🌌 QA Report – Odyssey (Prologue)
Playtest & Feedback by ArcaTsu – Freelance Game QA Tester
🧑💼 About Me
Hi Nicolas! I’m ArcaTsu, a freelance QA Tester currently working in the video game industry. I specialize in manual testing, UX feedback, and bug reporting, with a focus on polish and player experience
I played the Prologue demo of Odyssey (PC/Web version) and here’s a structured QA report based on my experience. I approached the game with both a technical and emotional lens - and I must say, I was positively surprised by the tone, texture, and presence of the game
🌠 General Impressions
Your lo-fi, minimalist vision works. The oppressive atmosphere is very well executed, and the transitions between zones are a strong highlight - smooth, clean, and effective at evoking space, isolation, and mystery
There’s a real sense of weight in how the camera moves - slightly slow, slightly heavy - which gives the player a feeling of vulnerability. This is subtle but impactful, and it supports the dreamlike and introspective tone you seem to be aiming for
The lack of explicit direction is also well-handled. It feels like an immersive sim stripped to its bones, where the point isn’t to “win” or “solve,” but to observe, feel, and move. The experience reminded me a lot of People Still Live Here by Kane Pixels - retro, minimalist, mysterious, and reflective
🎧 Audio & Transitions
I was genuinely impressed by the use of music and SFX. The transitions, both visual and auditory, are really effective and contribute massively to the mood. Every sound seems purposeful, and that’s already a big win
The only part I didn’t fully understand was the transition where the screen turns blue and the camera has a swirl effect. It felt a bit random and disconnected compared to the rest of the experience
The only audio-related issue I noticed was with the footstep sounds: when pressing left and right rapidly, they can stack or “spam,” creating a jittery sound loop. It breaks immersion briefly, especially in quiet moments
🎮 Controls & Accessibility
Currently, the game only supports arrow keys, and doesn’t respond to WASD or ZQSD layouts. That’s a bit limiting, especially for players using AZERTY keyboards. Even just mirroring inputs to WASD/ZQSD would help accessibility greatly
I also noticed that the game starts in fullscreen automatically, which is fine, but:
- Pressing ESC exits fullscreen and causes the game to lose focus, and
- Clicking the game doesn’t restore focus
- There’s no in-game way to close or quit the game, so I had to use Alt+F4
This might be fine in early development, but eventually a quit button or restart option will really help
🧭 Narrative & Flow
The narrative is vague, possibly by design - and that’s okay. The experience invites the player to project meaning rather than receive it. Still, even a small hint of context at the start could improve engagement without compromising the mystery
Even if everything remains abstract, the visual cohesion and emotional tone already work. You’ve created something that feels like a world - or at least, the ghost of one
🐞 Bugs & Technical Issues
- Footstep sounds can stack when alternating left/right quickly
- No WASD/ZQSD support, only arrow keys
- Fullscreen loses focus if you press ESC, and clicking doesn’t restore it
- No UI to close or restart the game – requires Alt+F4
- At the very end, after the glitchy cutscene and when rejoining the computer, a menu appears with "Start" and "Quit"
- Pressing "Start" immediately closes the game instead of restarting or continuing
- This feels unexpected and unintuitive - it gives the impression of a bug or crash rather than a proper ending or reset
- Suggestion: either rename the button to something clearer (e.g. “Exit”) or ensure it loops/restarts the experience if intended
- No other major bugs encountered - performance was smooth, transitions clean, and overall stable
✅ Final Suggestions
- Add basic support for WASD / ZQSD movement input
- Prevent footstep SFX from overlapping when alternating directions
- Consider adding a fullscreen toggle or soft-locking focus to the game window
- Add a minimal quit or reset option for better user experience
- (Optional) Add a brief intro line or visual cue to ground the player (while keeping the dreamlike tone)
🌟 Closing Words
You’ve achieved something quite rare in a first project: you’ve created an emotional space. Even in just a few minutes, Odyssey – Prologue gives the player a feeling, and that’s a huge success.
If your goal was to explore space, time, and consciousness through a lo-fi lens - you’re absolutely on the right path. I’d love to see how Level 1 evolves, and I’d be happy to test it again when the time comes!
– ArcaTsu Freelance QA – Available on Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/s/1qx4wZz