The concept is great, but the execution is... lacking.
The timescale and upgrade tree are both set up such that the strategy of what to cut when, which is supposed to be the core of the game, quickly becomes irrelevant because all that matters is clicking on every pixel as fast as you can. The interface gives you very little information at a glance; if you stop to read the popups for each section that would give you more data to make decisions with, but if you take the time to read anything you're already too slow. The random events and special conditions are supposed to add complications, but in practice the player has no way to respond to them, so you just do the same thing as always as fast as you can. I still have no idea what vent crews or cleanup crews do; I just bought them because I had spare money. And the hitboxes are all over the place, very little correlation with what the monster looks like.
Overall, it feels like there wasn't a single aspect of this game that was actually designed by a human. Or even reviewed by a human.
Thanks for taking the time to write this up, and sorry it sat a few days without an answer. That's a fair read. If clicking fast beats choosing what to cut, the cutting order stops being the game, and information you can only read by falling behind isn't really there for you. The same goes for events you have no way to respond to. We've recorded this as design feedback for the next version: slower pacing or a pause to read, and events that give you a real choice.
Finished it, quite fun! I would really like to see more emphasis on the events and conditions for a longer version. I think that added a layer in the loop making my decisions feel like they matter more, both in the upgrade screen and in the real time screen of deciding which parts to chop and when.
I personally like a challenge and didn't get much of that here, didn't feel like failure was possible as long as I spent my money somewhat intelligently on saw/truck crews. I think there is a lot of room in the space here to take it from a casual incremental into a strategic and tactical clean up game if wanted. I also think you could keep it casual and get some Tower Wizard inspiration of creating "builds" and interactions if that is the design goal too.
Big creature turns into little parts and gets driven away on trucks feels good, lots to build on here and could see it stretch in a lot of ways.
Thanks for playing it through and for the detailed notes. Agreed that the events and conditions are where the decisions start to matter, and that there's no real way to fail right now if you keep buying saw and truck crews. Both points are recorded for the next version, along with the idea of leaning further into the strategic side. Tower Wizard is a good reference for keeping it casual while still building something.
Thanks for reporting this. In the current build a contract only closes once the last piece is hauled away and the decon crew has scrubbed the street clean. A new firm starts with one crew, so there can be a long wait after the body is gone with nothing left to click.
What did the screen show when it stuck? Was there still dirt on the street with a crew moving over it, or had everything stopped? Either way that wait should be obvious and it isn't, so we're treating it as a bug. We'll reply here when a fix is live.
That detail helps a lot, thank you. Crews circling with nothing left to pick up means at least one crew is still chasing a piece that was already hauled away, so the contract never closes. That's a real bug and it's now with the people who build the game. We'll post here when the fixed build is live.
Thanks for the extra detail. Version 0.2.1 is live now. The crew you saw circling was most likely the decon crew scrubbing slime that had become too faint to see: the job only ends when the whole street is clean, and after a burst gut that took over two minutes with nothing on screen saying why. We also tested the other explanation, a crew chasing a piece that's already gone, and couldn't make it happen in play. Now a banner shows how clean the street is, and that part runs at eight times speed. The first contract also waits for your first cut. Your save carries over, and a save taken in the middle of a scrub finishes in about 20 seconds. If it still looks stuck, a screenshot here would help us a lot.
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The concept is great, but the execution is... lacking.
The timescale and upgrade tree are both set up such that the strategy of what to cut when, which is supposed to be the core of the game, quickly becomes irrelevant because all that matters is clicking on every pixel as fast as you can. The interface gives you very little information at a glance; if you stop to read the popups for each section that would give you more data to make decisions with, but if you take the time to read anything you're already too slow. The random events and special conditions are supposed to add complications, but in practice the player has no way to respond to them, so you just do the same thing as always as fast as you can. I still have no idea what vent crews or cleanup crews do; I just bought them because I had spare money. And the hitboxes are all over the place, very little correlation with what the monster looks like.
Overall, it feels like there wasn't a single aspect of this game that was actually designed by a human. Or even reviewed by a human.
Thanks for taking the time to write this up, and sorry it sat a few days without an answer. That's a fair read. If clicking fast beats choosing what to cut, the cutting order stops being the game, and information you can only read by falling behind isn't really there for you. The same goes for events you have no way to respond to. We've recorded this as design feedback for the next version: slower pacing or a pause to read, and events that give you a real choice.
Finished it, quite fun! I would really like to see more emphasis on the events and conditions for a longer version. I think that added a layer in the loop making my decisions feel like they matter more, both in the upgrade screen and in the real time screen of deciding which parts to chop and when.
I personally like a challenge and didn't get much of that here, didn't feel like failure was possible as long as I spent my money somewhat intelligently on saw/truck crews. I think there is a lot of room in the space here to take it from a casual incremental into a strategic and tactical clean up game if wanted. I also think you could keep it casual and get some Tower Wizard inspiration of creating "builds" and interactions if that is the design goal too.
Big creature turns into little parts and gets driven away on trucks feels good, lots to build on here and could see it stretch in a lot of ways.
Thanks for playing it through and for the detailed notes. Agreed that the events and conditions are where the decisions start to matter, and that there's no real way to fail right now if you keep buying saw and truck crews. Both points are recorded for the next version, along with the idea of leaning further into the strategic side. Tower Wizard is a good reference for keeping it casual while still building something.
Seems to be stuck on level 1, after the monster is cleened
Thanks for reporting this. In the current build a contract only closes once the last piece is hauled away and the decon crew has scrubbed the street clean. A new firm starts with one crew, so there can be a long wait after the body is gone with nothing left to click.
What did the screen show when it stuck? Was there still dirt on the street with a crew moving over it, or had everything stopped? Either way that wait should be obvious and it isn't, so we're treating it as a bug. We'll reply here when a fix is live.
Showed the crew going in circles, looking like they wore looking for meterial that were not there.
That detail helps a lot, thank you. Crews circling with nothing left to pick up means at least one crew is still chasing a piece that was already hauled away, so the contract never closes. That's a real bug and it's now with the people who build the game. We'll post here when the fixed build is live.
Thanks for the extra detail. Version 0.2.1 is live now. The crew you saw circling was most likely the decon crew scrubbing slime that had become too faint to see: the job only ends when the whole street is clean, and after a burst gut that took over two minutes with nothing on screen saying why. We also tested the other explanation, a crew chasing a piece that's already gone, and couldn't make it happen in play. Now a banner shows how clean the street is, and that part runs at eight times speed. The first contract also waits for your first cut. Your save carries over, and a save taken in the middle of a scrub finishes in about 20 seconds. If it still looks stuck, a screenshot here would help us a lot.