

HN, test out my facebook game - does it engage you? - dezwald
http://apps.facebook.com/levynlight

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ConceptDog
I actually liked it more than most 'mafia war' rip-offs. I work in social
games too (for the moment) out of Ottawa, Ontario.

Moving to something even more Ajax based, like mafia wars would be a good
idea.

I liked the users online incentives for players online across the top, but
should be bundled with a call to action telling me how I help raise that
number (though invites). I'd add an incentive based bar for more virality
(Like, bookmark, extended permissions and we'll give you energy/coins/unique
gear) and adds channels for you to communicate with users.

Some kind of a play rating (a simple number) that tells me how well I'm doing
in relation to others is also a good idea, so long as it points out how I can
raise it. People like getting graded.

I should be able to pay my way to end game, even if the amount of money
required is obscene. If you're looking to make money, let me pay to cut out a
whole segment of play to see what happens next.

Other than that, pretty cool. I enjoyed playing.

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mdolon
Not sure how useful this is but I'm one of those guys who hates adding
anything to Facebook, including games. When I clicked on your link, however,
it didn't ask me to connect to Facebook - rather it asked me what weapon I
wanted to use to kill an enemy. In terms of engagement, that's a heck of a lot
more likely to convince someone like me to connect your app/game to my
Facebook account, so nice work on the splash screen!

~~~
dezwald
Thanks for the comment! My problem right now is getting users stay in the game
once they have installed it.

I'm not sure if it's the game mechanics or the UI that need improvement or
maybe is it the lack of explaining the game storyline.

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mortuus
\- the enemy and equipment art is great

\- the journal feature is fun, I wish more games had something like this. you
might be able to introduce quests/statusrewards around information contained
in the journal (like GoblinCrusher --- punishes at least three goblins/day)

\- would prefer to choose a character name (and perhaps an avatar) than to use
my own name and image

\- too many refreshing pages, my favorite part of the game is the play button,
because it's fast, and all of the action happens without pages refreshing

\- hard to tell what was equipped / how to equip something, I kept clicking
the image because I interpreted the actual button as a decorative bullet)

\- 1 action every fifteen minutes is not enough, (I have to stop playing 30
seconds after I finish the tutorial??) This is probably where you are losing
people. The speed decrease really threw me off.

\- the battle news is an interesting feature, though with the current content
I'd definitely want to set the default to skip the play by play and just give
me the result

\- could not understand the battle system, what do the numbers mean, and how
does the max come into play?

\- one of the top results on Google for LevynLight was for an autoplaying
macro.

\- initially thought the game name was pronounced Levy N Light when I saw it
as one word

~~~
dezwald
Mortuus, this is a great reply. Thanks for the detailed points. Choosing a
character name is something i'll be adding to the game shortly.

I definitely agree with regarding the 15 minute wait for turn play. My team
decided to go with 15 minutes so users don't burn through content (chapter
art) too quickly.

Definitely will consider the speeding up the turn play duration.

Thanks again, Mortuus!

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nopinsight
After playing with it a little I am reminded of a lesson that holds true for
many Web apps as well. Assume the user has zero patience to learn about your
app. They have a zillion other tabs opening and the moment they get a little
frustrated they will simply close your app and move on to another thing to
do/play with. So focusing on first-time users is a very important investment,
just because every user has to be first-time once, by definition.

In this particular game, I think the UI & communication with the user can be
improved quite a bit. In Mafia Wars and almost all of the top-hit games,
first-time players can easily find out how to do important things in the game,
like fighting a given enemy. Here, when I click on the enemy, I see a button
which says 'continue', which does not say much. It seems like sometimes
'continue' does nothing, sometimes it starts a fight.

Try looking closely at the new tutorial for Mafia Wars (or other top games),
it hand-holds the user through all the key steps to understand the basic game
mechanics. Also, all their wordings are chosen carefully and have clear
meanings to any newbie.

Another key idea: give the new player the sense of victory and other positive
reinforcements as often as possible. People play game to enjoy the experience:
if you fail to defeat your opponent too many times at first, you wouldn't
bother to come back. It might also be useful to clearly lead the user to how
he can increase the chance of defeating him next time.

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dotBen
Maybe it's because I'm used to dungeons and dragons games on the command line
but these 'visual versions' just don't do it for me.

They feel too linear and forced. Farmville and co, while not really any less
linear in terms of gameplay progression feel a lot more open-ended and the
true 3d experience gives me a more engaging experience -- which is why I think
they are popular.

Sure, I know Mafia Wars and similar games are in the same style of yours but
I've never taken to them.

BTW you guys work in my Dad's hometown of Oakville, ON - right on!

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sqrt17
Hey, this reminds me of AdventureQuest, only with decent graphics. So
compliment for the decent graphics.

The big green "SHARE" button is a bit too much in-your-face for my taste. I
know you're depending on word-of-mouth, but it would still be visible enough
(and less stupid) at 80-90% of its current size.

One thing that I'd _love_ to see, though, is anything with the depth of text-
based MUDs (i.e., where you have different puzzles or quests to discover). I
do realize that you're aiming at more casual interactions, but maybe there
would be a spot for games where you have basic, casual-styles encounters most
of the time but can also launch on an hour+-long quest that will make you
discover some more of the world. (And I realize, too, that having a big world
means that you need more graphics and stuff - but that's something that you,
and not I, would figure out. If you think at Farmville scale, the expenses for
the graphics of MapleStory and the likes seem relatively minor).

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emmett
Putting the "Share" button on every little page makes me never want to click
it. You should only put it on really significant events that I might actually
want to share.

Also you didn't make a big deal when I leveled up, and I have no idea why that
is even valuable. Normally leveling up is the most awesome thing you can do!

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ryanelkins
I don't like that the page refreshes so often. Every menu I click on
completely reloads the entire page. Also I wasn't sure what I was supposed to
be doing when I got to "get flags from drill instructor". I hit play and got
smarmy rival (After I had beaten him twice). I checked around in a few menu
items before hitting play again and getting the drill instructor. The combat
seems a bit boring too. It's just sort of one click and you either win or
lose.

The page reload is really bugging me though. Every combat I have to reload the
whole page after every fight. That 1-2 seconds just really kills the flow for
me. Edit: I just realized I can hit 'Play' instead of of 'Go to camp' after
every fight. That helps some, but I still don't like the page loads on menu
clicks.

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icco
In all honesty, I think this game is ok, but the fact that it is linked in to
facebook turns me off entirely right from the get go.

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JoeAltmaier
Didn't run it at all - the first prompt was to share my friends with the app -
which I don't do.

