How I feel about 8BitMMO
Hello, it is me again. I am posting this because I feel bad for the sorrow state of the game right now. I hope this post will help somewhat, it's all I can do really. This will probably be my last post in a while if not the last post forever. When I browse through the forums here I sense a lot of tension between Robby and the players. And it is sad that the game has come down to this.
To the players, you have to understand that Robby is kinda done with the game. He put a lot of effort and money into the game but the game sadly never caught on. New updates never led to an increase of player activity. Although the releases on Kongregate and Steam caused spikes in player activity, they were never be able to stick to the game and so the activity quickly whittled down to its original state. Combine that with the fact that Robby had trouble with players misbehaving and it is understandable that Robby has lost motivation to keep working on the game. He must be just as dissappointed as you are.
To Robby, you seem very irritated in your posts. I know you've had a lot of trouble with certain bad apples but the majority of this community just want to play the game and want to see the game grow. They may be complaining a lot but that is not to nag you but they do it because they care about the game, they want to make it better. Even after all these months without updates they are still playing the game and try to make the best out of it. Would they really do that if they hate you and your game?
I know you've had a harsh time and had some not so nice people to deal with the last couple of years but don't let that bring you down. I wish you all the best with your life and your future game projects! This will probably my last post in a while so I have one more thing to say: If you ever decide to get back to 8BitMMO or start a new game project make sure to send out an e-mail because I am still on your mailing list.
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Feedback
Ok, after that, I just want to give some feedback about the game. Maybe it is too late for 8BitMMO now but I hope it will still be useful for when you make another game.
Content
There is not enough content. I'm not even talking about complex features like transponders, just simple content like blocks. There are not enough blocks, not enough levels, not enough player customisations, not enough mobs, not enough weapons etc.
Since building is the main aspect of the game, it is important that the game has a big variety of blocks. It took years before we even had all the basic colours of the rainbow :I
Apart from blocks I think more levels is the most important. Players need some long-term goals so there will be a reason to keep playing the game. Think about Runescape where you can level up to level 99, that's something that takes at least months to do. Right now you can reach max level by spamming spacebar for just a few hours. Every level you should unlock a few blocks and items. And maybe a small reward along with that, something like a heap of gold or maybe even 1 plat every five levels.
Half-baked features
There are a lot of of half baked features in the game. Features that aren't as fun as they could potentially be. I think it is better to focus on one feature and polish it until it is truly playable and also fun to do so. I am talking about dungeons, quests, combat system, PvP, building (more options to make building easier), transponder matches and managing towns (assigning places for citizens to build for example).
Visuals
I have to be honest here, the visuals in this game are not good. There is actually a lot more work to do here. Maybe you should hire a designer or a game artist, someone who knows what makes a game attractive visually. Graphics are important for a game and especially in a building game such as this where the players have to show off their creations. Also, the first impression matters so it is important that the game looks fun when you are browsing through Steam for example or when you first open the game.
There are a lot of different aspects when it comes to visuals. First I want to talk about the game itself, how the world looks like when you are playing the game. Right now the world can look confusing, especially when someone has made a complex building. It is hard to see depth and you can't tell if a block is near you or far away from you. Shadows should help with this but they are pretty buggy and are slow to load. Enabling fancy FX also helps but that makes the game extremely laggy. 9BitMMO alleviates most of these problems but it still has it's own problems like a wonky perspective and weird looking furniture.
I also think the texture of the blocks may need some work. The textures are pretty bland most of the time, they need some more detail in them. Especially blocks like concrete.
The player avatar looks awkward and out of place. It is a flat 2-D figure in a 3-D world. Some might say you can't change the iconic black 'n white dude that represents 8BitMMO but I think it needs to be changed.
The user interface and windows are really dull. It's just a grey box with white buttons. A designer would really help here.
Player feedback. Players need more visual feedback on what they are doing and what is going on in the 8bitMMO world. I am mainly talking about animations here. For example an animation when you or another player use a telepad so everyone knows they teleported to somewhere else and not just quit the game. Or an animation when a player dies or gets hurt so you can tell what is going on. A message saying ''player X has died'' is not enough. We also need better animations when they already exist, for example the hammer animation. The weapon is a hammer but when you use it a red circle appears. It is too abstract and just doesn't make sense. Also when you level up a big window should pop up saying ''Congratulations you leveled up, you unlocked these blocks!''.
Root
Root is so bland and ugly. It is the first impression of the game, it should have awesome structures in it that make the players excited. Not only that, root is so outdated, you never add new telepads while there are so many towns, dungeons and PvP arenas that deserve to be linked to root. There is an empty spot with a sign saying ''TBD''. But the most pathetic thing in root must be the sign saying ''I accidently picked up your telepad and it's in your inventory now, lol. Find me later and trade it back to me.''. It's been there for at least two years! What do you think new players will think when they read a sign like that? Honestly, if you can't bother to fix that, why would a player bother to play your game?
Humour
One small thing that I also want to adress is the humour in the game. Humour in a game can work but it can impact the player in a negative way if they don't like it or get offended by it. Also the player might think you don't take your own game seriously. And if the dev doesn't take it seriously, why would the player? Personally I would've liked it more if we had more serious enemies like spiders, bears, ogres, pirates instead of hipsters, lawyercats and game critics.
The world
One thing that has always been a thorn in my side is the complete mess called wilderness. It makes the game look so chaotic and it really puts off new players. Go to the Steam reviews, everyone is complaining about it. The blocks of players who put less than 100 blocks down in the same area should decay. And ghost towns with barely anything in them should also decay. I will probably never understand why you protect junk placed down by players who will most likely never come back to the game ever again. Why do you favour gone players over active and new players? Again, I will never understand. Also, the floor of the wilderness should be like grass and random things like trees and flowers should grow out of it. The current dirt floor is so ugly imo.