So glad that setting let you complete the game! I've heard that impression from a few players now, I think I'm going to add some presets and a settings randomizer option on the next update to see if that helps reduce the feeling of an "intended experience" being the default and encourage peeps to experiment with those settings.
CoalFire
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Okay, so I dumped about 15 more min into the game and the best way I can summarize what I feel as a player is that the game does way too little with way too much. The sheer number of drawers and cabinets that can be opened is disheartening. It never really feels as if the player is exploring, but rather being forced into checking every possible space for keys to progress.
Rooms 01 and 03 have some great points of reference for using lighting to draw the players attention without forcing them to check every space. i think there is an inherent issue with the transition between the living room you start in and the kitchen, as the first thing the player is going to do is walk toward the light source that is the kitchen. Lock that door, force them to look around and see down the hallway, let that draw their attention.
Next, is it's probably a good idea to gate some areas of the downstairs and the upstairs as I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of rooms and halls almost immediately. Use those awesome blood decals to make the player check under beds and desks, inside closets, and more unique areas. Every time I saw a new dresser I thought "oh crap I have to click though all this crap again" while making sure I didn't miss one random object that was out of place.
Simplify, streamline, get rid of all the excess interactions, let the environment chill the player, draw their attention and subvert their expectations, build up a scare and bring it in from somewhere they weren't expecting.
Light is a powerful tool in a game like this.
I left that comment as a full list of things that need to be improved from audio, visual, communication, gameplay and user interface standpoints. I get that it can be tough to receive blunt criticism, but I am not going to bs you and say that it's a great game when it isn't. If you want another step by step breakdown of what I found to be lacking, I'll type it back up, I'll even sit down and play a hell of a lot more of it, but if you're happy with the quality of this title, I'll be on my way
With what seems to be the increasing frequency of spam bots, porn bots and pirate bots, may of which repost the same games over and over again, it might be worth looking into daily upload limits for games. I don't think the vast majority of itch devs will suffer any issues from this, as most errors can be resolved by updating the game's page rather then replacing it. But spam accounts that post upwards of 60 games an hour would be severely handicapped. Developers, Publishers and Universities that wish to publish a large amount of content at once can reach out to the itch staff to bypass these regulations, but it will prevent the current ongoing pirated porn floods that the new page seems to be suffering pretty regularly now.
Really amazing concept you have here, the dual control and that you have to always focus on both is a surprising challenge and really felt like you were pushing my noggin to its limit while I was trying to do commentary. Awesome and clear visuals, fun music, I just wish there was a little bit more content and maybe some in-game keyboard prompts. Great stuff!
Really great stuff here John! The platforming is really solid, the visuals are great, the writing is really damn funny and the music is fantastic! I do thing an instant restart button for the speedrun cards and a little visual flair on the floor for the floor is lava challenges would go a long way in helping the communication and flow of the game, but still fantastic overall!
Pretty great stuff you've got going on here! The art style is great and clearly communicates everything you need to see, the characters and writing are hilarious and the platforming is pretty darn tight! My only issues were likely caused by running the game in fullscreen and running a few taxing programs alongside it, but I think the movement in game is tied to the framerate and it caused a very weird feel when the framerate dropped. Still, a very niche issue, well done!
While I got the basic gist of the story from rough cognates, the atmosphere was what really hooked me! The vast but enclosed spaces mixed with the lighting, brutalist architecture and awesome sound made for a really unnerving experience. The camera did have some strange issues and the camera cuts weren't all that informative, but enough exploration and trial and error got me thought just fine! Well done!
I really loved the mechanics once I got them all figured out, but that was definitely a bit of an issue for me. The visuals were fantastic and the clone and rewind were damn fun to use! My only real problems with the game came from my complete lack of understanding of French and some of the later ai/mechanics interactions, but it was impressive nonetheless, well done!
I really loved the story (once I had the chance to translate it) and the core ideas are there with some fantastic artwork and design. However the game suffers from two main issues that work together to bring it all down, the camera and movement. The camera's tracking and inability to move independently of the character movement is really awful. It means you have to stop to look around every time, and the 8 second 360 is just too slow. This made it impossible to see anything that wasn't directly ahead of me when moving and slow to respond to anything. Second was the movement speed, pairing that with the camera issues causing needless deaths made retrying really tedious. These could be really quick fixes (I'm not completely sure on that) but it would hugely improve the overall experince.
Ran in to a few minor issues with loading and leaving certain areas resetting progress, but overall, still a damn good time! The combat clicked a bit more with me this time around, and that final fight was quite the spectacle! I'm exited to run a third episode to get the other ending! Keep up the great work!
Gave the game a quick look, and the art and sound are amazing! The gameplay mechanics do a good job a facilitating exploration, but I felt like the AI companion to an AI companion at times. The combat was probably the weakest point for me, as whether or not I was doing something correctly or not wasn't communicated very well and I had no idea if I was making progress on the boss.
I really love this concept and the animations are gorgeous, but it's definitely as brutal as you say it is. I quit pretty early on due mostly what I felt was to a lack of mobility and a bit due to the encounter and wave design. Still, an awesome concept that I look forward to revisiting after a post-jam update :)