Improving the Free Trial

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loboLoco
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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by loboLoco » Tue Mar 01, 2016 8:36 pm

That's very interesting, SolitaryHowl. Clearly a design flaw. If things go well, I would sure like to overhaul the stranger wolf stuff to be more naturalistic...someday. (There will always be tension between redoing existing gameplay and creating new gameplay.)

But for now, I'll see about revising the text to reduce that confusion. Thanks.
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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by Celestial-Howl » Tue Mar 01, 2016 9:25 pm

That was very much like me, when I was younger I forgot video games were programmed so I thought everything would be the exact way wolves behaved. I ran around howling trying to get a reply and was confused when the wolves spawned in the same spot each time. I wandered AM aimlessly for almost half a year, until I struck my luck and finally figured out how to get a mate. I don't think we should "add" SC though, maybe a map flyover with no wolf models just so they can see some cool stuff or something like that.

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by loboLoco » Wed Mar 02, 2016 8:41 am

That's very helpful. I've revised the "Quest for a Mate" intro text to this:

You are a two-year old gray wolf born in the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park. You learned the ways of the wolf in your birth pack. Now it's time for you to find a home and build your own family.

First, you must learn to survive by hunting elk. Then you can undetake your quest for this fall season on the slopes of Amethyst Mountain: to find a mate. Visit the stranger wolf territories. Most wolves will defend their territory, but some are dispersal wolves like you, leaving their home territory in search of a mate. Howeer, you won't meet such a wolf until you've become a skilled hunter of elk.
____

And then the text popup when you enter a stranger wolf zone is similarly revised, but more specific about needing 800 XP to meet a potential mate.

That should help a lot...right?
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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by Kamaal » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:03 am

That's actually really helpful! Great idea Dave, it'll surely help people out.
I remember when I first started playing the game, I tried several times to find a mate (in the old version) by only looking in one territory.
It took me a couple of hours till I could finally find one, heh ^^'

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by Nor-easter Forecast » Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:50 am

I agree with what has been said before about the elk spawn point and revising the text. It already sounds better. BTW, Dave, you left out the v in "Howeer, you won't meet such a wolf..." not sure if that is true in the game's popup too, but worth a check.

Personally, I don't think we should unlock any portion of SC. That defeats the purpose of a demo. The most we should do, I believe, is have a teaser video pop up when people click the button. Maybe we could make new teaser videos just for MultiPlayer, SC and LR?

If we ever had the opportunity, I think the dispersals definitely need an overhaul. The AM mission seems so dead compared to SC, so it would be terrific if, at some point, dispersals had personalities, walked around, and could be wooed from their packs.

Would it be possible to easily incorporate the moving AI stranger wolves into AM? It might be nice to see them patrolling their territories from a distance, but have them programed to run away when you get too close, leaving a scent trail that leads to the social arena. That way they player can feel like they found a "pack" rather than just a random wolf standing around waiting for them. Or, it might be nice if pack wolves spawned and approached you (like they do when attacking the pups), forcing the player to either run away or enter the social arena. Dispersals, on the other hand, would have to be tracked down. This might help imply the idea that pack wolves were protecting their territories while dispersals are neutral.

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by SilkenGalaxy » Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:23 pm

I agree with all this stuff! The revised popup is great, dispersals should eventually be overhauled to act more like dispersals, and there should be teaser vids for the other parts of the game!

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by Kamaal » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:17 pm

Lobo Laughing wrote:I agree with what has been said before about the elk spawn point and revising the text. It already sounds better. BTW, Dave, you left out the v in "Howeer, you won't meet such a wolf..." not sure if that is true in the game's popup too, but worth a check.

Personally, I don't think we should unlock any portion of SC. That defeats the purpose of a demo. The most we should do, I believe, is have a teaser video pop up when people click the button. Maybe we could make new teaser videos just for MultiPlayer, SC and LR?

If we ever had the opportunity, I think the dispersals definitely need an overhaul. The AM mission seems so dead compared to SC, so it would be terrific if, at some point, dispersals had personalities, walked around, and could be wooed from their packs.

Would it be possible to easily incorporate the moving AI stranger wolves into AM? It might be nice to see them patrolling their territories from a distance, but have them programed to run away when you get too close, leaving a scent trail that leads to the social arena. That way they player can feel like they found a "pack" rather than just a random wolf standing around waiting for them. Or, it might be nice if pack wolves spawned and approached you (like they do when attacking the pups), forcing the player to either run away or enter the social arena. Dispersals, on the other hand, would have to be tracked down. This might help imply the idea that pack wolves were protecting their territories while dispersals are neutral.
I'm agreeing with Lobo a 100% on this. That would just make the AM map/mission much more alive and fun to complete!

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by loboLoco » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:14 pm

The revised Free Trial is up on itch.io. Thanks for all the advice on it! We'll see if it improves the free-paid conversion rate, but at very least, I think it offers a better initial experience. And someday we'll redo the stranger wolves...
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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by Bailee » Thu Mar 03, 2016 3:46 pm

Maybe you could continue to add in more customization.
I love what WolfQuest has done with the experience points and having it unlock achievements.

Maybe you could utilize experience points to allow players to enhance their speed, stamina, and strength stats, albiet only marginally.
For example, after accumulating 1,000 points you could raise one of your stat bars by one percentage point, and possibly having a cap at 40,000 or 50,000 points.
These numbers could be tweaked, but I like the idea of a more "experienced" wolf being a little stronger or faster than a younger, newer wolf.
And to bolster the number of players that buy the full game.. maybe include a "upgrade to the full version to use your experience points!" message on the character modification screen.


Also as a different project, maybe create certain markings to "overlay" on others. For instance, take a rather basic wolf's coat, just white with a fur color tint slider, and then have different markings the player can stack and adjust with tints, such as stockings, belly, neck, and cheek markings, back and forehead, tail tip etc. This would make each character highly customizable, which to the type of people WolfQuest markets to, is absolutely massive for Role Players and casual gamers. Making these options available in the full version would definitely drive user's with the demo to more seriously contemplate upgrading to the full version

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Re: Improving the Free Trial

Post by paperpaws » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:40 am

@Bailee: Those are some pretty great ideas - I particularly like the experience point suggestion - but keep in mind that any trial improvement at the moment would have meant small tweaks as opposed to larger changes to both the full game and trial. (However, I do agree little teasers like that would likely make for a bigger temptation to buy the full game).

Anyway, seeing as the reworked trial has gone live, I believe this thread has run its course. For suggestions, ideas, and brainstorming, feel free to post in the Ideas for New Episodes topic:
http://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=78137

Thanks for all your suggestions!

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