Skip to main content

Browse GamesGame JamsUpload GameAutumn SaleDeveloper LogsCommunity
On Sale: GamesAssetsToolsTabletopComics
Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
ConstantErasing156 days ago (3 edits) (+1)

Really enjoying this game. I've always thought there's a lot of potential for vore games in a horror-esque genre, yet there are criminally few games of that nature. This strikes a nice balance of vorny with a horror game tension. The animations are simple but good, and I really like the weight gain. Also the emphasis on sound for locating the pred is a really nice touch, it enhances both the horror and vore aspects of it.

My one major gripe is how difficult it can be to spot the keys. Even ignoring the times they blend in with the purple walls or the tiles, they are small, unobtrusive, and often in little out of the way corners. While there is something to be said for having to carefully search while under pressure, when the keys are this hard to locate it can quickly become tedious and frustrating, which completely kills any tension the search would give. Not to mention I've had a couple runs where I lost to the 4th bell because I simply ran out of keys I could find that opened new doors, even after methodically combing the school multiple times, and after dodging Bella for that long she winds up just feeling like an annoyance. Finding keys she ate can be even worse, since she's just as capable of burping them up in a corner or an out of the way classroom as the hallway. Something to make the keys easier to spot, like a mild glowing effect, would go a long to avoiding this. Alternatively, maybe something that would direct you towards the nearest obtainable key. Could be just an ability you have, maybe one that only unlocks after the first or second bell, or could be an item you could pick up (which if it takes the slot of the apple would add an additional risk-reward factor, though unless said item is readily available wouldn't really solve the problem). 

A minor gripe I have is how janky her grab feels when it comes to grabbing you vs another student. I've been grabbed by her when I had 2 other students and probably over 5 feet between us because they had a bit of a gap between them that I guess the grab went through. I've been grabbed when I was hiding directly behind a student and she collided with them, walked around, and then grabbed me (edit: and as of now I've had her do a full circle around a student before grabbing me instead). I've been grabbed THROUGH another student who was directly between me and her. I've been grabbed multiple times because the student I was hiding behind suddenly started moving around me as she got near and that tiny space it made in the half second of moving was enough. I've had her lose sight of me when she approached because I was hiding behind another student, walk around to the side, and then spot and grab me when I couldn't get away because the student I was trying to hide behind was hugging the wall. I've also been sure I was going to get caught when she came at me while I was at a weird diagonal with a student only for the student to get grabbed instead. It's not a big problem but with how random her and the students movements can feel on top of it, it can make the otherwise sound strategy of slowing her down by feeding her other students feel very rng. Also it makes it harder to do a runs where your only objective is to get her to eat everyone in the building (which is my favorite way to play so far).

A few other miscellaneous ideas/suggestions/feedback:

  1. Would really like more sounds to be added. I like the focus on sound, but right now it's mostly just footsteps with sparse digestion noises after she's eaten. More digestion noises (and louder when you have been eaten) plus other little noises like more burps and moans, giggles, lip-licking, etc. would go a long way. Just occasional other sounds sprinkled in to liven it up.
  2. An option to add more prey students and make them unable to escape her (or at least prioritize your escape over theirs if you've been eaten as well) would be nice. This is really just for those runs you are trying to get all the other students eaten. Though the current student count could maybe be bumped further (especially if additional preds are added), in normal play I like that other students eaten with you have a chance to escape instead of you.
  3. I like the low chance of escape that goes up the more prey she has in her. Was thinking a neat mechanic might be if the chance to escape her is lowered the more prey she's digested but her movement speed goes down a little bit as she gains weight. I think it's fine as is regardless, tho.
  4. Instead of a big pink block for the defeat screen that forces us to main menu after a few seconds, it'd be better if the text would just show up, a main menu option, so we could watch ourselves get digested. I like the digestion animation, but its a shame you can only see it when following her around after stuffing her full (something you'd never do playing normally).
  5. I wouldn't mind if the screenshake when moving was reduced or gotten rid of entirely. It can be a little distracting/headache inducing.
  6. Although finding them can be a pain, I overall really like the mechanic of the pred eating the key you are holding and burping it out later. However, it seems like they burp it out only after digesting everything, which can be kind of a pain if they've eaten a lot.

Anyways, really looking forward to future updates.

Reply
GhostWhisperer971155 days ago(+1)

I will see if I can find a way to make keys more visible, especially if one can not be found in awhile.

