After playing enough games that over explain themselves or playing a simple game that doesn't explain enough when they could, I found your game intriguing, annoying, and a little bit refreshing (don't take the annoying comment as a negative though. Annoying isn't always bad, especially when trying to figure something tough out).
Your game is like a new toy a child is given; the player is tasked with figuring out how it works and what is the extent of what it can do. I'd like to play more of it, but there are a few things I'd like to suggest for the game.
- You can get through the first few levels without paying attention to what's going on so by the time you realize this game is becoming tougher, you've already advanced beyond the introduction with no way back without restarting the game. Perhaps add a level select option.
- I wish that when the player selects a block that it would remain selected after putting one down so that the player wouldn't have to go back to the block menu on the left each time to reselect it OR you could make it so the number keys could switch between the different blocks.
Good job on creating the game and I wish you luck in your future endeavors.
Thank you very much for the very helpful review! It is extremely satisfying to see people enjoying the game, and the feel it should convey :)
I agree with all your suggestions, and to be honest I thought about them during development, but part laziness, part hastiness, I never included them. Perhaps I will do so now, or in a future version.
This could be a great game and I do understand that you only had 72 hours to make this, but it is lacking things and has problems:
- The game refuses to end unless you either help or kill everyone or at the least 3 out of the 4 people. (I killed the old guy, ignored the snail guy, buried the beach guy's family, but it wouldn't end so I killed the voodoo guy and I get the evil ending).
- On the screen where the snail guy is (the guy who wants you to get rid of the fire breathing snail), invisible platforms will sometimes be there for the player to jump on. Also, I've been respawned inside the platform, a little bit below where the player is supposed to respawn, forcing me to restart. Also, if you jump up to the top of the screen and go off of the top of the screen, you instantly die (the same thing happens if you touch the beach scene's far right wall).
- I've so far only found 3 endings and I don't see how another ending is possible (either you are consider good, evil, or obedient. I thought there might have been something to do with "not killing the animals", but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome).
- The fact that it's the same boss every time really doesn't help a game like this (even the subtle changes in the way the boss fights doesn't help). The only real reward is the text you get at the end of the game and it gets old quick when you are trying to unlock the other endings and keep the getting the ones you got before, forcing you to start over at that point.
- It is also kind of lack luster when the ferry guy treats the game like a play rather than an actually adventure "I will now take on the role of this". It really takes away from the morality of it all when it is presented as this and it really takes away from the ferryman's character as he is now just a jerk who plans on trying to kill you in choosing whatever you choose.
- I got a boss battle where an endless number of animals came to attack, but I can't seem to get that again. Concerning this though, spiders can pop up everywhere on the platform, which leave little time or room to dodge (by the time I notice it's under me, it's over).
- You put the old man's wheel chair in the direct path of the player, making it impossible to ignore either him or the archer guy, seeing as you can't drop the wheelchair once you get it, preventing you from just using the underground tunnel to get to the beach and bury the beach guy's family.
- You say there are two secrets in the game. The only thing I could possibly identify as a secret is the place where you get the cucumber at. Other than that, I think I've gone and pushed against every corner and can't find anything else (the "ha ha" cannon is a little annoying in that if you are on the platform above it and walk toward it, you die).
- I thought the "dark flame" was an interesting idea and I liked how it could destroy the fire snail and the rock blocking the easy exit to the beach, but outside of this, it does nothing, but make the game harder (it doesn't even seem to affect any of the endings. It just makes the final boss fight harder).
- The description says "Your choices will affect gameplay in subtle ways". They really don't. The music goes away when you kill someone, quest items disappear sometimes, and the boss battle might be a little different, but overall, the gameplay remains exactly the same.
- It would've been cool if the black flame could reveal a secret or it could be harnessed. It would have also been cool if the void butterfly could have an effect on the ferryman. It's just different things like that could could have made a real difference.
I like the idea of the game, I can certainly see that it was influenced by Undertale and Don't Look Back, and I can see that work went into it, but it's just lacking in general: it's lacking in interactibility with the game (you can only collect some things and kill), lacking in effective story telling and invoking emotion (though the music cutting out was a neat little thing), and lacking in replayability (the first time through, it is okay, but as you play through it hoping to find something cool you can do or some different way to affect the world around you, you find you can only kill, help, or ignore, and you can't even ignore the people completely).
