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[Feedback Exchange] ZAR - A Physics-Based 3D Dice Roguelike

A topic by HappySealGames created 47 days ago Views: 385 Replies: 14

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HappySealGames47 days ago (1 edit) (+3)

Hello everyone!

We would love to get your feedback on our game, ZAR.

Play the ZAR Alpha Demo right now!

ZAR is a physics-based 3D dice roguelike inspired by Balatro, where your goal is to achieve the highest score possible by creating different synergies with dice, relics, and augments during each run.

Since the game is still in the early demo stage, please keep in mind that there may be bugs, errors, and balance issues. The game is not yet balanced, so some mechanics may feel unpolished or unfair.

We are mainly looking for feedback on these areas:

What do you think about the gameplay loop?
How do you feel about the theme and overall style?
Are the mechanics easy to understand and enjoyable?
What do you think we could improve or change?

Your feedback and suggestions are extremely valuable for us during the development process. Every comment helps us make ZAR a better experience.

If you enjoy the game, please don’t forget to follow and leave a rating, it really helps us a lot! And if you share your own games, we’d be happy to play and give honest feedback in return. We’re always looking for honest feedback to improve.

Thank you so much to everyone who tries the game and shares their thoughts with us!

QuantumCat7747 days ago(+1)

Hey cool roguelike game!! Dice throwing and movements are really satisfying gameplay it`s unbalanced but it`s an really early stage i guess. Thanks for sharing i added on my library i`ll definitely follow that one

HappySealGames47 days ago

Thanks a lot !

CoderGenius7246 days ago(+1)

I played for quite a while!

I lost to the final multi gamble, but the enemy had 2.6 hp left 😡. The game was quite fun! The tutorial is well made! I played the whole thing in full screen, which worked well. I did not even realize this is an early version.

The jams were blocking the game though. I would say to leave the jams that end in over a year from now to help this issue.

Some issues I encountered:

Tutorial being the very first main CTA (Call to action), before play. This should show only after pressing play. I think it's a first time issue, because after going in again, it worked properly.
The final multi gamble was unbalanced, almost always reducing my multi. It also shouldn't be able to x0 multi.
I brought the coffee cup, (unbreakable cup for +0.5x multi) but could not find it in game.
Relics show up as a grey box on the relic screen.
Shop discount did not work.
Lag at the beginning (could have been on my side or due to the browser version)
The enemies relic mute did not work (slot machine gave me points)

Overall, still an amazing game. Hope you can make it to Steam.

My game is Dualspace: https://codergenius72.itch.io/dualspace

My stats:

HappySealGames46 days ago

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback! I also played your game and left a comment and rating. :D

About the tutorial screen appearing before pressing Play: it should only appear after starting the game. Maybe you accidentally clicked it while the game was loading, because there shouldn't be a situation where it appears directly. I will double-check this to make sure there is no issue.

We haven't been able to do proper balancing yet. At this stage, our main goal is to showcase as many mechanics as possible and gather feedback about the overall gameplay experience. We’re really happy to hear that you enjoyed the game despite the current balance issues!

I will check the shop discount issue.

The relics appearing as grey boxes are because we haven't designed their icons yet. :D They are still placeholder visuals for now.

I wasn't aware that the slot machine was still giving points while the enemy relic mute was active, so thank you for pointing that out! I will investigate and fix it.

Thank you again for the great feedback and for taking the time to play and rate ZAR. We really appreciate it!

Wishing you the best with your game development journey as well!

RGS_FF46 days ago(+1)

This is a really fun game, congratulations! The lack of SFX is a bit unfortunate. I hope they will be added in the future, because currently it reduces the satisfaction of the shots and impacts.

HappySealGames45 days ago

Thanks a lot !! We`ll add sfxs in next versions we still have a lot of work about that :D

gamefang45 days ago(+1)

The gameplay and visuals are very cool. I think the mechanic is simple but interesting. A few things I think need to improve:

Sometimes the dice roll too slowly before stopping, almost like they’re not on earth. The wait gets boring, you might want to check the physics.
When I focus on a die on the right side, the camera zooms in, which isn’t helpful because I can’t see the others. I just wanted to check that die’s ability, so a tooltip would be enough.
Choosing a die, then choosing direction and power, doesn’t feel very intuitive. I’d prefer to just drag the die and throw it onto the table, like in real life. You could calculate the velocity on mouse release, which I’ve done similar in my game, I can help you if needed.
Sound effects are really important, like others mentioned.

