The design of the levels is really good, but if you're planning on continuing this project I would recommend taking a step back to remake some of the mechanics. I found the game very buggy for a longer term project. I ignore my own advice all the time and always pay the price when I have an unstable foundation for a larger software project.
That being said, here are the things that do appear to work very well:
- Navigation is no joke. Unreal has some good tools for it but it's still very impressive how you've integrated it with the companion and the enemies.
- The ideas are great. The pet mechanics are really cool. I definitely sequence broke while I was exploring, and it was kind of tough to tell where to go (both arguably not that bad things for metroidvania). But getting lost would definitely be harder if there was just a little more environmental detail.
- Finding shortcuts and running into all the soulsy level tropes was always fun (kicking ladders, doors locked by contraptions).
The best part of the game for me was when all 3 of these points combined to create that really cute moment where the pet can pathfind through the dilapidated hallway just like you, but has to take a different path due to not being able to jump.
The biggest bugs I encountered were:
- I was able to skip the dark area by dying. The trigger to set the darkness doesn't cover the actual checkpoint, and dying gets rid of the darkness. So just dying to the enemy down there clears it up and lets me see just fine.
- The glide ability is pretty glitchy. Because the pet is actually hanging on top of your head, if you stop gliding while close to a ceiling you can get them stuck in the ceiling. This can even be used to staple a trampoline to the top of a window frame, which allows for lots of unintended movement. When the glide ends, maybe return the pet to the player's exact position before enabling their physics.
- The ledge grab often does not pull you up properly or grabs onto ledges that it shouldn't, such as the walls with invisible walls above them.
The main points of the design that could be improved:
- The telekinesis isn't currently as compelling as the other abilities. It slows you down and doesn't have any interactions with the pet. Maybe if you could pick them up with it?
- Decoration and worldbuilding. Even with a bare prototype like this, the idea about the school "crumbling" could have been more present beyond using debris as an obstacle. This is why the levels feel "empty".