YOUR GAMES | Game Design Feedback 

Feedbacking games that are already pretty great is hard but I like the challenge, haha. Hope some of what I said makes sense at least. Enjoy!

Heeey, Blessed Burden level designer here 👋 Thanks a lot for your feedback, it inspires us to keep going and make our game better! We`ll take into account all your comments, everything you`ve said makes sence 🖤

Hey Jonas!! Im the lead designer for StarVaders Thanks so much for taking a look at our game haha, i didnt expect it! Glad you really enjoyed it! Your feedback is totally real. My god are you correct with how hard it is to make a trailer for it lmao, it took us like multiple weeks of back and forth with our trailer editor to really nail it down. We're kinda hoping that word of mouth will help us long term for marketing haha, just focusing on making the game as good as possible, get the demo in as many hands as possible. But yeah, I think we're gonna be working on some invaders and bosses with more visual flair too for the future! thanks again, cheers!

It's nice of you, as a professional game dev, to help smaller ones with feedback. Thank you :)

This is a very good example of how to give good constructive criticism. It provides actionable feedback on how to actually make the games better while acknowledging the things they do well.

I think for IDUN what would help would be turrets flying up and over to their next location so it takes time and maybe turrets take a second or two to start firing again it would make moving them more costly

In the 2nd game (IDUN) a possible counter to clumping would be an overheating mechanic. The objectives and the turrets could produces different amounts of heat in a radius. Clumping them too closely around each other causes them to overheat more quickly. This could also be worked into the enemy behaviour with them seeking out the hottest points (the objectives) and only sometimes attacking turrets if they're too clumped.

Great detailed feedback on these games is not just helpful to the creators, but Jonas finds a way to teach all of us so well with principles that can be applied to all of us viewers. Thank you Jonas for the great content you put out.

I like the floating text tutorial!

For IDUN, the terrain could have glowing crystal rock formation acting as both elevation, mining ressource and turret booster. Said crystal should be required to build turrets and individual turrets could be placed on chunks of them to improve their fire power. This would insentivise more strategic planings and as the game progress the player could be thrown into a conundrum of either mining the crystal the turrets currently use or risk their life mining further across the map.

The skill floor is not necessarily where beginners are. The skill floor is the minimum skill required to play the game to a functional level. A game could have a really high skill floor meaning it is very hard for new players to get to that level. In this case the skill floor would be above the beginners skill level.

Couldn't agree more about treating audio the same way you treat lighting. A lot of ways to run with that. With acoustic spaces, you could have different locations playing the same sound make it sound different, reflecting the way it should sound in that place, which is normally a realism thing, but also adds variety. There's some development towards acoustic path tracing, which is like an auditory equivalent of raytracing, where materials have properties for how they reflect sound, that are then used to build acoustic spaces, but I don't know if that's ready for games yet; I just think it's very neat

For the second game: Maybe they could add a bit of delay to the Orbital Minigun to make the player think the next few seconds rather than only the present? They also can add some electrical based turrets? Maybe it is more effective towards closely based enemies cuz it chains between close ones? Oh oh, imagine an enemy type that has gasoline blood! You could set it in fire to create temporary barriers!! Just some ideas I had while watching the trailer, had to write it down. The game looks amazing btw, fr fr!

Wow, as a beginner game dev, i got to learn so many things about game design and overall thinking. Thank you so much for this video.

Just so you know, it appears the chapters are not recognized when there are other lines separating them (like the steam and twitter links). Keep the feedback videos coming!

I love this series. So helpful for devs even if their game isn't featured...there are still so many great tips to be had! Thanks so much Jonas 🥰

It's very cool that you do this for your community! I'm starting to dabble in game design consulting myself (currently in early days as I revamp the current website, including free resources!), but I just love helping indie games, and I love how a series like this actually gets good views! 😄

For the second game I think the better solution is having turrets like/dislike being near eachother. Like Turret A does 10% more damage for every Turret B near it, but Turret B does 10% less damage for every Turret C near it. It makes placing them like a puzzle. And then also some places you can put them they should just be safe - like on top of a rock where the enemies can't reach, or only flying ones can. I feel like Bloons TD6 is a great place to look for inspiration from one of the best TD games ever made too.

A thick german accent saying "I don't think this is the final solution" was really what I needed to start my day on the right track (loved the video)

IDUN looks great. It's the kind of game you consider playing just because of the looks of it. If it plays half as well as it looks, it deserves to become a hit.

I'm loving these design feedback videos, Jonas! It's fascinating to see that even polished, great-looking games can find areas for improvement. The feedback is excellent and will really help the devs. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to help us small indie devs!

