I just finished playing v2 and I loved it!
First off, the things I liked:
- The graphics. Game was beautiful, and ran very well on my laptop, those water graphics are top notch bro.
- I like the setup for the narrative, and I like that our character expresses his thoughts without reading them allowed with the "Q" prompts, except for a couple times. Sometimes I feel in games when a character is saying everything they think out loud without it being obvious that its supposed to be in their head, it comes off a little corny to me.
- The simplicity! I like that you didn't try to make too much go on at the same time, that and the subtlety of it all, the shadow people for example, I only saw one while I was playing, but I didn't mind that because I could "feel" them around me with all the sounds and stuff that were happening around in the various settings.
- I feel like also the layouts you made for the map were a lot of fun, and didn't get boring, except for a few spots. I like that there was some verticality to the map.
- Something I really appreciated was how the game was linear, but it wasn't like "just walk in a straight line", it had some ambiguity to it, not a crazy amount, and I was never lost at any point really, and the game guided me in a perfect way I feel to where it felt like my hand wasn't being held 24/7.
- The rewiring. It being my first playthrough of the game, I was not familiar that this was present in the game, but what a welcome addition! It seems just a little bare bones at the moment and could use a bit more of a challenge I feel, but I am really glad it's in there so we aren't just walking the whole time.
- The music. Loved the music, just hope there is more tracks in the final version.
Now some of the things I wasn't the biggest fan of/ some bug stuff
- Audio bugs, experienced way more audio bugs than gameplay bugs in this experience, there were some things that I felt should have made noise and then wouldn't, for example: I think it's right as you get into the mall I believe, and that vent you go through fell to the ground in my playthrough and it just made no sound. Continuing on audio, there were lots of background sound effects, and I especially noticed this during the locker room chase, that would cut short or end abruptly, and it wouldn't sound right at all.
- The voice acting. I know its not the focus of the game, but it felt a little too much like someone reading off of a script, at least in the beginning.
- Jump. To me right now the jump feels a little off, I can't really describe it that well, but it feels almost too heavy if that makes sense?
- Let us slide down the slide!! lol
- This could also be a developer choice, but I wish there were more things I could find around the place, like little knick-knacks that just add a bit of creepiness to the environment, and in that extend the narrative the tiniest bit
- The locker chase and The Lazy River, I enjoy that it loops back on itself (at least I think that's what happens lol) and makes you question if you're going the right way or not, but I feel like maybe they could both benefit from a couple of the rooms/areas looking a little different.
- Some physics on some items seem a little weird. Like the innertubes, and that vent I was talking about previously when you get into the mall.
Overall, I am extremely excited to see where this project goes. If there were any suggestions I could give my main ones would be: More interactable things in the environment, more fleshed out voice acting, tuning up the jump and physics of items, but yeah just keep doing what you're doing dude because you seem like you're on the right path. You have a super solid base.
p.s I know nothing ab game development so some of the stuff I pointed out and suggested may not be the best advice.