Post by Crack_Smoking_Warlock in Their Eyes comments

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The amount of work that went into this is pretty impressive, but honestly I found it way too hard and gave up after my third game over. I get that the dolls function as a life system, but forcing the player to replay the entire thing from the beginning if they run out seems really, really punishing, especially considering the amount of times the game throws unforseeable things at you. My deaths were:

-Dying to the tree after running out of ammo. I hadn't met the witch yet and didn't know totems could be used defensively.

-Dying to a pig in the village while fighting one of the four legged panther like enemies. I guess firing a gun near them angers them?

-Losing two lives to whatever that invisible thing is in the graveyard, then finally dying to the resurrected kitten after killing it accidentally. Is it invincible after resurrection? I put 5 rifle shots and an axe swing into it and it didn't die.

Gameplay wise, I noticed that especially in the forest bullets fired from the rifle have a weird tendency to not connect. I'm guessing the hitbox on them might be a bit big and they could be getting caught on trees. I think having some sort of hud indication as to if the rifle is loaded or not might be a good idea - I'm not sure if it takes a moment to finish the reload or not, but I had a few moments where I pulled out the rifle and it wasn't loaded even though I could have sworn I reloaded it. I also think maybe having some indication of the invisible enemy in the graveyard would be nice (quickly fading footsteps where it moves, soft laughter as an audio cue etc.) and - if it is supposed to be some sort of ghost - making it possible for the player to run through it; I got caught on it and suffered multiple hits trying to run past.

black_and_noir3 years ago

Thank you for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it!

First of all, one quick question: have you played the latest version (1.1.5), which features a (kinda) "casual mode"?
If not, you should probably give it a try.
However, I'm aware that the game is hard - and partly not by choice but due to the roughness of the code that I've put together.
I'm definitely trying to learn from the (many) mistakes of this first attempt, and I'm currently working on a new game that will (hopefully!) be more enjoyable also for those who are not hardcore gamers.
(I am anything but a hardcore gamer, after all! :D)

Yes, the tree is tough; and the forest is probably the most confusing level.
The problem you encountered when shooting with the rifle is (likely) because walls, and most of solid instances, use two separate invisibile collision objects: one to block the steps and the other one (slightly offset on the y axis) to block bullets and attacks. I'm pretty sure that trees has just one that serves both purposes.
I will check as soon as possibile, and try to correct the issue.

Also yes, pigs and cows get angry (collectively) if you shoot close to one of them.
You get a hint about that from the warden in the first hut.

The invisibile thing in the graveyard could be theoretically avoided, with a lot of luck, but is meant to be dealt with only once you got a certain object I'm not going to spoil (you get some hints about that from a couple npcs): that's why I preferred to not give any indication to the player about its position.
In theory you can run through it, the problem is once you get hit you have only one second of invulnerability; so, by the time the knockback effect is over, you are vulnerable again.
I'm going to double the invulnerability period in the next release (it was already planned), also to prevent frustrating chained deaths.

I will also add an indicator (at least in the casual mode) to make it clear wether the rifle is loaded or not.

Thanks again! :)

itch.io

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