Why I threw away 1 Month of Work on my Game

[@Aarimous]

I'll be honest, it feels like I just wasted a month of my time, but I am starting to understand that the true cost of game development (and any creative pursuit) is the time spent exploring ideas. At the end of the day my core idea for Hexagod is a peaceful village builder with a little bit of strategy and the whole combat system just didn't fit with that vibe. So I'm removing it and focusing on fixing the core design issue with my game. Support my and my work by checking out the new Hexagod demo: store.steampowered.com/app/3059390/Hexagod/

[@Ibadullah]

btw i like the placement rework

[@nocturnaltruthseeker]

You didn't waste anything. You learned about combat mechanics and you learned how to do what's best for your game. In my opinion that's not wasted time. It's a valuable lesson on scope creep.

[@Crits-Crafts]

Your time wasn't wasted. You learned something and you grew as a game dev :) and you've inspired me (and I'm sure others) to keep going with game dev.

[@moshecristel]

Feels like you're headed in the right direction. Hexagod has always felt like "Stacklands + Dorfromantik" to me (only because Dorfromantik is one of the few tile-based games I've played) and it seems like this new change is closer to the Dorfromantik feel on the tile side where there is more strategy involved in tile placement. I like it!

[@sweatyeti]

Being willing to take a step back and reexamine systems that aren't working well for your vision of the game is the correct mindset to have. If you double-downed on something that isn't helping the game, but continued to try to make it work, it may have still been scrapped anyway. You may still get combat to work later on, but I think the tile-formation and tile-adjacency bonuses are a great system to explore. I'll look forward to testing it in the demo!

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Kudos to choosing the difficult path and backtracking to ensure you get your vision right!

[@Aarimous]

Thanks! I think it will pay dividends in the long run and in the name of keeping the scope manageable.

[@Pro8500A]

The map grows quicker then the players ability to use it. 3 villagers only need 6 tiles. (3 for housing) This is why new tiles are useless after a while because they provide nothing but victory points. You have to solve this design problem. Why not allow villagers to also work all the tiles surrounding them? Or add buildings that provide passive bonuses? All resources are currently temporary. The only way the players power grows permanently is in villager count. That sucks. The temporary nature of everything also means I can't get attached to the map I am building. Its just a game board with slots for game pieces and not a real place. This also destroys the design aspect of trying to build a nice looking world. (Though the graphics do their own to take any enjoyment out of that. The map looks boring) Basically, find more usages for tiles. Adjacency boni are okay, but also very limiting and require more ui to make intuitive.

[@Pro8500A]

And yeah, good on you removing the combat. Because I had so many useless tiles anyways, there was literally zero threat by some devil dudes placing a few more useless tiles. That only works when the player is starved for tiles and places to put them. This is not the case.

[@brandongroth4569]

What I am wondering is why don't you make a real board game version w/ pen and paper? You can iterate ideas as fast as you can cut them out of paper and write them down. Its a deckbuilder first and foremost. No need to spend a month of dev time implementing all these stats if you don't know its going to work out.

[@KhaosNyx]

I played the demo for the first time after watching this video. The game seems interesting and fun but the demo is too short to really give good feedback. I was left feeling curious about the other packs and how the game evolves as you play it but don't really have time playing to really tell how it feels before you just win at the current stage. Not knowing how the game will progress beyond the demo its hard to tell. From my 1 play through it almost seems like it'd just be better to have one villager and go slowly until you build up resources because there is no penalty for doing so, but it is also nice to not be rushed or punished for playing however you want to play in chill games. Awesome job so far, keep it up!

[@danielcarroll8889]

Great video! Keep up the good work. I like the new design ideas you were throwing out. Definitely interested to see where you go with it

[@corpsthese]

I've been watching your videos for some time now, and I played the demo a few days ago. All I can say is: YES. Combat did felt out of pace, and tiles placement felt inconsequential. I'm really glad you are addressing these problems. I'll try the new demo whenever I can!

[@deadhunter_dev8622]

The fundamental thing to learn about programming is .. sometimes taking a step back is the best way forward. At least your project still works after amputating a major limb :D lol - I've lost so much time to programming only to lose or throw the whole project .. I once formatted the wrong hard drive and lost about 6 months of work .. once my Missus bashed up my comp when she was pregnant LMAO and the project I was working reverted back a month! Still worked but a whole month had been erased! Beautiful crazy Lady 🤪 The game looks clean a.f, it's got a great designed UI and is nicely presented! Keep up the good work Soldier! o7

[@quentinjulien7633]

