Hi everyone, I created a "guess my number" game which is similar to mastermind game. I was actually inspired by Tracy Parish’s Mastermind game. Guess my number game is a logical game I used to play with my sisters when I was a kid and am still having fun to play with my kids.
I only set three codes in the game so far and would like to get feedback before a further expansion and development. Hope you all have fun and enjoy it.
I like the layout of the game. The colours and different boxes all made sense and I could see the structure of how it was supposed to work. The check boxes were subtle, but I liked that they crossed out the numbers you'd eliminated.
I think the first thing you see when you play should always be the instructions. I tried entering numbers on the keyboard, clicking in various places and eventually figured out I had to drag and drop. I didn't spot the "How to Play" section until after this. I think you should keep that, but give more clear direction at the start.
In terms of instructing people, visual instructions, combined with text can be very effective. If you animated a demo (maybe using motion paths) to show people how the game works, they'd be playing it sooner and with a better understanding of what to do.
I wasn't sure what the numbers meant. The A & B's made sense, but I was thrown by the 0's, 1's & 2's.
Also, I'm not sure if the game is functioning correctly. If I understand correctly, an A means you have the right number in the right place. But as you can see below, every guess I put in the second column is coming up as A and every number I put in the last column comes up as B.
I'd recommend a vigorous round of quality assurance where you get people to try and "break it". By that I mean, look for any little bugs or things that shouldn't be there and fix them early. Also, have people go through and get the correct answer to make sure that works, then have them intentionally get the incorrect answer too. You may have already done some of this, but it can only help the end product.
Hi Jason, thanks for your advise. You are right, I should make a clear direction for the first time player, a tutorial will be a good way to show.
This game did have several quality testings before I post it. As to the screenshot you post, I don't see a bug there. The code is 1036, so all the feedback for each guess is correct. ( an A means you have a right number in the right place, a B means you have a right number in the wrong place. So if you got 0A2B, it means you have two correct number but both in the wrong places.)
I created this game just for fun and will like to share to anyone who likes to play it. It won't be a product for selling, it will be a game you can share. Therefore, If there still have bugs which I thought I had fixed, I hope you could understand that It's difficult for me (a person alone not a company) to have a vigorous round of quality assurance.
You've made a great little game for having done this all on your own. You're probably right that it's not necessarily broken, but I think I was confused. From the layout of the feedback on the right, I assumed that the four letters or numbers corresponded to the same positions on the left hand side.
Maybe that could be a little clearer or maybe it's just me :)
Hi Jason, maybe because the game is popular in my country, and all my testers already knew how to play and the meaning of the feedback. So I didn't see problems that a new player might have. It's good to see problems and issues that I never have thought before. I will try to make it more clear when adding a tutorial later on.
Hi Jason, I've updated a new version with tutorial. Hope that will help new players have clear understanding of the rules. I use javascripts for text to speech in the tutorial instead of importing audio files.
Thanks for the update. That's a great tutorial. I just watched it without audio and it made total sense what I had to do. I think the way you visually explained things with boxes was very clear. It was also a nice touch to give the user the option to play right away or choose to watch the tutorial. I played through the game and figured out a code :)
I think you've made really excellent additions that make this a solid game.
6 Replies
Hi Joanne,
I tried out your game and have a few comments.
I like the layout of the game. The colours and different boxes all made sense and I could see the structure of how it was supposed to work. The check boxes were subtle, but I liked that they crossed out the numbers you'd eliminated.
I think the first thing you see when you play should always be the instructions. I tried entering numbers on the keyboard, clicking in various places and eventually figured out I had to drag and drop. I didn't spot the "How to Play" section until after this. I think you should keep that, but give more clear direction at the start.
In terms of instructing people, visual instructions, combined with text can be very effective. If you animated a demo (maybe using motion paths) to show people how the game works, they'd be playing it sooner and with a better understanding of what to do.
I wasn't sure what the numbers meant. The A & B's made sense, but I was thrown by the 0's, 1's & 2's.
Also, I'm not sure if the game is functioning correctly. If I understand correctly, an A means you have the right number in the right place. But as you can see below, every guess I put in the second column is coming up as A and every number I put in the last column comes up as B.
I'd recommend a vigorous round of quality assurance where you get people to try and "break it". By that I mean, look for any little bugs or things that shouldn't be there and fix them early. Also, have people go through and get the correct answer to make sure that works, then have them intentionally get the incorrect answer too. You may have already done some of this, but it can only help the end product.
Thank you for sharing!
Hi Jason, thanks for your advise. You are right, I should make a clear direction for the first time player, a tutorial will be a good way to show.
This game did have several quality testings before I post it. As to the screenshot you post, I don't see a bug there. The code is 1036, so all the feedback for each guess is correct. ( an A means you have a right number in the right place, a B means you have a right number in the wrong place. So if you got 0A2B, it means you have two correct number but both in the wrong places.)
I created this game just for fun and will like to share to anyone who likes to play it. It won't be a product for selling, it will be a game you can share. Therefore, If there still have bugs which I thought I had fixed, I hope you could understand that It's difficult for me (a person alone not a company) to have a vigorous round of quality assurance.
I appreciate your feedback. Thanks again.
Hi Joanne,
You've made a great little game for having done this all on your own. You're probably right that it's not necessarily broken, but I think I was confused. From the layout of the feedback on the right, I assumed that the four letters or numbers corresponded to the same positions on the left hand side.
Maybe that could be a little clearer or maybe it's just me :)
Thank you for sharing the game.
Hi Jason, maybe because the game is popular in my country, and all my testers already knew how to play and the meaning of the feedback. So I didn't see problems that a new player might have. It's good to see problems and issues that I never have thought before. I will try to make it more clear when adding a tutorial later on.
Hi Jason, I've updated a new version with tutorial. Hope that will help new players have clear understanding of the rules. I use javascripts for text to speech in the tutorial instead of importing audio files.
Hi Joanne,
Thanks for the update. That's a great tutorial. I just watched it without audio and it made total sense what I had to do. I think the way you visually explained things with boxes was very clear. It was also a nice touch to give the user the option to play right away or choose to watch the tutorial. I played through the game and figured out a code :)
I think you've made really excellent additions that make this a solid game.
Thank you!
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