HN, test out my facebook game - does it engage you?

I actually liked it more than most 'mafia war' rip-offs. I work in social games too (for the moment) out of Ottawa, Ontario.<p>Moving to something even more Ajax based, like mafia wars would be a good idea.<p>I liked the users online incentives for players online across the top, but should be bundled with a call to action telling me how I help raise that number (though invites). I'd add an incentive based bar for more virality (Like, bookmark, extended permissions and we'll give you energy/coins/unique gear) and adds channels for you to communicate with users.<p>Some kind of a play rating (a simple number) that tells me how well I'm doing in relation to others is also a good idea, so long as it points out how I can raise it. People like getting graded.<p>I should be able to pay my way to end game, even if the amount of money required is obscene. If you're looking to make money, let me pay to cut out a whole segment of play to see what happens next.<p>Other than that, pretty cool. I enjoyed playing.

Not sure how useful this is but I'm one of those guys who hates adding anything to Facebook, including games. When I clicked on your link, however, it didn't ask me to connect to Facebook - rather it asked me what weapon I wanted to use to kill an enemy. In terms of engagement, that's a heck of a lot more likely to convince someone like me to connect your app/game to my Facebook account, so nice work on the splash screen!

After playing with it a little I am reminded of a lesson that holds true for many Web apps as well. Assume the user has zero patience to learn about your app. They have a zillion other tabs opening and the moment they get a little frustrated they will simply close your app and move on to another thing to do/play with. So focusing on first-time users is a very important investment, just because every user has to be first-time once, by definition.<p>In this particular game, I think the UI &#38; communication with the user can be improved quite a bit. In Mafia Wars and almost all of the top-hit games, first-time players can easily find out how to do important things in the game, like fighting a given enemy. Here, when I click on the enemy, I see a button which says 'continue', which does not say much. It seems like sometimes 'continue' does nothing, sometimes it starts a fight.<p>Try looking closely at the new tutorial for Mafia Wars (or other top games), it hand-holds the user through all the key steps to understand the basic game mechanics. Also, all their wordings are chosen carefully and have clear meanings to any newbie.<p>Another key idea: give the new player the sense of victory and other positive reinforcements as often as possible. People play game to enjoy the experience: if you fail to defeat your opponent too many times at first, you wouldn't bother to come back. It might also be useful to clearly lead the user to how he can increase the chance of defeating him next time.

Maybe it's because I'm used to dungeons and dragons games on the command line but these 'visual versions' just don't do it for me.<p>They feel too linear and forced. Farmville and co, while not really any less linear in terms of gameplay progression feel a lot more open-ended and the true 3d experience gives me a more engaging experience -- which is why I think they are popular.<p>Sure, I know Mafia Wars and similar games are in the same style of yours but I've never taken to them.<p>BTW you guys work in my Dad's hometown of Oakville, ON - right on!

Hey, this reminds me of AdventureQuest, only with decent graphics. So compliment for the decent graphics.<p>The big green "SHARE" button is a bit too much in-your-face for my taste. I know you're depending on word-of-mouth, but it would still be visible enough (and less stupid) at 80-90% of its current size.<p>One thing that I'd <i>love</i> to see, though, is anything with the depth of text-based MUDs (i.e., where you have different puzzles or quests to discover). I do realize that you're aiming at more casual interactions, but maybe there would be a spot for games where you have basic, casual-styles encounters most of the time but can also launch on an hour+-long quest that will make you discover some more of the world. (And I realize, too, that having a big world means that you need more graphics and stuff - but that's something that you, and not I, would figure out. If you think at Farmville scale, the expenses for the graphics of MapleStory and the likes seem relatively minor).

Putting the "Share" button on every little page makes me never want to click it. You should only put it on really significant events that I might actually want to share.<p>Also you didn't make a big deal when I leveled up, and I have no idea why that is even valuable. Normally leveling up is the most awesome thing you can do!

I don't like that the page refreshes so often. Every menu I click on completely reloads the entire page. Also I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing when I got to "get flags from drill instructor". I hit play and got smarmy rival (After I had beaten him twice). I checked around in a few menu items before hitting play again and getting the drill instructor. The combat seems a bit boring too. It's just sort of one click and you either win or lose.<p>The page reload is really bugging me though. Every combat I have to reload the whole page after every fight. That 1-2 seconds just really kills the flow for me. Edit: I just realized I can hit 'Play' instead of of 'Go to camp' after every fight. That helps some, but I still don't like the page loads on menu clicks.

In all honesty, I think this game is ok, but the fact that it is linked in to facebook turns me off entirely right from the get go.

Didn't run it at all - the first prompt was to share my friends with the app - which I don't do.