I liked the art, music, and the platforming was solid. I really do look forward to your future works as I know you'll make cool stuff.
Hey! I love getting detailed feedback and there are some valid points here, but there are also things that were intentional/misunderstood. I'll go over your feedback and clarify some points:
- The game refuses to end unless you either help or kill everyone or at the least 3 out of the 4 people.
A: The game will also end if you kill more than 50 animals, or if you just kill the beach-guy (murderer's) family. The quest you are sent on is to kill the beach guy with the two dead bodies. He is the murderer the ferryman mentions in the beginning (or he is a mourning father, both can be true). So you have 4 ways to end the game, and in the situation you described you didn't qualify for any of them, so it didn't end... if you ignore everyone the game doesn't end at all (this might not be perfectly intuitive and perhaps I can change the situation to end it if you just explore and don't do anything).
- On the screen where the snail guy is (the guy who wants you to get rid of the fire breathing snail), invisible platforms will sometimes be there for the player to jump on. Also, I've been respawned inside the platform, a little bit below where the player is supposed to respawn, forcing me to restart. Also, if you jump up to the top of the screen and go off of the top of the screen, you instantly die (the same thing happens if you touch the beach scene's far right wall).
A: The invisible platforms are there on purpose. They offer a way for the player to cross the water and get to the beach without having to help or kill the huntress (snail guy is a gal :P). Do you spawn inside the platforms only in this screen, or does it sometime happen in general? Either way I didn't have a lot of time to test everything 100%, so I am sorry for that :( about dying when you hit edges of a screen, that happens when there is nothing on the other side and I just forgot to put an invisible wall there... apologies!
- I've so far only found 3 endings and I don't see how another ending is possible (either you are consider good, evil, or obedient. I thought there might have been something to do with "not killing the animals", but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome).
A: From what you wrote a bit later on, you also found the 4th ending :) The game can end also if you kill more than 50 animals (I think that was the number, perhaps slightly more). If you don't kill as much animals, you will get one of the three endings you mentioned.
- The fact that it's the same boss every time really doesn't help a game like this (even the subtle changes in the way the boss fights doesn't help). The only real reward is the text you get at the end of the game and it gets old quick when you are trying to unlock the other endings and keep the getting the ones you got before, forcing you to start over at that point.
A: The original plan was to have 4 different bosses, but I just ran out of time to be honest :(
- It is also kind of lack luster when the ferry guy treats the game like a play rather than an actually adventure "I will now take on the role of this". It really takes away from the morality of it all when it is presented as this and it really takes away from the ferryman's character as he is now just a jerk who plans on trying to kill you in choosing whatever you choose.
A: The game starts off very weird and without explanation (it is vague on purpose, I like players interpreting things for themselves), you fall asleep and wake up someplace you don't know... why? Maybe you died and this is a divine test... Maybe the ferryman is just a very powerful wizard... Maybe it actually IS a dream even though the text says it isn't. I wanted to enforce the feeling that anything regarding the story is possible (the setting has its strange things... cucumber forest O.o? Flying wheelchair O.o? Fire-sick snail O.o?) Maybe the warlock stole the old man's chair to try and excape? Maybe the warlock is a good soul who is trying to kill the fire-snail to help the beach guy bury his family? The ferryman clearly has supernatural aspects, and so he will stress the fact that this is a "game" or an island where anything regarding the story is possible, because like in the old pulp fiction, the story didn't matter all that muchin the end. You were there to read about heroes killing shit and going on adventures and sleeping with beautiful women, and you didn't care if the plot made sense or had any meaning or layers to it. It's not that I didn't want the story to matter here, I did, and I also wanted to enforce the theme of choice and consequences, which when translated into the story, resulted in treating the story like a canvas more than an actual story, and the ferryman at the end embodies that. He assume the role you want him (by reaching that ending) assume.
- I got a boss battle where an endless number of animals came to attack, but I can't seem to get that again. Concerning this though, spiders can pop up everywhere on the platform, which leave little time or room to dodge (by the time I notice it's under me, it's over).
