who will walk you through your first judgment. The previous version was throwing too much information at players too quickly, so this should make the first few minutes much smoother. I also reworked the main UI with bigger fonts, clearer sections, and better organization for the different tools and information panels. The goal is for players to spend less time decoding the interface and more time making questionable bureaucratic decisions about the afterlife. On top of that, I rewrote and adjusted many of the cases to push the tone further into absurd comedy and satire. The game should now feel weirder, sharper, and more playful. There is also a new final case waiting at the end. I won’t spoil it, but it is a bit more personal and mostly added for fun.

Thanks again to everyone who played and gave feedback.

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Cookie-Crumb49 days ago

hey.. I kinda played your game and i couldt really play it, it laggs crazy on my 3 y/o intel celeron laptop, and I had to zoom out the webpage, sice your game is in a canvas greater than my screen... :(

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Azowyl Games49 days ago(+1)

Hey, sorry to hear that. Yeah its kinda heavy on graphics, I will try to improve performance so older CPUs can run it.

Thanks for trying to play anyway

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Cookie-Crumb49 days ago

thank you.... also why do you have a Cristianity talk rigth here?? 😭😭😭😭

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