Hi Unniex.
Played a lot of (all I think, even the board game short which is an
absolute pregnancy kink
jewel, need more !) versions of this game. Let's be clear (because I see some harsh complains before), I clearly support your work. you're one of the only developper I follow on this forum. I'd like you to continue this game so that's why I comment.
I do
love the writing, animations and horrific scenery of your game, but I feel like you are using a very unsuited game engine to make it work like you want to, giving you a hard time. I suppose redoing eveything on something like godo or unreal would be a very time consuming and a depressing move but could give you some support over features you may be having a hard time with (like saving / menu / hud...). But now let's deal with the current one.
Quickly about bugs / comments:
- I noted that sometime the framerate speed break, getting you stuck at normal framerate.
- I also got caught in some "always filled with slug" condition after being caught in the slug nightmare making my character unable to get rid of it, even after a dozen of days. I got it another time and somehow the animation stopped in the middle (I pressed escape, X repeatedly in an attempt to skip)
- It's not obvious that you character start as a male (maybe to add to the first scene along with the skip button)
- You can set the same new name than the previous one, messing up with the script x)
The hud is a bit tedious to use or read but still functionnal. Perhaps you should add a backdrop while menu is open to make it more obvious as it's quite discrete.
Also it's still possible to trigger an action while you press the trigger button and menu is open (like toggling a door opening). The bowel viewer can't be opened, IDK ifit's on purpose as it was in previous version of the game. You definitively need an "equiped" item button, as it's clearly not obvious that you have to open the menu to shoot with the gun.
Maybe
someting simple like a red square surrounding the item if you bind the "fast action" button to it.
IDK if it's a design choice or a convenient way to do it for you, but some "key items" like badges, keys etc could be in a special inventory. It would be more convenient to automatically unlock a door once you get the relavant key.
I mean, overall accessibility doesn't match today standards, for sure. That may explain why you get so many complains about it. Perhaps adding some kind of scriped tutorial for saving like "hey, what if I note what hapened today on my journal" and enforce players to save at least once. It could be nice to have explanations about hud values, color code, "time left dots" etc instead of having to figure out by yourself : What is obvious to you (or first players like me) is
not at all for newcomers.
About the gameplay, sometimes it's hard to guess what to do, there is a little blinking star on items but not on interractible furnitures like the blender or microwave oven, wich is troublesome as I ended up many times trying to activate an item on something I'm pretty sure have no interraction possible (like big containers).
Also, some actions are very hard to understand. For instance we might expect the coffee mug to be filled in the kitchen (in the lab) but you have to go in the shower instead, it make sense but as it's not the more obvious way to get water you make give up on the idea and feel stuck. Puzzles are indeed pretty hard to figure, but ok it's part of the fun. But giving some challenge so many steps might lost many. Perhaps you should display a hint when you face something that is part of a puzzle, or giving the possiblity to display it or not for the hardcore players.
For instance, in the library you are trapped in a teleport maze. After few of them your character could say "The wall ahead keep on moving away from me. How could I find my way in this maze."
I think the hardest thing to figure is that you may have useless items for a given version of the game, like the color balls. So you never know if what you can ou can't do is supposed to be that way or not. Or if it's a bug, or softlock.
Perhaps you should release a "clear of pending dev" version, like "stable demo" and offer the bleeding edge one only with a warning like "This is an alpha, you will find items that are not usefull yet but might be one day, unfnished zone etc, it's only for curious people." in the "retard" screen
My final suggestion would be to give a bit of polishing on basic features before adding more content. I know we always want to add more content, and I can't disagree as a player to get more. But sometimes it's good to hold on, refactor a bit before you move on.
I know it's still an early release (even if there is clearly a lot of work behind), and it's definitively on the top of my watchlist. Can't wait for more
I also suppose you are working alone, but maybe you can (want to ?) delegate some. I don't know if the game engine allow to have multiple developers but if you, I'd be glad to help. Feel free to MP.