A: This is actually the 4th and worst ending (and you actually got all 4 endings :P). It is the calamity ending. You get it when you kill a certain number of animals. The boss fight is supposed to be frustrating and "not fair", but it is certainly winnable. Generally the easiest boss is the good run boss, then the "normal" boss is the obedient man boss, the vile murderer boss is hard (Fire from sky), and the calamity upon nature boss is hardest.
- You put the old man's wheel chair in the direct path of the player, making it impossible to ignore either him or the archer guy, seeing as you can't drop the wheelchair once you get it, preventing you from just using the underground tunnel to get to the beach and bury the beach guy's family.
A: That's a great point! Didn't think of that.
- You say there are two secrets in the game. The only thing I could possibly identify as a secret is the place where you get the cucumber at. Other than that, I think I've gone and pushed against every corner and can't find anything else (the "ha ha" cannon is a little annoying in that if you are on the platform above it and walk toward it, you die).
A: The other secret are the invisible platforms in the screen with the huntress (snail gal), which allow you to cross the water without helping/killing.
- I thought the "dark flame" was an interesting idea and I liked how it could destroy the fire snail and the rock blocking the easy exit to the beach, but outside of this, it does nothing, but make the game harder (it doesn't even seem to affect any of the endings. It just makes the final boss fight harder).
A: Yeah... that's the payback for using dark magic to cross the area :P it makes the game harder. In general, a lot of the choices make the game harder in certain areas even though they can potentially help you. If you kill people you can jump higher, but try platforming in a restricted area (underground for example, crossing the flame cannon or jumping to the platform with the spider in the wheelchair room) is much harder.
- The description says "Your choices will affect gameplay in subtle ways". They really don't. The music goes away when you kill someone, quest items disappear sometimes, and the boss battle might be a little different, but overall, the gameplay remains exactly the same.
A: They actually do! Like I just wrote above, certain platforming challenges will become much harder if you murder people, and if you help the warlock the dark flame is in the boss fight and it is harder. If you choose not to kill animals the boss fight is easier but the platforming is harder. If you kill a lot of people it isvery hard for you to jump during the boss fight, etc.
- It would've been cool if the black flame could reveal a secret or it could be harnessed. It would have also been cool if the void butterfly could have an effect on the ferryman. It's just different things like that could could have made a real difference.
A: Nice ideas! I know this sounds like an excuse by now.. but I just ran out of time to make neat additions like that.
I'm glad that overall it was all right, I realize there is a lot of places for improvement obviously, and you live and you learn! Perhaps the next jam entry will be better as a result of this feedback. Thank you again for writing in so much detail!
This could be a pretty good game. I like the voice acting, the sound effects are good, and the story is okay, but it has its problems.
- If you kill everyone early on, the game won't advance. There will be no one for the creature to possess and replace. There were a few people left alive and I took blood samples and none of them were the creature. I know this for certain because I killed the rest of the people. You could have made it so the creature could possess or hide inside dead bodies or if everyone, but you is dead, you could try having a surprise attack inside the building or have it come after you outside. You could also have it where it can shrink down to its smaller size and jump out of the vent at you.
- The game doesn't offer multiple endings, right? It could offer four endings, one if you beat it without killing any innocents, one for if you accidentally kill an innocent, one for if the creature takes over everyone except you (killing them all), and one for if you murder everyone. There wouldn't have to be much of an ending for each. For killing everyone, you could show him in jail or show everyone who survived.
- Things about the game’s logic don’t add up. Based on Astrocreep, these creatures can reproduce yet only one of them is present in the game and it jumps from body to body. Why is there only one? What happens to the body it originally jumped from? Why does the bloody wetsuit disappear after the creature is first attacked? You could have made it really creepy and had it so the creature would stash the bodies in different places, like one in the fringe, another under the bed, etc.
- Starting the game over and having to swim through the credits is boring the second time through. Perhaps add a skip function.
- You don't offer the player a way to restart the game if they get stuck or if they just feel like starting over. You can refresh the page, but the game takes kind of long to load.
- You can’t leave a room once the creature reveals itself, which kind of stinks, especially if you run out of ammo (if I ran out of ammo in that situation, I’d get out). Also, why is it that you are only allowed to run during attacks? Why not provide the run option outside of this? I understand wanting to build suspense, but if you designed this game for multiple playthroughs, players are going to get annoyed by this.
