Prototype Review
It has been 2 weeks since the A Thug's Ascension prototype release on March 28 this year. We managed to give away 17 out of our max 20 keys (which is good) and got some honest feedback from our playtesters. So there are 3 keys remaining right now... join our Discord server to get one if you want to play the game too. We now analyze the feedback and decide whether to continue with A.T.A. or not. Here is a list of the most helpful given reviews.
Oriki
Ofcourse there were a lot of bugs and problems in the games, as it's a prototype after all. But was the game fun? Yes, to an extent. The reward at the end didn't feel like it had any meaning, maybe create those gang initiations as a result of bounties or something like that, either way, I felt the objective requires more meaning, and the fights between gangs and the general should be more complex than just rapid fire shooting. The general concept of taking over zones, then those zones being home bases seems cool. At times the game was really frustrating as well, like (a) Not knowing the controls was frustrating at the beginning, sat around for 10-15 minutes just figuring out what everything did. (This took so long as the result of the following point), (b) Not being able to control the dual/single monitor view of the game, as my mouse kept going off screen (which definetely ruined player experience), and (c) Toggle mode for 1st/3rd person view for those situations where I'm just communicating with objects would be nice. Now was the game boring? There isn't a lot of content yet, I don't think it'll be boring once more complex scenarios and content is added. I think for the game to have potential, the following aspects have to be made more clear and amplified: (a) The mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics of the game (the MDA framework), and (b) Implement more complex scenarios + mechanics + an integration of a non-linear narrative (potentially linear depending on the type of game you want this to end up being). Overall I think there is a solid foundation of functionality, but the core mechanics and dynamics of the game need to be amplified, as a game design it feels too simple and if I were playing this as a non-tester, I would probably get bored of it pretty quickly and go back to something more complex like Overwatch, Apex Legends, or something like that. A potential implementation path could be different types of guns and utility items to overcome obstacles in obtaining these warehouses rather than just the generic war equipment (guns, grenades, explosives etc.). I hope this was helpful, and that you take what I said in a constructive manner, as I am not perfect, nobody is, these are just my opinions. (Keep in mind I don't know anything about the game other than the playing which I just experienced). Game has potential.
Tyyppi_77
Getting started in the game felt super frustrating. I wasn't able to kill civilians without getting shot. The movement system also felt awkward. It's hard to say a single reason why, I think it's a combination of the weird strafe-mechanic and the derpy animations. I also feel like there's a disjoint in mechanics when you rotate the camera while stationary, since then the camera doesn't affect the players rotation or positioning at all. It might be a good idea to make the player (and/or the player's head) rotate along when looking around. The aiming felt weird with the player in a fixed position on the screen. However killing people was pretty satisfying with the ragdoll physics applied to the bodies. I find it hard to thoroughly judge rough prototypes like this, since I believe good mechanics are a combination of polish and behaviour. I think everything the game has so far is really basic stuff, but if a lot of work is put in content and polish wise, I guess I could see the game becoming enjoyable. Game has potential.
PaulieWalnuts
I played the game for 4 hours over the past 2 days. It's really empty right now. Not much to do. The visuals are incomplete of course and the game is... well it's a prototype. Also a handful of noticeable bugs, QoL problems and some weird behaviour here and there.
The thing which I actually enjoyed was the outpost. The outpost was challenging and it looked real scary from a distance (cool!). It was frustrating losing again and again to those men, as the game lacks much engagement options as of now, but finally managing to kill all the people there felt good until that general guy showed up and finished me off within the next half second. I sat down to think of a proper strategy and realized how simple killing the general was: a dynamite blockade. Another 8 tries later I was finally greeted with the red OUTPOST TAKEN OVER screen and I sighed with a smile. Ha, ha. The mortar and the machineguns were really cool but allow the player and his gang members to use it and please atleast show the ceiling getting destroyed or something when the mortar can still hit the player when inside the oupost building. Also why don't the NPC's take cover?
So the game is very empty right now as I said but I do realize that it's really a prototype and is ways off from release. The foundations are super strong. The animations, the weapons, the NPC's, the nice toony character textures, the cars (THE DRIVING IS AWESOME), the concept of fighting for turf (outpost scenarios etc),... everything is really solid. Maybe your next step should be introducing some complex mechanics to the game with more than one possible scenario, as right now the game feels too simple. Add more visible options to engage the outpost and stuff. The models you guys've been showcasing in your blogs are too good, nice job DK.
