First Game, first impressions
IMO, player first impressions are extremely useful to know about. I know I like first impressions information when I make a game, so here's what struck me about my first game:
**This is strictly first impression information, **I'm sure I'd say different things after 5 or 10 games. I did watch the tutorial video.
TLDR:
Interested to play more. Enjoy the "feel" and look of the game. Turned off by the plethora of upgrade/hero/unit/skillshot/other options and unclear team indicators. Worried the game will be 90% micro instead of strategy (as a first impression).
Music
Pleasant and calming. Reminded me of pixel junk monsters.
SFX
The individual sounds were satisfying, but I was unclear which sound came from what and it felt like audio clutter at some points. I ended up just tuning it out.
Mini-map
Basically, unclear what was going on.
-Gems cluttered it: I thought the red gems were enemies for a while. After I realized they weren't, the gem clutter still made it very hard to determine what was going on at-a-glance.
-My light blue blob was hard to locate **at-a-glance **against the clutter/background greys
-Couldn't use it for much the first game besides to help with attack/defense. I wasn't sure who's units were moving generally and whether they were fighting or allied (first game), so I just went to them and saw what happened.
Hotkeys for items (charms?)
alt+key (ctrl + key?) hotkeys are ones I'll never use for abilities. They're ok for unit selection. If I were to play more often I'd rebind each to some other key.
Team colors
I got confused about who's team guys were on. I resorted to seeing who my units would autoattack. I think I ulted my ally at one point and at another thought a large enemy force was an ally and maybe lost a tower.
Bot ai
The enemy heroes suicide into towers solo a lot. Seems like a bug.
Double click
did not center screen on frontline of battle sometimes where my hero was fighting, as expected. Just jarring is all, maybe I'll get used to it.
Too many options
For the first game, there was too many options to choose from and too many buttons for skillshots to keep track of. I just resorted to random upgrades and basic units to simplify it for myself. I worry that I'll spend a few hours or days just reading and testing things to have enough bearings to play competently by Sunday's pvp.
Squad loadout
didn't understand options, and too many to read in detail before playing. Discouraging and a little stressful I suppose. Choose a guy at random from the red guys who looked simple.
Models and graphic style
Great! I love how distinct the units feel and the cell shading.
Responsiveness and framerate
Great, "feels good" to use units. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, good job!
Hero's t UI
Does using your hero's T use any resources when expanding or claiming a gem? Just wasn't clear, I assumed not?
Moba feel
Slightly distracting, but I'm very open minded to it.
Gem geysers
Feels like an apm sink. I found it annoying to keep going back to my hero every 3 seconds to click it a gem.
Forum
While typing this, navigating with arrows through text box is weird and annoying. It may have affected my usually decent post formatting.
My background
-rts player for 15 years, including low masters zerg at hots launch
-tabletop rpg hobbiest designer for 10 years
-rooting for your game!