Thank you so much for your incredibly detailed review! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the game, and I really appreciate the time you took to share both positives and negatives. Here’s my breakdown:
Positives:
1. Thank you! I’m really happy the settings menu stood out—it was one of those features I spent more time on than I probably should’ve, but I knew it’d enhance the experience!
2. Capturing the nostalgia of the PS1 era was one of my main goals, so I’m thrilled it hit home. The startup screen was a last-minute touch, and I’m glad it resonated!
3. Health-based animations were essential for getting that survival horror feel—totally worth the hassle to implement!
4. You found the hidden shotgun cache! It’s always awesome when players stumble upon those secrets.
5. The audio logs were definitely a must for immersion—I wanted to keep the pacing smooth while delivering exposition through various channels, including voiceovers.
6. Lurkers are definitely there to catch players off guard! They were really fun to design, so I’m glad they added some challenge to the experience.
7. I’m happy to hear the RE-style inventory worked well for you! I ran out of time for balancing the resource scarcity, but that’s high on the post-jam list.
8. The Windows pop-up was my way of breaking the fourth wall while keeping the player uneasy—I’m so glad it had the intended effect!
Negatives:
1. The camera system has definitely been tricky, especially with the fixed angles and tank controls. Camera transitions are hit or miss on different setups, so I plan to rework and optimize that post-jam. Also, I hear you about the third-person view—better tutorialization is needed for sure!
2. Thanks for pointing out the interaction distance issue—I’ll work on fixing the sensitivity there.
3. Overlapping sounds (enemy whispers + audio log) are on my post-jam bug list. Definitely frustrating and something I’m working to patch!
4.The developer notes are actually saved directly to your desktop when the text shows on screen! You likely have all of them unlocked already - if you do, there’s a ton of lore in there! The glowing rectangles attached to the hand on the roof are actually meant to convey data corruption, so I’m sorry that wasn’t clear.
5. The disappearing character model is intentional to avoid blocking the view, though the shadow bug is something I need to fix. Post-jam for sure!
6. The damage balance for weapons was left in debugging mode, so kicks and gunshots are a bit off. I’ll fix this for the full release—definitely shouldn’t be equal damage!
7. I experimented with hit animations but they interfered too much with combat, so they didn’t make it into the final build. I’ll revisit this and find a better balance.
8. The pistol ammo is hidden in the alley (maybe too well hidden, haha). The shotgun ammo placement was meant to hint at the shotgun cache, but I see how it could feel odd!
9. Your inventory items should drop on the ground where you died, so you can recover them—but I’ll definitely patch the flashlight bug you ran into!
10. The parkour system was a last-minute addition meant for small obstacles, but it’s still a bit buggy. I’ll refine the raycasts so it doesn’t let you bypass the game!
11. The pipe weapon bug is another tricky one. I’m still digging into the root cause, but I appreciate you flagging it—I’ll keep at it until it’s fixed!
12. I’m really sorry about the music overlap! I just pushed a fix for this a little over an hour ago, so I hope that’ll help in future playthroughs if you decide to revisit it.
The Ending:
I’m so glad the ending twist got you! That final fourth-wall break was one of my favorite things to design, and I really wanted players to feel that sense of unease, being watched/controlled. Hearing that it worked is amazing! :)
By the way, have you checked out the developer notes or analyzed the audio files in the Requiem folder on your desktop? There’s a lot of extra lore and Easter eggs hidden in there, and I think you’ll enjoy piecing it all together!
Thanks again for your feedback and for playing Requiem! :)