alt Hacker NewsI have a couple of first impressions trying the basic tutorial on my phone. I like the idea a lot, so I hope the criticism isn't taken as spoilsport negativity by others.
Immediately, the music is way over the top. I had to turn down the volume and hope I wasn't missing out on anything important. I do get that it tries to set a mood, but without some flavor text or other introduction it feels incongruous to what is being presented.
Then, I found that the instructions given are very tool-oriented instead of goal-oriented. If I understood why I'm doing what I'm being asked to do I'd be a lot more motivated to keep going. Instead I'm being given a tour of "what all the buttons do". Meanwhile, I can't really see any of the tooltips/labels that pop up because my fingers are in the way.
Without some more polish, this feels more like a "take your kids to work day" simulator than a submarine warfare simulator. It's a bit of a shame because I am a fan of the simulator genre.
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For me, part of the fun is in figuring out the "why" behind the "what". I really enjoyed getting a rundown of which tools were available to me, and then I get to figure out on my own how best to use them.
I super appreciate this feedback and don't at all take it as overly negative.
I have gone back and forth on whether to describe how to use the tools or instead to explain goals. I get what you're saying and will give this more thought.
(And the fact remains that with this many tools, it's simply really challenging to explain it in a clear and elegant way on a small device.)
Once you "get it" and know how everything works, then I think it can work well...but for something this complex, the issue is definitely going to be onboarding.