- During the “take blood” part of the game, you can’t interact with Trevor. He’ll just stand in the corner of the lab (though you can shoot him).
- The text doesn’t always fit in the dialogue boxes, making it difficult to read (one example being talking to Uma after the first appearance of the creature).
- Dean, your character, will know that the microscope has been damaged before he even goes back to the lab (if you talk to anyone after encountering the creature a second time, this will be revealed even without going back to the lab).
- You can turn on the air conditioning unit without the screwdriver. I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.
- The audio for a character will cut off if you advance usually, which is good, but if you get to a choice screen, the other character’s audio will keep playing even if you tried to skip it.
- The creature attacked me after getting the gun and going back to the party. How would it have known to do that? What’s worse is that the character (who I knew the creature was) was off screen and I walked to the second screen, but the person was right there as soon as I got there and the creature transformed and ate me. This isn’t very fair at all. It also isn’t right where you are shooting at the creature and he is still approaching you. You don’t provide the player with much room to fight and this is also bas because you can’t control where the creature is going to walk before it transforms (for example, if the creature in human form is coming to the left wall than right, then you’d want to go to the right wall and put as much distance between you and creature as possible, but you’d have to pass by it. What’s stopping the creature from transforming when you try and pass it?
- Having to check the blood tests again after dying is a pain and it can be avoided. Why not have it so you have the blood tests, but randomize them upon respawning so that the result might be different. If you want to indicate the player that they should check them again, have a “to do list” or a menu that details what the current mission is.
- When the helicopter appears, it takes a long time for the game to end. Please speed up this process. I don’t hear anything special while waiting for it to end except for the sound of a helicopter.
- I don’t know this for certain (because after three times where the game either freezes or doesn’t let me advance, I’m not playing it again. Getting through the opening again is a pain), but it’s possible if you try to rapidly shoot bullets, the game will only shoot at a certain rate while if you press the fire button faster than this rate, then your ammo will go down. Maybe check on this.
- It’s a small detail, but when you shoot a bullet, the direction of the sprite does not change.
- There is a locker in the last building on the left. I’ve spoken with everyone, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is offering a key. I even got the blonde woman to offer her key (originally, I got it from killing her).
- You allow the player to open the refrigerator, but you don’t let them take a beer. You could make it so you can just ignore the scream and party for a while until the creature attacks or something.
- When you take away the beginning credits portion, the beginning introduction to the characters portion, the game is pretty short and doesn’t offer a lot of replay value after beating it because it doesn’t offer anything new. The game will play out in the same way each time with different characters being taken over. So far, Trevor or the scientist woman haven’t been taken over at the beginning because this would interfere with the streamed line storyline. There are no surprises after playing it through the first time.
- There might be more problems, but I don’t feel like playing the game again right now. Below, I’ve listed some definite glitches.
Glitches:
- After turning on the air conditioning unit and dying after facing the creature, the game over screen came up and then game screen went black. You could still hear the rain for a little while though. This happened to me at least twice, forcing me to restart the game if I wanted to continue.
- The game flashes white when you leave a building. Is this intentional?
- The game window shifts slightly to the left or right when you are about to walk off screen.
You’ve been making games for at least 12 years and I’ve seen the things you can make and they are good, but recently there is almost always problems with them whether it be glitches, they aren’t finished, or something else and a lot of the time, they are glaringly obvious problems. Now, glitches and lacking gameplay you will find in nearly all games, but putting in safe guards that prevent the player’s progress from being lost is vital (I played Psychoscape and I wanted to make a walkthrough for it, but I got trapped on one of the levels, I wasn’t able to restart and I wasn’t able to reload the game without starting all over. That turned me off immediately). Also, as interesting as playing the game was, I wouldn’t mind (and I’m guessing many others wouldn’t mind either) waiting for it to be good and done instead of releasing a beta or releasing it with problems. Many people lead busy lives and they don’t want to risk wasting time playing something that may fail on them (also there’s less motivation to play a game you played once before, even if it is the “complete” version). I’m willing to help you test your games and I’m sure many other people are willing to help as well because it is clear, both from past and present projects, that you have talent and you can organize the creation of games and work with other people on them (the voice acting in the game is well done).
