yeah that's not on the game dev that's on itch bother them about it lol
Templarfreak
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A member registered Aug 19, 2016
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One more thing that definitely seems to be a common sentiment: It would be great to see this game expanded upon. This is definitely the kind of RPGMaker game that one could see a total reworking done to it in the future where it's heavily expanded upon and made into a true classic of the genre. All the real classics in RPGMaker Horror/Adventure games started out exactly like this: with a much shorter original/demo version that was a unique but still offputtingly familiar idea that has so much obvious things that could be done with it. OneShot, Ib, Mad Father, Witch's House, To The Moon, Omori, all had similar origins to this. I could totally see this game evolving like that too. It's definitely got the potential. :D
Spoilers ahead? Careful reading?
Seriously like actual spoilers ahead ok???
Like seriously spoilery also is hugely theory-work and not really based on much fact.
I feel like there's more to this than just being symbolism. Everything outside the basement seems to more or less be grounded and more real. There are actual people outside the house that Embry talks to. They are actually going places. And D. Light seems like they are a real person with genuine concern, and is not some kind of detached symbolic representation. But whenever things come to the basement, is when it seems like things get a bit more muddy. Even when we "truly" see the basement, it turns out to have been a dream. Beyond that, we never see anything. The only real thing that tells us the basement is actually real is D. Light definitely has a real reaction to it, to all the locks, to how dark it is, and acknowledging that there is indeed a basement behind that door. After that, all we know about the basement is what Embry tells us. A monster appeared. Possibly ate their parents, or something. Trying to hold it off, and feed it. They mention meat seems to be more satisfying for the monster. That's about it.
I think it's possible that Embry seeing themselves as a monster is more than just symbolic, there may actually be something more going on than that. We never even see any bodies, and whatever happened to D. Light was clearly more than just falling down some stairs. Their face becomes grossly disfigured (admittedly, we never see their face before they fall down the stairs anyway so that's a bit up in the air) and there is a big and quick blood splatter. I think this may imply that whatever Embry did, was at the bare minimum quite bloody, and I think it's possible it didn't really leave much of any traces left, or what traces were leftover were severely mangled and possibly heavily disfigured. Perhaps we don't see any bodies, because there aren't any. There wasn't much of anything left. Why would that be the case, though? Because a monster did suddenly appear. And did actually eat them. And I think it was Embry. I think something happened that caused them to "lash out" if you will.
The basement may have come to more symbolically represent what Embry thinks and feels, but it seems quite clear it was chosen as a representative location because that's where the original incident happened. I don't think their parents just fall down the stairs. They went downstairs, and then something happened. Something killed them, somehow. A monster appeared, and ate them. The monster in the basement tries to mimic their parents? Unsuccessfully. In the dream, they clearly think they are the monster. I think that is both symbolic of regret for something they did but also literal. I think D. Light's case also shines an interesting light, revealing some details of what may have also happened to Embry's parents. They don't seem sure whether or not what happened to D. Light was an accident. They don't even seem to be sure of what actually happened. The dream Embry seems adamant they "pushed them down the stairs" while Embry themselves seems adamant that they were trying to get them away from the basement. I think both things were going on, and ultimately the "push down the basement" won out.
One of the weirder key details is that Embry seems to look VERY malnourished. Their hair is possibly suppose to be blonde? But it is now white. They are very pale. If whatever is in the basement is suppose to represent some kind of mental monster that she is feeding, is she feeding it literally or metaphorically? Well, I think it still seems right to think literally here, the preparation of meals happens outside of the basement. I think they are *trying* to feed themselves, but it isn't working. It isn't satisfying and isn't the nutrition they need. Except meat. This is why the monster reacts so viscerally and seems to be trying to get out. Nothing is working, so that subconscious part of them is clawing away trying to get out and assert control by asserting survival instincts. This may even explain what happened to D. Light. They opened the door. They tried to show whatever they are burying away. And as a result, D. Light "fell down the stairs", ending up in the basement where something happened to them just like Embry's parents.
One more thing: An interesting little detail that I think helps tie this all together in a neat little bow. Embry's eye. On the title screen. Glows a bit? Just a little bit, but it clearly does. :)?
I've left out details about the dad because I'm not really sure what that is all about, but I think some other comments here and on Manly's video can kind of fill that in. The dad is posibly some kind of monster or demon himself?
What's with the gray unbreakable doors? Why would they be there just to be a door that's unbreakable? I also feel like the light switches are very oddly placed and seem so perfectly clean and silent to smash.
Honestly those would be great things to hide some kind of secret somehow. If there is any secrets they're certainly well-hidden, doesn't look like anybody has found any and I couldn't find any either.
Sorry for such a long post, but I just had a lot to say.
At some points, it almost kind of feels more like a classical RTS with a city builder twist just because of how satisfying the "sprawling out" nature of the game is kind of reminiscent of Zerg Creep or Command & Conquer. You odn't normally see this kind of restricted land usage in a City Builder, they usually just let you go full nuts with it and expect you to know where to place things. I think that also makes this game pretty accessible but with a lot of room for players to make their own decisions on the fly.
