Gave it a try, pretty cool. It's probably pretty obvious what you need to do to progress, like adding menus, sound etc. A protip to stop the players flashlight clipping into the environment is to actually make it a really tiny scale but bring it very close to the camera. That way it looks normal sized to the player, but will be stopped short of going into the environment by the players on collision.
Gave it a playthrough, and I did not have a bad time.
Wow that's a lot of words though. I was not expecting a novel.
I don't know if it's just because I wasn't prepared to read a ton of prose going in or if you're in dire need of an editor, but I found myself skimming most of the text looking for the meat of the story.
On the upside, it's not a bad story. I like its overall shape, just the telling leaves a little to be desired. (maybe ditch the supernatural dream in the Dad's diary so you're left with no clue what happened in the antique shop until you get to Ethan's room)
The diaries very often feel so little like diaries and so much like prose fiction that it hits me in the disbelief suspenders; like the way they take their time building up to the antique shop scene and setting up the scene in vivid detail, instead of being like "Good morning diary Dad's taking me to the antique shop teacher mentioned later today :) " and then straight to "Dad collapsed at the antique shop and had to go to the emergency room".
I did really like how the Dad's diary told much of its story just with its shift in tone, though. That was some good show-don't-tell.
The text adventure part was surprising. Did you always have that shift in mind or is it a concession because there wasn't time to make those scenes in-engine?
The player character wasn't introduced by the game at the start, so I was pretty surprised when her identity was suddenly very important right at the end. I was like "wait, I'm a cop? Wait, I'm a woman?". Bit of a rollercoaster.
On the technical side, you forgot(?) to add collision to the player's car and the fence surrounding the farm. Aside from that there's a few lighting issues; going up the stairs, the wall of the ground floor doesn't get touched by my flashlight like it should, and outside I see a lot of bright trees in the distance (when they get out of range of a shadow map maybe?).
But hey, it's your first game, right? And it's perfectly playable from start to finish with nothing breaking. That's a solid beginning.
TL;DW: It's a bit buggy but the short length prevented that from being bothersome. The story is intriguing, but it's too early for me to make a real judgement on that aspect. Hope to see more in future DDs
Comments
Gave it a try, pretty cool. It's probably pretty obvious what you need to do to progress, like adding menus, sound etc. A protip to stop the players flashlight clipping into the environment is to actually make it a really tiny scale but bring it very close to the camera. That way it looks normal sized to the player, but will be stopped short of going into the environment by the players on collision.
I can see the beginnings of the game. I really hope all the content in the text story will be in the game. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Grinded your game while itch was down https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2025770585 imho is pretty good for speedrunning.
Atmosphere is cool, I want a game like this but longer, more confusing with a huge amount of places
Gave it a playthrough, and I did not have a bad time.
Wow that's a lot of words though. I was not expecting a novel.
I don't know if it's just because I wasn't prepared to read a ton of prose going in or if you're in dire need of an editor, but I found myself skimming most of the text looking for the meat of the story.
On the upside, it's not a bad story. I like its overall shape, just the telling leaves a little to be desired. (maybe ditch the supernatural dream in the Dad's diary so you're left with no clue what happened in the antique shop until you get to Ethan's room)
The diaries very often feel so little like diaries and so much like prose fiction that it hits me in the disbelief suspenders; like the way they take their time building up to the antique shop scene and setting up the scene in vivid detail, instead of being like "Good morning diary Dad's taking me to the antique shop teacher mentioned later today :) " and then straight to "Dad collapsed at the antique shop and had to go to the emergency room".
I did really like how the Dad's diary told much of its story just with its shift in tone, though. That was some good show-don't-tell.
The text adventure part was surprising. Did you always have that shift in mind or is it a concession because there wasn't time to make those scenes in-engine?
The player character wasn't introduced by the game at the start, so I was pretty surprised when her identity was suddenly very important right at the end. I was like "wait, I'm a cop? Wait, I'm a woman?". Bit of a rollercoaster.
On the technical side, you forgot(?) to add collision to the player's car and the fence surrounding the farm. Aside from that there's a few lighting issues; going up the stairs, the wall of the ground floor doesn't get touched by my flashlight like it should, and outside I see a lot of bright trees in the distance (when they get out of range of a shadow map maybe?).
But hey, it's your first game, right? And it's perfectly playable from start to finish with nothing breaking. That's a solid beginning.
TL;DW: It's a bit buggy but the short length prevented that from being bothersome. The story is intriguing, but it's too early for me to make a real judgement on that aspect. Hope to see more in future DDs
Your page has been quarantined in case you did not know.
yeah I've heard, thanks