I gave your game a try tonight and thought it was interesting. Feedback below:
OVERALL FUN:
1. Great ambiance and atmosphere.
2. Resting at the fire, while a fun mechanic, did take too long, IMO. It's a single-player experience, so maybe you warm up faster... that way, we can get back to exploring sooner. I like how we need to find a fire, and I think this mechanic should stay. Waiting for that bar to fill was slow and tedious, though.
3. Back to the fires. I get this is a survival game, and you're just trying to make it to morning, but adding more campfires or maybe small visual indicators you're close to one (like splotches of dirt, a small trail, etc.) would add to the overall experience for the player. Right now, they're really difficult to find.
3. The game did feel a bit drawn out. We're trying to survive until morning, but it was just a lot of walking/running around. Maybe add in some dead bodies or objects to interact with. Give us a story, lore, or background to that area. That would add to the gameplay and make the experience more interesting. Like... are you dead? Maybe add some creepy ghosts to talk to? Or maybe the corpse of a dead animal/traveler? The only thing I found was a locked cabin, and I'm sure there's more to that... but I think introducing more interactive mechanics would add a LOT to this game. Good potential here!
4. I found a strange statue... and all it did was give me points toward my score. You should do some lore... or tell a story during the player's time in this world. What is that stone monument? Is there a purpose for it? Maybe it unlocks another area/monument.
ART/GRAPHICS:
1. Light looked great! I love how the flashlight interacts with trees and other obstacles. Well done.
2. Cute pixel artwork, and I love the small effects of the snow.
3. A few more tree variations, maybe some bushes/shrugs, more rocks... what you have is nice, but the overall map decor gets repetitive. Maybe some paths, more types of grass and plants... that'll help bring your map to life a bit more.
CONTROLS/UI:
1. No tutorial but I kind of like that. Not an overly complicated game to learn, so figuring it out as I went was a lot of fun. I wasn't aware the blue bar on the left was a bar to avoid freezing. I thought that was stamina at first, and I was watching how often I sprinted. Maybe a quick tutorial explaining what that bar is, though.
2. Controls are easy to learn/understand. Responded well.
3. At first, the controls on the keyboard didn't work for me, but I had my controller plugged in, and I could move with that... but no other buttons on the controller worked (sprint, flashlight, interact), and the controller seems to turn off keyboard controls, as well. I had to unplug my controller and restart your game for the keyboard to work—just an FYI.
SOUND/MUSIC:
1. I Love the sound of the snow crunching as I walk. Really added to the tension. Plus, the different footstep sound as you crossed the wooden bridge. Nice detail.
2. I didn't hear any music, and I turned it up. Is there music? That would really add to the tension of this game. Something light and creepy while you walk around, more intense music kicks in when a ghost is chasing you, and then even a quick little mystery tune when you discover an important landmark/object. Aside from the footsteps... there really isn't any other sound effects...
FEEDBACK/SUGGESTIONS:
1. I feel like you could really add some additional mechanics to up the difficulty here:
a. Flashlight battery power: you can run out/need to find batteries to recharge.
b. Stamina bar: you can only run so far/so long.
c. As I stated above... make this a survival game WITH a story. Let us discover more.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.