Usually when the submission list goes up on the Sunday of every Godot Wild Jam, I scan for what appears like the most ambitious titles, and this was the one of the few this edition that felt like it belonged on that list.
- I like the low-poly look and it communicated well enough the office tower setting.
- Mouse movement sensitivity feels really low, and often I have to lift my mouse and recenter it on my pad to continue a camera pan.
- Level design is interesting, because on the starting floor, all of the rooms except the Break Room don't really serve a function, so it reduces the gameplay effectively to a walking simulator. Nothing wrong with that, but walking sims usually need something else to keep interest levels at a median level (IE: music, ambience, narration, collectibles, etc.). This is something that I've since noted is realized in later levels.
- Using findable notes to tell a story is a good method, and I feel the text was succinct enough to be accessible to most players. Strong story about the seduction of biological enhancement leading to the unfortunate destruction of a scientific work environment. Reminiscent of Fallout's shelters; very well-written.
- Second level improves on objective-finding and becomes quite challenging to figure out where the nameplates go. It's here one must really begin to pay attention to what's being said in the notes. I appreciated the clink if the nameplates were on the right desk, but would've desired a more explicit way to illustrate the player is advancing successfully (like an objective tracker on a HUD, or quest markers in the environment). After placing all the nameplates successfully, nothing was happening, so I picked each one up again and re-placed them on or around the same spot on the desk, and finally heard the "Going Down" elevator soundbite.
- Level three surprise: freaky-deeky! Easy enough stage to get past, though it's here I realized I must've missed the password on level two.
- Level four evolves to full-blown horror, and the atmosphere and level design is the perfect terrifying climax to a well-developed story. As with level 2, wasn't clear what to do with the collected body parts, and I heard the clink for the legs in the first (engineering) room, and the clink for the head by the door of the executive's office. Couldn't find the clink for the torso, and when I inspected the executive office one more time holding the body part, I got clipped into the corner bookshelf and wasn't able to get out—effectively ending my hour-plus playthrough. Bugs like that are understandable for 3D games, however. It's where an escape menu / restart function can help.
I think I was close to the conclusion, and was impressed by Paragon Tower. There's usually the one game (and oftentimes horror) that you play in these jams and feel, "Wow, this could absolutely be expanded out to a full commercial game," and this feels like that title. This was a noteworthy project by everyone who collaborated on it, and you all should be commended for tackling and completing a 3D story-based horror in such a short development window. Congratulations!