[h1]ADHD friends, beware… [/h1]
[b]…this game is more overwhelming and distracting than anything, at least for me. Plus there's some lack of transparency about the future of the game.[/b]
I'm an idler and productivity tool lover. Having at the bottom of my screen or on my secondary monitor cute stuff doing their stuff while I do my stuff is greatly soothing, but with this one I have the complete opposite experience I've expected.
[b]What did I expected:[/b] an adorable bottom-of-the-screen idler with hamsters doing their activities, with slow progress over time, upgrades, etc.
[b]What I got:[/b] something irritating with grating sounds, overwhelming as heck with things popping everywhere all the time. No options to disable certain sounds, there's just music and SFX, no option to reduce motion and animated elements… nothing. Within 10 minutes, I turn all the game sounds off, and hide it in the corner (with this annoying "notification dot", popping all the time). [b]This isn't an idle game, this is a chore requiring your attention at all time.[/b] It reminds more of some virtual pet (F2P) mobile game than a real cute idle game running on its own.
[b]Here's a copy/paste of my suggestions posted on the Discord, listing everything that are terribly distracting, even frustrating:[/b]
[quote]Hello! Would you consider adding "distraction-free" options to the game?
For now, it seems not possible to just let the lil' hamsters doing their activity; I wish to be able to :
• disable the speech bubbles
• disable the working station bubbles
• hide the notification "dot" (I think it's superfluous to always have one when collecting food/green gem, those are always getting collected, it make it looks there's something nice added to check but it's not and it's always there…)
• muting specific sounds (not all SFX, but like the working station and especially the irritating helper sounds)
This is a shame that I have to hide the whole game at the moment instead of letting it run at the bottom of my screen while doing other stuff, in addition to turning off all sounds, because it's overwhelming me instead of being relaxing and cute idling. Even my non-ADHD friends think the game is too much distracting.
I'd be great if some sort of toggle options could be added, thanks you![/quote]
They've replied this was a great suggestion, that they'll discuss it internally, but that I should "[i]understand that it might be difficult to develop and implement it right away.[/i]" Doll, I didn't expect you to do it right now, or next week lol. And seeing the Discord is quite empty, I don't expect them to address what I wished for. Anyways…
So yeah, in details, dear sweet Hamtaro, I'm sorry, but shush the heck up: the hamster talks [i]ALL-THE-TIME,[/i] they don't shut up. They're not talking as they have a voice or something, there are [b]several speech bubbles in a row popping on the screen [i]every[/i] [i]second[/i][/b] at super speed (you don't even have the time to read them, but they do take half the area of your screen, that yes…). The working stations [b]have popping bubbles as soon as there's ONE resource[/b] to collect, so they're popping in and out non-stop, and of course, with [b]an annoying sound each time[/b]. There are [b]new notifications every second as well[/b], as soon as one ressource is collected, even automatically, even one you already know! Maybe a me-problem, but [b]this is stressing me out as heck,[/b] I've already disabled that "red dot" on my phone, in games, I expect it to be at least revelant and useful, not telling me each second I've collected one more of the same crap I've already collected for the 10,000th time. Oh yeah, if you hide the whole game to just have its icon on the corner of your screen, that notification dot will still be there popping taunting you… The last straw that made me quit the game, fortunately under 2 hours, [b]is the robot helper, making grating and overly irritating sounds ALL THE TIME,[/b] [i]even[/i] when it's [i]not[/i] working, and for some reason it's more loud than anthing else. Ugh! Yeah, I think this game pissed me off more than it should, but here we are… [b]I couldn't possibly do anything else with this overstimulating distraction at the bottom of my screen, or on my secondary screen.[/b]
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I don't like to downvote a game this cute, but aside all that, [b]the lack of transparency about a mysterious in-game currency[/b] with supposedly no purpose as for now ([i]why add it then?[/i]) is what makes me even more confident about not recommending this in game in its current state. Here's the reply of a member of the team on Discord (after they put a LMAO emoji on my question about it but whatever…): "[i]The various essences [mysterious currency] might have an original purpose,[/i] [b][i]but no one knows the truth.[/i][/b] [i]For now, they are simply exchanged for gold.[/i] 🙂"
This is all they've been replying about this to people asking about it. No one knows the truth, yeah, right… Me thinks [b]this might be some sort of "premium" currency like in F2P mobile games[/b] despite the game being paid, and not having (yet) the "in-app purchase" tag on the store page. Something that might be added in the future but they don't say anything now to not scare away potential players. I'm just making [i]suppositions[/i], but I find this very weird, suspicious, even sketchy, especially given this is LINE behind this game (yeah, this is [i]not[/i] some indie game dev studio), this wouldn't be surprising, [b]there are already gacha mechanics in the game working with real-time, so…[/b]
[hr][/hr]
As long as [b]the game isn't more ADHD friendly[/b] (and I do think it currently could piss off people without ADHD as well), and that [b]this mysterious in-game currency purpose isn't officially disclosed,[/b] with transparency and honesty, I can't recommend it as for now, even if it's cheap. I'll check once in a while if this situation has evolved, and may reconsider buying it again.
