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Design

A topic by Cubit created Sep 25, 2023 Views: 182 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(3 edits) (+1)

Hello! I adore this game, I've been following it on twitter for months and I'm so glad I have the chance to play it. I have some thoughts on it:

White Vans:
I love the eeriness and fear that the sound design and environment evokes, but once you learn more about how enemies work it melts pretty quickly. The biggest one is the white van - I  L O V E D  the paranoia that the "vans everywhere" variant of the city evokes, but once you see a van moving and spinning around in a parking lot you learn that you have nothing to fear from any of them unless one of them is acting goofy. At the risk of being acting too much like a backseat dev, here's an idea about pathing to make them a little more menacing:

-What if some white vans were completely parked in set locations until they spot you, and then wait until you're looking away from them to start pursuing? This could be connected to an audio cue of screeching tires or a revving engine so that the player knows to run, even if they didn't see their pursuer start moving. This would add a feeling of cunning to the creature and make a portion of them operate a little bit more like Skoums, increasing the player's fear and paranoia by preventing them from clearly identifying threats with 100% accuracy.

-I think vans should be fast once they're pursuing you. Like, REALLY fast, as fast or faster then you can run. I loved the bit in the tutorial that implied open roads are dangerous because enemies can be faster and go farther when hunting you, and the vans seem like a great way to deliver on that promise. Much like a real van, you could break their pursuit by moving somewhere they can't follow, such as jumping over a concrete barrier, running in to an alley, or moving too far off of the road in to a park or something. All of these are easy for the player and intuitive, while allowing the van to pose a genuine looming threat.

(1 edit) (+1)

Navigation:

I love the emptiness and eeriness of the city, and I think this game can totally work without a map system. However, it can be a real challenge sometimes to actually find areas of interest. To address this...

-I think drugs should be more abundant, found somewhat frequently in garbage or perhaps reliably in set locations such as the skate park, perhaps with a tradeoff that you take damage if they're not bought from the dealer. They're important and very fun way to find locations... but the only reliable way to get them is at the foreclosed house, which is very hard to find and I think isn't even on many of the maps, so you could be searching for 20 minutes for something that isn't there in the first place. And since there's no consistent/reliable way to get money, you could show up there and not be able to afford anything. 

-Though you can find a tab of acid infrequently in the garbage, I think it's a missed opportunity that you always know that it's going to take you to the Konbini. I don't know if the dealer sells any like what I'm about to describe, but I think it would be a positive addition to the game if you could get drugs that lead you to a random, existing landmark. That way there's a good chance it leads you somewhere you've never been in that run, while maintaining the mystery and danger and delight of getting lost.

(+1)

I'd really like an increased radius for "discovering" demons. I've gotten pretty close to the dullahan and the flying fish, but they don't pop in my bestiary. I feel like a clear view of them from a moderate distance (10-15 or so meters) should be enough for a bestiary entry, because it feels like you practically have to get yourself killed by them for them to register as "seen".