Thanks for writing this review, Jubal. Your constructive feedback means a lot; including the time you spent analysing and finishing the game. I loved your humour and the way you described the Postbug world. This has been a very interesting read and I am very grateful.
I'm glad you like the game. I've gone against some game design best practises as it's advised to incrementally train the player as they progress through the game (eg first step is to learn how to jump or avoid an obstacles); whereas in Postbug, the player is thrown in the deep end and it’s left up to them to determine how they fit into the world. A playtester asked whether fish were dangerous and another deliberately walked into a spiderweb to confirm whether they would get caught. These are the types of questions and experimentation I wanted the player to explore. It’s also interesting to watch how children play because they’ll map out areas they feel comfortable with and slowly increase their comfort zone with time.
I share the game design concerns you listed in your review, Jubal. Red bugs are more common and powerful than blue bugs and shields which are more difficult to gather. I liked the idea of the 2 stage blue bug and crushing crabs to get shields, however this creates the imbalance as you mentioned.
My biggest design challenge has been working out what to do with the other ladybirds. I feel they need to be there in order to populate the homes. They however provide no other purpose, they get in the way, and they cause confusion with the players. I assume players have tried to talk to them, and one player felt sorry for them and tried to herd them back into their homes. Poor little suckers.. I feel that if there were additional objectives around the ladybirds (eg bonus points for performing certain tasks) it will complicate the main objective of delivering the mail. Another solution is to strip the game back by taking out the homes and the ladybirds to create a more traditional arcade game.
I’m very keen to get the level editor up and running. Hopefully this will help the game reach it’s full potential as people build their own levels and focus on areas you mentioned with puzzle design and civil engineering. It would be good to see what could be created in that space. I also think a lot more can be done with the water and lava in the level design. I also plan on adding more features which include giant spiders, a giant queen bee (which would have been perfect for the Hive) and I think your dragonfly idea would fit in nicely.
If anyone else is interested in this game, please give it a go and I’d love to hear your feedback. It’d also be great to see your name of the Pioneer Hall of Fame if you’re up for the challenge. My biggest challenge with this game has been finding an audience to appreciate Postbug’s level of difficulty. Good luck
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