Feedback

[HumbleSloth]

Hello,

I played through the first 4 levels which was enough to convince me I wouldn't really want to buy the game. I still want to give feedback though so that it can indirectly help your future games. Also for a random bit of background I haven't played DoP but it has been on my to do list for a long time.

Anyway here are the notes I collected.

Lame things:
-Traps in general. Meh, the game isn't any more fun for having them.
-Being stunned. Maybe making it more clear what was happening would have helped, but anyway being stunned is almost always lame and doesn't make the game more fun.
-The music didn't do anything for me.
-Obnoxious sounds: orc dying, no mana.
-When I'm in a big battle the sounds turn into a cacophony.
-Running zombies. Normally they are slow but sometimes they run and it is lame.
-The story. Did not get me interested all. Also had typos and just poor writing in general.
-Requiring multiple hits on a barrel. Come on, is the game more fun having to click on a barrel more than once?
-Secrets don't do anything for me.

Problems:
-Make the minimap easier to read. Crisp lines rather than blurry pixels.
-The controls are too "floaty" or something. The game should be playing faster and the character should be reacting to my input more "crisply". Having a hard time with finding the right words there.
-Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on exactly. There was one point where I was fighting in the path of a flame thrower and I didn't realize until the fight was over. I think that is partly from general visual chaos, too many similar colors, and the audio cue that I was on fire getting lost in the audio chaos.
-Stop the scroll bar on text areas at the bottom of the text. There is no reason to let me scroll the last line of text to the top of the box. It just makes it harder for me to safely scroll to the bottom.
-Make the time it takes for an item to float of a chest shorter.
-There are too many items. I would often find myself just trying to use them as soon as possible to keep my slots open since they were constantly being dropped.

Biggest problem:
-Fighting is boring, and the pacing is poor. Not sure what the secret is to get that right, since on paper action rpgs all sound the same. I would guess maybe making it faster paced would help, like taking 3 hits instead of 4 to kill an enemy. And KU often turns into fighting large groups of monsters all at once usually, rather than a constant trickle that occasionally turns into a big fight. And those big fights aren't really very interesting.

Well done:
-The tutorial
-Lots of characters. That would be the one thing that would keep me playing. I might play the game through to see them all if it were free.

Good luck guys! KU had potential for me, so I'll keep my eye out for your next game which might match my tastes better.

[Logorouge]

Please remember that Kivi's Underground is an Open Beta. Its not a demo yet. Changes are added everyday, making it better and better.

Read the "Changes from your comments" topic for more info.

One more thing: if you find the fighting boring, you should try an higher difficulty setting.

Have a nice day.

[HumbleSloth]

Hi Logo,

Yep, I understand it's the open beta. It's scheduled for Q4 release as far as I know and the changes made from comments are all minor. There are fundamental problems for me having fun with it that couldn't be made without making big changes.

I uninstalled already, but I think a higher difficulty would likely make it less fun for me. Fighting would still happen in the same way, clinking on the bad guys. But now I would need to click more and run away more often, neither of which are more fun for me.

The level of challenge on normal was fine for me. I died once and had to run away a couple times. My comments on the fighting being boring are more about the actual process of fighting, not the level of challenge.

[Delilah Rehm]

Hey, that's alright. We know Kivi isn't for everyone. Depths of Peril isn't for everyone either. I doubt I would like the best shooter game in the world, because shooters aren't for me. That's how everything is. No problem.

We do appreciate the feedback from everyone. It's been great. The more specific, the better!

Now, it's back to work for me! Kivi is going to have a few surprises, and I need to finish my part.

[torikamal]

Hi Humblesloth,
I actually had the same experience as you until I got to the Sand Dragon level. I'm not sure what the difference was, but for some reason, that level was really fun and they seemed to get more fun after that.

If for no other reason than curiosity, give that one a go and let me know what you thought of it. Like I said--I'm not quite sure why that one was so much more fun, but it just was. ??

If you've already played that level, then you're free, but I suggest giving that a shot, and since you have had some very constructive feedback, let me know what you though the difference that adventure had compared to the previous ones.

Cheers!