I would really like this game if it took place inside of a house or hospital, somewhere where there is room to move about and danger could come at any moment.
I wish you luck on your future project and let me know if you want any help with them.
I enjoyed playing the game. The story draws you in like a funnel and I like the art though I wish the cutscenes would move faster or could be skipped (this includes the times when sound effects are playing, like a ringing phone. Cutting it short may not be a bad idea).
Also, some of the puzzles are kind of abstract, like the tutorial puzzle. Was there any hint that you needed to take the first number of the first number, the second of the second...? Without putting a hint there, it's like dumping a pile of numbers on the floor and asking the player to figure out what the answer is.
I enjoyed the game, but I only got up to level 27 because the ice cube got stuck on one of the wooden ramps. This has happened several times in past levels, but in the others ones, I managed to beat the levels by jumping after getting stuck. However, I can't jump to get around this without getting killed. http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/116f2b17ed56062082c82c5b2358e407
I've found other problems and concerns:
- I've tried going back to the menu and loading the game, but it doesn't fix the problem always. For example, when I started level 27 again, I got stuck on a different board and the death animation went from an explosion of icy squares to just a single small square floating until the ice cube came back.
- It seems like you throw the player into the levels without giving them much of a chance to react. I would've suggested making the levels wider, just enough to give a little "runway" for the player before they get the level. It wouldn't even have to be that long. Half an inch perhaps?
- On level 20, the cube hit the soda cup and didn't explode. It just stayed there. I tried it again later and it didn't happen again.
I do like the cuteness of the game as well as the challenge. I look forward to your next project. Good luck!
Thank you very much for your feedback, Plasmarift!
That's my first game so I have a lot to learn yet!
I'll correct these bugs as soon as possible( I'm already correcting the places where the ice is getting stucked), I agree with you that is needed more time to the player react, I'm thinking about make the ice cube stop for a half sec (or less) in the beggining of the levels, so the player can see what's going on...
I'm already thinking about the next projects but I want to launch this one on mobile, refine the game and correct the bugs before start the next game.
Thank you again! =]
There are some big problems with your game.
- I am unable to make the jump across the gap, even when using the shooting ability as a small boost. There needs to be a double jump feature or include the ability to jump off of enemy's heads.
- I found an invisible wall on the left that I could jump over and, by falling down, I could get onto a closed off section of platform with a big heart. Depending on if I killed the enemy at the beginning, it will continuously spawn blue squares, one after another (the next one only appears when the one the heart spawns is killed) that can't hurt me.
- It is never explained what the blue light things that you get from killing enemies do.
- After dying/restarting enough times, the first blue enemy will stop coming after you. It will start coming after you if you get injured by it though.
- If you activate your shield and keep it on as you fall to your death, it will remain on when you spawn until you press the shield button again, which corrects this problem.
- The "Author Comments" section where you included a few of the controls doesn't say to use the arrow keys, doesn't tell you what the plot of the game is, doesn't tell you what the plot of the game is, what the goal of the player is, and, although it is clear from the loading screen, doesn't tell you what you used to make this game.
- In the place where the heart is, I found if I jump while up against a wall, unpredictable things happen, such as being launched in the opposite direction at various velocities and heights (much like the mechanic of wall jumping) or moving up the wall, as if I was walking up it. It was fun to play around with though I don't think you intended this to happen, correct?
I give you 2.5 stars because the shooting and shield mechanics do work and it looks like it could have been a fun game based on the small section I played that worked. I do wish you luck in your future in game design and I hope you'll make some changes to this game to allow for it to be beaten.
Wow, first thanks to you for taking the time to write this reviews, i think you know how those reviews can help developers
i haven't mentioned it but this project was for a game jam
- You are supposed to jump over the yellow block (wich make you bounce)
- Yeah i didn't take the time to check all the invisible wall
- the blue light things are points (absolutely useless)
- The place with the heart is the cemetery for the enemies (you are not supposed to go there lol)
- I knew for the shield bug that stand activate but after trying an hour to fixed it, i stopped trying
- i didn't thinked about the controls that allow you to move (so obvious to me)
The game is good, but I find three problems with it:
- The screen appears small (about 4 inches in width and 3.5 inches in length) compared to what it could be. It's so small, it is difficult to see the bullets being fired with it being this small.
