Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• All of the art is incredible. Your thumbnail image for the game is amazing. I was unsure on what to do a lot of the time, maybe if there was an interact pop up on screen, this would have made the game much more playable! the controls were intuitive and I liked the camera choice while keeping the movement 3D as opposed to 2.5D. Good job!
• This game was initially really confusing as it had no indication of what I had to do. It took a lot of button mashing before I found the button that turned me into a ghost. You would’ve really benefited here from some on screen button prompts to save wasting time. I was also completely confused about what I was supposed to do after crossing the bridge, as the lever seemed to do nothing. Again, onscreen mission prompts would be massively helpful. The camera would have benefitted from being more zoomed in, as it makes your game environment look pretty sparse as it is now. Either your game needs some form of skybox or additional art to fill the environment up more. As I was unable to get past the second level, I am unsure how the jump was utilised. However, if I’ve missed something and the jump is necessary, you would be able to make it feel better by having a higher rate of acceleration on the jumps descent, but also having the camera look below the character on its descent so you have a clear vision on where the character is landing. The art assets you had were pretty, however there was a big inconsistency between low poly and hand painted art styles. Picking one would have massively benefitted the games overall look. It is impressive that you’ve made 2 characters in the time frame, however if they aren’t animated it takes a lot away from your game. If you can’t create 2 characters, rig and texture them in the allotted time, be smart and either use Mixamo for animations or use good old fashioned cylinders to represent characters. Your games presentation would have benefitted from post processing or the linear lighting method in Unity to give the game some extra shine. Often overlooked, I seriously stress that adding VFX and SFX will take your game mechanics to the next level. The cost in making them is so outweighed by the result of you having them in your game. Overall, it’s a nice looking game with some nice polish, I just wish I could finish it! :(
• First of all the art in this game is really nice especially for the time given and works well with one another. This game desperately needs an indicator to tell the player how to switch phases, I spent 5 minutes running around trying to figure out if the bridge collision was just awkward, the only reason I managed to switch phases was because I saw a screenshot on the Itch page and went back into the game pressing every key on my keyboard until I figured it out. With that being said once I did figure it out I understood the premise immediately, it's a pretty cute spin on a puzzle game, however I found the second level incredibly hard to navigate. The team composition was well rounded and you all seemed like you played a decent part in the games creation As a foundation a game like this has potential and if the jankiness of the collisions were worked out it could become a fun little puzzle game, is just needs some more player direction, especially at the start.
• A really good idea in line with the theme, I'm a big fan of being able to go into ghost form and solve puzzles via that way, however I seemed to get stuck in ghost form during first puzzle with the lever and wasn't sure how to progress from there as I couldn't change back. Apart from this, the main menu looked great, the idea was a well thought out one with potential to grow and the Team Comp was nicely split up between different levels.
• The first impression I got when booting your game was great. Your menu scene looks boss. The lighting helps add an extra layer of atmosphere - it would have been nice to see that continue into the rest of the game. The models look great, and I appreciate the model swapping when switching characters. Again a little time on lighting would've been really nice, and would've showcased the models in their best light.. literally! Controlling either character with the keyboard felt really frustrating and kept stuttering whilst moving... until I unplugged a controller I had left plugged in. I'm not sure what was going on with that, but it didn't give the best first impression!