Entered into first improvement jam!

I recently entered scatterbrain into an imprrovement jam and the feedback was very helpful.

In the aftermath, here are some takaways:

game tech

• no sound ( in one particular instance)

game feel

• short game 
  
• bg music intrusive
• controls didn't seem to do much of anything
• thoughts move fast so interaction is hard and tedious
  
• reaction time is too quick for some thoughts, maybe add a cue
  
• health bar should display some cues that tell players whether the bar going up or down is good or bad and which is which
  

game concept

• game concept not clear
• help page not clear
• ui (percentage bar) not clear
• how do i make the good things enter the emouth 
• make it clear how players are to interact wih things
  
• needs better explaination and tighter concept integration into game execution
  
• thoughts need clearer cues whether they are good or bad thoughts
  
• games goal needs to be clearly explained
  
• explain game vision

Here are the things I want to accomplish with the game:

1.  this game teaches me skills and ideas that can apply to the dream game I want to make
   1. relationship tracking with npc characters
   2. some roguelike elements (even if it's not a complete roguelike game)
   3. expirence at all with making a game
2. explore thought as the core concept, central to the game (in a way thats fun) 
   1. thoughts have differeing behaviors
   2. explore the avenues through which we interact with thoughts
3. have a feel thats hard but fun
   
   1. thoughts wih articular behaiviors and quirks
   2. hard to control thoughts
   3. moving spawn point

Here's how I plan to apply the feedback after reviewing the goals of the game:

• thoughts need clearer cues whether they are good or bad thoughts

while the art for the thoughts were orignally designed to reflect clearly bad or clearly good, in hindsight , not  every thought is 'clearly bad' or 'clearly good'. Some are clear but other we may need help or expirence to recognize. some may on;y be contextually good. so here are some ideas I want to try to explore:

1. related trains of thought. 
   have specifics design element represent certain aspects of ideas  and let players learn,  what design elements are generally representative of good ideas, and which are representative of bad ideas
2. pause to consider. 
   allow players to use their focus to examine thier ideas (or even compare them to other ideas)
   1. memory. have a log of ideas that players have explored before and allow for them to look at them
3. idea jar.
   use focus to write down idea. 
4. gracious interlocutor.
   the game will feature npcs who will give players feedback on the thoughts they speak aloud. while intended to only react to the players thoughts, the npc could offer some cue to let the player know what they said was off color, or perhaps asking for clarity as to what the player meant.

• make it clear how players are to interact wih things
• help page not clear
  
• how do i make the good things enter the mouth 
  
• controls didn't seem to do much of anything

As of now I will change the cursor to a circle so players can see their area of focus. 
any thought within the area of focus will stay  in the area of focus as long as the player is careful .  they can also fling the object of their focus in a particular direction if they shift it some where else. although i think it would be  useful to just allow the players to atttempt to speak there thougthts. they just should be careful that it doesn't collide with any other thought before exiting the mind through the mouth!

1. speak. shoot(by hitting right click) a thought directly from the area of focus to the mouth. be careful though. as real life thoughts can be intercepted by other thoughts so too can your ideas in the game get caught, morphed or mangeled on the way out of your mouth!
2. help
   1. I will make the help menu more plain
   2. a short tutorial level before the main game.
3. controls
   1. as of now, the area of focus, and i'm considering other options, but i'm not to sure yet. Anyone who decided to peruse this devlog is welcome to post a suggestion

• health bar should display some cues that tell players whether the bar going up or down is good or bad and which is which
• ui (percentage bar) not clear
  

in keeping with the plan to add npc feedback as an integral feature of the game, here I will remove the  bar and replace it with a face, that makes expression. 
I don't necessarily want to  put numbers on the screen that doesn't seem in keeping  with the intended feel of the game so  for a player's reference the intensity of the face's expression will represent the player's score so to speak. maybe a short animation will play to indicate the ending of the game

1. face
   1. smilling. the bigger the cheese, the more you friend agrees
   2. frowning. the the steeper the frown the more your friend is down.

• games goal needs to be clearly explained
• explain game vision
• game concept not clear
  
• needs better explaination and tighter concept integration into game execution
  

as of now I will put it on a splash screen before playing the game until I think of something more creative
I want to fully integrate the idea of ideas into the game.

I think a good way of addressing this is a tutorial or expository trailer. 

I will expirement!

• thoughts move fast so interaction is hard and tedious
• reaction time is too quick for some thoughts, maybe add a cue

I want for there to be very quick thoughts, however I will expirement with this and other factors such and th volume of thoughts in relation to the speed or the movement patterns.

Hopefully this addresses the feedback I received.

Thank you to everyone that contributed!!!