itch.io

I'm making this comment to provide some criticism, since with the frequency of updates and scenes being added in each one (alongside the last two Indigo scenes added being a bit more complicated than just getting caught) I wanted to mention some things.

I love the game and its concept, I just wish things were explained better and mechanics were more intuitive, and I want to explain what I mean by that.

----------

As a first example, this door task isn't very intuitive, and that applies in a few ways:

1. The game associates the panels with doors by putting them next to doors, so when the panel is red but the doors open anyway, it means that confusion is left for what the panels actually do. This makes it more confusing when the bedroom door *is* dictated by whether or not the panel is red or green.

2. The task placement itself is strange, being behind the player as they enter the room. There's 4 panels, and one is emitting electricity which is meant to be the hint, however from the perspective of a new player which will associate these panels with the door, it just looks like the door opens because the panel is broken, and they likely wouldn't inspect it. This is the issue with point 1, being that the point of the panels on the map doesn't really align with what the player would expect.

3. Once you fix the panel, no sound effects or noticeable visual changes appear anywhere other than the door panels turning green, making it look like the task is complete, but nothing happens. With this lack of guidance for what to do after, it leads the player to need to think intuitvely. As it was sparking, I intuitively assumed it to have an effect on power. This led to me to doing things such as trying to find the core, and interact with any possible machinery on the map, but nothing worked and I'm left confused as a result.

----------

I feel like intuitive design is important to bring up, since with more complicated tasks like this one being added, the game would benefit from more indicators for guidance and a tutorial of sort.

When it comes to indicators, a few ways of doing this could be:

1. Pop-up text. Say you're playing a heist game and then you collect an object, and then pop-up text appears saying something like "I should probably leave..." or "I should check out [Room_Name_Here]...", hinting at a next step without explicitly saying what it is. In this instance, say you were meant to interact with Indigo after doing a task, the pop-up text would be "I should check on Indigo..."

2. Outlines. As it stands, the game only outlines things once you look at them, but having these outlines always be visible, except maybe just faint and unobtrusive, would go a long way at making tasks easier to find, especially tasks that only appear once a first task has been completed.

3. Explanations. As of now, the PC only shows a lock on scenes that the player is yet to find, but this can be annoying in games with lots of scenes when the player has one left with no idea of how to get it. Instead of just having a lock, a text block could appear on screen by clicking on the lock, that would explain/hint to the player what to do in order to unlock it. 

EDIT: I did just notice that there's a grey box on the right of the screen below the scene image when selecting a scene on the PC that looks like it'd be a text box, but I've gotten all of the scenes now so I don't know if there ever were explanations put there. If there is, then ignore Point 3 ^.

In terms of a tutorial, adding a Tutorial section alongside the Shop and PC, that would cover things like using the stand in front of Indigo to stall her, using a USB to stop the virus, etc. It'd just help new players ease into the game loop better. It took me 2 hours the first time I played to figure out that Indigo could be stalled.

----------

As a final note, I wish the virus gave more time. If you're halfway across the map from the office and the virus begins, you don't have enough time to stop it, which discourages exploration by forcing the player to wait around to ensure the virus is gone for a bit before doing anything, which makes the new time limit more of an inconvenience rather than a relief as it should be when you haven't completed all of the tasks and the game ends abruptly. I think either of these would help:

1. An Alarm. A few seconds before the virus metre actually appears, sound an alarm that warns the player that the virus is on its way.

2. More Time. Self-Explanatory.

3. Enemy Sound. If the idea is that the enemy should spawn, and the prevention is just meant to be lucky, having the enemy itself emit sound would help the enemy be more fair to fend off. I waited by the glass expecting it to spawn there so that I could keep tabs on it, but it didn't, and I got caught by it during my confusion.

----------

That's about all I have to say. I don't want to sound rude or condescending, as I've been learning game development for about a year now and it's not easy for sure, but I really wanted to comment on what things the game could improve on that similar games also struggle with, considering first impressions are the most important part of a game after the game itself.