Enjoyed the Demo / Thoughts on Coins

[Shadowmech]

I was impressed by how complex some of the platforming sections felt to play despite the relatively simple control scheme. I also appreciate the forethought of placing coins even in some places that would generally be "out of bounds," like the top of Morio's house interior.
I don't think there was anything I disliked about the game.

One concern I do have though - I noticed that there were some platforming routes which seemed to award nothing but coins. This is fine, except the fact that all coins respawn when falling into water makes money farming trivial, which devalues the "award" coins placed at the end of these routes.
I spent something like 15 minutes (at least) attempting that series of ramp jumps that's about halfway through the first non-hub level, and not only did I actually end up with more money than when I started purely from just whacking the coin blocks near me and collecting a nearby patch of coins before every attempt, when I finally got to the last island I was disappointed to see that it was just a coin bag and a warp back to my checkpoint.

I'm not definitively saying these routes need to have gears or that coins shouldn't respawn at all or anything like that, but I feel like players might be not be eager to try for these tough optional platforming challenges if the only reward is something they can get just as easily by soaking up a few dozen coins somewhere in the level and then jumping into the ocean, over and over.

It doesn't matter a ton since coins are pretty much just a cosmetic currency, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

[Matt.o]

Hey hey! Thanks for the feedback! I feel like this needs some discussion.

The idea of those coins there is to simply mark a point of arrival. Is something similar to how Mario Odissey does it, to basically simply tell "bravo" to the player.
We might decide to put something else in those places, or simply more coins.

I also feel like that kind of challenge is an "extreme" kind of one, so it's not really designed for people making their first steps into the game, but more for players who know the full movement toolbox they have available (You might still be that expert and I wouldn't know hahaha).

Overall, I agree a better reward would be more fun :)

[Matt.o]

Ya know what? We'll add an extra collectible for unlocking extra content at the end of the game. Thanks for giving us that extra kick of motivation :)

[xavi19]

I really liked the demo, but yeah coins respawn should be handle different. If you want my opinion, this are the changes that I would make:

I think that every time you get a checkpoint the game should save the state of the level: which coins have you picked and which objects you have destroyed, when you die, you just go back to the last checkpoint's state.

That way the game would be more like a collectathon, you can make achievements when you get 100% coins in one level, and you could easy balance game economy as there are a limited amount in the game and you can know the theoricaly maximum amount of coins one players has according to the levels he has played. It would also give coins more value as they would be a limited resource and would encourage the exploration of the levels.

And then what happens when you die? Death should not make you loose 30 coins but instead revert the coin count to the last checkpoint's one. And if you think that would make death a useless mechanic, the game could give you a gear the first time you beat each level without dying, that way you encourage players to not die.

If you think that makes the game too easy, it could have a more dificult mode where there are no checkpoints in the levels, so each time you die you have to restart it.

Wouldn't not having coins in compleated levels hurt the replayability of the levels? Well when you have a level 100% completed you could spawn "ghost coins" which do not count towards the coin total but it could count in a result screen, something similar to what crash bandicoot 4 does, where you could have the time to beat the level, the objects destroyed and the coins collected.

I really think the demo has on point gameplay and level desing, but this changes would make the game more enjoyable and rewarding :)

[xavi19]

Originally posted by Matt.o:

Ya know what? We'll add an extra collectible for unlocking extra content at the end of the game. Thanks for giving us that extra kick of motivation :)

The changes I proposed doesn't invalidate this one, which I think is also great, it would complement it.

[Ikagura]

Coins are mostly for cosmetics but I would agree that a system where you gain specific collectible that incites you to explore would be nice (in between coins and gears).

[Ap2000]

Originally posted by Matt.o:

The idea of those coins there is to simply mark a point of arrival. Is something similar to how Mario Odissey does it, to basically simply tell "bravo" to the player.
We might decide to put something else in those places, or simply more coins.

My first idea was that the coins are one-time-pickups.
So you have a fixed total amount of coins by the end of the game, which would basically be "100%'ing the game".
I was quite surprised seeing how you lose coins when you die and the respawn as grey shades. But the next time you enter the level, the coins are back again.
I feel like it'd be a bigger accomplishment if you could collect every coin only once and you don't lose any when dying. That way you could 100% a level in more than just the two ways that already exist, bunnies and gears. It'd also upvalue the coins as being enough as a reward, not needing anything else to be there at the end of an optional jumping section.

With "coins" I mean any coin item, including bags and treasure chests.