- An additional jump button (like spacebar or z or x) would make jumping and moving at the same time easier.
- Including arrow keys as an option would be good.
The game is good and I like the concept. I hope you could possibly make the changes I suggested. I look forward to your future projects.
Alright, People have asked for arrow controls and I probably will add them, along with making the bullets at least a bit more noticeable. Thanks for the feedback :)
I have to say, this is a very cool and interesting game. I wasn't really expecting it going in (the art in the thumbnail does not look professional so it may turn some people off before they even give it a try). There's so much going on in this game and I like it, but I do have some problems with it:
- The pizza delivery game is broken. Whenever I hit spacebar, it create another car, sometimes one that is outside the playable area (I had at least 7 cars on the screen). Also, perhaps a small instruction manual for the player when it comes to driving because it drives weird compared to the main character.
- The story is an interesting one (kind of reminds me of Pokemon "I want to be the very best, like no one ever was", but the way it is presented is boring and the voice it is told, mixed with the art, just make the game leave a bad impression. You could make a slideshow showing the story using the same voice as it makes the game more immersive and will more likely draw the player in. Or, you could try making an animation for the beginning, though the first one is easier.
- The game is so large that it is easy to get lost. Perhaps add a map option that points to the player's house so they know where to go to rest. You wouldn't need to show the whole world, just the main places.
- When the player is inside their house, please make it so the rest bar doesn't go down anymore. I got in the house and was ready to go to bed, hit spacebar, but moved slightly afterwards and found myself outside. I tried to go back to the bed, but ran out of time.
- The oven giving the player health is cool since this means the house can recharge the player, but just making the oven light up wasn't enough for me (it didn't register to me that it was giving me food. I just happen to find out by looking down at the food icon. Perhaps add a chewing or crunching sound or a thought bubble to indicate to the player in some way that this is how they get food.)
- What is the thing next to the food icon? It goes up the more you dance in the club, but I don't know what it is for.
- If you sleep long enough, you go into a world of Heaven and hell, correct? That's what keeps happening to me. The angels and demons keep disappearing when I go near them for some reason and the "quit" button doesn't work. The only thing that does work is the "hit spacebar to play", which brings the player to the hell challenge where you have to keep dancing until you are let out.
- Perhaps add a button on the keyboard that can turn on and off dance magic instead of having to switch between using the mouse to activate it. (also, you spelled "dance" wrong on the button. It says dane magic).
- So, there are two houses available to sleep at? That's a good idea as it gives the player another rest stop, but what's the story behind the second house? Usually ,people only own one home (Also, what does paying the water bill do? The player doesn't use it to my knowledge).
- A pause button would be a good idea (as well as a mute button. I know that kind of defeats the purpose of the game, but some people like to play their own music when playing games. Plus, this just may not be their type of music).
- The battle aspect of the game is actually pretty cool and unexpected. The problem is that it doesn't take any skill, which seems counter intuitive in a game that revolves around gaining more skills. The player can fire in four directions, but the enemies can fire in any direction and the enemies and their attack move at the same speed as the player, if not faster (and their attack bounce off walls). If there were dance move combinations that could make different attack patterns or more powerful attacks, things would be different. It also stinks that sleep is the player's life bar when it comes to battles because avoiding enemy fire is just not always possible. With this system, you punish the players for exploring because when they run out of life, they end up in hell having to stay there for some time trying to get out. I do understand that you can upgrade yourself, but I'd rather have the optional skills to beat the enemies rather than trying to upgrade myself to outlast them.
- All the characters in the game are pretty cool though more interactivity between them and player would be good. I wished going up some of the people that they would respond or say something. The only ones that do are the guy guarding the entrance to the club and the guy inside the club's entrance. (I feel a little sad you didn't ask me to do voices for the game, but oh well).
- There are so many little things you added into the game that make it interesting like the Simon Says puzzle, the movie theater movies.
- The console game in the game looked pretty cool though I think it could have been done better as the controls are kind of stiff. Trying to turn in a different direction takes time which is annoying.
- I like that the character will continue to dance if the start moving while dancing. It's pretty cool.
- I've found food outside, like a burger and water bottle, but I'm not able to interact with them. Is this normal?
