Post by blank on Jun 11, 2020 12:16:17 GMT 1
It's been almost 5 years since I'm playing KoGaMa, and yet, some design decisions are still incomprehensible. This thread will summarize them. KoGaMa has lots of potential to be a better game, I still do enjoy it, but unfortunately, those small bits ruin the user experience, including on my end.
Please note we're talking about issues and not bugs. Over time, this thread might be updated. I'm hugely thanking Jatsu for helping me in developing this thread.
Games
The whole concept behind KoGaMa is to build, share, and play games made by its members.
Issues from the game owner(s) perspective.
-Not being able to unpublish games. One of the developers mentioned not wanting to implement this feature because it could potentially break embeds on other websites. An alternative would be to set game access to unlisted/invisible status where they can still be played by link but not searchable or found on games pages.
-Game tiers are confusing, the only way to reduce the number of crystals needed to get from one tier to another is to tweak everything. If I want a game tier to cost 50gold while it unlocks 1000 different pickups and trigger inputs, for example, I should be able to set that specific price. It shouldn't cost a huge amount of gold and crystals if we just.. don't want to.
-A single screenshot is sometimes not enough. Game creators might wanna show how the game looks like further in detail. Easily showing that on the website might be a bit tricky, perhaps on hover action could scroll through them for both desktop and mobile.
Issues from the player's perspective.
-Game description should be toggled on by default. You have to click on the game title while on the game page to show it. How are people even supposed to know that? This has been addressed, apparently.
-A better rating system. Although having more options doesn't always lead to more specific results, especially when ratings are not defined properly. YouTube for example does like/dislike because their 5-star rating implementation tended to only receive 1-star or 5-star ratings, essentially leading to binary outcomes. Perhaps it may be better to deviate from hard statistics and try softer ones instead. Not all users participate in rating systems, but if they were a bit more fun or expressive, then perhaps something may come from it. Adding clickable, but positive accolades like "Great details!", "Fun game!", or "Truly unique!" for example could give players quick ways to express their satisfaction without needing to quantify it. Alternatively, some social and creative websites have rating systems that allow users to award or tip creators with currency. The latter could be a potential gold sink for richer members of the community too.
Marketplace
Not only KoGaMa provides a large amount of user-generated games, but it also has its own market that allows its users to trade models and avatars in exchange for gold.
Issues from the seller's perspective.
-Unlike games, the author cannot remove published comments. One of the developers, Tokeeto, mentioned being able to delete comments would lead to dishonest communication, such as when a creator doesn't like something someone said about them or their creation but would otherwise be fair or legitimate to post. This of course leads to confusion since on the other hand, game comments can also be deleted, but he also mentioned they'd plan to work on something about that. An example would be to completely disallow them.
-Avatars can't have descriptions, while models can.
-Receiving 10% from purchases. It is not easy to attract concurrency when you are a beginner, and receiving 10% is just if, allow me to say, almost nothing, almost ridiculous.
-Not being able to do our own screenshots for models, it is "stuck" on the same angle. Taking screenshots based on the creator's relative position to the center of the creation could work (even for disproportionate things). It's pretty intuitive to face an object that you're taking a picture of and users would get a hold of that pretty fast. The camera distance could still be standardized, thus browsing the marketplace would still look relatively uniform. Alternatively, the game could take multiple previews from several predetermined angles and let the creator select one. Even more ambitious would be moving the entire Marketplace into the game client so you could load an asset and properly view it at all angles or test it before purchase. It would also save a refresh when an item is bought. However, such a feature would require a robust searching and categorization system, which isn't implemented yet.
Issues from the buyer's perspective.
-30seconds cooldown between each purchase. I assume the only explanation to this is to avoid large amounts of sent data but.. why not make a cart with all your purchases within? Or put this cooldown when you actually make too much purchases?
-The stuck angle on model's screenshots can trick people easily. 2 possible fixes: a "3D look-around" feature or just have 4 screenshots of all faces of the model and avatar.
Other issues
Issues that don't fit in any category.
-Posting links should be "allowed". Won't make that much of a difference since everyone is already using workarounds.
-There should be more privacy settings. I might or might not wanna have people see who I have in my friend list, unless I add them, for example. And of course, more settings about security, such as 2FA for example. Account theft is something quite common, unfortunately.
-The Elite subscription page is still as confusing, it is not clear how much it actually costs and there's quite some confusion about the term "free trial" which would rather be a "free discount" for the first week, instead.
-No changelogs or important announcements. It happened that there were sudden currency changes and it feels like they count on players "not noticing". Why not be like any other video game company? Furthermore, about "the company behind KoGaMa". There is >>a lot of lack of transparency.<< I understand that it is difficult without a CM but.. isn't that what they're kinda supposed to do? Being transparent while they suffer from a lack of staff and possibly even resources? Being transparent to the community can help a lot and in the state the game is as of right now.. it feels like they're pretty much on their own end which really saddens me, personally speaking.
Aside from issues, it would be nice to have some work on the editor, features like 3D rotation, translation, grouping would definitely be useful. With these tools, games can surely be more polished and generally faster made. Plus, better search, indexing and discovery features would be definitely welcome, which will serve both players and creators well.
