Thanks for the review, especially the video, it is always helpful to see others play and things I can improve.
Story is coming! I will be looking to build out some character back stories and flesh out the plot very soon. Might be a while before its actually in the game (or demo) though. Music is mostly placeholder at this point. As you mentioned it also needs some more dynamic event music for fights etc.
Interesting points about the mouse. I tend to develop/test a lot with mouse/keyboard as it is quicker but I do have the dodge key mapped to my side button which helps a fair bit. I might need to reconsider the defaults.
I really liked the mix of sight and audio puzzles. I found I spent most of the time using the sound mode which seemed better for most of the puzzles though. Maybe it was because I lost all vision of areas I had already visited if I didn't have direct line of sight. Obviously you shouldn't see the enemies without LOS but still being able to see the layout could help make it more useful.
One thing I would like to see is some sort of lure or distraction to force guards to move. This could open up some additional puzzle options.
UI and sound was great it felt super polished. Nice work!
There are a few things you mentioned that I have been struggling to decide on the best approach so it is good to hear your thoughts. For example the stamina system, which was added recently to stop abusing the dash attack, might not be the best approach or maybe it shouldn't be tied to standard dash/dodge moves.
I'm concerned about the DPAD inputs not registering though, I will look into that. I only really use thumbstick on my ps4 controller. Can I ask what controller are you using?
Thank you. It is always super useful to see other people play it. There are a couple things I probably need to explain better or let some of the hints stay up longer.
One question - I'm not sure if this is just the recording but were you lagging much when playing? I haven't done much optimization/testing on other PC's yet but if you did find it laggy could you post your specs (cpu,gpu memory)?
The game looks nice visually. However there is a lot going on without much explanation I found it bit overwhelming and wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing. I finished the level but most of what I collected along the way never got used.
It was always telling me "You are not in the sun" but I wasn't sure why it mattered. It seems like this is an important mechanic but it is never explained.
For the gunplay, I found it really hard to see where I was aiming and the shots didn't seem to land where I was pointing. It seems like the spread might be intentional but it seemed like aiming made it worse (or maybe it just felt worse since there was no reticle). The firing sound effects and impacts felt pretty lackluster. Improving these could help quite a lot.
The overall UI is great visually but as I mentioned previously there is a lot going on. Introducing UI elements over time as you introduce things would make it easier to take in.
I think I had more deaths than playing dark souls lol. It is like trying to navigate an Escher drawing.
It is strangely addicting, however I did give up before the end due to some points I'll outline below.
The jump control is nice and tight/accurate
Hard to gauge depth of objects when jumping but I guess this is part of the challenge? For movement though, especially along narrow beams, a slightly higher camera looking down could help. I understand making the jumping parts hard to judge so it takes some trial and error but randomly dying on the same narrow edge for the 10th time trying to get to the last obstacle it can be a little tedious.
It would be good to see more timing based obstacles (I only saw on but since I didn't complete the game not sure if there are more).
Loved the death sequence near the start when I went in the wrong whole. More of those in other levels would be great
Music was ominous and matched the strange environments well
Ok so I had another go using the Tale ID (nice feature BTW) and it turns out I was just not paying attention when I first went it. For some reason I thought the stairs was where I entered initially entered. I had actually exited the dungeon however I just went in the wrong direction and missed the starting area. The game isn't bugged I think I am haha
Was fun. I did pretty poorly though lol. I was getting low on health and couldn't find my way back to the starting town to spend my gold. I was in a dungeon and couldn't exit the same way I went in (not sure if this is by design?).
UI was good and functional although I was confused when I first entered the skill/items screens before I had anything to use. At first I thought it was bugged as it was all empty. Might be an idea to grey out the options if you don't have anything to use yet.
The maps are great, however I found the inside of the dungeon to be a little bare. I only saw one in my playthrough so not sure if all the same but they could use some clutter/decoration to make it more interesting.
My only gripe was the animated water which kind of hard to look at. Maybe slowing down the animation speed could help
