Explore old malls, empty water parks, and existential dread · By
Hi everyone!
I've decided to convert the old comments section into a forum. I don't know if there's a way to see the old comments, but I appreciated all of the community discussion and I hope there will be more! Anyways, I prefer this to making a Discord (official Discords are better for multiplayer games in my opinion).
Anyways, I hope you like the new update. It's a project of passion.
The beta was fun! As a player of the first iteration of the game, I liked the addition of the puzzles, especially the one at the start since it was a bit obtuse trying to figure out where to go from there.
Graphics are great and clean, not much to critique there but I'm also not one to fawn over that stuff anyway. Won't spoil too much for other people but the game has definitely improved.
It runs crisp but it seems pretty resource intensive as my PC started whirring up pretty hard once I was loaded in (running a 3600X with a 5600 XT). Also, streaming it to Discord makes the frame rate choppy for some reason, not sure if that's an issue with the game itself or Discord, but I thought I should mention it.
Anyway, great work so far! Take your time with implementing and adding new stuff, I know you've been pretty busy and it's better to make sure things are done right than rushing out a passable build. Looking forward to future updates!
god there is no other game that i have been looking forward to more than this, the second I was introduced to the whole "liminal space/backrooms" thing i immediately craved an exploration-based game featuring some of these purgatory-esque environments and here you are making just that. We're all rooting you on from the sidelines, keep up the great work!
I loved the additions in this new update, I do like the uneasiness the "thing" gives you whenever I see it out of the corner of my eye but I do think that its not really a necessity for this game. I more like the idea that the MC is simply exploring this massive underground facility and maybe finds clues and hints of what this place is and why none is here. One main thing I think this game needs is shift to sprint and control to crouch, I would also love to be able to slide down a slide at some point. I'm not sure if it is just my pc but the visibility in the lockers seems to have been reduced but I could barely see anything. Cant wait to see more and I'm happy this is getting updates!
Just got finished playing the beta, I started watching AlphaBetaGamer's playthrough and it looked interesting so I stopped and decided to play it for myself. The environments and audio are perfect, and what voice acting there is is really natural and believable. I'm really looking forward to the release of the full game
Finally played the demo! I've been saving myself from spoilers to play it! And it was totally worth it. It was a really unique experience, exploring these odd, somewhat nonsensical rooms that are still grounded enoughly into reality, the feeling of dread and helplessness in some areas as well, the panic I felt in THAT area (you know the one), I'm just so glad I got to experience this for myself.
One thing that I found a bit more annoying was the first jump. I kept falling a little too many times than I would like to admit. I dunno, part of me feels the jump's arc doesn't reach far enough, or that there's not much room for mistake. I know we're just a regular dude and not Mario, but a leap of about 2 feet is kinda pathetic 😅 especially when that's the only leap of that kind in the game, I think.
Also, I noticed the lack of a run button. Definitely not necessary in most areas, but in others, I felt like I wasn't moving fast enough. It was only at the beginning though, on the first area.
Everything else was great, even the voice acting!
I cannot tell you how much I loved this demo! I bought it today and played through it twice. the uncanny-ness is relaxing, familiar, and terrifying. I can't wait to see the rest of the game. I'm such a huge supporter of your work here! I can see so much potential in this game and I think it's going to be extremely popular. I was playing it in a discord group and everyone was commenting on how interesting and relaxing the background music and effects were- at least 3 or 4 people said the would be interested in playing it too. I agreed, this game takes you somewhere else when you play it and it's such a refreshing experience.
sending all the good vibes- and patiently waiting for the official game release! <3
A bit of spoiler talk, don't read if you haven't played yet
As a game dev student, I was originally opposed to paying 6$ for this (especially seeing the transformer, which I think was incorrectly unwrapped); but I got about 5 mins into watching a playthrough before deciding to just buy it myself and check it out, as liminal spaces, pools, and shadow people are RIGHT up my alley. Wasn't disappointed and don't regret it! It's a bit of a slow start but quickly grew on me. The locker room segment unnerved me a lot; it's exactly like a nightmare I had a few years ago that I've been dying to put into a game. The starting pinkish-pool area is a bit shoddily made, you can see walls intersecting and clipping into each other, but overall the atmosphere is killer and outweighs the critiques I have about the game. Being very fond of monsters/the supernatural, I'm REALLY hoping that the shadow guy gets some sort of story or development, because I'm a sucker for good storytelling and character development. I was curious about him and got myself in a couple bad situations by continuously getting close to him to check him out. I love how the first few blips of him are extremely brief and make you wonder if you were just seeing things. I was playing with a friend and I went "I think I just saw someone?" and she was like "What? I didn't see anything." and it made me second guess myself lol. Overall, totally worth the 6 bucks, and I'm really excited to see where this goes. You've got a new fan!
Not sure if it has been reported, but the water in the “beach balls” pools has vampire-like behaviour: it’s not reflected in the mirrors that are at the corners. It looks like you didn’t consider the water when generating the refmaps.
BTW, I managed to move all the balls to the pools: lots of fun!! :-)
@Alvare: I wouldn’t put any concept of “damage” or “health” in the game, because the game is not about a character with “N lives”, but about the experience at liminal spaces. It’s true that it looks unrealistic to fall and not lose health, but if you had to be careful of not losing all the health, the gameplay would be completely different, and it wouldn’t have much to do with liminal spaces.
I like however that the encounter with the mysterious character teleports you to the beginning of that level (as it happens now, in the men showers)
I loved it. I really did and excited to play the full game.
I've been really into the backrooms, particularly Kane Pixel's interpretation of it and The Stanley Parable. This filled that void for me.
I think in terms of what I'd be looking for in the full game, maybe a walk button? Also the tipsy turvy walking motion with the constant walking sound effect threw me off a bit. But other than that everything was amazing. Voice acting, ambient sounds, atmosphere, the music in different areas, visually it was amazing too. I really dug it. I KINDA want a backrooms level, but I understand if that's not the vibe. I'd fully buy a backrooms DLC though.
First off, loved the chapter 1 experience, I didn't explore further because I want to wait until it's done but it was an incredibly unsettling game in the best possible way, the lazy river was my favorite part.
Some initial thoughts: I think the intro area with the car and parking lot could honestly be cut entirely, the quality of assets doesn't feel up to par with the rest of it for example very weird UV and AO bake issues with the generator. I find it breaks immersion especially since it's supposed to be a real life area and not an indoor liminal space like the rest of the game. I bet it could be done as a very brief cutscene that immediately drops you into the pool or something.
The shadow man implementation worked really well in some areas, when you see him in the bottom of the pool for a split second that was really creepy but I think it needs to be stripped back even more in other areas if you are planning to keep this in the game. I think it works best when you see it for a couple frames and are genuinely unsure if you just saw something, most of the times when I saw him for more than a quarter second it immediately diffused the tension like in the mall area near the end of chapter 1. However, the anticipation of seeing something really kept me on edge especially in areas that stretch off into shadow. The shower area I thought was pulled off really well, with the amount of darkness and confusing layout, the "keep moving" on the mirror terrified me and added a ton of tension, especially as I heard noises behind me. The reveal genuinely did freak me out in this area.
I also think the music could be cut in the mall and pool and just have various static ambient noises with your echoing footsteps but that's personal preference.
Excited to see where it goes!
