I am so sorry, but I don't like this game. It's not fun to say this, and my goal is not to hurt you. I can clearly see you have put time and effort into the game, and you do clearly also knows something about how to make a game. If I didn't had a feeling you could have made something even better, I would in no way write this negative criticism of your game.
So what do I think is wrong with it. In my eyes the game is mostly put together with things you have found on the internet, plus a few things you have made yourself. In it self there is nothing wrong with this, but when you do this, I would expect you to have done something else that could have made the game amazing. But if I would have removed everything you have not made yourself, then there is a game about collecting scrap and avoiding some robots. Again, by it self this could be an okay idea. But when you first realizes that it does not matter when you getting killed, because when this happens the only consequence, is that the game restarts and you have at this point not lost any of the collected scrap. I had not played for very long before I begin to collect a few pieces of scrap and then I walked directly up to a robot to restate the game. This was of cause not very fun, and I could have chosen to play it another way, but nothing in the game made me really want to do that.
So what do I think is the reason it went wrong. I actorly believe you was really ambitious, and I think you wanted to make something amazing. You still knows that the time was limited, so you decided to go for a simple gameplay idea, and build the game world with things you could download from the internet. The idea sounds good, and you could have made an amazing game this way. But by downloading most of the meshes to the environment, you decided on making a pretty big map with a lot of details. To putting this together have taking a lot of time. When you then also have spent time on making some cool robots, machines and the crap, there is no longer much time to make some fun and interesting gameplay. And the sad part is that I nearly not saw any of the machines you have made.
How do I think you can do it better in the future. I think you shall keep being ambitious, but I will strongly recommend to start focusing more on the basics. A great rule is, if you start making a game that is fun without the visuals, sound effects and music, then you have a high chance of making a really fun game, especially when you also put all those other things into the game. I would also in game jams recommend to make smaller worlds with less details.
When all that is said, you have actually also made a lot of great things here. Let me here list some things you have done well:
- The train/factory level design is overall really detailed and well put together.
- The robots looks amazing, and your animations looks so cool. Their AI is pretty good for a jam game, but it was also really difficult to get rid of them when they first have seen you.
- The change in music when a robots sees you is also super cool and is working super well. Sadly the intense music did not seems to disappear when the robot no longer is behind you. But this is really a small issue.
- The controls is also good, but they are also pretty basic for a Unreal game. And again there is nothing wrong with it, so why change it.
Now I have only one more complain about this game, and it's that you are using Unreals eye automatic exposure. The issue here is that every time you look at the scraps lighting particles in a dark area, you are getting blinded and you can't then see anything for a long time.
I really hope that I haven't been to rough on you, but I just think you could have made something that was even better. When I see what you have made here, I really believe that you have the potential to make something that is really amazing.
Good luck and I am sorry if I was to rough.