But really to be honest the foundations are the things that answer if the game has "potential" or not, and the foundations are solid. Great job guys! Game has potential.
So I bought Belgian chocolate ice-cream.
I had no idea at all that I'd find 17 people to play it. Out of our right-now 40 community members, 17 became A.T.A. playtesters. When I began I thought that only me and D.K. would playtest it from time-to-time, and then keep deving it in closed rooms. People from around the world joining in and being a part of this community was not at all what I thought when I was typing "OpenWorldGame" as the project name in the Unity new project window.
The community is constantly growing, and many of the members are actually committed to what we're doing. They truly care. They keep flowing in suggestions and feedback, and they keep me smiling all the time (except school).
I'm very happy to get to keep working on A.T.A., and I promise that I WILL try my best to make it into the world's best indie open-world experience. Don't fact-check that when it's out.
We're really excited about continuing to develop the game! And again, a big thanks to our community members! And a special thanks to Tyyppi_77, Güray, Luminon41, TehGM and PaulieWalnuts!
Thanks to Utpal Chandra for supporting the project!
Also, we'll now be stopping the weekly devblog posts. Instead we'll keep pushing updates to the game's itch.io and then we'll write a devblog post about that. Whenever an update is out, playtesters can re-download the game (the game progress is safe) and the new content will be in. The updates won't be rushed; they will be slow and we'll develop a lot of stuff for one single update, so it'll be easy for the playtesters as well.
Thanks for reading this post, guys. It means a lot to us. We'll take it easy for a while and then we'll start with the first prototype update. Until then, cheers.
Feedback
This is a list of some of the important feedback messages posted by our playtesters in the Moonwalk Entertainment Discord server.Oriki
Ofcourse there were a lot of bugs and problems in the games, as it's a prototype after all. But was the game fun? Yes, to an extent. The reward at the end didn't feel like it had any meaning, maybe create those gang initiations as a result of bounties or something like that, either way, I felt the objective requires more meaning, and the fights between gangs and the general should be more complex than just rapid fire shooting. The general concept of taking over zones, then those zones being home bases seems cool. At times the game was really frustrating as well, like (a) Not knowing the controls was frustrating at the beginning, sat around for 10-15 minutes just figuring out what everything did. (This took so long as the result of the following point), (b) Not being able to control the dual/single monitor view of the game, as my mouse kept going off screen (which definetely ruined player experience), and (c) Toggle mode for 1st/3rd person view for those situations where I'm just communicating with objects would be nice. Now was the game boring? There isn't a lot of content yet, I don't think it'll be boring once more complex scenarios and content is added. I think for the game to have potential, the following aspects have to be made more clear and amplified: (a) The mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics of the game (the MDA framework), and (b) Implement more complex scenarios + mechanics + an integration of a non-linear narrative (potentially linear depending on the type of game you want this to end up being). Overall I think there is a solid foundation of functionality, but the core mechanics and dynamics of the game need to be amplified, as a game design it feels too simple and if I were playing this as a non-tester, I would probably get bored of it pretty quickly and go back to something more complex like Overwatch, Apex Legends, or something like that. A potential implementation path could be different types of guns and utility items to overcome obstacles in obtaining these warehouses rather than just the generic war equipment (guns, grenades, explosives etc.). I hope this was helpful, and that you take what I said in a constructive manner, as I am not perfect, nobody is, these are just my opinions. (Keep in mind I don't know anything about the game other than the playing which I just experienced). Game has potential.
Tyyppi_77
Getting started in the game felt super frustrating. I wasn't able to kill civilians without getting shot. The movement system also felt awkward. It's hard to say a single reason why, I think it's a combination of the weird strafe-mechanic and the derpy animations. I also feel like there's a disjoint in mechanics when you rotate the camera while stationary, since then the camera doesn't affect the players rotation or positioning at all. It might be a good idea to make the player (and/or the player's head) rotate along when looking around. The aiming felt weird with the player in a fixed position on the screen. However killing people was pretty satisfying with the ragdoll physics applied to the bodies. I find it hard to thoroughly judge rough prototypes like this, since I believe good mechanics are a combination of polish and behaviour. I think everything the game has so far is really basic stuff, but if a lot of work is put in content and polish wise, I guess I could see the game becoming enjoyable. Game has potential.
PaulieWalnuts
I played the game for 4 hours over the past 2 days. It's really empty right now. Not much to do. The visuals are incomplete of course and the game is... well it's a prototype. Also a handful of noticeable bugs, QoL problems and some weird behaviour here and there.
