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Comment by sphars | Hacker News Reader

Nice, I like the perk system. Played a few rounds. Quick thoughts:

At first I didn't know that the coins were coins, it just looked like brick particles for visual effect. Maybe having a current coin counter or visual difference would've helped.

Speaking of coins, there's a couple times when the ball and coins were too similar in color, making it hard to find the ball amid a mass of falling coins. Maybe this is by design, but some contrast between coin color and the ball would help.

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Both valid points. I colored the coins for two reasons : they are pretty and the perk "coins stain bricks" means that if a red coin hits a blue brick, that brick becomes blue (which helps with other perks like "picky eater" and "color pierce"). I think there could be a short text that changes once you perform the action, so "click to start", "catch the ball", "catch the coins for score", and "clear all bricks", then it would be gone once you finish the first level.

The game is great and clearly a lot of thought has gone into polishing! Congrats

FWIW it also took me a couple of levels to even realize how I was getting coins. A yellow glow around the coins or some shiny effect + clinky sounds would go a long way. The -2 +2 etc. callout numbers could also last longer on the page and just grow in size as they fade out? They were also quite hard to spot

The -1 numbers are when your coin multiplier drops, that part isn't really explained or intuitive. i'm not even sure of how to call it. It's the number of coins that will spawn when you break a brick, and is displayed on your puck. I guess if i displayed " 2 x " on the puck and made coins look like coins, everything would be a bit easier to understand.

I rather enjoyed that I got to make the discovery that the particles were coins, moreover, I enjoyed dropping STRAIGHT into the game without having to read anything or press any buttons. Lastly, this worked flawlessly on my iPhone, bravo to the work you did to make that happen!

Thank you. Making coins looks like coins doesn't require adding text, so i'll definitely do that. And yeah, it's not so easy to convey upgrades effect without text, but at the same time at that point you kind of want a bit of rest so reading is ok. I really dislike game that take forever to load and show pointless menus before letting you play.

I had this same thought; maybe just CSS to make them glow / glint a little? Or make the edges golden? I agree there could be a bit of juice on the coins. Or possibly the noise could be a little more clink/coinish.

Yes, i'll make coins look like coins, sound like them, and roll around. Then if you pick the "coins stain bricks" perk, they'll be colored like before, but by then you should already know what they are.

I like the colors of the balls and kind of appreciate they don't look like coins. May be try showing a number going up over the paddle when a coin is absorbed

Yes. Coins should all be gold and spin on edge (so they don't present as just circles). Colored halo or trail can match the origin brick color.

Yes, will do, this is definitely the top thing to change

As a counter, it made sense and looked fine, they have weight and fall like they ought. Also having something interefere with the ball makes the game more difficult, but you added meta progression as well as per-run progression.

As a huge fan of incremental games, I liked it. I just don't like brickout, haha!

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