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PURPLE ROT's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound/Music | #44 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Controls / UI | #45 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall Fun | #49 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Art / Graphics | #56 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
If you have competed before, how has your game changed?
I have made some small bug-fixes
Genre #1
Horror
Any Horror
Puzzle
Mystery | Advenure
Rating #2
For adults
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Comments
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
So I'm just going to express how I felt in the order I felt it. So let's begin...
WHAT?! WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHY IS THAT PERSON STABBED?! WHY ARE THEY LAUGHING?! I KILLED THEM?! WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BLOODY BRIGHT?! WHAT IS THIS KNIFE? IS MY HEALTH DEPLETING?! I CAN'T FIGURE ANYTHING OUT! I'M JUST GONNA- wait, is there another room in this trailer! Holy crap, there's another room in this trailer and... WHY ARE MY BOOBS SO BIG?! ... ok, focus. Let's look for... A LOCK BOX! How do I get the code, though? Wait, I can use the knife? WHAT IS GOING ON?! IS THAT ME ON A TABLE?! WTF IS HAPPENING?! Oh hey, I found the code! Now to- HAMMER TIME! Let's get outta here! OMG I'm outside and OH GOD IT'S TOO BRIGHT HERE TOO! Ok, whatever, let's explore. Okay, got a key, got into another trailer, what am I doing? There's lots of stuff to pick up, but where am I... wait, can I get through this window? WTF?! THERE'S A ROOM HERE?! OKAY, LET'S HIT THESE and I died. Ok, let's try again! Just hit this switch and then this switch and oh shit that was wrong. No worries, we can just- THE PURPLE IS COMING AHHH HURRYHURRYHURRYANDNOWESCAPE JSAHFJKSAHGFJAHGLKDHSGS!!!!
Ok, escaped. Onto the next area! Two trailers to explore here, this one has nothing in it. Ok, how about- oh, a body. Oh god, more purple! Wait, why can I pick up these boxes?! Can I do anything? Nope, seems not. Okay, let's keep looking around. I found some notes, but nothing gives me a clue to the next puzzle. Crap. Let's double check. Why do these trailers both have the same note? Ok, let's triple check.... how am I supposed to proceed? Chat, do you know? Oh, two other streamers played? Let's check them out and I'm ahead of them. Fuck. HOW DO I GET THIS NEXT CODE?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Anyway, that was my experience before I stopped. Honestly, I'm just going to let THAT stand as my feedback. You can take from that whatever you want from it.
Ok, no, I won't do that. First, the visuals: that glow is just awful on the eyes. Can you tone it down? Second, as creepy and perfect as that sound you use for the rot is, PLEASE GIVE ME OTHER BACKGROUND SOUNDS AND DON'T MAKE IT SO LOUD! XD Lastly, changing between the knife, hammer and nothing should be faster. The delay when you pull out the knife before you can put it away is awful.
Well...hehe, that's not quite the experience I had in mind for this game :-D. (Other than "THE PURPLE IS COMING HURRY HURRY NEED TO ESCAPE" of course. That is pretty accurate to what I wanted hehe :-D.)
But yes, I definitely have to make some adjustments, especially including to make objectives clearer and to add brightness settings.
Thanks so much for checking it out and for your recommendations.
I haven't had much time to work on the adjustments yet, but hopefully I will be able to get started on them soon.
Thanks again.
Link to VOD:
(live at 9pm EST tonight)I think Purple Rot has a solid foundation going. It feels like you have something of a story that you want to tell, and you're emulating the walking simulator for it nicely. I really like the music and the color pallet for this, too. Great selections. This game has a lot of potential, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
As someone who has played a lot of walking simulators (Emika, anyone?), I do think you need a little bit more information in the game. So far it seems fine as far as the discovery of items and notes; but to make sure people find everything they'll need you'll want to make it so they cannot leave the memory, for example, until they've read the note with the passcode. Similarly, if the only light source is going to also injure you, you should be made aware of that more than just the heart icon ticking down; and I'd also say the game cannot be so extreme on brights (and maybe tone these down anyways because I almost didn't see the body in them due to the neon blindingness) and darks, and you'll need a lot better health items (or keep them plentiful) laying around. Otherwise you'll want to introduce a flashlight, or similar. Possibly the power boxes were supposed to be said light, I'm not sure. Regarding that heart icon though, it remains unclear to me if that's just HP, or also possession rate? If it is both, then there was a glitch when I was at the power boxes I believe. If it is not, then adding in a bar indicating how possessed you are would be helpful.
Now a few nit-picky items, take these as you will. First and foremost, definitely go back and re-read your notes and such. If you do choose to watch the section of the VOD where I play your game, you'll notice me mention it as I spot it, but there are a few typos and some areas that could be better grammatically. In addition, one note feels like it should be two, or have a better segway--the one in the outside drawer bank. I think you have the story in your head, which means you know where it's going and such, but as a player I don't have that insider knowledge so it feels a bit disjointed to me. If you didn't plan for it already, I'd also add in a head-bob option and a motion-blur option, because there is a decent portion of gamers (like myself) who get motion sick if one or both of these are on. Having the ability to turn them off can be the difference between us playing your game, and us having to put it down.