Please remember that those are just opinions on how things are and maybe there's a valuable and normal explanation for everything mentioned.
Thank you for reading, we are awaiting more feedback.
-Aligator & Jatsu
Please note we're talking about issues and not bugs. Over time, this thread might be updated. I'm hugely thanking Jatsu for helping me in developing this thread.
Games
The whole concept behind KoGaMa is to build, share, and play games made by its members.
Issues from the game owner(s) perspective.
-Not being able to unpublish games. One of the developers mentioned not wanting to implement this feature because it could potentially break embeds on other websites. An alternative would be to set game access to unlisted/invisible status where they can still be played by link but not searchable or found on games pages.
-Game tiers are confusing, the only way to reduce the number of crystals needed to get from one tier to another is to tweak everything. If I want a game tier to cost 50gold while it unlocks 1000 different pickups and trigger inputs, for example, I should be able to set that specific price. It shouldn't cost a huge amount of gold and crystals if we just.. don't want to.
-A single screenshot is sometimes not enough. Game creators might wanna show how the game looks like further in detail. Easily showing that on the website might be a bit tricky, perhaps on hover action could scroll through them for both desktop and mobile.
Issues from the player's perspective.
-A better rating system. Although having more options doesn't always lead to more specific results, especially when ratings are not defined properly. YouTube for example does like/dislike because their 5-star rating implementation tended to only receive 1-star or 5-star ratings, essentially leading to binary outcomes. Perhaps it may be better to deviate from hard statistics and try softer ones instead. Not all users participate in rating systems, but if they were a bit more fun or expressive, then perhaps something may come from it. Adding clickable, but positive accolades like "Great details!", "Fun game!", or "Truly unique!" for example could give players quick ways to express their satisfaction without needing to quantify it. Alternatively, some social and creative websites have rating systems that allow users to award or tip creators with currency. The latter could be a potential gold sink for richer members of the community too.
Marketplace
Not only KoGaMa provides a large amount of user-generated games, but it also has its own market that allows its users to trade models and avatars in exchange for gold.
Issues from the seller's perspective.
-Unlike games, the author cannot remove published comments. One of the developers, Tokeeto, mentioned being able to delete comments would lead to dishonest communication, such as when a creator doesn't like something someone said about them or their creation but would otherwise be fair or legitimate to post. This of course leads to confusion since on the other hand, game comments can also be deleted, but he also mentioned they'd plan to work on something about that. An example would be to completely disallow them.
-Avatars can't have descriptions, while models can.
-Receiving 10% from purchases. It is not easy to attract concurrency when you are a beginner, and receiving 10% is just if, allow me to say, almost nothing, almost ridiculous.
-Not being able to do our own screenshots for models, it is "stuck" on the same angle. Taking screenshots based on the creator's relative position to the center of the creation could work (even for disproportionate things). It's pretty intuitive to face an object that you're taking a picture of and users would get a hold of that pretty fast. The camera distance could still be standardized, thus browsing the marketplace would still look relatively uniform. Alternatively, the game could take multiple previews from several predetermined angles and let the creator select one. Even more ambitious would be moving the entire Marketplace into the game client so you could load an asset and properly view it at all angles or test it before purchase. It would also save a refresh when an item is bought. However, such a feature would require a robust searching and categorization system, which isn't implemented yet.
Issues from the buyer's perspective.
-30seconds cooldown between each purchase. I assume the only explanation to this is to avoid large amounts of sent data but.. why not make a cart with all your purchases within? Or put this cooldown when you actually make too much purchases?
-The stuck angle on model's screenshots can trick people easily. 2 possible fixes: a "3D look-around" feature or just have 4 screenshots of all faces of the model and avatar.
Other issues
Issues that don't fit in any category.
-Posting links should be "allowed". Won't make that much of a difference since everyone is already using workarounds.
-There should be more privacy settings. I might or might not wanna have people see who I have in my friend list, unless I add them, for example. And of course, more settings about security, such as 2FA for example. Account theft is something quite common, unfortunately.
-The Elite subscription page is still as confusing, it is not clear how much it actually costs and there's quite some confusion about the term "free trial" which would rather be a "free discount" for the first week, instead.
-No changelogs or important announcements. It happened that there were sudden currency changes and it feels like they count on players "not noticing". Why not be like any other video game company? Furthermore, about "the company behind KoGaMa". There is >>a lot of lack of transparency.<< I understand that it is difficult without a CM but.. isn't that what they're kinda supposed to do? Being transparent while they suffer from a lack of staff and possibly even resources? Being transparent to the community can help a lot and in the state the game is as of right now.. it feels like they're pretty much on their own end which really saddens me, personally speaking.
Aside from issues, it would be nice to have some work on the editor, features like 3D rotation, translation, grouping would definitely be useful. With these tools, games can surely be more polished and generally faster made. Plus, better search, indexing and discovery features would be definitely welcome, which will serve both players and creators well.
Please remember that those are just opinions on how things are and maybe there's a valuable and normal explanation for everything mentioned.
Thank you for reading, we are awaiting more feedback.
-Aligator & Jatsu