For the grabs i will keep it in mind.

I will test making the main preds body noises louder and I do want the preds to have some type of talking sounds while they walk around.

more students cannot be added as it would make the game play too easy.

I plan on changing the way the defeat screen shows up.

The screen shake I will keep in mind to edit the animations for less shaking if I can.

If they ate alot that means you were "saved" alot which resulted in the pred eating something else. This most likely will not be a problem against other preds since being saved will be less likely.

Reply
Cinquint155 days ago(+1)

I accepted that the screen shake - rather jarring as it is - may have been a measure to disincentivize the player from sprinting constantly, since it can be quite hard to see things like keys while running around at breakneck pace all the time. 

At the same time, my friend and I were both like "If <motion-sickness friend> played this, she'd fucking die", lol.

Reply
ConstantErasing154 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

I played around even more with trying to feed her students and noticed a few things: the grab seems to act up the most on stairs, around corners, and when hugging walls. Take these observations with a huge grain of salt, because they are mostly just from memory and gut feeling rather than measured data, but I do get the strong feeling that I have weird grabs more often in those cases. On the stairs I feel like she'll bypass nearby students more (and sometimes feels like her range is longer), when me and the student are really near a wall it feels like she's more likely to run around the student before trying to grab me than when we're in the open, and while almost all of the weird corner interactions have happened while at least one of us was on stairs, there was one time when she grabbed me through the wall around the corner before even fully coming into view (and with a student between us). Also noticed she'll often lose line of sight when hiding closely behind a student and this can cause her to behave erratically, meaning you have to ensure she keeps line of sight while chasing to ensure reduce chances of surprises happen, which is kind of dangerous cause it means staying farther from the student.

As for adding more students, I mostly meant it as an optional slider type of thing, to let the player increase or decrease the student count to their preferences. If you want to ensure that the player gets the intended experience from the game, and worry this will interfere with that, it could be something you only unlock after a successful escape or the like. Obviously its up to you how much you want to let the player deviate from the core design, but just going through these comments I can see a lot more people than just me enjoy playing the game in alternative ways (such as trying to feed the pred all the students) and are wanting various options that'll allow them to customize the experience a bit to suit those playstyles. There are a ton of simple things you could give the player the option to tweak (such as number of students, escape chance, etc.) that would go a long way to allowing players to set up scenarios they can have fun with, and, again, if you are worried about that hurting the experience you can always lock it behind completion requirements. Just something to consider, since I think the game is still shaping up good without it.

That being said, I also don't think a few more students would make the game THAT much easier. I've got only 3 successful runs so far (would have been 4 but I got impatient and made a dash for the exit without determining her location, only for her to come around the corner while I was in the hallway), but in all but one of them I found the exit key after opening around 8ish doors, and made a swift escape long before the student population could be decreased by much. In my experience if you aren't purposefully hanging around the other students (which can really harm your ability to search) they aren't at all reliable as emergency meat shields either, since you have to be close to them to even have a chance, grabs are finicky, and it feels rare for them to be particularly near the pred. A few more students might slightly increase the chances for you to have one nearby in an emergency, but I feel like they tend to both avoid the pred and clump up a bunch, so might not even do much on that front. The biggest effect of having more students means more sacrifices to stall for time with, and intentionally baiting yourself to feed her your fellows with is a risky strategy, so allowing the player to do it a little more often doesn't feel like it'll break the difficulty. I think I said it in my last post, but, while I do think the current student count is completely fine for balance purposes, I also think having more fodder could be pretty fun, especially for alternative playstyle (though if its through an optional slider that also lets you decrease the number that'd be best I think).

Oh, and thanks for the speedy reply, means a lot when devs do that.

Reply
GhostWhisperer971154 days ago (2 edits)

Grabs on slopes are tricky since the detection is affected by the altitudes. It is not recommended to use students as bait on stairs. 

Major changes to gameplay settings that allow adjustment by the player would have to be in a custom mode which can be added once the game is complete but as of now, there are no plans to adding modes like that.

I am looking into how players use other students as shields but this actually is an easter egg that got popular. The reliability is supposed to be low if you use them as a last resort but if you intentionally try to do this then it might be high. Doing this slows the pred to where you can outrun them, makes them stop from time to time and stuns them if a student escapes. This will have have different effects on different preds.

Reply
AboutFAQBlogContact us
Copyright © 2024 itch corp · Directory · Terms · Privacy · Cookies