I completely agree the ramp up is a bit off.
The boss on level 3 actually gives me some trouble, but the actual levels and first 2 bosses are gimmes.
Part of my thinking was "this genre can be very difficult for some people, but is much easier for others, so I want to make sure even my mom can beat level 1" -- but it can be offputting for anyone who has familiarity with the genre.
If you press down 6 times during the intro sequence it starts the game in New Game+ which makes everything harder. I still haven't beaten the Lava Tiger boss on NG+, but I do think the rest of the game excluding the tiger boss can be a bit tougher.
It's tricky though, free web games, people aren't going to play past their first friction point unless you get them a little bit deep into the game first, but how do you get them in deep without it being too easy? 🤹 Indeed.
Thanks for the comments, and an opportunity to think out loud :)
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I don't think anything is wrong with having super inclusive games, you can have a hard mode for players who want a challenge- or an easy mode if you want normal to be hard. I did that with a game of mine where my intention was basically the same as yours- I wanted anyone to be able to play it easily since it was more about the narrative elements, but I made a hard mode for people who actually wanted to "play" the game. Just an option.
Also - my own thoughts here, I think making free web games should be fun for YOU and bring out something inside of you that you get to see in real life (now with the help of ai, anything is possible, right?) thats how I look at it. I am only making games for game jams because I know realistically no one probably is ever gonna play my games except for the few minutes they take to rate it in a jam. Maybe after some time and 50 games later we will make something everyone wants to play!
Your game is good though, and it's really well polished. A lot of love went into it, I'd be proud of it!!!
Thank you. Yeah, the situation with discovery, number of players who exist, number of high quality games that exist, is all very bad for getting things played. We are quickly approaching game devs making games for game devs (itch jam scene, already been the case for many years really)
I do think as the fever of "get rich making games" dies out to "everyone can AI dev a game" there will be more room for those of us working very hard to make something interesting. For me personally I've been making games for 30 years, so it's funny -- I just make them because it's what I do at this point. Like a painter on their Nth painting. I was doing it when players were easier to find and I'll be doing it when it is only us making games for each other.
This also happened in other media. Much music is for other musicians more than the "general public" and "pop" music is considered a relatively small part of the total medium despite being the portion that is most directly commercial. I think something similar is happening for games over the next few decades!
Your comments are so apt! I don't know how the get rich quick scheme will go but there will always be people making things for the love of it, and people making things to get one over on someone else. Nature of being human I would guess. I do think it's interesting you pointing out that game devs make games for game devs- I only started doing this early this summer when I promised myself I would make a game by the end of the year, and now I've made a few and really love it. It's like you said- painting for a painter, it's a great form of self expression.
But yeah- the future is definitely weird.