Long list of feedback/suggestions from somene who played almost all digital card games and watched them all fail
( Hearthstone is the only one that did not fail when it comes to making it big (money), but when it comes to some other stuff it failed gamers real hard. I wish someone would copy some of their designe/UI choices and not only the things that ruined that game for me, like pay to win, scripted RNG, terrible balance, zero quality of life updates, renting cards for real money etc. )
I currently have three CCG games on my PC that are at closed beta stage and none of them will make it big. One of them actually has great gameplay and would be an incredible success but the UI, visuals are really terrible.
I tried to point out all the bad design decisions and how they could improve it but developers tend to think how everything they do is perfect and people on forum usually just defend them blindly.
Some people say this game company is better so let's try again. ( When it comes to gridning/pay to win it does not look promising at all. Some developer for this game was asked about the game pricing http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/06/15/gwent-developer-interview-ign-live-e3-2016 and he gave a typical PR response" we are gamers, you can sing up and play "bita" etc. " without answering the actual question on how the pricing will be.
Every CCG that comes out just wants to copy HS when it comes to that. The problem with that approach is that you can already play HS, why switch to another game when it is the same thing all over gain.
I do not even mind if the game is pay to win. But just not as much as HS. For example if you can earn gold by playing against bots, if you could earn some gold even when you lose, if there where no quests that force you to play decks/classes you do not have good cards for, if you earned twice as much for winning then in HS, if quests rewarded you more, if packs costed less and game more etc.
And a very important thing.
I do not want to spend my money to rent cards. Hearthstone acctualy removed a huge part of people collection and now you can only rent cards. Of course you never acctualy owned nothing in that game since they can ban you and take your cards when ever they feel like it but they even made it worse.
I am talking about wild/standard mode. Wild is a dead mode so all the cards you have are basically gone.
All that being said, HS developers ( those who originality worked on the game ) did an incredibly job when it comes to UI and design.
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Here are some points about this game I would like to make:
1 A. If you plan to add ( and you probably do ) those irritating emotes like in HS I would also like to know if you will add permanent mute option. If the answer is "no" or "maybe" then I already know what kind of game this is and do not want to have anything with it. I definitely do NOT want to listen to some prerecorded voices and to be forced to mute my opponent every time I start the game.
In HS people have been asking for that option for a long time but we are ignored. Why? because those emotes create a connection with a game and create negative emotions. That is good for them because when you get emotional you are more likely to do something stupid ( like soend a lot of money on the game in order to get back at those trolls who BM you ).
Little scam tricks like that are used in gaming industry more and more. I understand they only care about money and it is only business but I still do not like it.
2. B I would like to see OPTIONAL voice and text chat. I repeat OPTIONAL so if it is ON then you can talk to your opponents and if it is OFF then no one can talk to you. There could be a setting also to turn it OFF/ON for friends only and an option to blocks communication with some people.
Again, people who are against this have a hard time understanding a concept of OPTIONAL chat. No one cn insult you if you keep it OFF.
3. C I would like to see RNG in this game actually scripted being to be random. It is irritating to play a card game where RNG is scripted to make you win/lose and keep everyone around 50% win rate. Of course matchmaking like that is done in a lot of games like counter strike, MOBA games etc. but problem with a card game is that RNG can be easily codded to to artificially keep you around 50% win rate just by giving you bard draws etc.
Since there is zero regulation over what kind of RNG code developers use they can do what ever they want. Even casinos have some superficial control over that but games do not even though a lot of them involve gambling ( like buying packs )
4. DIt would be nice if this game did not involve gambling = buying packs with random cards but earned money in some other way
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Now, about the visuals:
1. The bottom looks bad. I am talking about the blue part. It looks so out of place, like it is a a bigger windows taskbar and not part of the game.
2. Gwent visuals in Witcher 3 had a lot of problems also but the over all look was better. More serious, more simple ( in a good way ) , cleaner etc.
http://abload.de/img/gwento6jgf.jpg
3. Numbers style on the side of the board look out of place. Like their are from some arcade game
4. Cards on the board are too small, not sure if anything can be done about it, but it is a shame since card art is not bad. Yes you can zoom to see the card but that is not such a good solution, Card art looks ok, but in witcher 3 they where bigger and the visual style allowed it to easier tell them apart.
5. Numbers on the cards are too small also. ( I would prefer if enemy card backs and all where not shown in total so that the board is moved upwords more. That would allow for the cards in my hand and the cards on the board to be bigger thus making it easier to see 9 enjoy the art and tell cards apart and see the numbers ). Again, zooming in is not a good replacement.
