Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 8! My name's Hythrain, a co-host and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
This games reminds me of a bit of Pony Island, where you're playing a game within a game, but the game in the game has effects one level higher and there's a darker story beneath it all. I especially got this feeling when it came to the computer command that puts an "opening" in the game that, in turn, allowed you to open the door.
During my playthrough, my number one frustration came from enemies seeing me before I was even in a room. Enemy detection is based on proximity and they regularly have patrols that would put them right at the entrance to the room, which would force me to hide in the hallways and wait. I'd like to suggest two chances to enemy detection to improve this. First, the enemy can't detect you if you're beyond doors. That way, the enemies will reset immediately and players don't need to ensure they're far enough away while waiting several seconds. Just make it an immediate de-aggro. Second, I'd say that enemies shouldn't be based purely on distance from you. Instead, they should be based on your movement. If a player keeps still in a spot where an enemy patrols near but not directly into (and the enemy wouldn't ever see), they should be able to hang out there and wait for the enemy to pass by. This would make the stages prior to getting a gun feel more fun and not waste time.
Speaking of the gun, one thing that also frustrated me was that I'd get the gun only to die very quickly because an enemy wasn't quite in range to die from the explosion caused by getting the gun, and while I'm trying to orient myself to shoot it I'd have another enemy spawn behind me and get to me. I'd say the way to fix this would be to not start spawning enemies right away and also cause a slight stun on the enemies in the room. That way, the player gets a second or two from waiting through the animation to get themselves prepped and start killing.
And lastly, regarding animations... it'd be nice if there was a way to speed up the beginning of each stage and when the map is first revealed in a new run. Once you have a hang for the game, these just waste extra seconds that a player may want to just get started on. After all, that's what the radar is meant to help with. This speed up should also be doable for obtaining tickets and putting tickets in the story based machine (since it does demand a lot). I'd also say it should do this for the count down for how many tickets were put in, but I feel like that can add to the tension of the story as the player has to begin to wonder if this little robot is actually going to help you.
I can't wait to see more of this. It's a lot of fun to play!