Globally very good. Appreciate the design decisions.
A few UX issues that I found. None is game breaking and I’m sure I could get « used » to them. But initial impressions matter.
Gathering resources
- I initially didn’t notice the tip at the top of the screen since it appears at the same time as I’m focused on the animation to achieve a « perfect ».
- the bonus materials aren’t clear. There’s a (visual?) conflict between the automatically given bonus resources and the ones at the end. Maybe an opportunity to regroup all of them at the end with a clear recap message showing base and bonus and and automatic pick instead of a manual?
- The minigame is not as clear when fishing (« good », « perfect » are missing …)
Plagued item colour
- as already said: too close to the other red. Before was better.
Bow
- rune usage for base attack is not consistent with other weapons and add mental load when using bows.
- Equip in the right hand if used as a main weapon is not logical
- I haven’t found a way to cancel a shot when charging and I want to abort it.
- Some enemies don’t react to being shot from distance when they are on a different z-axis or when there is an obstacle. I know they are able to climb ladder, why don’t they try? Or should they try to cover in a non targetable spot (probably difficult to implement)?
- Knockback might be a bit too strong on small non charged hits: it could potentially be used to prevent target from approaching. Should it be proportional to the strength of the load?
- Hits don’t connect on the first boss when he is mid-air. Either it’s intended but not visually clear. Or hits should work as I think they should.
Utility runes
- They are « hidden » between a somewhat enigmatic visual bottom left. I do get it but it was initially a bit confusing.
- I searched for a full screen settings about them but it looks like I need to wait to access Eleanor later to get it. I think it’s a bad idea for discoverability and accessibility.
- Or maybe a bigger version of that bottom left menu displayed in the middle of the screen on press (like food switch)
- I think the most disturbing thing is to only see one rune at a time in that small layout. « As a user I can see one action (X on controller) but I need to press Y to use the most iconic utility rune: heal.
- overall the controller buttons settings to use parry/ block/ utility runes/ magic runes seem a bit intricate to me: default config might be more straightforward (or is it me who changed them and now they are less logical?). I would expect defense (block and parry to be on the bottom buttons and the runes to be both on top buttons on a controller.
Difficulty settings
- they aren’t in a whisper menu as I was expecting them.
- If I’m right, they would benefit to be there because they would be more visible and at the right place when I should remember about their existence (traveling after a fail, preparing an exploration session). If placed in a whisper menu, If user don’t care about them they wouldn’t change them and wouldn’t even see them anymore. But if they do, they would change them regularly, play with them, a bit, then only change them when needed, less often. Overall, if they exist after the initial choice, they should be more advertised.
New loading screen
- the animation on the bottom right is too subtle.
- I didn’t notice it initially and had the feeling of the game being « stuck » on that screen
Food
- without forcing, I do already have 32 meals. Is it still needed since we now have the heal utility rune?
- since later it’s more difficult to have as many meals , I would reduce their amount in the early game to accustom users and naturally adjust their expectations and habits. Especially with the easy difficulty available
Difficulty scaling
- easy is surprisingly interesting: challenge is way lower but still here in some cases (multiple enemies or tight space). I wouldn’t change it: it’s good as it is.
- If I could I would choose a difficulty in between this one and the default (normal),difficulty: it would be both challenging but still forgiving. Not too stressful after a hard work day
Clarifications:
- this was after 30 min spent in game after dozens of hours on the previous version
- There are probably things that I didn’t understand properly, that make sense and that I could get used to.
- Maybe some settings that I changed on my Xbox controller previously, explaining my confusion with utility runes buttons.
Again: changes are welcome, their scope and implementation are mostly good. But UX might be improved. Forgive me if my feedback is too quick, but we know that early impressions are valuable « as they come » even with mistakes