Hi everyone!
First of all, I want to thank all the playtest participants! It means the world to me because it helps me improve my game.
How did the first week of the playtest go?
Not great, but incredibly useful. About 49 people played the game over the week. That’s a good result for me, considering this is my first playtest ever. There are about 200 more people who requested access, but they aren't exactly in a rush to play :)
But, there are a number of problems that are really bumming me out. I looked at the Steam playtime reports and saw this:
~17 people left in the first 1–10 minutes — that's 35% of the testers.
~11 people left in 10–20 minutes.
By minute 30, ~70% of the audience is lost.
After 60 minutes — only a few individuals (1–2 people).
Oof. I have a problem.
Barrier 1: "What do I do?" (0–10 minutes, ~35% loss). This is the most critical one. A person jumped in, looked around, didn't understand what to do / didn't get hooked, and left. This is a problem with onboarding and the first impression. Additionally, during this process, I found out I have a bug in the tutorial. If you move too slowly, you run out of time to finish it, and you literally can't continue playing. Boom.
Barrier 2: "What's next?" (10–30 minutes, another ~35% loss). The person finished the tutorial (seemingly), hired their first employee, took a project - and didn't see a reason to keep going. This is a problem with the early gameplay hook; there's no "carrot on a stick" pulling you forward.
It feels like a median playtime of 16 minutes for a tycoon game is a total disaster. And while there were people who kept playing, their numbers are insignificant. It especially stings because this is the reaction from r/tycoon users on Reddit (the bulk of the playtesters came from my successful post there).
The Google Form feedback is helping much, it does give me some ideas.
Yeah, yeah. I am defeated. It seems my mechanic of "waiting" for the boss isn't really clicking with anyone. But, by the way... the people who rated the game highly didn't complain about it.
Guys, if you are participating in the playtest — please write down why YOU PERSONALLY closed the game in the first 15 minutes! You would be helping me out a ton. And if you fill out the feedback form in the main menu — I'll be over the moon.
So, what's next? It's obvious — back to work.
Below are the details for the update I just pushed to Steam. I tried to take your feedback into account and fix the game at least a bit.
1. The most important thing. I got rid of the boss waiting mechanic. Now we can take projects instantly. But there's a catch. Starting from the third day, the boss turns into a very busy person and comes to the office whenever he wants. And leaves the same way. I tried to keep the time-management aspect without stopping you from playing. Now you have to "catch" the boss. I haven't removed waiting for HR yet, I'm not ready for that. But the player can always hire an HR manager and skip the wait.
2. Tweaked the tutorial again. Well, not exactly tweaked. More like I fixed it. Now you don't have to wait around, which was causing people to run out of time. And on the first card, I explicitly state that the tutorial must be completed by 16:00. If you don't make it - you get fired. I know it's a stopgap solution, but I don't have time for a different one right now.
3. A bit more variety. In this update, I'm rolling out new bodies for employees. It doesn't affect gameplay, but it looks cooler. There are now 5 body types.
4. Encyclopedia. Many things in the game aren't intuitive or clear. I added an encyclopedia where I slowly plan to describe the mechanics. For now, it only covers the basics.
5. Improved the top panel. Now, when hovering over a value, you'll get a small tooltip. The game speed buttons look prettier now, too.
6. Emojis for Linux. Added a font to the game that should now correctly display emojis on non-Windows systems. A small thing, but a nice one.
7. Slightly changed the projects window. Added more info there to make it easier to navigate. But, as always, it only becomes useful after unlocking certain skills. Now you can directly see the efficiency and "average progress points per day from a specific employee" right in the window.
8. Lots of minor UI tweaks, texts, pauses, and so on. Short changelog:
Added a loading screen.
The game now pauses automatically when you are on the boss's project selection screen, the hiring screen, and during all events. But not on the active project screen (i dont know why).
Added spacebar hotkey to pause.
Enlarged the "Start Project" button and made it pulse.
Enlarged the "End Day" button and made it pulse.
Fixed boss event descriptions. Added more info on the actual effects they give.
Added a status bubble above an employee when they have no work.
Added visualization for the player leveling up (toast notification + bubble).
Reworked the text in the tutorial a bit.
Bottom line:
I've already uploaded the new build to Steam. It is now version alpha 0.42. I am also opening playtest access to everyone right now. Join the playtest! As you can see, I take player feedback seriously and I am genuinely trying to make my game better.
Also, check out a video recording of the playtest that one of the participants uploaded. Support colleague with a like!
Thanks everyone for your attention!