I've tried to get into playing gwent a bunch of times and I finally managed to get to enjoy the game, with the new expansion coming it seems like a good moment to give feedback and hopefully help to make this game grow by attracting new players.
I came back after a very long break at the first thing that I noticed is that the UI wasn't improved a lot, and it was the main aspect of the game that drove me away the other times. I had a lot of trouble tracking what happened in the game and even now I still have some trouble. This is not because Gwent is a game that's complicated to get into, but the UI doesn't allow you to learn it quick enough to feel comfortable playing.
The first problem I noticed is that card descriptions are extremely intrusive. Right now if you want to track what's going on on the board the only thing you can do is click on a card, blocking the view of all the board, and then hover over a keyword and read what it does. While you do that there's things going on that you don't even see, so after that be prepared to search on the game history and click a bunch of new cards. But there's information that is not tracked through the game history so even after doing that you can still feel a bit lost.
Aside from that the UI buttons have three issues:
Even with all that I managed to stick around because of the familiar look the wooden board had and the somewhat familiar Gwent mechanics from the Witcher. The wooden board is clear and clean enough to track what's going on if the view is not obstructed.
I am looking forward for the update now but this update will drive away potential new players for sure. Instead of improving on the current problems I'm afraid that with the new look they want to give to the board we'll be back to square one. Aside from the existing UI problems, we'll have a bunch more: not enough card contrast, all the detail in the board is distracting from the core of the game and it looks kind of messy, which it a big con when you have trouble tracking what's going on.
I understand that people in here enjoy the change, they know what's going on and it will only look more "cool" now. The problem seems to be that this update is targeting more veteran players when it shouldn't, I want to see this game grow and I want to be able to play with people I know but this is not an update that new players will enjoy. I'm not sure if I would have been able to stick around if there were all these new problems added to the UI and the board. I would have been extra lost without the familiar look it has now too.
This board is here to stay because it's already done, but hopefully this will lead to a more simple and clean design in the future and maybe a bit more familiar to the classic gwent style. The new version of the game looks good but the core of this game is the strategy and depth the cards provide, and while immersion helps to make the game attractive is not something necessary. The 3D models and the details of the board might look good, they should be avoided if they are harmful for the game in the long term.
I came back after a very long break at the first thing that I noticed is that the UI wasn't improved a lot, and it was the main aspect of the game that drove me away the other times. I had a lot of trouble tracking what happened in the game and even now I still have some trouble. This is not because Gwent is a game that's complicated to get into, but the UI doesn't allow you to learn it quick enough to feel comfortable playing.
The first problem I noticed is that card descriptions are extremely intrusive. Right now if you want to track what's going on on the board the only thing you can do is click on a card, blocking the view of all the board, and then hover over a keyword and read what it does. While you do that there's things going on that you don't even see, so after that be prepared to search on the game history and click a bunch of new cards. But there's information that is not tracked through the game history so even after doing that you can still feel a bit lost.
Aside from that the UI buttons have three issues:
- The first one is that they are not using the standard elements we all know for the in-game windows, for example, the first time I opened the game history I didn't know how to close it to pass my turn because there was no "cross" button and clicking around didn't close it automatically. Reinventing the wheel in this area is a very bad idea.
- The text of some buttons is not clear and is prone to produce mistakes. For example, you can click the "confirm choice" button without actually choosing anything and it will just cancel the action. This is a mistake that you will do two or three times, but when you have two or three games to get a player hooked it's a pretty big thing to take into account. Buttons should have a clear and concise text and disabled if necessary. Here colors might help, if you can still do actions tint them in red/yellow and green if you selected everything you can. Icons would be a nice addition too, for example an eye to the "hide cards" button.
- Finally, I noticed is that some buttons like to move around when new ones appear, I've miss-clicked them a bunch of times because of that. This it not terrible generally but kind of annoying and probably easy to solve, buttons should be more static or easier to find. For example, when clicking the "hide cards" button there should be some kind of highlight on the "show cards" button that goes to the bottom left corner .
Even with all that I managed to stick around because of the familiar look the wooden board had and the somewhat familiar Gwent mechanics from the Witcher. The wooden board is clear and clean enough to track what's going on if the view is not obstructed.
I am looking forward for the update now but this update will drive away potential new players for sure. Instead of improving on the current problems I'm afraid that with the new look they want to give to the board we'll be back to square one. Aside from the existing UI problems, we'll have a bunch more: not enough card contrast, all the detail in the board is distracting from the core of the game and it looks kind of messy, which it a big con when you have trouble tracking what's going on.
I understand that people in here enjoy the change, they know what's going on and it will only look more "cool" now. The problem seems to be that this update is targeting more veteran players when it shouldn't, I want to see this game grow and I want to be able to play with people I know but this is not an update that new players will enjoy. I'm not sure if I would have been able to stick around if there were all these new problems added to the UI and the board. I would have been extra lost without the familiar look it has now too.
This board is here to stay because it's already done, but hopefully this will lead to a more simple and clean design in the future and maybe a bit more familiar to the classic gwent style. The new version of the game looks good but the core of this game is the strategy and depth the cards provide, and while immersion helps to make the game attractive is not something necessary. The 3D models and the details of the board might look good, they should be avoided if they are harmful for the game in the long term.