This series is soo cool, game dev on one side and amazing indies on the other. As much as I wish you could do this as a full-time series, I understand you've got your own game to work on as well!

I love that you are making more of these videos🙌 My fav series on the channel

thank you for such detailed feedback about Blessed Burden!

Once again thanks for an amazing video! I really appreciate how much effort you go to demonstrating your suggestions and ideas, not just talking about them.

Guess who’s back? Back again?

Really liking this series and the obvious time and attention you're putting into your feedback, thank you!

Really enjoyed the video! I think the things you pointed out for Blessed Burden were very interesting, especially about complementing the visual variety with acoustic variety - thats not something I had thought about much before. Excited to see more of your content!

Great Video Jonas, kind of you to give input to these nice looking games!

This is reeally good feedback. I hope the devs take it to heart. Also very fun and educational to watch as an aspiring indie dev. I hope you do more of these!

Wow so much work too help devs and really interesting feedbacks ! ♥

Amazing video. Great advices, I would never have thought of it.

These videos are great, it's nice to see how different games require very different feedback. Very educational :)

I really love this format. It's actually so cool that you take the time to do color correction and really think about game feel and possible improvements! I bet this takes a boatload of time to prepare. Thanks for making cool videos. Beste gruesse von einem fellow GameDev aus Berlin :)

gotta be my fav series you're doing!

Dude Star vaders is such a nice looking/feeling game, its so Northernlion-core that i can only imagine it being VERY useful in the marketing compartment

Love your videos. I like watching your feedback on other games, it can also help with the process of making my own game

These were some amazing games and you still had so much feedback, I literally have no shot😭Time for a backup plan💀

This is a great video and feedback was amazing! I loved this type od video, pleqse make more

Bravo with this Jonas! One of our fave series for game developers! You have some good points and hope the devs think about those things going forward. The last two do not need much adjustments to be successful. If they follow your advice and pay attention to just a few more smaller details they have a chance of really becoming hits! Excited for their team/s.

I really like your feedback videos! :D

Wow you realy put in time to give extremly helpful tips.

pointing out way more positives isn't really a bad thing... Its still really helpful to think about things I would like to do in my games.

Good video. Good feedback. Well done!!

JONAS IS BACK LET"S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

video: gives feedback on some games me, who hasn't even gotten to the game making part of the game making: "Interesting"

This is SO AWESOME!

I can see you really enjoy this episode!!

That first game looks exactly like the type of game where you would have things like those crazy mouse swing jumping momentum tricks like from Quake and other games derived from that engine (like the Half-Life and Portal series for example); and things like those surfing glitches by doing arcs on inclines like those Counter Strike surfing maps, and stuff like that.

these vids are always great

YAY NEW JONAS VIDEO

i played a demo of starvaders a year or two ago and rly liked it! glad you agreed :D

IDUN seems like a good treatment for my There are Billions itch.

Never miss a Jonas video. 100% excellent rate

yes!!! nice vid bro

I strongly disagree that [W] -> [Space] is roughly the same as [Space] -> [W]. I'm not saying this is true for everyone, but for me, the most interesting kind of mechanical complexity is when it's less to do with timing and more to do with the ordering of input presses and releases. So it's very fun when these kinds of differences result in wildly different outcomes. Yes it's initially confusing before you understand what's happening, but that's what makes it so rewarding to figure it out.

For IDUN game, making different enemies that have different targeting priororities (Turrets/Objective) is a good suggestion as such small change already gives variety in enemies, not making them feel the same. Regarding the strategy of placing all turrets around objective, there is a solution for that, that would increase enemy variety as well: AoE damaging enemies These should be in small amounts during waves but packing enough of a punch to be able to counter that strategy, while at the same time promoting more strategic placement and proactive gameplay. Good example of enemy variety for this type of game is Dungeon of the Endlees in my opinion, even though most enemies work the same, the variety in their attacks and single unique enemies with unique action sets cause the enemies to feel not repetetive and force adapting the player to the situation.

I’m not a gamedev and don’t wanna be but I love watching this !! ♥️

About Idun, for me it feels visually overwhelming. Particularly the rocks at first look like a swarm of something. Second, everything is over saturated. It’s a question of taste but beadability is important. It’s also a try and error process. I think Gmtk have an episode on this. In your case it could be the question of just tuning the color and reworking a couple of assets/textures. All games are really great by the way. @Star Vaders, for the marketing.. Maybe some animated cut scenes in the trailer? Like in Brawl Stars marketing, or Advance Wars trailer.

This is gold for both those whose game got picked... and for the others too!

