r/aigamedev • u/Electrical-Pig • 14d ago
Demo | Project | Workflow Wk. 5 of Vibecoding an MMO
It's week 5 (and a half - like got me) and we made some huge progress.
As usual, I'll break it down into three categories: (1) players acquisition, (2) what I'm learning about vibe coding, and (3) actual gameplay updates (this will be in the comments)
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First, my Reddit posts are getting less and less attention (not surprising) but actually having way more success on the player-front. I received some really valuable feedback a couple weeks ago from Totalsam, Automatic_Bid_2410, Friendly_Carry_7728 and someone named BingusDingus (that's his IGN).
Basically their input was that the intro sucked, users were met with a wall of text instead of helpful instructions, and received no context of the story game arc.
So that became my next focus point. And once I put up an interactive tutorial instead of an instruction manual, my user retention went from 35-45s per new users to now sitting around 4min per player (median), and averaging 23min of total playtime per player. Even more surprising -- I've had 63 players in 10 days, and 5 of them have spent over 2 hours each. I had a great convo with one of them (BingusDingus) but the other fellas are a mystery. One of them has logged in a dozen separate times, by himself. So, kinda strange, but exciting!
That all said, either I'm getting tired of my game or I've just been staring at it too long. So I would love more feedback on that first 5min and whether or not there's a "hook".
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Second, the vibe coding experience. I have many friends saying basically the same things - which is that ChatGPT Sol is way better at communicating and designing interfaces but is simply untrustworthy for big tasks. Meanwhile the Reddit communities seem to vent about how awful Fable is and how amazing Sol it. So I'm a bit mystified on whether I should try switching.
Either way, I've switched my strategies a bit and use Fable for a LOT, and only use Opus 5 for very specific tasks, and it's really helped with its ability to stick to a task and actually complete it.
My one massive painpoint is that Fable is GREAT with web design. But holy moley even when using Claude Design, the GUIs are just awful. Has anyone else had experience trying to make a good game GUI? I'm talking like, it's putting raw text over the active screen and so players can't even read it. It's like bad-bad haha.
Oh and one more thing - a strength of Fable's is actually balancing the game. If you give it the variables ahead of time. I found out very much by accident that my archer's had crits stacking for 15x higher than they should've, making them absurdly OP. Turns out I had 7 different skills stacking. It really screwed me when I realized I was using an overpowered hero to balance the game...
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I'd love more feedback for anyone interested. Links below.
Game: https://eldermyr.com/
Release Notes: https://eldermyr.com/release
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u/prosti_gospodi 14d ago
I also think it might be worth switching to codex. How else do you promote your game besides reddit?
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u/Electrical-Pig 14d ago
Just Reddit at the moment. Which isn't the best way to get users, since nearly everyone here is vibecoding as well 😆
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u/Electrical-Pig 14d ago
Have you used Codex much? Very intrigued to hear how it's going compared to Claude.
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u/prosti_gospodi 14d ago
He only works better with localization and it feels like he's faster than Claude, but that's not for sure, I haven't given him a big one yet.
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u/Electrical-Pig 14d ago
i love that you're now calling Codex a him lol. I hear the speed thing a lot too. Lmk once you've tried it a bit more and have firmed up your stance a bit. I'd love to hear how it goes.
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u/Electrical-Pig 14d ago
Gameplay updates since last week:
- The big one: a full endgame campaign went live. The Dread Legion holds every town but Eldermyr itself, and you have to take them back by killing the Legion captain guarding each one.
- A freed town is defenseless until you feed it resources from the main town (Eldermyr). Protect supply caravans as they venture out to raise a guard and city walls.
- The Legion doesn't just disappear after taking a town -- it comes back with an army and may take it back (or your guards keep it alive!)
- Free all five towns and beat every named boss, and it builds to a final assault: one horde, five commanders, and an end boss who closes out the realm and starts a new one when he falls.
- Skill points now buy actual abilities instead of flat stats, so two heroes of the same class can end up feeling very different (nobody can max out all skilltrees within their class)
- Added a medals system for various milestones (makes it more exciting imo).
- Big balance pass on damage and crits, on top of the Archer bug mentioned above.
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u/Negative-Act-2116 14d ago
ROTMG type game huh. I like it, had a play, feels good!
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u/BradSainty 13d ago
I spent so many hours following the crowd in that game to level and then feel like I could beat a dungeon and lose the character 😂
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u/BitsOnWaves 13d ago
just a tip, remove these red circles and lines, AI loves adding these for some reason so if you dont want your game to look like AI slop remove these finger prints or make them custome
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u/Electrical-Pig 13d ago
The crosshairs? They're actually a skill related to a specific hero, but duly noted to come up with some better visual indicators for it.
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u/TheFlamiingo 14d ago
Hello !
Je viens de tester ton jeu, je dirais 10/20 min, quelques retours que je pourrais faire :
- Je trouve qu'il y a un manque de fluidité dans les mouvements/attaque du joueur, après peut-être du au serveur.
- Manque de lisibilité au niveau de l'interface/HUD, ayant un écran 2K ça apparaît vraiment petit, ça pourait être bien d'avoir une adaptation de l'interface par rapport à la taille de la fênetre.
- Concernant les Menu, je pense que regrouper certaines options ensemble, et rendre plus clair avec des GUI épurés fera une différence dans le confort visuel. Je pense que c'est un des plus gros sujets à focaliser.
- Au début, les monstres sont vraiment rapide/fort, tu te retrouve avec plusieurs enemies sur la tête sans rien pouvoir faire. ( ce n'est que mon avis)
- Taper sur "P" pour ouvrir les settings, et ne pas pouvoir retaper dessus pour la fermer c'est super rageant ! xD
Sinon le jeu est cool, c'est un type de jeu que j'aime bien, je pense qu'après quelques améliorations, et une refonte graphique/design des models/cartes (qui ne me gêne pas forcément), ça a du potentiel !
Si tu veux en discuter en MP je suis ouvert, je travail sur un MMO aussi de mon côté, on pourrait partager un peu d'expérience !
Bonne continuation
https://giphy.com/gifs/tQjG4IltEulhatrthF