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AXYLDev1 year ago (2 edits) (+1)

Great game! I enjoyed solving the puzzle. I found it confusing at first, but once I figured out how it worked, the puzzle was very good. I got stuck once where the ghost kept moving in the opposite direction to a room, until all the rooms in a large radius were locked and the ghost was far away. My suggestions:

I think having the locks on a timer to unlock (then perhaps slightly faster sanity reduction to adjust the balancing), as well as a quick reset button would help a lot.

Having the intro be click to continue would make it easier to read the instructions.

Clearer where the first clue is. Perhaps a feature where the ghost naturally pathfinds towards the next clue after an amount of time would help.

Edit: after more thought I realised path finding could be frustrating to players who wanted to solve it themselves, maybe a clue at the start would be better. As for clarity, the end point was done very well, the altar really stands out nicely.

Edit 2: just saw this was your first Jam, I had no idea, the quality was so good! You all should be super proud!

Overall, great job! Presentation was amazing too! I loved the artwork.

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starofleaf1 year ago

Thank you for your insightful suggestion. When we created this game, our initial idea was not the current one. Our original design was to make players act as owners of haunted houses, trapping them inside and making them crazy. We originally planned to design certain rooms where the doors were locked, and AI had to find a key to open the locked door, or some other events to make Andy more hard to escape. However we find it is hard to make a perfect AI until  the last 8 hour. We were disheartened to find that even if we didn't intervene in Andy's movements, it would still take a very long time for him to escape from house. Not only is this problem, but our own project is also nearing completion. 

At this point, we reverse our feelings with the players' roles.Since the AI is dumb,why change the game target to help Andy escape？From this direction,we quickly modified our game and create a series of  plot. And this is what you see now. 🎼

But to be honest, because we did not consider our own level and did not examine the original gameplay in the early stages of creation, the final game lost many other functions.For example,at  first we don't design the method to get Andy's feel or what is Andy doing now,because you just need try to scare it. But after we change the game aim,we need this system to help player understand what Andy is thinking and what it want to do.Although we try our best to create this system rapidly,the structure is so complex and the task of modifying the previous system is so heavy,we have to give up make new gameplay. 

I'm glad you understand us and see the scalability of our game in the future. After the game is over, we will edit the game again, fix the bugs, and upload the game that we have added beginner tutorials and new gameplay.

Thank you for playing！

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JfeeefL1 year ago(+2)

Thanks for your advice! Your advice is really reasonable, the lock kinda emphasize the constraint too much, especially when AI isn't that intelligent. The trials and attempts are important in this game. To encourage player to do so,  such  a "free" environment should be provided. On the other hand, the restraint  of "space variation perception" had already provide margin of strategy, making it more reasonable to weaken the lock mechanics.

Another point was the tutorial and the helper system, both aren't implemented in the game. For the helper system, maybe we don't have to build a completely strong path finding algorithm, just help player to gather up all clues that Andy had already discovered.  However these systems are actually more important than some other work that had been done, which means that next Jam we can manage our time and resources so that these important aspects are covered.

 Anyhow, post-jam version will be updated after the vote section ended, and we will gradually add these features to our game and fix bugs! Especially the irritating and dumb AI lol. We all want and are trying to make our game become better!

Again thanks for your feedback, you really inspired us of what's important in game design. Hope you had enjoyed our game :)

P.S. Sorry for misleading information in my reply, it wasn't our very first time to participate a game jam, but our first time to participate the "GMTK game jam". Though we are still students and even still amateurs in game design and development, it's not fair to compare our work with those who are really completely new to a game jam. However, this won't change our determination to create better games💪

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AXYLDev1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

Even if not your first jam, this game was still amazing! I look forward to see what you all do next time!

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