Hoping your game is as cool as Balatro.

If you’re interested, you can try my game: https://gamefang.itch.io/tramp-become-president

HappySealGames44 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much for the feedback! We’re really happy that you enjoyed the game, and we’ll definitely take your comments into consideration.

I’ll check the dice physics. We’re aware that the camera zoom currently feels a bit unnecessary. The main reason we added it is that, in the future, we’re planning to visually display augments around/on the dice so players can inspect them more easily. That said, the system definitely still needs improvement, and the camera controls can feel a little frustrating at first.

The reason we currently use this throwing system is mainly because aiming is important for some relics and augments. We actually tried a more direct drag-and-release throwing system before, but unfortunately it made precise aiming much harder and throws often felt too random. Still, we’ll keep looking for ways to make the current system feel more intuitive.

Sound effects are taking us a little longer than expected, but we’re still actively working on them. Hopefully, we’ll have them added in the next version!

Thanks again for taking the time to play and share such detailed feedback. I’ll also try your game as soon as I can and share my thoughts with you!

HappySealGames42 days ago

Hi! I tried your game. The desktop side of the game is really well done, and I also liked the idea of using recycling as a core mechanic. However, honestly, the game didn’t fully grab my attention.

You’ve built the economy system, added a map, and created different areas, which is great because the game doesn’t feel limited to a single place. You also added a story, but I think the game didn’t quite give me a strong enough reason for why I was doing these things or make me feel motivated to keep progressing. Of course, this is just my personal opinion. If I look at it purely from the perspective of game mechanics, it’s genuinely a good job! I wish you the best of luck with the development !

gamefang42 days ago(+1)

Thanks so much. The game works but isn’t fun: you’ve pointed out the most important thing, I believe it’s not just your opinion. I need to completely rethink the target system, that’s maybe where the deep issue lies. This really helps! Best of luck with your game too, I’m always ready when you need further testing.

HappySealGames42 days ago(+1)

Of course, feel free to send me next updates !! I`ll check that

HappySealGames40 days ago (2 edits)

Hello everyone!

The new ZAR update is now live! 🎲

Besides gameplay improvements, visual updates, and bug fixes, this update includes one of the biggest milestones in our development process: Sound Effects! 🔊

We have added the first major batch of SFX to ZAR. We will continue improving and expanding them in future updates, but even now the game feels much more satisfying and impactful thanks to the new feedback effects.

You can find the detailed devlog here

Try ZAR and share your feedback with us!

Your comments and suggestions are helping us shape the game during development.

If you have your own games, feel free to send them our way too. We would love to try them, leave feedback, and support other indie developers in the community! 🎮

Thank you for supporting ZAR! 🎲

simenhs35 days ago(+1)

Hi, I played your game. Here is a vide recording.

I really liked this game. Nice graphics and full of juice. I enjoyed the gameplay loop. The mechanics are easy enough to understand, but there is a loot of new ones in the beginning, loots of reading dice descriptions and they aren't all obvious until you have had time experimenting with the dices. It also sometimes feel a bitt like the UI and animations comes in the way of gameplay. like when you zoom in on the dices when hovering and the popup whit dice description disperses. It also at times feel a bit to easy, or forgiving. When I obviously didn't knew what I was doing I kind of expected to loose, but somehow is still managed to get enough points, might be i just were a bit lucy as well.

You can find my game here: https://simenhs.itch.io/hexatown If you could record a video while playing it would be very helpful.

HappySealGames34 days ago

Thank you so much for taking the time to give such detailed feedback! I also really appreciate you recording such a long video for us. I haven’t had the chance to watch the whole thing in detail yet because of its length, but having a video like this is extremely valuable for us, so thank you again!

The game definitely has some balance issues at the moment, mainly because we haven’t really started working on balancing yet. Right now, our main focus is shaping and improving the overall gameplay experience. After that, we’ll focus more on balancing and expanding the existing content.

We’re really happy to hear that you enjoyed the core gameplay loop!

I’ll also check out your game as soon as I can. Thanks again for playing ZAR and for all the feedback!

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