a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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Oh, there's one other huge problem. I set out to make the most comprehensive crafting game of all time. A small slice of the gaming populace loves huge crafting trees, but most people don't. It gives them the, "I'm never going to learn all of this, and why would I bother?" feeling.
I can improve the crafting hints or whatever, but the fundamental problem stands. Most people are not interested in learning the 25 steps it takes to make a fire. Most people aren't interested in learning to make 3000 (or 10,000, eventually) objects.
I believe there is something fundamentally unsatisfying about this game, baked into its very structure. This is the thing that makes the game unique, and makes people want to try the game in the first place, but it also makes them eventually want to stop playing. You only live one hour. It's right there in the title.
For the games that people get really hooked on, for the games that they play all night by accident, you don't usually play for only one hour.
I think I might just be the average player, I played just 8 hours and I'm really wondering what is there left in the game for me. My opinion might just be worthwhile.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I can tell you why I won't play it for much longer, possibly never again. I consider myself a casual gamer: I've played Stronghold, Tropico and Zeus as a kid, and just recently played Factorio and ONI. All those games have something in common, you build something to last. When I was building a town in Zeus I was building it to perfection, as if those save files were going to stay with me forever. There is something about the human brain that wants to have a goal to achieve, get to perfection an keep hold on to it. There is a reason all city building and crafting games are about gathering resources and ordering them. Humans like that. There is a reason the most addictive games on mobile are about tap, tap, tap, collect, collect, collect. The mobile developers skipped the challenging part and went straight to the "fun" part, which is collecting and sprawling buildings, or decorations or whatever.
OHOL is fundamentally different. And that is why I like it. It is refreshing.
But after you play it 10 times, there is little reason to go back.
There are ways of addressing that. Some are against the game core philosophy, but some are not.
The family trees and leaderboard are a step in the right direction, but I think you are missing the point. I don't really care of my lineage, it means nothing to me, I don't care about the name and I don't care about how long my mother and daughter are living. Most of the time they are living as long as they want and if they don't go all the way to 60, they die of suicide.
I do care about what I craft and I care about the city I helped build. The way cities are build right now I might even spawn twice in the same city and never know it. My solution is to give cities an identity, make each city have a central stone or building that once named will stay there forever. Make a leaderboard of cities. Make cities searchable when outside the game. Make a list of important players for each city. Give players a list of cities they have lived in. Give players a list of things they accomplished in every city. Give players some medals or prizes that they can see on their profile. Make it worth playing over and over again. Make it easier in game to find the city you want to travel to, not in speed or time but in direction, make a map or give players a compass. If someone can at least travel to the city they want to play in they might want to return.
In general I want to play OHOL one hour at a time because that's what makes it special. I like the "kindness" of the game. I like the crafting tree that pushes me into collaboration.
But at odds with playing OHOL one hour at a time, I also want a part of it to be permanent. I want to be able to go back and see what I did, I want to go back and look at the cities I helped build. That's the human nature. We don't like death in real life and we don't like death in games either. And a death in OHOL is more profound than a death in any other game. But if I die in game, I want at least my city to live forever.
Hope the perspective of an average player on the edge of quitting helps. I don't claim to know how to build games and I don't claim to know what makes a great game be great.
I am just thankful to find OHOL and enjoy an unique gameplay.
Thank you
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