I still like the game and it's obvious you put a lot into. It makes this game unique and stand out from the mass of clones and amateur projects (no offense to amateur game designers though) I've seen put onto the web in the last few months. I wish you luck in both your future and this games' future.
Thank you for the feedback, i will work on all of you request and fixes for the bugs you said in the coming days. I will let you know when the update is ready.
I really like it. This wasn't just a generic escape game where you are locked in a room and need to get out. You give the player a mission and a lot of places to search through. Even better, many if not all the puzzles are intuitive and make sense. The multiple endings were also a great inclusion. I wish more escape games like this were made. I do have a few suggestions though.
- Have a way for the player to know what they picked up because right now, you only have the initial description that appears when you pick something up and after that, there's no way to identify the object (a player might click off before reading what the item is).
- Perhaps add a pause function to the game so a person can stop playing and not have to worry about the timer running down.
- Why is it that you can only access the bonus ending after beating the game once? This is going to throw a lot of people off if they searched thoroughly for secrets during the first playthrough. Why would they expect an unseeable secret to suddenly be available then?
I really look forward to your next release and don't be afraid to experiment with these kinds of games. I for one am tired of the tropes of point and click games and would love to see some more unique approaches and gameplay. Good luck!
You can actually get the bonus ending the first time. As soon as you turn the power back on, you can look at the computer for the code. Thanks for the suggestions, though, I'll be sure to implement them in the next one.
Honestly, the game seems to rely less on skill as you progress and I'm not just talking about the upgrades. You even state in the description that if a level is too hard, then get more upgrades to make it easier, but during my time playing, I never reached a point where I beat a level feeling a sense of accomplishment: it was either too easy or too hard to where I needed more luck than anything else. I will explain in points:
- Sometimes, there are just too many bullets on screen and this honestly seems more like a cheap attempt at difficulty (of course adding more things that can kill you onscreen will make the game tougher. Trying to make a hard game that doesn't follow this trend is tough, but it isn't impossible). There are so many and they are moving too fast to the point where you are overwhelmed within seconds (I'm referring specifically to the count down challenge that has two doors leading into it). If they are moving faster than you, there are fifty of them and you can only take five hits, then what are the options for the player (you can only teleport two times, basic evasion is useless, and your bullets may only kill 3 of them before you are overwhelmed)? Instead of increasing the number of bullets, organize the level to create a sense of difficulty, such as making fewer enemies, but make them harder to kill or make the spawn points harder to reach (you did this in one room where you needed to destroy the inner most spawn points before being able to take a crack at the outer ones.
- The speed of the bullets changes for the SAME towers as you move forward. The first thing you do when you enter a room is see what kind of towers they have. A player might say "oh, these towers. Their bullets are slow, but there are a lot of them." only to find that the bullets are moving faster than the previous ones. Why not create brand new enemies with different insignias to identify the faster moving enemies or, a better idea, have a device that encompasses an area where a spawn point in its area of affect gets its bullets speeded up. Destroying the device slows the bullets. This gives players a sense of strategy and choice "should I go after the speed devices or focus on the more powerful spawn points?"
- I don't think the towers provide any indication of when they will release an enemy. This is a big deal because there's already enough going on onscreen that a player can't be counting down the time until the spawning takes place. They might be standing right next to one shooting it when an enemy releases one and boom, they're dead. Perhaps add a pulse indicator, where a small circle increasing in size can be seen in the spawn points and once it reaches the outer edges, an enemy appears.
- Options are very limited. You have four options when taking on the enemy: shoot, evade, release the blast attack, or dash. Yes, you can mix these, but two of them need to recharge and there is only so much you can do with them so for most of the game, you are moving and shooting. even worse, the area is so small that some bullets are impossible to evade, meaning you are meant to take damage during the game. From the menu, it is apparent that you will add more upgrades, but you should do more with what you have, like make it so the blast attack can be further charged up to release more damage, have the auto-bullet bounce off the outer walls, have the dash ability allow you to destroy objects you pass over (more strategy with players trying to evade while also lining up the dash with an enemy. Yes, I know that this is included already, but the affects are minimal). Other suggests for powers: a weapon that will take all the bullets in a specific area, pull them into the center and explode them, taking out whatever was in the center and getting rid of the bullets (needs to charge), shield that when activated reflect bullets and lasers for a short time, but does not defend against tougher enemies.
