Not clicking

[QED]

Despite really wanting to like this game I have not been having a very good time with it so far. The endless mode is the ideal scenario where it seems like you could just sit and type for a long time, but I find the words themselves which you're asked to type not very conducive to getting into a flow state--there seem to be a lot of intentional double and triple one-handed words that are there deliberately to impede the process. While I can identify and appreciate making the mechanics of the typing itself part of the difficulty curve, the game doesn't build up to this in a meaningful way; you're already encountering these types of words after a few minutes.

In addition to that, the spawn frequency and behaviour of the waves/enemies is also not conducive to a flow state, because near the beginning they're short bursts followed by periods of intermittent waiting, and in the later stages they're giant blobs followed by that same waiting period, just with more anxiety because of how fast you know your hands are going to have to move as soon as words start appearing.

It's been said by a few other people in their posts that this game *feels* too difficult, and that's the operative words. I'm not attempting to declare that this game is objectively too hard, or that I have deep insight into the design that could magically make it easier while maintaining all the same appeal... but I can tell when something I'm playing doesn't seem appealing to come back to, and this game is in that position.

For me, the final gripe I have with the game is one that many other people have expressed: relative WPM external to this game does not matter much or enough in a game that is theoretically solely focused on typing. If all you did was take monkeytype but add enemies to it, it would arguably be a more enjoyable experience than what's going on here, especially given how limited the build options are currently (basically one of two sidegrade paths per weapon, five or six weapons in themselves, and then flat damage/range scaling until eternity, as far as i can tell).

Note that none of this is a damnation of the game, nor is it even a negative review--I'm posting this here as feedback in the hopes that it will be seen by the dev(s?) and acted upon in some way. Personally, this game would be a lot more appealing to play and to recommend if the difficulty curve was smoothed out and elongated, if the words themselves were more copacetic to longer stretches of typing, if the weapon/upgrade system was more advanced, if the permanent unlocks felt more fun (every single one of them is an "I guess I'll take this if I have to take something" imo), or if there was simply more of a sense that this game wants to reward you for TYPING instead of... figuring out builds I guess? I can respect that choice a lot, given not everyone has blazing fast wpm... but you're making a TYPING game. Catering to the preferences of that higher WPM audience could at least be done in an additional mode or something.

Hoping some of this feedback is useful or rings true. Sorry for being overly critical, but it's my honest opinion that most of my time w/ this game has not been very fun. I hope it improves enough in the future that I can change my mind and recommend it to friends.

[ryan.sumo]

Thanks for taking the time to leave a thoughtful discussion post instead of a bad review! Really it makes a lot of difference to us, and we want to assure you and everyone reading that we look at all the feedback and assess whether it's something we can address.

That said, there are certain things that may be beyond the scope of our game.

We understand that we're kind of in between a rock and hard place when it comes to satisfying the needs of bothe hardcore typists and more casual roguelike typers.

Our last update has taken what we believe are meaningful steps in adjusting the balance and giving WPM warriors more tools to enhance their play style, like the Word Rush. We're also thinking of some bosses that favor having a high WPM as the way to defeat them.

We understand the balancing concerns and we will look into what we can do to smooth it out somewhat. To clear one thing up, there is no intention to add double or triple one handed words. That's just not something that is built into the game and is completely random, and thus currently out of our control. We do start off with 4 letter words and ramp up to 8 letter words. The balancing we have currently is based on the words plus our trigger letters and how they combine to release weapons.

You mentioned a mod that caters more to the higher WPM audience. Do you think you can break that down somewhat and imagine what your dream typing mode would be? This isn't a promise that we will make it, but we can at least try to see if there are elements there that we can add to the different modes in the game.

Thanks again for the great feedback!

[QED]

Thanks a ton for the reply. I'll do my best to respond to your concerns and queries.

Originally posted by ryan.sumo:

To clear one thing up, there is no intention to add double or triple one handed words.

If this is the case then I would recommend a serious assessment of your wordbank and how it's being partitioned. Usually when I am starting a typing test or playing a typing game, the words are situated such that they are easier to type early on and more difficult later. It's not the case that any individual word is as 'easy' to type as another just because it has the same letter; odd combinations of letters, unusual spellings, letter strings which can only be hit with one hand, etc. are all factors.

As a result of this, I would recommend curating the word-base used for enemies/typing to be full of more accommodating/easier to type words early on, and just in general. One of the problems I have navigating this game in a flow state is that the vast majority of the words seem to fit into the 'I have never used this in normal speech and therefore require extra mental processing to type it out'. If the majority of words were more familiar and easier to type it would improve the flow of the game a lot, IMO.

In regards to a high-WPM mode, I think all that would be necessary would be to prune down the rogue-like elements (or streamline them) and make the gameplay focused more purely on the typing. Having a more regular speed of enemies appearing without gaps between them, maintaining a more consistent stream of enemies on screen to continue inputs, while also decreasing the speed of the enemy approach.

Frequently the best feeling I have while playing this game is when there are 4+ enemies on screen and I can parse all of them and quickly type a string of words to nuke the screen. The problem is that this style/pattern, while accommodated by the wave speed, doesn't result in a constant typing. To me, that's a pretty basic function of enemy spawn speed versus their movement sped--you could spawn far more enemies and maintain the 'constant typing' flow as long as the enemies move much slower and don't bash into my shields by the time I'm typing them.

To be completely honest I feel like you are potentially underselling the potential of your game and your own capabilities as a designer. While part of the inherent mechanics of the game may be divisive in terms of keyboard fiends vs. roguelike-enjoyers, the fact that there are people from both groups enjoying the game says a lot. Also the fact that the feedback is generally around the same topics means there is a lot of potential to gather feedback and build the experience to something everyone can enjoy.

I'm sorry again if my feedback seemed overly critical. This game is a really cool idea I want to see succeed, so I'm hopeful some of my critique was useful in that respect.

[ryan.sumo]

Thanks once again for the thoughtful response. We'll definitely take it all into consideration. No worries about being overly critical!

No worries about being "too critical". This is actually the best example of constructive criticism. You have expressed what you are frustrated with but without any harmful and unnecessarily rude language, and give suggestions on what could be done.

[ryan.sumo]

By the way, I did want to ask if you had tried our typist mode (if you click left instead of right when choosing an omen you will see relaxed and typist mode) and if that is closer to what you imagine a keyboard fiend would be into?

[Tristen Sinanju]

so, here's a few options that i use while practicing typing

wordlists
top 200, 1k, 5k, 10k... they can get pretty long as the list goes on...

length restrictions were already mentioned

make a difficulty scale based on how common each letter is

and you can either make sliders so it's fully customizable, or tie them to difficulty levels, or even the strength of the enemy

happy typing