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(+4)

Ok so this game is a pretty damn solid start. The atmosphere is bleak and spooky, the aliens are creepy gross and kinda terrifying, the gameplay itself is great (albiet with a few rough edges I'll go into), and the art is pretty solid. It was a legitimately heart-pounding and scary dive into an unforgiving abyss full of slimey rape-beast-plants....

As for rough edges, the jump is just too short for a few things that seem perfectly makeable (like when you activate stairs you can't quite jump to the platform from the second stair and you have to be on the very top stair), the grapple mechanic is a little hard to understand since it happens so bloody fast and what certain things mean are not explained BUT it can be figured out through a lot of brute force, the grapple mechanic happens so suddenly and with little warning or buffer that I will still have inputs from trying to move the character but I move her in the grapple game straight into a hazard and instantly lose, losing a grapple doesn't provide enough i-frames or anything to really avoid getting grappled again if there are more enemies, reloading the gun basically throws a few bullets away which I'm not sure if that's intended, the light-activated plants aren't properly signposted as invincible (like the armored pods are) and thus the first instinct to shoot at it ends up wasting like 2 clips of ammo, the light-sensitive plant also isn't super clear that light actually makes it aggressive at first (or maybe I'm stupid. Cause like, I saw the blinking light over it but it took me some time to realize the light affected the plant instead of the plant unpredictibly screeching at random), and the last unique plant thing right infront of the elevator that starts the credits is hard to avoid and jump over (I would walk into it's range a few times trying to get into the door and getting grappled by it puts you on the other side of it again. this might not've been an issue if I had sufficient ammo but I completely ran out at the end, ammo is sooo scarce)....

Anyways sorry for the lack of formatting and the massive wall of text. I really think this game has great potential and I really hope this feedback is helpful. I hope to see this game bloom into the game I think it can be.

(+3)

No, thank you for the wall of text. I always enjoy reading these.

> the grapple mechanic is a little hard to understand

Yes, there needs to be a better tutorial. But at this stage, the focus is on adding more content. A better tutorial comes later. Thank you for bringing it up though.

reloading the gun basically throws a few bullets away 

Well, well. The update in 0.0.90 is exactly this. Reloading will now drop the magazine if there's still ammo.

the light-activated plants aren't properly signposted as invincible

They aren't actually invincible, just really high health. They should probably be invincible though, now that I think about it. Nice catch.

light-sensitive plant also isn't super clear that light actually makes it aggressive at first

Yeah, I had a problem designing enemies that signal the player they're light-sensitive. At least, not without breaking the style of the game. 

last unique plant thing right infront of the elevator

This one honestly needs a rework. It's very unclear what its gimmick is.
----
Thank you for writing! Always nice to read impressions. 

In fact, feedback like this reminds what works and doesn't. You're helping make the game better just by giving impressions.

(PS. new update released.)

(+1)

Light activated plants could glow in the dark. Theres already a bit of precedent for it as theres already a few plants that do that are light activated. That way you can see them before you aim your flashlight at them. And this way they can also provide cover for other enemies bc you can't see into the darkness without agroing the glowing ones

(1 edit) (+2)

I like the glow in the dark idea. I'm just worried it'll impact performance.

Still, I'll see if it's feasible. Great suggestion!

(2 edits)

edit: which, i realize, is what you did originally. disregard, i'm an idiot :|

edit 2: might be part of a text-based tutorial, depending on how much story you plan on putting in the game. maybe a note from a character suggesting they don't like the light? might help dense folk like me pick up on the environmental cue on the first encounter

another idea might be to have the first encounter with light sensitive enemies signal it by forcing the player into a combat engagement.

i can picture it now, the first time encountering a light sensitive enemy there's a defective light that flickers on and off, enraging the enemy during the light and allowing it back to rest in the dark.


more like an environmental trap/simple puzzle than an enemy on the first encounter?

I think the most important points I mentioned were the ones you didn't have a reply to.

First, the need for a buffer between being grabbed and the grapple game actually beginning. Trying to run or jump away from something only for it to grab you and you immediately slam your icon into a hazard and instantly losing a grapple before you realize it even started feels really cheap.

Second, Ending a grapple (either by losing or winning (honestly it happens so fast it's hard to tell what's a win and what's a sort of neutral grapple)) and not having enough I-frames to escape multiple enemies is pretty rough. This problem is VASTLY magnified when trying to platform... I perfectly understand if you don't want it to be too easy, the difficulty adds to the eerie and terrifying tone. I'm merely pointing out that it could be a problem beyond just being hard.

I haven't played the update yet (and I might want to wait till after a few more updates, It depends on how I feel), but I have full confidence based on your responses to feedback that you are gonna keep at this and keep improving. I'm glad my feedback is useful, always a nice feeling knowing I've been heard and potentially helped smooth a promising game into a better direction with just a few words. Keep it up and remember to hydrate :)

(+3)

Excuse me. I thought I mentioned this. I'm already implementing i-frames for the grapple-minigame icon.

Also, just double-checked and it seems the "i-frame timer after ending a grapple" got reset to 1 second instead of 1.6. I don't know when and why. Now reverted to 1.6 secs (or 2 secs. I'll see.)

These changes should be in the next, next update.

Thanks for the catch!

As long as there arent any overtly complicated mechanics being added in the future, I think a tutorial beyond the controls isnt really needed. It adds to the feeling of being literally dropped into an alien and hostile environment.