Hello! First off I would like to apologize if you did not enjoy the game and I would like to personally address the issues you had with it and maybe we can come up with some changes to implement into the game!
- "Game is definitely unoptimized" this is actually interesting to hear as through most of my testing the game ran great on a variety of machines (only had issues with 1 person who was playing on a laptop) so to clarify this if you could share your PC specs it would help narrow down the issue!
- "The creature is.... quite a bit lame" so I have actually heard similar comments to this before in the past, however I have not had much feedback in ways the monster could be better. The 1 shot kill is intended to increase panic levels in players as it forces players to have to use creative movements around the house to avoid being killed all while being chased. Also in terms of the doors, yes early on in the game he does get blocked by doors and is a valid tactic to use however towards the end of the game he gains the ability to open/close doors and going through testing we found this mechanic to be very hard to deal with which is why he gets it later in the game.
- "Holding E to activate a mouse that isn't visible to open/close doors is problematic and open/closing doors feels bad" so this is something I have been trying to polish for a while and cant seem to find a perfect solution just yet due to several different designs going on with the door at the same time. The controls for the door were chosen specifically to be difficult to preform while being chased to help increase players panic levels. The only time most players have issues with the doors are in those moments only from what I have seen (being chased that is). Otherwise most people have like the door mechanic but just wanted it to be a little bit smoother and I am tracking that in the current bug list.
- "Slenderman Clone in a House" So when the game was starting to be designed I wanted to keep the game simple (objectively wise) and also have something that could be played in 30-40 mins. I have enjoyed working on horror games in the past and liked the Slenderman game for its simplicity yet still scary type of gameplay. So that being said, yes the game is similar in alot of ways to it and I understand how some people would not like that, but for this being my first released game and working on my own I felt that gameplay style would suit this project best.
- "Is just to collect 10 Recorders (Instead of 5, 7 or 10 Pages) and the incredibly lazy stunt that is pulled is that the Recorders you have to collect before leaving the house? They are scattered in select locations to be found - ONE at a time. Only ONE will be VISIBLE at a time, you FIND it? " So I am still going back and fourth on how the items should be spawned in the house...I have it setup to be 1 at a time due to feedback from my stream saying that since the house is not that large it works to have players re-canvas areas they have been through. Otherwise, yes the game would only last 10 mins if you could just run through the house find all the tapes and collect them really fast before the monster has time to power up. So this exact thing has been an issue that I have been trying to optimize for gameplay experience for some time now and had to make a final choice or the game would never have been done.
All this being said, I can see how this game is not "ground-breaking" or anything that will win "best game of the year" and as a first project working solo in my free time its something I am proud to have released. If you have any ideas or suggestions for things that could be added/changed in the game I would love to hear them as I would like to make the game more enjoyable. I stream 100% of the games development live on twitch and can clear any of this up on there if you want or you can contact me directly on any of my listed social media.
Thanks again for trying out the game even if you did not enjoy it
-Warka
twitch.tv/warka101
twitter: @warka101