That must have been hard to backtrack, but that definitely wasn't a waste. You now have a much clearer vision for your game which is so invaluable ! Kudos on not getting trapped in a sunk cost fallacy ! The game looks awesome and I'll have to give it a try soon ! I love the adjacency mechanic. One thing that bothered though with these types of games is that some didn't allow to change placements once it was done. When you're a perfectionist and you mess up a combo or adjacency bonus, that can really sting. Now I haven't tried the demo yet so this piece of feedback might be irrelevant. Also that permanence of decision in those games might be an intentional design choice and if that was the game creator's vision it shouldn't be altered. Good luck on the development ! Cheers

[@Demnchi]

Played the new demo. I think I went overboard with my feedback last time so I'll keep it to the tile system as asked. I liked this a lot more than the single tile placement. I also personally didn't like the random tile card either. I tried making larger areas of the same tile type as well as something like a river and was able to do both, which made me feel a lot more in control. It felt better too. The only thing that restricted me was that I couldn't place the new tile in every possible position since I couldn't place them between the selectable areas, but perhaps that's intentional. Seems like a very positive step forward!

[@AdrianRosarioPR]

Great video, I can’t wait to play a bit more of the demo 🎉

[@K1ngWerth]

I think one great idea you can look into to make the tiles feel more worth is the creation of monuments and special buildings with multiple tiles e.g, grass and water creates a dock that increases the output of fish. Also I think placing 3 instead of 4 is more viable and less consequential

[@FillMakesGames]

Thank you for sharing your journey! Thank you!

[@otnima]

While I agree the combat system added to much complexity. The thing I found interesting about it was the uncertainty of not knowing when a demon was going to show up. It made the player have to react to something that is out of their control. Have you thought about having natural disasters ? It could have a similar effect without all the complexity. Say maybe 4 of tiles are highlighted warning the player something is about to happen giving them time to move the villagers out of the way etc. and then after a given amount of time you could have a meteor slam down and destroy the tiles, or a fire that changes forest and grass tiles to desert, a flood changing all the tiles to water etc. Creating some variation and forcing the player to react to the situation.

[@JoeTheis]

You've opened my eyes to the possibility of doing a devlog where I just sit with the game open, mess around with mechanics, and talk about future possibilities. I think i get too hung up on heavily scripting and editing everything, which takes forever. Thanks!

[@Bateleur13]

Your change (using 4-element tiles) is great. I agree it makes the game much better, I thought it was a lot less interesting before. I would not have played the previous iteration, combat or not. Now I see a strategy space open up. Regarding the combat system, don't feel bad. View it as a prototype. Prototypes are the best way to learn about things. Truth is, you won't find THE best solution the first time. I don't know if you saw Jonas Tyroller's (I believe this is his name) video where he compares game development to graph search, but essentially, each new state of your game shows you different decisions you can take. If the best game you can make is just at depth 7 say and there are even just 3 possible decisions at each step, you have to pick the best path with probability 1/2187 (1/3^7). And this is with small values! In reality there are more than 3 possible decisions each step! WHO are YOU Aarimous, to pretend you can take the single best path in that search space the first time? That would mean you're using A* with the perfect heuristic. Sorry but you will never do that! Prototyping is a strong heuristic. Use it!

[@ptkstefano]

I think you've made the correct choice! It feels like it can go deeper into what it does best without the combat system.

[@Nobody6146]

I love your videos and you’re in the “find the fun” stage of development. A prototype will only tell you if a game is a good idea, not if the game is fun. Fail fast and fail often. No end product matches the initial design. Keep up the good work!

[@Aarimous]

That’s an excellent way to think about it! Thanks!

[@93Dynos]

Hey just want to say that player feedback is great and should always be taken into account, but at the end of the day you should make the game you want to make, if you make a feature you love but the feedback isn't stellar, maybe it's not the feature but its implementation, or worst, the "early access curse", or in your case the demo curse : You're lost in a feedback loop. The battle system reminded me a lot of Territory Idle (TI) which isn't too far off from Hexagod. In TI the battle system was rough, yet deep. At first its a drag but as you play it becomes a core part of progression and becomes super fun, with lots of content and meaningful progression. All this to say that we as players might not get your full vision from demos and youtube videos, and as your game is still in its infancy, your ideas won't come through to us until we've had a taste of the final full picture, battle system included. Best of luck!

[@MakeItThink]

Hi, I really like the visuals! Could you explain how you created the bluish line that follows the cursor when placing tiles?

