[BETA] Witchcraft

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Originally Posted by cadin

I made some changes to the game:
Witchcraft

I had a lot of trouble clarifying the candle part. I tried everything--different configurations, animation, using different objects. Most of the things I tried ended up being too distracting, to the point that you lost sight of the fact that those things are merely supposed to be indicators of how many cards are correct.

I think the solution I've come up with is better than what I had before, although still not perfect:

- I changed it so that only the candles with flames show up. I think this helps to break the association of candle and card position, at least for the first few tries. Hopefully, by the time you get to where you are seeing 5 candles you, you have a sense of how the game works.

- I tried to make the two candle types more visibly different, even to the colorblind (Alluvian, can you confirm?). Now the candles themselves are different colors (and tonal values), as well as being different heights.

- I made the HELP button pop a bit more visually.

- I added a Continue button at the end, so you can look at the cards as long as you want once the game is over.

- I tried to clarify the instructions a bit, but the differences are subtle.

Anyway, I think this will be the final version, unless some major problem comes up.
Thanks to everyone for all your help.

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The game is great!

Fun game :)

One thing I'd like to be a bit easier is selecting the cards. Clicking through them can be a bit tedious and annoying when you accidentally go past the card you want, especially when you have that epiphany of what the correct combo is and start madly clicking all over the place.

Maybe, in addition the the click method you could have a click and hold drop down box where you select the card you want.

EDIT: Oh, and a mute sounds button. Essential in this day and age. :)

nice version of mastermind, the idea of casting spells fits in well with the basic gameplay (but where's the cute asian girl on the box eh?)

I agree completely with dancingoctopus - an easier way to select cards rather clicking to cycle through them would improve it immensely, maybe even a simple drag and drop interaction would feel more 'creating spell-like' and be less clunky

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Originally Posted by mentuat

(but where's the cute asian girl on the box eh?)

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Ha ha. She's not so cute these days... Reunion of Mastermind Box Models

I agree that the card selection is a bit cumbersome. However, I think having some kind of drag and drop system or something would add another layer of potential confusion to a game that people are already struggling to understand. Personally, I think it's an acceptable trade-off (simplicity for convenience).

Someone else mentioned the sound effects being too repetitive. It doesn't bother me, but I guess I'll look into it since it's been mentioned more than once.

My wife gave me some interesting new ideas for the instructions and the game over sequence last night. I'm going to try to implement those this weekend and then hopefully be done with this!

The game does not play for me.
Always, skulls and blue flame are appearing:mad:

Can you be more specific about the problem Beaver?

Sorry! your instructions are a bit weak.
Even now I don't understand how to play.:confused:
Note: Edited my old post after a few trials, instead posting a new one.

Yeah, I don't have any idea how to do that.

The instructions are much better now that in the initial versions of the game. They're still far from perfect, but most people are able to figure them out. I think the problem is compounded by the fact that the game itself is difficult, even if you do understand how to play.

Care to offer any constructive suggestions?

I (may be some others also) always associate the color of a candle with the particular position of a correct card. Other wise the game becomes more of a lottery than an intelligent identification process. If you want it to be a pure lottery then the combinations/permutations required to obtain a correct guess may be 5 POW 5=3125. I want to ask you a straight question. Have you played your game and won it. If the answer is yes, how many times did you play to win?

I can win 99% of the time, usually in 6 or 7 tries.

It is not purely random because you can deduce which cards the candles are referring to by playing different combinations.
If my first spell is all red cards, and I only get one candle, I know there is only one red card in the spell. I could do the same thing until I knew exactly which cards were used in the spell, but then I wouldn't have enough guesses left to determine the order of everything. The trick is to cast spells that will give you more than one piece of information.

That being said, I completely agree with you that it is too easy to confuse the order of the candles as having something to do with the order of the cards. I've tried many things to reduce this confusion, but I still think it is the main shortcoming of the game.

Yeah, I can beat it pretty regularly now. It is definitely a puzzle, not a gamble.

Cadin,

I love the game...

I had no problem going straight in and playing because I played it as a kid. My dad had the board game, and he wrote a version of the game in ZX spectrum BASIC.

I would think you need a very clear explanation, its one of those games that can't be grasped quickly without someone demonstrating it to you.

Am I going mad, or did the original have four pegs not five?

I like the candles, but the pegs in the original game were black and white, so I would have chosen something with more contrast. How about black and white candles with same coloured flame?

I also agree with mentuat, the rotating colour selection can be a bit tiresome.

Other than that, the look and feel of the game is great, I can't comment on the sound as I'm keeping it quiet at work.