The legend has returned

2:11 why did this game gave ame a shiver

For the first game (Blessed Burden) I think having a "crouch slide" mechanic that builds momentum would be a great way to raise the skill ceiling. By jumping into crouch in a rhythm you could effectively "skate", like some of the faster characters in Quake Champions.

Why am I not subscribed ?well o I’m subbed now.

YESSSSSSSSSSS! ANOTHER VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice

omg I remember playing and writing reviews for starvaders from gameround

Great video as always Jonas. Just wondering, are you working on a new game yet?

Watching this video made me think several times: He's making a point here!

16:46 and before, you are basically describing MarZ, I see every decision in that game. And I must say I liked it very much. There are some negative reviews and the overall design did not call my attention at first, but it is a good.

*5:30** but what meme is this a template for?* 🤔

Perhaps the gameplay trailer for the Star Vaders could ditch the fixed camera and zoom in and frame on where things are being done and swing to the consequences, chasing the cursor as the player makes decisions and stuff like that; taking just a bit of artistic liberty without straying too far from honest gameplay footage, and perhaps have some oldschool Batman "POW" style text popping over less relevant areas naming what's the cool thing that's happening at the moment in the highlighted areas?

Good feedback. Game 1 - it's crying out for a bhop mechanic. Routes that are wide and slow (but reachable via normal sprint and jump) vs trickier paths that can only be achieved via optimal movement. CS gives you extra distance from crouch jumping, or doom with strafing etc. There's definitely ways to make it better and more epic without having to rely on ramps for momentum. The criticism of the sound was fair - I don't necessarily think silence is right - sometimes noise and fear of the unknown / ominous sounds can have an impact too. Limiting sounds to zones / areas and a bigger variety matching the surfaces is important. Game 2. This game looked a bit too chaotic - one criticism from the proposed change is I think that would result in the same clustering which was the main criticisim. One way to improve this would be to have some cost to move turrets. Or some 'bonus' for killing at distances away from the objective. There seemed to be little skill in the turret placement - perhaps less enemies, or more tanky ones that spawn at intervals. Game 3. This game looked ok - the player grid seemed quite small and it wasn't obvious what the movement vs attack cost was. Also enemies advancing didn't look like they were predicable - but I didn't play ultra close attention to this. I'm not the biggest rogue like / deck building fan - but it looked unique enough.

Will there be videos on your old channel again at some point? I really liked the German Game Maker videos (unfortunately there aren't that many German Game Maker tutorials)

bro got the dominic thiem voice

I feel like the first game would do very well with wallrunning or at least some shady knight level movement

i wanna buy star vaders!

You should do it more often

Hey jonas, Ive always wanted to be a game developer, and I’ve always looked up to you, and now, i’m ready to make my game, but before that, I would like an answer to one question. Where do I start? I started watching your will you snail videos in 2022, so i don’t know the full story, but sense will you snail has inspired me so much, It was an awesome game, so, I have the full idea for my game, I just don’t really know where to start, so I would like to have feedback from a real game dev. Thank you :D

I totally agree with everyone else! Thank you! Im trying to make one myself action adventure rpg but my programmer walked away and took the combat system. Devastated hoping to find a programmer soon so we can finish. We have most the scripts and mechanics but need to be finished. If you kniw anyone okease let me know. If you can, give your opinion i would appreciate it that as well. Thank you

FINALLY NEW VIDEO

IDUN used job system for this performance.

You are a chad

8:52 No PLEASE No more bloom! I'd personally recommend a little emission variation instead. (similar to real-life flow of lava) Bloom is overdone, and without HDR it looks bad.

Servus! Bist du mit der gymnasialen Kunstlehrerin Fr. Tyroller ausm schönen Niederbayern verwandt?

ERSTER!

Comment for engagements sake

The last one it rimadnsmy the battle system off megaman battle network

11:30 instantly don't want to play this lol

2:02

You kinda look like Christopher Nolan

"I could keep nitpicking to extend the video"... these aren't the *only* 3 games you played, are they? Assuming not, you might pick a few not great games (who are still obviously trying and not asset flips) to sprinkle in between the great ones and give one or two bits of constructive criticism, might have to juggle people being disappointed at not getting such in depth advice, but it could give them motivation to improve and resubmit (and if they have decent concepts give viewers more things to comment on, trying to get you to revisit the less polished stuff in the future).

Play my game

IDUN seems to use AI voice acting which im not the biggest fan of

Blessed burdens, please don't listen to Jonas about bloom. It's a matter of taste I guess, and I hate it.

if you said those games are "too good" them i will send one of mine and you will cry because you will find nothing good to say about them :V

Why don't you start developing games on roblox? I make pretty crappy games and can make 7 figures. I bet you could do 8 easily.

Wwwwwischurly showing us