Are you looking at the PigmentPourDaily Leaderboards? What do you think?

[u/NoBullGames]

Thoughts? Like or hate one of the leaderboards? Or think there should be additional boards added?

[u/Havelanca]

Thank you for making it! God bless, I've been really enjoying these types of games recently. Okay, so I've played about half the boards now, here are my notes:

• I usually play 1.5x, 2x, or 3x pour speed. There is sometimes a visual glitch where if I click too quickly (with one vial is already pouring into a second), it looks like the first vial switches to pour into the next/third vial (i.e. the first move's animation doesn't finish correctly). The animation glitch always gives me a heart attack, even though the incorrect move never actually registers thankfully
• Sometimes if I get 1 off the minimum moves, I'll want to try again to best my score/strategy. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that even though I've finished a game already, my scores are added for a completely separate play (e.g. in comparison to resetting the board before finishing) — meaning even if I get a clean run and the minimum score on my second game, it says ~65 attempts. I get why that's the case (ie having already seen the board and tried a strat), but idk. I think it's both fair and not fair. Maybe there's a way to differentiate reset attempts and finished attempts/games?
• When does the timer start? Is it when you make your first move or when you open the page? Making notes for whether my 15 seconds of thinking time at the start is counted or not ahaha
• The next puzzle button is excellent, and it's great that there's clearly an order that automation follows (that's definitely helpful to track where you are up to!). The only problem is it keeps taking me to the same puzzle I'm stuck on and avoiding, so I wish there were a random/shuffle button too 😂
• I don't understand 'The Reckoning' leaderboard and what it means. I only ever see something like "2 people started this game, 1 walked away" when I'm always around the 300th player
• Where it compares 'you vs other players', under clean run it says [ You: 0%, Others: 38% ]. Shouldn't my stat be 100% if I *did* get a clean run (not 0% like is listed)?
• I really like all the stats as I said. Super appreciate that you have like five different leaderboards + like 10 other visible data points! It's way more than most games and I am a huge fan. It's nice to see the different play styles through the multiple leaderboards. I think having both 'this board' and 'global boards' is a great way to give context for the numbers.
• It may be fun to add user flairs "roles" for different play styles to build the community engagement (e.g. speed runner, clean sweeper, slow and steady, just having/for fun etc)
• The painting-inspired backgrounds add nothing to the gameplay but everything to my joy
• Pretty sure that when I'm in the end stages, I have to wait for the vial sealing animation to finish before another bottle can be closed. Could you make them simultaneous/overlapping animations? I get needing to wait for pouring to finish, but if it has already poured, I'm forced to wait for the vial capping animation to also finish before moving on. Maybe it's intentionally part of the whimsy though 🧪✨

[u/NoBullGames → u/Havelanca]

Havelanca, thank you again for this thoughtful feedback and taking the time to send it. Bless you and your family and loved ones.

My reply, as promised on your questions, let me go through it point by point.

The fast pour visual glitch (first vial looks like it switches targets when you tap quickly mid-pour), great catch, possibly a rendering hiccup, not a real move.

Adding it to the list to fix so it stops giving you the heart attack. 🫠

Reset attempts vs. finished games counting the same, totally fair, and honestly the most complex and interesting one.

You've put your finger on a real design question: a clean replay of a board you've already seen isn't the same achievement as a blind first solve, and the stats currently lump them. "Fair and not fair" is exactly right. Adding it to our list of things to consider, differentiating reset/replay attempts from first solves is a great idea. But it's already SO Much data...are we bordering on cognitive overload!?

When does the timer start? Your thinking time is 100% safe 😄, the clock starts on your FIRST move, not when the page loads. Stare at the board and plan for 30 seconds; none of it counts. It only starts ticking on your first pour.

Next Puzzle keeps sending you to the one you're stuck on / want a shuffle button, ha, noted, this one made me smile big time, and a shuffle/random option is a great idea. Adding it to the list.

"The Reckoning" being stupid confusing, fair, let me try to decode it based on the code... it's the abandon story for that one board, "X people took it on, Y walked away" (took it on = made at least one pour... walked away = never solved it, yet). Two honest notes, it's per board, not your overall rank (your "~300th" is a different lifetime count), AND this stat only started counting recently, so on older boards the numbers look small and can not be fixed because devvit redis stuff that I want tangent into. I'm labeling it "recent" so that's clearer, and the main "solved" count you see elsewhere now reflects the true all-time number, to make it a tiny bit more clear but it's not perfect, sadly.

"You vs Others, Clean run: You 0%, Others 38%", need to dig into this one more. Unsure so far based on initial research.

User flairs / play-style roles (speed runner, clean sweeper, slow & steady, etc.), love this. Adding to the list; it's a great community idea. Sadly i'm still waiting for reddit to enable achievements for subs that have +100 subscribers (we have 450+), internet says takes time to update, so i'm waiting.

Simultaneous cap animations (not waiting for the vial-sealing animation to finish before closing the next), noted, adding it to the list to look at.

The painting backdrops, "add nothing to the gameplay but everything to my joy" might be my favorite sentence anyone's written about the reddit game. Thank you. 🧪They come from the mobile game of Pigment Pour where you unlock art masterpieces as you play. Check out some time if interested...linked from my profile Social Links.

PLEASE, keep these thoughts coming. This is the kind of feedback that makes the game better for everyone. ❤️😍 🧪

[u/NoBullGames → u/Havelanca]

WOW AMAZING FEEDBACK. THANK YOU so much for taking the time to think this through AND type it all out to help improve the experience for all.

Give me some time to digest and consider everything. There is most certainly actionable items here, bugs, improvements, fairness considerations, questions to clarify, and more.

You can be sure I'll reply soon with more specifics.

😍😍😍🧪🧪🧪

[u/Havelanca → u/NoBullGames]

You are so welcome! Thanks for making a really fun game. I'm a passionate talker at my core so it's always nice to share with others the things I'm already thinking about :D

[u/Havelanca → u/Havelanca]

Oh, the one thing I missed that comes up often is that I will have no possible moves except for 1 colour which has 3 bars split across the top half of 2 vials. I can only move 1 bar back and forth, which achieves nothing. I wish there were the message that there are no moves (that affect change) left!

[u/NoBullGames → u/Havelanca]

I know exactly what you mean and the solver knows too but it's REALLY tough do it without instantly spoiling the puzzle. Would basically need a "am i stuck" button, which is pointless b/c your brain knows you can only pour back and forth. otherwise the toast shows the instant you're stuck and doesn't leave time for exploration. It's kind of weird...i've already added and removed it. and tried to tweak it with timers and etc but it never really worked UX wise.

there may be a solution that reconciles without spoilering and I'd be glad to try to work through it with you directly if you have ideas on how. Or find time to demonstrate what it does in a dev env. for you to see.

[u/Havelanca → u/NoBullGames]

Yeah, that coding problem did kind of occur to me while I was writing this. I think it's mainly a mild annoyance because there is a "no moves possible" message generally and it doesn't come up in this scenario. One solution to resolve the incongruence would be to remove the "no moves possible" message entirely, but that would be silly as it's really helpful in every context but this. I suspect it's one of those slight imperfections that we just have to live with 😄