Finally, a word of advice. If you ever plan to put this on Steam, please try to make sure the playtime for it will be greater than 2hrs. I say this so you don't run into the same struggle that Emika has; where people buy the game, do a full playthrough, and then refund it because the total game time is less than 2hrs, and they played it within the first two weeks that they bought it. It's a really garbage move on the part of the gamers, but Steam continues to allow it to happen.
Overall though I look forward to where you take this game, and I think once complete I will see it among the games played by the horror community on Twitch. I've offered my ratings for where the game stands at present, as there is plenty of room for growth and improvement on a solid base like this.
Appreciate your detailed text feedback as well as VOD Saknika. :D
Many many thanks for checking it out and leaving feedback. I don't have much experience with the horror genre, so I find all of your recommendations very valuable.
This project was made for a game jam. When the jam finished I didn't really get any feedback on it at all, and so I submitted it here to get some more eyes on it.
I didn't actually have any plans to release this particular project on Steam, but I did have some horror project ideas that I would like to try and release on there in the future. So once again many thanks for the detailed feedback as it will definitely help me improve.
There are a couple of things that I am especially kicking myself over.
I definitely should have really added brightness options. My monitor really must be dark hehe ;D.
Good catch with some of the typos and grammar issues. I think I honestly must have rushed for the jam originally and didn't review the text again before I re-submitted. No excuse for it :D.
I had tried to leave as much as I could to the player to put information together (like a detective finding clues), but as you mentioned I think I probably need to add some more guidance or make objectives clearer.
Believe it or not the disjointed note you mentioned was actually intentional. I had hoped it would sound like the rantings of someone who couldn't concentrate, (or someone who was seeing things). It did tie into the story of what was happening at the trailer park, and it was supposed to come across as strange to the player.
Of course if this wasn't clear then I need to figure out a better way to present this.
Just some notes on some of the mechanics:
The knife was supposed to replace a standard flashlight. You equipped it when you need it, and to save your health, you unequipped it when you don't.
It was supposed to be a double edged sword type of mechanic. You can see more but are damaged as long as you are holding it.
HP and Possession are separate. HP is your health and stays constant unless you are damaged or holding the knife.
Possession increases when you touch the Rot.
It reduces back to 0 when you are no longer touching it. Again I will need to find away to make this clearer.
Still though, I thankyou so so much for checking out the project, and especially for taking the time to give feedback.
I'll work on sorting out the improvements on this soon. Maybe with tips like these it will be good enough for me to consider it for Steam in the future.
All the best.
RE: The Note
If the disjointedness is intentional, and you're looking to make it seem like the rants and raves of someone who isn't in their right mind, then might I suggest the use of excessive ellipses, and almost a more inner-monologue style of writing. That way it comes across as more unhinged-stream-of-consciousness and less of a planned nature. 🙂
RE: The Knife
Totally an interesting idea about the double-edged sword. Just think if that's the mechanic you want to go with, you'll definitely want a quick pop-up explaining that light comes at a price. And again, that HP items might need to be a bit more plentiful.
RE: Possession
Since it is separate, an additional bar would be good. As far as I could tell my HP was going down as I was looking at The Rot, but not touching it, so this is perhaps a bug? But yes, maybe next to or above the heart icon for HP you could do a brain one for Possession level.
I really do think it's a solid game though, and with enough time and effort you could release it to the horror world--even if just on itch.io. Steam would be awesome too, but I know plenty of horror content creators who scour itch.io as well for good horror games.
Many many thanks again.
Regarding the possession, there is actually a counter for it in the bottom right corner with the skull icon. Health is in the bottom left corner with the heart icon. I made them small to try and keep the HUD as clear as possible. (Maybe too small though :D)
As you mentioned though, clarity could be better for this. It should either explain this in-game or be intuitive enough to not to require it, so I will work on some improvements.
I am really glad you see some potential in it though. You know, there is actually a lot more game-time in this project in its current state, including two more endings. But so far I have not seen anyone play far enough which probably highlights the problems with it at the moment.
Anyhow, thank-you very much once again for all of your recommendations.
Hi, I watched Luna play through your game, great concept, here's some live feedback VOD vid: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2220748773
Your game comes in at 1:13:38
All of us agree this is a great concept, the world, and great intrigue for the horror genre, the lighting is a bit too strong for long play, please tune that down or allow us to adjust. Keep up the great work and look forward to your update after the feedback.
Hey thanks so so much for sending over the VOD, and thankyou so so much for checking out the project.
Awwwww no, I am kicking myself for not including brightness controls in the options.
My monitor must be just dark hehe.
I will definitely add some options for that once the jam is over.
I didn't want to hand hold the player too much, and so a lot of objectives reveal themselves through the notes and information found around. On the VOD Luna moves quickly through and so unfortunately did miss some clues.
But I guess this does show that I will have to think of a way to make progression clearer.
Thankyou so much for the feedback.
Actually Altabestudio, can I add brightness options now or do I need to wait till after the jam is over?
Yes, add it now. just upload a new demo with a diff name instead of replacing so we have a good documentation tracking to avoid confusion.