u/DeckBeasts1

Just launched my first game, tear it apart: Deck Beasts on Steam

Looking for advice specifically for strategy games and autobattlers.

My game is an autobattler with some pretty important, but not necessarily intuitive mechanics. My current tutorial explains all of these well, but it's incredibly long (about 24 'clicks' to get through it). Before I implemented it, I had complaints about the mechanics being too complicated. Now I have complaints of the tutorial being too long, which I understand can be very harmful for new player retention.

On the non-tutorial side of things, I have tooltips available in the scene which explain these mechanics well, though some of them run on for 3-4 sentences - not exactly a 'tip'.

Knowing that players are trying to play a game and not a book, I don't exactly know how to proceed. I'm thinking of shortening the tutorial massively and having it heavily emphasize the tooltips.

Does anyone have recommendations/insight based on their own experience? How much hand-holding do players generally need, and how much is too much?

I've recently released a browser-playable/demo version of my game, and it drew in an unexpectedly large amount of early players - some of whom played for hours and provided a ton of really helpful feedback over just the last few days.

A few of them have really gone above and beyond participating in the community, notifying me of issues with the game, providing extensive direct feedback, and overall completely rekindling my motivation.

My question is this: How do you reward these kinds of dedicated players? A few of them have told me that they play because they enjoy the game - that they don't expect anything in return, but I'd still like to show my appreciation however I can.

I plan on making my game free when I release on Steam, so I can't exactly give away Steam Keys. Any recommendations or suggestions? What have you all done to show appreciation for your most dedicated playtesters?

I've tried with a few friends, but their feedback is often too nice and not critical enough despite some very real issues with the game.

How do you guys find playtesters? I haven't released on Steam yet so I don't have much in the way of discoverability. Right now I've trying CrazyGames but my games' style and genre doesn't exactly cohere well with the fast, casual playerbase, so I'm more-or-less at a loss as to how I can find some honest feedback for the time being until I release a demo on Steam.

If you'd like to test the game, just DM me and I'll provide a link to the browser version.

I've been having issues with burnout over the past couple of weeks - it feels like every time I get something done it just reveals another 10 things I need to change/update/add.

The main menu screen of my game has a neat little animation where all the character sprites float around the screen.

The last few days, I'll just stop what I'm doing, pull it up, and stare at it for a while. It reminds me what I've built and that all those little, seemingly tedious actions really do add up.

What's your little ritual to keep the fire lit?

It's a daunting process to make good capsule art, but every once in a while I come across a game that does it perfectly:

Muck - a simple screencap that somehow carries a lot of the game's unique visual style and peculiarity.

The King is Watching - Incredibly noticeable and sticks out alongside ANY other game. Also fits perfectly thematically. A lot to learn from this one.

Burglin' Gnomes - Very intriguing and fun - does its job better than pretty much any other friendslop game (besides Meccha, maybe)

Bonus: Slay the Spire (I and II) - not quite as simple but these are beautiful and use their color palettes perfectly.

Any other ideas? I feel like everyone's always looking for the highest quality art they can get, but sometimes a simple, well-thought-out hook can do much better.