08-23-2017, 12:30 AM
John,
I will respond at greater length to your own responses to my previous posting, as time allows, which likely won't be tonight. I would stress this to you, though. The criticisms or commentary that is negative or critical, don't let those distract from one central truth - namely, figuring out the slots issue, what they were and where they were and how they work, that one central issue was a defining difference in me being able to dig myself out of the quicksand that I was in. The difference in grasping slots was of monumental and immediate importance.
I tried to explain what I saw or what I felt, in each of the numbered points, above. Certainly, reading the rules can be helpful, where any game is concerned. But, that's not the measure of how intuitive that a game interface feels, standing on its own two feet. Knowledge that a rulebook conveys can also convey familiarity. An average, ordinary person on the Internet who stumbles across your game might not want to read an 80+ page rulebook - even though a lot of those pages really weren't necessary to grasping how to jump right in and get started.
I am well aware that the scenario is new. It's still being developed and refined. If you can refine the interface to where someone who knows nothing about the rules, or even the interface, itself, can grasp it without clicking on a bunch of links and reading a bunch of different pages, then your chances of increasing your player base improves.
Also, to write about a game, as far as the experience of the game, itself, I have to be able to actually use the interface effectively. I don't want to get lost in the interface. I sure don't want to spend a bunch of time reading a thick rulebook. People met with those obstacles can easily persuade themselves to just try a different game, without ever really experiencing the full experience of Clash of Legends.
The initial frustration aside, when all was said and done, I was able to issue a set of orders that were what I wanted to issue. Now, ultimately, my choices may have not been the best or the wisest courses of action, but I did get them in under the deadline, and without reading a bunch of rules, yet while having a grasp of what I was trying to accomplish. Once the slots problem was figured out, things progressed fairly swiftly, all things considered. In my case, it all boiled down to one critical problem. Reading rulebooks is not the key to designing a game interface that is intuitive.
I will respond at greater length to your own responses to my previous posting, as time allows, which likely won't be tonight. I would stress this to you, though. The criticisms or commentary that is negative or critical, don't let those distract from one central truth - namely, figuring out the slots issue, what they were and where they were and how they work, that one central issue was a defining difference in me being able to dig myself out of the quicksand that I was in. The difference in grasping slots was of monumental and immediate importance.
I tried to explain what I saw or what I felt, in each of the numbered points, above. Certainly, reading the rules can be helpful, where any game is concerned. But, that's not the measure of how intuitive that a game interface feels, standing on its own two feet. Knowledge that a rulebook conveys can also convey familiarity. An average, ordinary person on the Internet who stumbles across your game might not want to read an 80+ page rulebook - even though a lot of those pages really weren't necessary to grasping how to jump right in and get started.
I am well aware that the scenario is new. It's still being developed and refined. If you can refine the interface to where someone who knows nothing about the rules, or even the interface, itself, can grasp it without clicking on a bunch of links and reading a bunch of different pages, then your chances of increasing your player base improves.
Also, to write about a game, as far as the experience of the game, itself, I have to be able to actually use the interface effectively. I don't want to get lost in the interface. I sure don't want to spend a bunch of time reading a thick rulebook. People met with those obstacles can easily persuade themselves to just try a different game, without ever really experiencing the full experience of Clash of Legends.
The initial frustration aside, when all was said and done, I was able to issue a set of orders that were what I wanted to issue. Now, ultimately, my choices may have not been the best or the wisest courses of action, but I did get them in under the deadline, and without reading a bunch of rules, yet while having a grasp of what I was trying to accomplish. Once the slots problem was figured out, things progressed fairly swiftly, all things considered. In my case, it all boiled down to one critical problem. Reading rulebooks is not the key to designing a game interface that is intuitive.