For Fynbos I don't think it's necessarily that there aren't enough trees, its the distribution can be wacky sometimes. On pretty much all the times on that last level that there were tiny inaccessible islands, there was at least a tree on one of them that could have been on the mainland. Sometimes, trees will also get a bit clustered instead of spread out across the map. Those tend to be the biggest problems, and a few times it made one or two whole corners of that map completely inaccessible normally without tricky and clever timing with arboretums.
You could literally only have like, 4, or 5, trees on the entire map and as long as they are all in the right positions that's more then enough. That could also provide another way people could make a different kind of pleasant-looking reclaimed wastelands, by having a thin stretch of forest that goes everywhere instead of one big cluster.
Not sure if they're concerned about this, but yellows and reds should be avoided in a use-case like this because they're less colorblind accessible for such a vital feature. They also don't really satisfy as much as a green or blue. I don't totally subscribe to the theory that colors have a heavy impact on how you play and how you feel while playing a game but I think there is some merit to it.
This game is really solid, but I think a few things are really holding it back. It could do with some speed controls and a bit more consistent world generation. The Fynbos biome is also tricky and a pain in the ass to work with. Some kind of automatic failure detection would also help a lot. A way to restart the map immediately would be a nice addition. I do have a few balance complaints with the game, as well.
At some points on that last level upwards of 40 to 50% of the land would be completely inaccessible. This is due to some of the land spawning as tiny islands. There is also a lot of water. That makes it EXTREMELY tight and a MASSIVE difficulty jump. Under some circumstances, this can also make it impossible if you make a single mistake. You won't be able to reclaim land from burnt buildings, so you won't be able to achieve the right biome balance.
Speed controls would also be nice for when you're waiting for the drone to move around or for rain to start. It takes quite a while for that drone to move around a big map, and rain seems to be on a reliable cycle but a long one. If you want to maximize points by relying on rain, it takes a long time. So if the game could speed up, that would help both of those a ton.
Next, the tree distribution is pretty unreliable. A good distribution would have most of the map covered. Most of the time, that's not the case. This makes working with the Fynbos Biome a lot more tricky than seems intended. It's such a vital and fundamental biome, it seems like it should be more accessible like Wetlands. You have to be very careful to create tiny forests by building an Arboretum while a fire is still burning. Due to that, it instead becomes the hardest ones to meet that coverage goal.
The failure conditions are a bit obnoxious. The game doesn't seem to have any way of detecting if you're in an unwinnable state. On top of this, with no easy and quick way to restart the map, this becomes tiresome pretty fast. There needs to be some way the game communicates to the player better about this. Or the game could have a handier restart function, that doesn't need exiting to the main menu.
What buildings are available can also be a tad strange. Like, Conveyor Ports and Deconstruction Pylons. Why do these need to exist? They seem to only kind of pad the game. If Steam Plants, Hangers, Beacons, and Seed Launchers were cheaper, there'd be no point to them. They seem to only provide you with a way to build money back up in the event you exit Tier 2 with only a few hundred points. This would not be necessary if these other Tier 3 buildings were cheaper.
As for as bugs go, the game is pretty solid. I only found a few. One is due to the isometry of the game. Trying to place things behind cliffs, for instance. The only other issue I found is that sometimes fields will regenerate themselves. Using undo after you've placed a Toxin Scrubber, the fields it cleaned sometimes stay cleaned. I definitely abused this on occasion, it was rarely handy but it did help once or twice. There was very minor UI problems too, but they were very few and far between and not very problematic. They may not even be worth mentioning, as I kind of only stumbled across them by accident.
All that said, those are pretty much my ONLY complaints with this game. There is a lot of clever ideas in here. For instance, with how biomes appear naturally distributed. Simply due to the game's mechanics. Fynbos on the outskirts of forests, wetlands that cluster around rivers. The base generated world having rivers that usually flow from high elevations. Rocks that tend to coalesce around the riverbeds due to your water wheels. It all looks pretty right. The only weird thing is arid plateaus. There should instead be proper rain shadows. I guess that would be too time consuming and resource intensive for the goals of this game, though.
It is also very mechanically satisfying. Other than the few problems I've mentioned, this is a very refined and robust city builder, with a very neat twist. One that I haven't seen exactly before. If this were made into a fuller game or had a more realized sequel, I would definitely buy it. Especially if it had a more roguelike stylization to the gameplay. Where there would be a reason to play it over and over again, because I kind of already want to. There isn't good enough reasons as it stands to do that, though, which is disappointing. I hope this game sees a lot of success. It definitely deserves it!
There appears to be quite a huge memory leak. When one of the helicopters fires it's missiles at an air unit and the air unit dies before the missile lands, the missile will continue to fly off the map for the rest of the game. Once a significant amount of these builds up the frame rate starts tanking. Missiles should keep track of their original target (What they were intended to fire against) and if that target dies while it is alive it should just be removed.