6. The right side of the board where you see zoomed in card ( the one you mouse over ) is just irritating after a while. It would be better if there and on the left side you would have your and enemy hero portrait.
I would place my hero portrait on the left side and enemy portrait on the right side. Some animated card art looks really great. imagine if you could have hero portraits like that, You could sell that and even customization for those portraits. One moba game is earning a LOT just on skins alone.
http://abload.de/img/boardcopywjucf.jpg
If you wanted to zoom in on the card you could just make it so that you can right click on the card and it will pop out a zoomed version of it.
The amount of health could also be placed on the hero portrait.
it is a shame your hero does not even exist in a game that is a part of an RPG game universe ( book )Those small icons next to your name is pointless.
7. It would be nice if you could bind " end turn"/ " pass turn" button to what ever key you want, The current position for it is not good. It would be nice if i could bind it to right mouse button ( I guess then you should be able to bind card zoom to another key also ). Having a key for "end turn" being binded to a keybord key is ok also but it is better if you can play with a mouse only. Of course autohotkey could come to a rescue but I would prefer if the game had custom key bindings.
8. " Pass turn" button would be better placed on the top right corner side. Easier to reach from an ergonomic point of view ( every detail is important, the more comfortable the game is the more overal enjoyment you will have playing it even when you do not consciously notice those things )
9. It would be nice if you could hide your opponent name or place is to that it is not near crucial date ( like life amount ). It would also be nice not to point out your opponent name when you lose the game.
Why all that? The game just becomes more irritating when you lose against "HiHIHiIlovebunnyes" especially more then one time.
10. I hope matchmaking will work so that you can not face same opponent in a row
11. Option rematch your last opponent would be a good one. So if you both click on "rematch" you can play again one or two more times ( for the best of three )
12. It would be nice if text chat started working automaticaly once you start pressing letters on the keyboard. No need to force people to press "enter" and then start typing.
13. I hope "concede" will work instantly and that it will not require conformation. Same goes for closing the game etc. YES I AM SURE I want to close the game. It is not a crucial project that will save the world from pay to win games infestation so even if i missclick ( and i do not ) I can live with it.
( Hearthstone is the only one that did not fail when it comes to making it big (money), but when it comes to some other stuff it failed gamers real hard. I wish someone would copy some of their designe/UI choices and not only the things that ruined that game for me, like pay to win, scripted RNG, terrible balance, zero quality of life updates, renting cards for real money etc. )
I currently have three CCG games on my PC that are at closed beta stage and none of them will make it big. One of them actually has great gameplay and would be an incredible success but the UI, visuals are really terrible.
I tried to point out all the bad design decisions and how they could improve it but developers tend to think how everything they do is perfect and people on forum usually just defend them blindly.
Some people say this game company is better so let's try again. ( When it comes to gridning/pay to win it does not look promising at all. Some developer for this game was asked about the game pricing http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/06/15/gwent-developer-interview-ign-live-e3-2016 and he gave a typical PR response" we are gamers, you can sing up and play "bita" etc. " without answering the actual question on how the pricing will be.
Every CCG that comes out just wants to copy HS when it comes to that. The problem with that approach is that you can already play HS, why switch to another game when it is the same thing all over gain.
I do not even mind if the game is pay to win. But just not as much as HS. For example if you can earn gold by playing against bots, if you could earn some gold even when you lose, if there where no quests that force you to play decks/classes you do not have good cards for, if you earned twice as much for winning then in HS, if quests rewarded you more, if packs costed less and game more etc.
And a very important thing.
I do not want to spend my money to rent cards. Hearthstone acctualy removed a huge part of people collection and now you can only rent cards. Of course you never acctualy owned nothing in that game since they can ban you and take your cards when ever they feel like it but they even made it worse.
I am talking about wild/standard mode. Wild is a dead mode so all the cards you have are basically gone.
All that being said, HS developers ( those who originality worked on the game ) did an incredibly job when it comes to UI and design.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some points about this game I would like to make:
1 A. If you plan to add ( and you probably do ) those irritating emotes like in HS I would also like to know if you will add permanent mute option. If the answer is "no" or "maybe" then I already know what kind of game this is and do not want to have anything with it. I definitely do NOT want to listen to some prerecorded voices and to be forced to mute my opponent every time I start the game.