[@ianblack1844]

This is a really well timed bit of introspection, it's like the eternal issue of going "my game is cool and i like the shooting mechanics, but it would be more fun with an extra 5 guns", but will it really. Does adding all of these new guns to the game actually increase the fun or does it obfuscate the actual gameplay and add things that people don't want to use. Halo does this really well by making the pistol a gun you actually wanna use throughout the game for example. By just having combat in the game are you now going from being a God that creates a land and influences your "followers" to seek forth and manifest destiny or are you now the tribe leader and you are conquering other tribes on the tiles, even if they are "demons". I think this makes a lot more sense and i would go as far to say that actually the way Hexagod might be improved when it comes to "challenges" the player faces is using environmental issue instead of a flat out "baddie" to fight, part of the puzzle is building the world and in doing so if you are not careful and add say "too many water tiles" does that mean that "tsunamis" can happen which mean a village can be destroyed. I really like the description one of your viewers gave about what they feel your game is and i think something more problem solving based rather than "kill the baddie" lends more to the nature of the game and fits in well with the puzzle style gameplay. Having a guy that can "kill" another guy isn't really a puzzle and more of a statistic based style of play. Really interesting to hear your thoughts on the theory behind how you shape your game.

[@Chex_Mex]

You should look into the game From Dust, that game really nailed the vibe of helping out these little guys on their journey

[@feydk]

I've lost count of the times I spent much effort and time on implementing something, only then to discover it didn't feel right for the game. Some times an idea looks great on paper and it plays wonderfully in your head, but it doesn't always turn out that way. Sure, it can feel like a huge waste of time, but every time you do this, you learn new things, it makes your vision more refined and ultimately the game should - hopefully - turn out better. Exploration is important, and it's all part of the journey.

[@_gamma.]

Tough call to remove the combat but I’m loving the new tile placement, setting a group down at once adds a nice amount of decision making without much complexity!

[@LukaCubriloChubi]

Just finished the new demo! I prefer it much more to the last one.. It seems more streamlined without combat.. I would suggest researching some board games that have tile placements for gaining some new ideas on how to focus on the juice even more!

[@Aarimous]

Thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you enjoyed the changes!

[@erictrinque6513]

IMO any game of sufficient complexity does not require combat to improve it. What it does need is SOMETHING for the player to push up against, and to push up against it in different and unique ways from run to run. Again, my opinion, I tend to lean less toward combat city building/colony survival games than others.

[@SubzeroBlack68]

First time seeing this game and your channel and I will give you my raw thoughts. When I look at the game I see "Place tiles and grow territory to have fun". Does the combat stop you from having the THAT fun. If yes? take it out or reinvent it. Looking at the gameplay, is there any way to make this MY world? Give they player the ability to develop ther tiles. Maybe the ability to upgrade a Hex tile into a better resource acquirement or cultivated land. I think back to Civilization when I decide to just send out settlers in the wild until I pic a place to put down my settler into a city. Then it makes me attached to the land surrounding it. Its no longer Wild land, its my land, It just doesnt know it yet. I look outside the border of my territory and I think That next tile right outside will be mine, I want it.

[@jasonalessio1058]

The way you shifted it from one tile to 4 gives me Tetris vibes. Do you leave this space open incase U get the long skinny block?

[@danga_games]

You'd be shocked at how much I've thrown away for my game! I feel like a neat addition to your current group of tiles idea would be to have it be a random shape with 4 tiles, and so when you place them you have a bit of a tetris puzzle. That way you need to weigh how good an adjacency bonus is vs the cost of maybe cutting off some areas and not being able to place tiles there in the future.

[@Aarimous]

I had that idea as well. The nice thing with 4 is that the whole space is tiled easily. Plus it was fairly simple to program. My gut think Tetris shaped would be a lot more work for placement and also for rotation, but it could be worth it because it does sound really interesting.

[@JoeTheis]

I think if you're gonna make a game focused on tile placement, but also want combat, tile placement should (somehow) be the main way the player interacts with that system. I.e. don't build a traditional strategy game with traditional user input and stats and whatnot on top of your existing game. Is that doable? Dunno! But could be fun to prototype.

[@mealcomposer]

[@OldRod99]

At the end of the day, it’s your game. If you decide a system isn’t fun or isn’t fitting with the design you want to do you can rip it out. It’s not an easy decision, especially after you’ve spent a lot of time to work on it, But in the end, if it makes your game better, then it is worth it. Hexagod never felt like a “combat” game to me anyway so I think it’s a good decision

[@Aarimous]

Agreed, thanks for the feedback!

[@Evan842Complex]

Honestly instead of throwing away, you can just stash that into a seperate branch and revisit it sometime in the future

[@Aarimous]

For sure. I think I could make a whole separate game that is centered around this sort of combat.

[@Evan842Complex]

Or scope screep got you maybe ?

[@JuicyBenji]

How does one become a gigachad programmer I wonder xD