Hi
https://aetharr.itch.io/courtyard-courtroom
I'm a fan of the Ace Attorney series, so I found the concept intriguing. I would have definitely liked to play more of this after edits were made.
The dialogue blips seemed crackly and... I don't know what it is exactly, but the speed felt off. I was distracted from the text by the blips. Since there was no music, the dialogue blips were the only sounds, which made them extra noticeable.
I also felt that there was too much text crammed into a given text box. I feel like the pace would have been better for reading if certain things had been split between three pages instead of two, say. It was also awkward when a sentence was cut off between text boxes.
(Ex:
could have been
I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to try to put dialogue puzzles into a game, but it would have been nice to see more story.
I would also have liked to see more of a sense of space in the game. Where is Poppy when she's talking to us? Where is Mittens when she's testifying? What does the crime scene look like?
Thanks for the great feedback :)
The crackly text is something that i'm definitely aware of, and it's due to the next sound cutting off the previous one mid-way through. The easy answer would be to either make the sound shorter or have them occur less often, I'll have to experiment with it.
The text issue is another one that can completely understand, However the trade off there is that with the current implementation, I can resize the text-box to anything I want and it'll generate paging automatically. Which would allow for a potential transition to mobile platforms with a different screen ratio.
Though I admit adding the actual dialog elements to the game was quite last minute. While I had written them up separately, I hadn't got too much time to structure them more carefully, but it's something I can definitely consider :)
And of course, i'd have loved to draw some backgrounds up, my only reservation there, is considering that I went for a 1-bit graphics approach (no greys) would a detailed background behind the character create such a complex image that it distracts too much? or becomes confusing?.. I suppose there can be colour cues, such as with the Testimony text, but it'll definitely need some thought.
Originally, I definitely did want to draw a couple of backgrounds, such as showing the murder scene and more characters, and even a backyard environment for the courtroom itself haha. I love the idea that these animals are just a bunch of pets, gathered in a meeting in someone's backyard~
