Post by Nalim W in Idle Eden: Sovereign Expanse comments

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Thanks, glad it was useful! Yes, it's on itch: Maze 3D — https://nalimw.itch.io/maze

It's a maze puzzle where instead of rolling dice you stop a timing bar to earn your steps, and traps are only deadly if your last step lands on them. It runs in the browser, on desktop and mobile. Any feedback is welcome, even the harsh kind. Good luck with Sovereign Expanse!

Nightdrift Studios3 days ago

@nalim W, I did try out your game and it's interesting mechanics. A few suggestions come to mind:

It's hard to tell how many steps are left since it up at the top right hand corner. Perhaps moving the number of moves remaining somewhere closer to the middle of the screen either top or bottom would help identify it easier for players to plan their moves better. Making that number and text larger would help since it's a critical part of the gameplay and decision making. Overall other UI elements could be made more visible/dominate since the rest of the game scene isn't that crucial to the gameplay since your gameplay mechanic is essentially turn-based and the informational aspects tend to currently play a more important role such as number of steps and the minimap.
Minimap should be given an option to not rotate based on direction player is facing, perhaps that is there somewhere and I may have missed it, but it is disorienting when the minimap keeps rotating.
If ending a turn on a trap is the only time players would take damage, the trap shouldn't give visual indicator that it is triggering because it's not clear what is happening with the trap. Visual indicator should also include a little more "juice" to the effect of being affected by damage some how, such as a damage number, blood, or some other damage effect so it's very clear that damage is/was taken.
The rewards/pickups don't yet feel impactful. Perhaps it can include rewards/pickups that affect how you traverse the maze such as getting a short teleport ability you can trigger, and even random activations such as getting teleported to random location on the map (which could be a type of trap even), would add a lot more dynamic character to the navigation element of your game.

I could provide more suggestions but I think these would help as a starter, but again these are just my own personal perspective. Keep up the great work!

Nalim W3 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such detailed feedback, this is exactly the kind of comment I was hoping for!

- Steps counter: fair point, it's the key number for every decision. I'll look into making it bigger and more central.

- Minimap rotation: noted, a "north-up" option makes a lot of sense.

- Traps: good catch. The effect should make it obvious when you actually take damage and when you're just passing over a trap.

- Pickups: I love the teleport idea, both as a power-up and as a random trap. It fits the maze really well.

Thanks again, and if you have more suggestions, I'm all ears!

Nalim W1 day ago

Hi! I wanted to let you know that your suggestions are now live:

1. Step counter: it's now large and at the top center of the screen, easy to see at a glance.

2. Minimap: there's a new "North up" option in Settings, so the map no longer rotates with SYM's direction.

3. Traps: walking over them no longer does anything; they only trigger if you stop on them with your last step. The damage is now more noticeable, and if you have a shield the trap still triggers, but a spherical barrier protects you.

Thanks again for taking the time to play it: your feedback really made the game better. If you feel like giving it another try, I'd love to hear what you think now!