Its whatever your imagination wants to believe 🧟
Zach-Kolman
Creator of
Recent community posts
The gameplay is fun enough, but I feel like you really have a unique style and some interesting narrative ideas (why are the slimes saying "Wassap!" to me?). I couldn't figure out where to go after getting the knife, and I spend a good 20 minutes looking around. Wasn't sure what looking up did, but I saw it has a unique sprite for the motion. Music was very fun and made me pretty nostalgic.
Really enjoy the bits of irreverent humor that reminded me of Undertale. Felt like I was trying to find some way to have more conversations.
Overall, I'd say that the platforming gameplay kinda felt superfluous and not needed. It's fun enough, but my favorite moment was just conversing with that (tree? fleshwall?) dude. I didn't want to kill him! Could be cool to maybe have another way around? I had an option to ask him to move aside, and well, trees can't move so I get why I had to stab him. But would be cool to have an option for non-violence. Or that tower of basic enemies, which could also have made for interesting dialogue. I'm just a bit sad that a really hard jump kept me from enjoying the worldbuilding. Also, controls could be a lot more streamlined, since a lot of the bindings choices are a bit confusing (down is interact? Up makes me look up?) Great start! Character designs are quite strong, which makes me want to learn more about them!
-Zach
EDIT - I ended up getting farther and was happily greeted by more interesting individuals! I'd really lean into the silly dialogue and strange forms of roadblocks.
I'll be honest, I couldn't really figure out what was happening even after the gameplay started. I'm always on the side of cinematics coming after the gameplay loop is airtight, and I wonder what this game could look like if the time spent on the intro cutscene was put into the game. No that I'm condemning your decision! Cutscenes are great ways to establish things. But yeah was still pretty confused, as the intro doesn't really do much to inform what you do. Art was strong though!
Haven't played Downwell so no criticism here! Great polish. I really like the subtle detail of the player dude stretching as he falls. Really sells the 'gravity'.
I found something interesting however; I notice that when you die and begin rewinding back to the start, you can still interact with enemies. However, there doesn't seem to be any consequence to this, but I thought it could really add a 'unique' factor. Basically what I imagine Braid would be, if the rewind only affected you and not the world. What kind of gameplay emerges when you hit enemies while rewinding to the start? Could be something worth exploring further.
Surprisingly deep gameplay! I agree that the boxes and walls can be a bit hard to tell apart, but shouldn't be too hard to improve.
I may need to spend more time on it when I'm not on a lunch break, as I feel this one really requires some observation. Also, maybe a better way to undo decisions besides a single undo each time? Maybe just one command that can reset the whole room. Overall, great game!
Very interesting. Agreed it's short, and I was a bit unsure of why other hallways existed when there's nothing in them. Overall though, I really enjoyed the visual appeal. I think the movement works quite well for horror, as it really feels sluggish and distorted, plus the CRT effect just adds to that analog horror vibe.
I'm curious to see how this would be expanded, since the movement and visuals seem pretty polished considering they don't really contribute to the riddle mechanic.
I'd also be really interested in seeing how scary a game could be just off the riddles it gives you. I for one am not a huge fan of the 'run from scary monster' type of horror game, and riddles/logic puzzles actually seem like they could make a unique gameplay style, since we don't really see it often.
Hope this helps!
-Zach
I LOVED this game! Not enough moral quandary games. I really enjoyed the concept of 'hangman' twisted and reshaped to something as grim as this game. Basically thought I was loading in to a simple game of word guessing by the title, but actually found another game that had me wondering if someone was in the wrong for petty theft. I'd say some more atmosphere would help sell it, since a lot of what made Papers, Please so convincing was that it was just dripping with atmosphere. But overall quite unique and worth expanding what's there!
For some simple feedback, the mouse controls unfortunately gave me a lot of trouble, and it seemed I couldn't easily drag people around. Also, if the queue of people gets too big, their details start clipping out of the screen. That's it though! Maybe try and introduce conditions a little more slowly as to not overwhelm players.
Overall, great idea that got me thinking about my choices!
-Zach
Surprised at the depth of the mechanics! Seems very simple at first, and the complication of objects blocking your view dawned on me very naturally. I did get pretty stuck at maybe the 3rd puzzle with the rock formation and didn't have time to finish. I'd say the one issue I had was with the visual language for clicking stuff. I kept forgetting if I should left or right click. It's a small gripe however for an otherwise amazing experience! Great job.