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Lifeforms's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Setting, story, characters, and world | #16 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Fun gameplay | #17 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
| Blind-friendly and with good use of audio | #23 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I like the setting and theme, and the audio design is very interesting and atmospheric, nice job with that!
Some friendly feedback about the gameplay: Unfortunately, I found it confusing and disorienting, even after reading the instructions. It's not obvious what a lifeform sounds like, so I spent several minutes trying to capture the nearest sound, and quit the game in frustration thinking there was a bug. I tried playing again later and eventually realized that I had been trying to capture the delivery base, oops!
Even after I figured out that the chirps indicated the direction of lifeforms, I had trouble getting close enough to capture them. And sometimes I would run into something, and the distorted voice would keep saying something I couldn't understand, with multiple voices on top of each other. I think maybe I was repeatedly bumping into some outer wall and causing the voice to spam? I was unable to finish the game because the experience was just too disorienting and overwhelming.
If you are planning to keep working on the game, I would suggest focusing on:
Despite those issues, it's a cool idea with lots of potential. Kudos!
Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to play and for all the detailed feedback. All very accurate observations which mirror my experience. If I do decide tom develop this idea in the future your points will be very useful!
Very atmospheric soundscape. Both the sounds of the ambience as well as titular lifeforms work really well together. I would maybe not put as much distortion on the tutorial voice at the beginning because it was a little hard to understand with all the reverb and other sounds going on but otherwise it was great.
Thank you for the feedback! I’m glad you appreciated the sounds and atmosphere in general. I recorded the voice through a toy megaphone and then regretted it. I really enjoyed trying to make a 3d audio space though and will definitely be making something similar in the future, without the megaphone!
It’s a shame that itch doesn’t accept alternative text for game screenshots, because I appreciated seeing images of the toy megaphone and mixer setups on the page. You could write a short devlog about the process if you feel like sharing more?
yes, I do write regularly about game dev stuff. This is my blog… https://redninja83882493.wordpress.com/
The soundscape and music you’ve built for this have a ton of character. On Discord we discussed how applying some effect to sounds as they’re behind the player might improve navigation.
That's right! I have noted everything down to try out/learn in the future, thanks, but didn't get round to it in time for this jam.
For me there were too many sounds going on. And no indication for movement that I could hear, so it was difficult to navigate.
I totally agree. I started with the idea of using the beeps to help navigate. They actually get lower in pitch as you move further away from the centre. I could have just used one on the player that reacts to the distance to make it less cluttered. There is also an engine sound when you move but I imagine is was a bit too subtle and gets drowned out. Anyway, thanks for trying it out and leaving feedback, it will definitely help me focus for the next time I try something like this.