Already posted some of this on my profile page, felt like adding stuff to it though so here I am.
I've spent around 150 hours on cubecrafts' skyblock, made it to the current final island and completed most of its challenges. I think it's fair to say that I have enough experience to conduct some criticism. Here I go
Cube's take on "floaty islands minigame" must be one of the most lazy forms of skyblock I've ever played, lazy in the same way game developers put in way too many secret and hidden collectibles into their games to elongate the "estimated/average playtime. (Donkey Kong games are a prime example of this).
And while Cubecraft's skyblock actually doesn't have many grindy (side)quests at all, they actually went one step further, enacting quests that are literally only completable by... doing nothing. Obligating your players to wait days, weeks even in order to progress without giving them anything meaningful to do in the mean time is soooo lazy and dull.... I can't even. Like who approved this?
The reason behind skyblock being like this is obviously to make the game last longer, and alledgedly to make money off of it once "boosts" are released. But hey, plot twist, whenever players have NOTHING to do in your game, they'll get bored super fast and leave skyblock before the boosts will even be worth it to buy.
It's such a shame because aside from the insane lazy take on the waiting time for crops and generators, the skyblock is actually pretty enjoyable. Spawners work nicely, the quests are well thought out and the dungeons are pretty challenging.
I'm a big skyblock fan and my interest on cube's died out within a pair of weeks, and I played through it really fast. The average player is probably still stuck around Jungle/Birch island, meaning that their progression is still somewhat quick, keeping the game fun. Trust me, all these players will leave skyblock the second they see a 4 day waiting period on a Dark Oak tree to grow and realise they need more than a week to complete all the sugar cane quests.
The game's descent is already noticable. The current player count of the server is 5.500 players (2 o' clock, GMT+1), which is way more than it was a few weeks back (all praise Covid). However, the playercount in skyblock has dipped down a whopping 30% already.
You need, to change, the waiting times. The sidequests are too easy and too repetetive to keep players playing while waiting for their trees to grow. Players don't leave because they don't like the concept, or get frustrated... no, they leave because there's literally nothing to play for. And once players go on a 4 day break each inbetween playsessions, their interests will shift over to other things, leaving them to barely ever return.
I'm sorry but the mid to late game in skyblock has one of the most lazy and bad game designs I've ever come across. Your game will be dead within weeks if you don't change this.
I've spent around 150 hours on cubecrafts' skyblock, made it to the current final island and completed most of its challenges. I think it's fair to say that I have enough experience to conduct some criticism. Here I go
Cube's take on "floaty islands minigame" must be one of the most lazy forms of skyblock I've ever played, lazy in the same way game developers put in way too many secret and hidden collectibles into their games to elongate the "estimated/average playtime. (Donkey Kong games are a prime example of this).
And while Cubecraft's skyblock actually doesn't have many grindy (side)quests at all, they actually went one step further, enacting quests that are literally only completable by... doing nothing. Obligating your players to wait days, weeks even in order to progress without giving them anything meaningful to do in the mean time is soooo lazy and dull.... I can't even. Like who approved this?
The reason behind skyblock being like this is obviously to make the game last longer, and alledgedly to make money off of it once "boosts" are released. But hey, plot twist, whenever players have NOTHING to do in your game, they'll get bored super fast and leave skyblock before the boosts will even be worth it to buy.
It's such a shame because aside from the insane lazy take on the waiting time for crops and generators, the skyblock is actually pretty enjoyable. Spawners work nicely, the quests are well thought out and the dungeons are pretty challenging.
I'm a big skyblock fan and my interest on cube's died out within a pair of weeks, and I played through it really fast. The average player is probably still stuck around Jungle/Birch island, meaning that their progression is still somewhat quick, keeping the game fun. Trust me, all these players will leave skyblock the second they see a 4 day waiting period on a Dark Oak tree to grow and realise they need more than a week to complete all the sugar cane quests.
The game's descent is already noticable. The current player count of the server is 5.500 players (2 o' clock, GMT+1), which is way more than it was a few weeks back (all praise Covid). However, the playercount in skyblock has dipped down a whopping 30% already.
You need, to change, the waiting times. The sidequests are too easy and too repetetive to keep players playing while waiting for their trees to grow. Players don't leave because they don't like the concept, or get frustrated... no, they leave because there's literally nothing to play for. And once players go on a 4 day break each inbetween playsessions, their interests will shift over to other things, leaving them to barely ever return.
I'm sorry but the mid to late game in skyblock has one of the most lazy and bad game designs I've ever come across. Your game will be dead within weeks if you don't change this.