In HS people have been asking for that option for a long time but we are ignored. Why? because those emotes create a connection with a game and create negative emotions. That is good for them because when you get emotional you are more likely to do something stupid ( like soend a lot of money on the game in order to get back at those trolls who BM you ).
Little scam tricks like that are used in gaming industry more and more. I understand they only care about money and it is only business but I still do not like it.
2. B I would like to see OPTIONAL voice and text chat. I repeat OPTIONAL so if it is ON then you can talk to your opponents and if it is OFF then no one can talk to you. There could be a setting also to turn it OFF/ON for friends only and an option to blocks communication with some people.
Again, people who are against this have a hard time understanding a concept of OPTIONAL chat. No one cn insult you if you keep it OFF.
3. C I would like to see RNG in this game actually scripted being to be random. It is irritating to play a card game where RNG is scripted to make you win/lose and keep everyone around 50% win rate. Of course matchmaking like that is done in a lot of games like counter strike, MOBA games etc. but problem with a card game is that RNG can be easily codded to to artificially keep you around 50% win rate just by giving you bard draws etc.
Since there is zero regulation over what kind of RNG code developers use they can do what ever they want. Even casinos have some superficial control over that but games do not even though a lot of them involve gambling ( like buying packs )
4. DIt would be nice if this game did not involve gambling = buying packs with random cards but earned money in some other way
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, about the visuals:
1. The bottom looks bad. I am talking about the blue part. It looks so out of place, like it is a a bigger windows taskbar and not part of the game.
2. Gwent visuals in Witcher 3 had a lot of problems also but the over all look was better. More serious, more simple ( in a good way ) , cleaner etc.
http://abload.de/img/gwento6jgf.jpg
3. Numbers style on the side of the board look out of place. Like their are from some arcade game
4. Cards on the board are too small, not sure if anything can be done about it, but it is a shame since card art is not bad. Yes you can zoom to see the card but that is not such a good solution, Card art looks ok, but in witcher 3 they where bigger and the visual style allowed it to easier tell them apart.
5. Numbers on the cards are too small also. ( I would prefer if enemy card backs and all where not shown in total so that the board is moved upwords more. That would allow for the cards in my hand and the cards on the board to be bigger thus making it easier to see 9 enjoy the art and tell cards apart and see the numbers ). Again, zooming in is not a good replacement.
6. The right side of the board where you see zoomed in card ( the one you mouse over ) is just irritating after a while. It would be better if there and on the left side you would have your and enemy hero portrait.
I would place my hero portrait on the left side and enemy portrait on the right side. Some animated card art looks really great. imagine if you could have hero portraits like that, You could sell that and even customization for those portraits. One moba game is earning a LOT just on skins alone.
http://abload.de/img/boardcopywjucf.jpg
If you wanted to zoom in on the card you could just make it so that you can right click on the card and it will pop out a zoomed version of it.
The amount of health could also be placed on the hero portrait.
it is a shame your hero does not even exist in a game that is a part of an RPG game universe ( book )Those small icons next to your name is pointless.
7. It would be nice if you could bind " end turn"/ " pass turn" button to what ever key you want, The current position for it is not good. It would be nice if i could bind it to right mouse button ( I guess then you should be able to bind card zoom to another key also ). Having a key for "end turn" being binded to a keybord key is ok also but it is better if you can play with a mouse only. Of course autohotkey could come to a rescue but I would prefer if the game had custom key bindings.
8. " Pass turn" button would be better placed on the top right corner side. Easier to reach from an ergonomic point of view ( every detail is important, the more comfortable the game is the more overal enjoyment you will have playing it even when you do not consciously notice those things )
9. It would be nice if you could hide your opponent name or place is to that it is not near crucial date ( like life amount ). It would also be nice not to point out your opponent name when you lose the game.
Why all that? The game just becomes more irritating when you lose against "HiHIHiIlovebunnyes" especially more then one time.
10. I hope matchmaking will work so that you can not face same opponent in a row
11. Option rematch your last opponent would be a good one. So if you both click on "rematch" you can play again one or two more times ( for the best of three )
12. It would be nice if text chat started working automaticaly once you start pressing letters on the keyboard. No need to force people to press "enter" and then start typing.
13. I hope "concede" will work instantly and that it will not require conformation. Same goes for closing the game etc. YES I AM SURE I want to close the game. It is not a crucial project that will save the world from pay to win games infestation so even if i missclick ( and i do not ) I can live with it.
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