Critique#5 Kingdom Beat

Game Concept

Kingdom Beat is a 2D kind of turn based “music” game. In this game, the player would control a protagonist to win the turn by pressing three different combos: move forward, attack and defense. Each combo corresponds to different key combo, for example, move forward is AABB. After finishing pressing each combo, the corresponding ability will be implemented once. The background music changes with turn, however, the beat doesn’t change. The player has to follow the beat to press combo. Although the player only controls one character which is represented as the protagonist, the game actually has two more characters accompanying the protagonist.

Currently the game is not well or fully completed, and there are a lot efforts need to make. However, there are some elements that I appreciate. I really like the background story of this game which is based on a very famous chinese traditional novel: three kingdom. The mixture of game and traditional chinese culture is a good practice. And I like the concept of having different characters and controlling three different combos. Many interesting and challenging tasks can be designed based on it. It reminds me of the experience of switching between different characters to solve the level when playing other games. It could be really fun.

However, I think the team of this game doesn’t well utilize their game elements. There are some small problems which I will mention later. What I will mention now is some big problems. What I dislike first in the game concept is the design of beat. It seems like all the levels share the same beat. Although the background music changes, same beat makes the game less challenging and a little bit boring. Since the player needs to follow same beat but not the rhythm of the background music to press combo.

Secondly, it’s really hard for the players to tell how to switch stages: move forward, defense and attack. Although, on the left side of the game, there is indication showing which key you should press next, this setting makes the game less dynamic, since the player only needs to follow the indication but not actively choose which state they want. So I think that it’s better for the team to use different ways of indication to show switching states.

The last setting I dislike is this game actually has three characters, but only one of them is being implemented to use abilities. It’s better that the player can switch characters and each character represents different ability.

Compelling gameplay experience and design innovation

It is good to have tutorial levels and control instructions and hints in the tutorial. And the difficulty increases during the game, which is also good. I like the idea of adding collectable items in the game which actually makes the game more appealing. But it seems like the game hasn’t implemented the usage of collectable items yet. I’m quite looking forward to the final version.

As I’ve mentioned, I think the wow factor for this game is three characters’ idea. And that is why I’m not so satisfied with the actual game. The beats are too simple and other two characters are only used as decoration. And it’s a little bit annoying that both the three characters and enemies need to move forward. Actually the team can make their game like a really turn based game. The player can switch different characters to use ability. The game: child of light is a very good reference. So far, the difficulty of the game in fact sits more on choosing different combos which are really confused due to the lack of instructions. I personally would see it a waste of this wow idea.

Also an important problem exists in the second tutorial level which is related to rhythm and flow&pace. This level introduces two more combos: attack and defense based on the first tutorial level which only introduces move forward. However, in this level, I actually don’t know how these two combos are implemented. I think it’s better that in the second tutorial level, the team can introduce only one combo and put the other one to the next tutorial level. Therefore, the player can practice these combos when the level goes up. Then the upcoming levels can combine these three combos.

Art Content

I think the visual work for this game is above average. I like the fantastic, cute artistic style. It’s like playing in a world of cartoon or something similar, which really can attract the players. Also the animations look good. Besides, all the visual elements are quite consistent. But there’s still a minor problem that some movement of characters are not quite smooth somehow. For example, the other two characters will do animations together which sometimes makes me feel weird. I think there are a lot of details that this team can improve or polish according to the visuals.

The story of the game is somehow not very related to the original chinese novel and the player can hardly see the story. When I played it, I only knew that there is enemy coming towards me. That’s all. Therefore I think it’s not so dramatic. I think Kingdom beat is more like a mobile game like other music games, so while focusing on polishing gameplay, making its background story simple but relative to original novel is a good choice which will make this game different from other music games.

Game Interface

When the players first open the game: Kingdom Beat, they will first see the village of the game where the player can go to the board of quest description to take tasks or go to the store to buy items. But I think when the player first lands on the village, it’s a little bit confusing for them. It’s better that there is some instructions that can direct the player.

Since the system of the store hasn’t be implemented, I will just mention the interface of the main gameplay. On the right top side, there are a lot of icons showing collectable items. But it’s a pity that this part doesn’t update when the player collects one. So it’s not intuitive. If this part can’t show anything but just serves as decoration, I suggest the team to get rid of this part since it will distract the player and doesn’t contribute anything for gameplay.

For the control scheme, different combos have different controls which are a little bit complicated. Since this is not intuitive at all, the team actually has improved a lot to make the player get use of the control scheme. Currently, the team adds key hints on the interface to show the player which key to press next. It solves the problem of complex control, but it also leads to less gameplay experience. The player controls the key passively which is just following the hints. I suggest the team to simplify the control scheme. Currently, all the combos consists of 4 keys, for example, move forward is AABB. Therefore, I think the team can actually use two keys to represent control which simplifies the control scheme but can add more complicated gameplay.

There are also two feedback problems. One is that there is a lack of feedback if the player presses the combo successfully. I think the team can add sound feedback since this is also considered to be a music game. Whatever the player presses the combo or key successfully, there is corresponding sound telling the player the result. The other is that it would be better if there’s something telling the progress of the level. The player actually doesn’t know when the music will finish. Sometimes it’s a little bit annoying or boring that the player just follows the same beat all the time.

Technical Achievement and/or sophistication

The game actually has some diegetic UI elements: for example, the board in the game world shows the storyline. But since both the protagonist and enemies are moving towards each other, the player is too busy to focus on this diegetic UI.

And the game I think currently doesn’t have FSM. But if they can implement switching characters, this can be a very good example of FSM.

The appearance of some enemies can be interpreted as emergent play. They show up suddenly in the game.

The most parts of animations are well done. However, as I mentioned before, if the game can implement switching characters, each character can have its own animation. Then I think it can largely improve the overall animations of the game.

Was the game easy, difficult or well balanced?

In fact I will expect more difficult levels. Since currently, this team only implements two tutorial levels. So it’s somehow hard to tell if the game is easy, difficult or well balanced. For the tutorial level, I think the team needs to introduce only one combo in each level. For the upcoming levels, the team needs to balance their usage of three combos to make them neither too difficult for the player to drop the game nor too easy to get through.

Any improvements you would like to see next and why

I would like to see improvements in timely feedback, the utilization of the 3-characters concept, the design (more instruction for switching three combos and more dynamic beat), the more polished visuals for the reasons I’ve discussed above and more levels. Maybe it’s a bit hard to make interesting 3-characters music game within one week but I think it worth trying. Since this is the potential element that make the game appealing and different from other music games.