The confusion of what to do in Connectory is much like your first day handling real calls in a tech call centre.
But unlike a real call centre this is a wonderfully addictive game. The charm of the visuals and sound design are excellent.
I’m not sure I’ll ever connect 10 calls but we shall see…
I would like a little more or even just a smudge of some onboarding as the replay value is great but I fear many players will be put off if they don’t connect anything in their first couple of runs.
Be useful to see final score on the end screen and I’d love an iPad version.
I understand originally created for a game jam but even so I do hope a few little updates to tweak game experience.
First, it’s a great experimental game. There’s something genuinely charming about the aesthetic and gameplay. It hits all the right notes of silly and strange. If the point is to convey how tedious technical support can be and the frustrations (and sometimes satisfaction) of that job for both customer and employee, this game conveys the point incredibly well.
On the other hand, I felt that the game was just downright confusing at times. The symbols that (I assume) you’re supposed to match with the other callers feel like they don’t always convey the ideas clearly enough. It’s strange because in some instances, it’s really clear when you should end a call. (Ex: Customer talking about food or not saying anything at all.) In other cases, you can infer enough from the symbols where you should direct the call and will end up with a success as well. But other times it feels like the “correct” decision ends up being the wrong one. There’s no feedback as far as I know on how you’re doing other than what I assume to be the customer's emotional state. This sort of randomization seems frustrating at times, especially since you only get 3 chances. I’m fine with things being turned into symbols and conveying points without words or even a tutorial, but in these cases, I think there really needs to be a clear distinction on what works and what doesn’t work.
I’m gonna get kinda meta here with my feedback: I’m a bit reluctant and unsure about how to “improve” the experience or even if my feedback is that helpful. Mainly because, I would hate to take away or change something from such an interesting and engaging experience that you (the developer) have created. This could very well be a case of “I just don’t understand the game enough” and I’m always willing to admit I could be at fault for not understanding things properly. I hope that something in all this writing can be somewhat helpful without changing your ideal vision for what you want your game to be. (As I always try to do with each game I play on itch.io)
All that being said, this was an overall compelling experience. If you (the reader) are thinking that this game looks interesting, give it a try! You might “get it” better than I did. Regardless, keep up the fantastic work! :)
Hi. Thanks a ton for the response, and yeah, I absolutely agree with you as to the lack of clarity and feedback with whether you're on the right track (which doesn't help when the randomisation can really screw you over).
I think large parts of the issues are relics of this being intended as a game jam game (all of the icons and callers were created during the 48 hours of the game jam), and I'd have absolutely tried to redesign or fix them if I'd intended on spending more time on this. So, I may try to fix them when I'm fixing bugs over the coming week? I'll have to see, since this game was meant to be done with a fair while ago... Part of it is definitely that the game's core design is intrinsically flawed, but when speaking to my friend about this stuff, I was considering coming up with an algorithm to check that you're on the right track, as well as a couple of new sound effects to go along with it (I think my main concern was just the time it'd take, and I had to get the game sorted before the weekend).
But yeah, I really appreciate the feedback, and again, I super agree with you (I've had pretty long discussions with a friend about the things you brought-up, too). Thanks for putting the time into writing this, for trying the game, and for the encouragement. Have a solid day, and take care.
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The confusion of what to do in Connectory is much like your first day handling real calls in a tech call centre.
But unlike a real call centre this is a wonderfully addictive game. The charm of the visuals and sound design are excellent.
I’m not sure I’ll ever connect 10 calls but we shall see…
I would like a little more or even just a smudge of some onboarding as the replay value is great but I fear many players will be put off if they don’t connect anything in their first couple of runs.
Be useful to see final score on the end screen and I’d love an iPad version.
I understand originally created for a game jam but even so I do hope a few little updates to tweak game experience.
Thanks a bunch, Adam. I'll see what I can do, and also what I feel like doing, once I've fixed the game's bigger bugs.
👍
I’m in two minds about this game.
First, it’s a great experimental game. There’s something genuinely charming about the aesthetic and gameplay. It hits all the right notes of silly and strange. If the point is to convey how tedious technical support can be and the frustrations (and sometimes satisfaction) of that job for both customer and employee, this game conveys the point incredibly well.
On the other hand, I felt that the game was just downright confusing at times. The symbols that (I assume) you’re supposed to match with the other callers feel like they don’t always convey the ideas clearly enough. It’s strange because in some instances, it’s really clear when you should end a call. (Ex: Customer talking about food or not saying anything at all.) In other cases, you can infer enough from the symbols where you should direct the call and will end up with a success as well. But other times it feels like the “correct” decision ends up being the wrong one. There’s no feedback as far as I know on how you’re doing other than what I assume to be the customer's emotional state. This sort of randomization seems frustrating at times, especially since you only get 3 chances. I’m fine with things being turned into symbols and conveying points without words or even a tutorial, but in these cases, I think there really needs to be a clear distinction on what works and what doesn’t work.
I’m gonna get kinda meta here with my feedback: I’m a bit reluctant and unsure about how to “improve” the experience or even if my feedback is that helpful. Mainly because, I would hate to take away or change something from such an interesting and engaging experience that you (the developer) have created. This could very well be a case of “I just don’t understand the game enough” and I’m always willing to admit I could be at fault for not understanding things properly. I hope that something in all this writing can be somewhat helpful without changing your ideal vision for what you want your game to be. (As I always try to do with each game I play on itch.io)
All that being said, this was an overall compelling experience. If you (the reader) are thinking that this game looks interesting, give it a try! You might “get it” better than I did. Regardless, keep up the fantastic work! :)
Hi. Thanks a ton for the response, and yeah, I absolutely agree with you as to the lack of clarity and feedback with whether you're on the right track (which doesn't help when the randomisation can really screw you over).
I think large parts of the issues are relics of this being intended as a game jam game (all of the icons and callers were created during the 48 hours of the game jam), and I'd have absolutely tried to redesign or fix them if I'd intended on spending more time on this. So, I may try to fix them when I'm fixing bugs over the coming week? I'll have to see, since this game was meant to be done with a fair while ago... Part of it is definitely that the game's core design is intrinsically flawed, but when speaking to my friend about this stuff, I was considering coming up with an algorithm to check that you're on the right track, as well as a couple of new sound effects to go along with it (I think my main concern was just the time it'd take, and I had to get the game sorted before the weekend).
But yeah, I really appreciate the feedback, and again, I super agree with you (I've had pretty long discussions with a friend about the things you brought-up, too). Thanks for putting the time into writing this, for trying the game, and for the encouragement. Have a solid day, and take care.
-Dean