The thing which I actually enjoyed was the outpost. The outpost was challenging and it looked real scary from a distance (cool!). It was frustrating losing again and again to those men, as the game lacks much engagement options as of now, but finally managing to kill all the people there felt good until that general guy showed up and finished me off within the next half second. I sat down to think of a proper strategy and realized how simple killing the general was: a dynamite blockade. Another 8 tries later I was finally greeted with the red OUTPOST TAKEN OVER screen and I sighed with a smile. Ha, ha. The mortar and the machineguns were really cool but allow the player and his gang members to use it and please atleast show the ceiling getting destroyed or something when the mortar can still hit the player when inside the oupost building. Also why don't the NPC's take cover?
So the game is very empty right now as I said but I do realize that it's really a prototype and is ways off from release. The foundations are super strong. The animations, the weapons, the NPC's, the nice toony character textures, the cars (THE DRIVING IS AWESOME), the concept of fighting for turf (outpost scenarios etc),... everything is really solid. Maybe your next step should be introducing some complex mechanics to the game with more than one possible scenario, as right now the game feels too simple. Add more visible options to engage the outpost and stuff. The models you guys've been showcasing in your blogs are too good, nice job DK.
But really to be honest the foundations are the things that answer if the game has "potential" or not, and the foundations are solid. Great job guys! Game has potential.
The Analysis
So we got a lot of noice reviews after requesting our playtesters to be absolutely honest. Even for this buggy bad-looking prototype, which doesn't aim to be fun or engaging or anything and is just for getting the game to the players early and telling them what's it actually about, getting so many honest yes's to the question "Does the game have potential?" means that even though many mechanics are frustrating right now and everything feels really empty currently, the game loop is tough and the game has potential. We have carefully read and understood every negative point in your reviews, even more carefully than the good ones to be honest, and we promise to keep improving the game keeping in mind all of the demands which have been put forward by you guys. But as for the decision, your beautiful responses have convinced us to continue developing A Thug's Ascension. We will do exactly that, and we look forward to give you guys the game you want to play (tbh we want to play it too and that's half the point of us deving it ha ha ha). Thank you guys. We love you all!
Aditya Chandra (Lead Developer)
Seven months ago in August 2018 I opened Unity and fired up a new untitled project to try and make an open world game that I'd like to play. In September I named it 'A Thug's Ascension' and started developing it with all the resources I had. Along with my best friend D.K., with assistance from my Dad, Utpal, I managed to conjure up a demonstration of the core game loop in six months. And after 8 guys from school, 17 community people from around the world and some even more friends and family members, played it, I got an honest thumbs-up from all those awesome people to go right ahead. I'm insanely happy. I'm VERY happy.So I bought Belgian chocolate ice-cream.
I had no idea at all that I'd find 17 people to play it. Out of our right-now 40 community members, 17 became A.T.A. playtesters. When I began I thought that only me and D.K. would playtest it from time-to-time, and then keep deving it in closed rooms. People from around the world joining in and being a part of this community was not at all what I thought when I was typing "OpenWorldGame" as the project name in the Unity new project window.
The community is constantly growing, and many of the members are actually committed to what we're doing. They truly care. They keep flowing in suggestions and feedback, and they keep me smiling all the time (except school).
I'm very happy to get to keep working on A.T.A., and I promise that I WILL try my best to make it into the world's best indie open-world experience. Don't fact-check that when it's out.
Diwangshu Kakoty (3D Artist)
I'm really happy to be a part of this game. Being the 3D artist for this venture, I really feel awesome when people appreciate my work and the game. And now after the successful prototype release of A Thug's Ascension I am feeling extremely motivated to create more and build the future of this game changer.We're really excited about continuing to develop the game! And again, a big thanks to our community members! And a special thanks to Tyyppi_77, Güray, Luminon41, TehGM and PaulieWalnuts!
Thanks to Utpal Chandra for supporting the project!
Also, we'll now be stopping the weekly devblog posts. Instead we'll keep pushing updates to the game's itch.io and then we'll write a devblog post about that. Whenever an update is out, playtesters can re-download the game (the game progress is safe) and the new content will be in. The updates won't be rushed; they will be slow and we'll develop a lot of stuff for one single update, so it'll be easy for the playtesters as well.
Thanks for reading this post, guys. It means a lot to us. We'll take it easy for a while and then we'll start with the first prototype update. Until then, cheers.
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