next »

[Radnyx]

Problem: Players get sad when they lose their frogs

I'm going for a cute, cozy aesthetic in my game about pushing frogs to water.

Here's a danger you must avoid, a swooping bird that catches your frogs:

 

Current mechanic

As shown in the gifs above, if you lose a frog, it's gone. You get a big red X, and if you get 3 the level starts all over. Losing a frog is a tragedy...

Idea I have to fix this

One solution might be to get rid of the red X's entirely. Instead, if you lose a frog, it will respawn back where it started. This changes a few things:

• You must get every frog to the goal
• Players won't get so sad when they see their frog return to life
• The level never resets unless you manually reset it (this also alleviates frustration from having to "start all over")

What do you think?

Your game design wisdom is appreciated here! Alternative ideas are more than welcome. Thank you

[failbetter]

I like your idea. Definitely worth trying it out. I think the solution has to follow from the game's experiential pillars. You say they're "cute" and "cozy". To me that suggests removing UI and mechanics that run counter to that. So, no big red X. No failure in the traditional sense. Some more ideas:

• Frog is stunned or similar for X turns, but can then resume from their position
• The goal is to get X frogs to the water, more frogs are frequently spawning around the perimeter. If you lose one you just pick another
• The bird doesn't swoop in but stands menancingly in place, the player isn't allowed to move through it's path

FWIW I would lean more on making the experience of moving frogs, watching them, getting them to the water to be fun, cozy, and cute, and focus less on skill / mastery. IMO the latter runs counter to the former.

[michaelplzno]

I think the reason it seems so tragic has nothing to do with a red X, watching a cute character you are caring about get swooped up by a hawk is jarring and sad and worst part of all, Realistic. You might be able to make it comedic if, for example, the frog was trash talking and being a butthead and then the hawk gets him. "You'll never get me!" Hawk swoops in "NOOOOOO!"

Just generally, its too real, the animation you have. If you had the frog get hit with an anvil or a big mallet, and then float around as a flat thing, it would be cartoony and work better.





Learn from the great cartoons out there, when a cute character gets their medicine they set it up in context so that you want them to get the hit on some level.

[Thaumaturge]

My suggestion is to perhaps retain the bird swooping onto the frog--but instead of having the frog then be caught and carried off, to have the frog jump into hiding. (I'm imagining a cute little frog-face peeking out of its hiding place, looking worried.)

The result would thus still be that the frog is unavailable for play (perhaps temporarily), but it wouldn't carry the same tragedy as a frog carried off to presumably be eaten, I feel.

In short, I think that the bird can fit with the "cute and cozy" feel of the game, but that it's the effect of the bird that is perhaps running counter to that.

[Radnyx]

Thank you all for the advice! I appreciate the detail in your answers. It helps me get a better perspective.

I've started by allowing the frogs to respawn in a cute way:

[michaelplzno]

Very cute animation, somehow even though they still die I guess I'm used to characters falling in pits and respawning.

[Thaumaturge]

I've started by allowing the frogs to respawn in a cute way:

That looks like a pretty good solution, I think, and cute indeed. ^_^