There are also other suggestions I have for the game:
- There is a bug where you can end up on the outside of the level (I'm guessing this might happen if you are moving in the direction of the door moments before death or something. I'm not sure). It has happened to me at least three times.
- The warning for the laser ray needs to be bigger. Also, it is one of the most annoying parts of the game because it is the only thing that a reset will not reset. Sure, it makes each attempt less the same, but it could also hit you just as you restart the level, making you have to restart the level again.
- Make it so you can only talk to NPC when pressing a certain button because running into them during battle and having it paused like that is annoying and throws you off.
- Going off of the previous comment, please make it so you can go through the dialogue faster.
- How much the shield protects you is unclear and how much damage each enemy does is also unclear because there is no time to be keeping a close eye on the health bar when you're in battle (also, with the enemies jumbled together, how could you determine who hit you first?) Have an info section that explains how much damage an enemy does. This can help with strategy because then a player can say "I'm moving left to get hit by this enemy to dodge the other because the other would cause more damage".
- I like the art style and the story a lot. The character portraits are also cool.
- For the shockwave, have the misty circle that surrounds the player be more apparent when the player still has the shields (it pretty tough to see when the player still has shields).
- There's no indicator on the range of the dash and I don't know what you could use as an indicator, but is this pretty important.
Please excuse my temper in this post as I wrote it after having tried the 8 count room with the twin lasers. I'd gotten close a few times and then failed, usually because of that stupid laser. I wish you luck in your game endeavors.
Thanks for this very elaborate review. You have mentioned many good points.
- The bases spawn enemies as soon as they are touched by the spawn line. (It's the purple line, which moves upward)
Knowing when those bases will spawn enemies can be very important in thinking of a strategy to clear the level. e.g. In one of the north-east levels you can destroy a spartan base (enemies with shield) by using dash twice in a row and ramming the spartan base, which reduces the difficulty of the level immensely. The order in which you destroy the bases is very important and will turn an insane enemy-filled bullet-hell into a more reasonable challenge.
I think Ash should teach the spawn line mechanic in the beginning.
- Different speed of enemies. The levels have different difficulty levels. I should display the difficulty as it changes the speed, behavior and hitpoints of the enemies.
- The countdown level with two entrances: Maybe I shouldn't have added this level in this version. It is indeed very difficult, when you do not have e.g. the Lightray or higher movement speed. It can be done, but it is indeed frustrating.
"have the dash ability allow you to destroy objects you pass over (more strategy with players trying to evade while also lining up the dash with an enemy. Yes, I know that this is included already, but the affects are minimal)."
In the story mode you don't get the benefits of the dash damage yet, but in the challenge mode you can upgrade your beam damage and kill most enemies with one or two dashes. The challenge and story mode will feature a lot more abilities and upgrades, but I have to do more balancing before I can release them. (If you are interested, you can see some upcoming levels and abilities in a gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOfi6DdGKQ )
- Out of the level bug: Thanks! I'll code a fix in the next version.
- Regarding the shockwave indicator: I have to think about a good solution. Right now one can hear a sound, when the shockwave is ready, you get the glow and there is an icon on the right hand side of the screen.
- NPC talk button: Yes. I agree. A button, at least in the battle levels, is a good way to go.
- Faster NPC dialogue button / skip dialogue button: Yep, will come.
- Enemy and damage information screen: Yes. Planned and will come soon.
- Indicator dash: I'll add some subtle line, which indicates the max distance.
Regarding "too easy or to hard": I wanted to have some non-linearity, but maybe I should reduce it instead. It can decrease the challenge too much, when levels are done in a strange order. If the levels are too easy, the player won't get the necessary muscle memory to complete the later levels, which is frustrating. I need to think about this.
The restart bug regarding those light rays (warning indicator) is actually a feature, which will become more relevant later on: Some objects are "outside" of Persephone's control and are not affected by the restart ability she grants you. This will be part of puzzle rooms in a later version of the game and will allow a bit of sequence breaking.
"auto-bullet bounce off the outer walls" - Won't happen, sadly. I'd have to add more collision detection, which would be to computationally intensive for slower CPUs.
"blast attack can be further charged up to release more damage" - Good idea. I'll look into that.
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