Thank you for playing and streaming it! I totally agree that it needs more visuals and of course I've just started so it's mostly default boxes, I wanted to finish the core gameplay loop before investing into assets. I think the enemy and spell visuals will amp up the game for sure so I thank you for the feedback. However I would like to mention that I don't consider it a gambling game because there are no monetary stakes or betting, instead a rogue lite, it's just missing an upgrade system that I plan on implementing as the final addition to the core. I also for sure want a scripted tutorial so I'm glad you mentioned it. What did you think of the pixely animation I made? I was planning on making some more. What other visuals do you think I need to prioritize?
Viewing post in Simple Dice Game jam comments
What I was trying to say - random numbers and rolling them is not fun at all. Seeing a number pop up on screen without any flair is... meh. So you do want some sort of animation, be it a dice drop or a sword swing. The reason I called it "gambling" is because in my opinion/experience the main appeal of dice rolling is the suspense - and that's a core for any gambling game. Waiting for what number will be rolled, stuff like that. I honestly don't know how to avoid the gambling association if you're gonna have dice for attack. (now that I think about it - tabletop games also use dice, but they also rely on the same suspense as the gambling games, so not that far off imo)
The animation is fine, but it comes out of nowhere and is not well explained. Also it triggers right after the roll, so in regards to the crab claw - I think I didn't even see the original number that I had.
Considering your game is all about combat - I'd focus on that - monster sprites/animations, attack animations (including player attack). Anything that would make the game look more game-y, I guess.
Yeah I for sure need some kind of dice visual which is at the top of my list, and your completely right. The animation timing needs some work and I agree that the number before the claw and other abilities should be shown, so that is also a good point. I might add an enemy indicator for abilities which might make them a bit easier to predict, still playing around with that idea. I seriously appreciate all the feedback and analysis, which is something I sought for this prototype so thank you again!