Hi! Found you guys on YouTube and decided to take the demo for a spin.

Now, I didn't complete the demo, I do have some thoughts though.

What if the buildings had road ports - visible arrow icons that let the player know for sure that the roads are connected. Why would that be good? Well, first of all, other games (such as Against the Storm) do it this way, so it would automatically be more intuitive. But the issue I had in establishing my first couple of routes was that I thought my roads weren't hooked up, so I fiddled around for a couple of minutes before I realized I simply had to click "New Route".

On a related note, what if when I click on the "Routes" tab on a building, and if there currently are no routes attached to that building, then what if the "New Route" button was right there in the empty field waiting to be pushed.

Of course, neither of these are what we might think of as "serious" issues, but I promise you that making these first few steps more intuitive would clear up a lot of confusion and probably instantly resolve a lot of the complaints regarding "unappealing UI". As I heard one of the devs remark in a YouTube video, we don't play games for the pretty UI, but for the mechanics and gameplay. BUT, I must caution you that making the first few gameplay beats intuitive w/r/t the UI will make the game seem more welcoming and more well-produced. I think that's the core of the "unappealing UI" complaints - it's not that the UI is unattractive, it's that it's unintuitive.

It is apparent that most of the play-testing that happened with this game was done in-house. What I mean is, the play-testing was done by devs who were already in the know about how the game works, and how the UI connects the systems together. Please, I urge you, listen to those of us who approach your game from the outside. As I say, the UI is not unattractive. Far from! I think the UI art is reasonably appealing. But certain design elements are standing in your way of having a super clear, easy to understand interface.

The good news is, I think most of this could be resolved relatively easily. Or at least I hope so.

As I said, I did not complete the demo, but I think I can already say with confidence that Forge Industry has all the elements of an engrossing Automation/Logistics game! I look forward to your future success.

Thank you for reading.
Joe