Microlightning
Updated to make the controls more intuitive + some other minor QoL things
There are still some performance issues and audio bugs with the web version that I cannot figure out how to resolve. The downloadable versions do not seem to have these bugs.
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It feels like it would be more intuitive if the game detected that I moved my shroom over a droplet and that set the focus on a droplet. If I move to another droplet, the focus follows it. Then, instead of moving the mouse wheel around, which is odd—I've never had to use that in that way before...—I just have it so if I move my shroom around inside the droplet, that counts as disintegrating it.
That would give you more things to add to the game too. Like the radius around the shroom where other droplets can be acted upon and the strength of acting upon a droplet.
This game would be remarkable as heck with fewer things to use for controls.
I'm not sure if I like the mechanics behind the battery. Ok, why not have pressing the spacebar be the only method required to attract the battery? Having to click it to use the spacebar seems unnecessary.
Great ideas! Simplifying the controls is for sure going to be a priority of mine. I had originally set the focus on a droplet to be automatic, but encountered some bugs with that... But I can make it work.
I'm honestly kind of stuck on using the mouse wheel, but I suppose I'm being to stubborn about it haha. Could a decent middle ground be just having to scroll in one direction?
And I was originally planning on making more options for battery (and object control in general) one of the prestige options. I included clicking on an object to before pressing space so that if you have multiple objects that can be moved around, you can chose which one to move. Do you think having the spacebar as a toggle rather than a press and hold would simplify things?
A decent middle ground would be to have a full configuration where default values are how you want it to be played, and we can turn them off or on at our pleasure to suit the control interface to our desires.
Here's another thought: instead of wiggling inside the droplet or using the mouse wheel on it, why not just be present in it? If you're not present in it, it doesn't disintegrate.
You could have your cake and eat it too. I just thought as I wrote that, why not also have it that if you're in the droplet and you move the mouse wheel up and down, it disintegrates faster?
Wait, okay, how about this: you go in the droplet, and that selects it by default and starts disintegrating it. There can be upgrades for that.
But if you decide to use the mouse wheel, you also get areas of effect; it makes the disintegration happen faster. Then, if you have the area buff, you can get more than one droplet.
That way, those of us who want to be in the droplet—that's on us if we don't progress as fast as the players who are also using the mouse wheel.
I think I've decided to still use the mouse wheel but change it to just scrolling in one direction instead of going back and forth. Then, instead of pressing E on a droplet, you just have to scroll the mouse wheel once you are near the droplet. I was worried this would simplify things too much, but since you have to still charge the battery, bring it to the battery pad, and wait for the charge to drain, it still feels as I believe an incremental/automation game should feel.I tried making it so that you could just be present in the droplet, but that introduced some wild and unexpected bugs that didn't seem worth it to me as a developer to fix haha... Thank you for the suggestion though!!
Neat idea, the initial battery charging takes quite a while though, was able to build some stuff though and then I had the game crash on me x_x
Noooooooo :'( I'm sorry
I can't get the battery to fill. It's stuck on 50 no matter how much I drag it through lightning. Also, it would be nice to be able to talk to the guy and repeat dialogue so you don't have to restart the game if you miss something. The controls are not intuitive.
Thank you for the feedback! It means a lot! And interesting... I haven't encountered that bug before, but I will see if I can do something to fix it.
Would it be nicer to just have a button in the pause menu that reviews controls instead of redoing the dialogue?
I've had a couple people say the controls are not intuitive, so if I work on this more, I definitely want to address this. Is it the scrolling itself that feels unintuitive or is it how it fits into the rest of the controls? Like point and click for movement, having to select droplets with E, or moving objects with space?
The controls make me feel like I'm having an aneurism, why overcomplicate things?
WASD instead of right click for movement
Clicking instead of scrolling to break particles (why the hell did you think that would be good lmao)
Spacebar is fine for moving the battery... but maybe make it sticky to you so you don't have to keep clicking it.
Couldn't figure out how to charge it either so dropped the game at this point
haha I got a little too caught up in trying to make things novel that I definitely overcomplicated things. I think WASD would probably be a good idea with this format.
And yeah, I'll probably come up with some other control scheme to break the particles. I chose the scrolling because of the theme of the game jam, but I suppose I tunneled on that too hard.
Making it sticky is a great idea! Thank you for that!
Sorry you couldn't figure it out. I'll try and make it more intuitive for sure. Thank you for the feedback!