I just finished this game and loved it thoughout! I enjoyed interacting with everything, sometimes it felt like I was getting too much goodies for a horror survival game. I think reducing the loot amount a little could help the experience.
Concerning the combat: I felt like sometimes it was unreliable to know how much hit an enemy needs to take before dying. With the knife I think it was mainly 3 hits but sometimes it felt like 4. With the gun it took 2 hits sometimes 3.
I also felt like the knife range was very forgiving, maybe if you tried reducing it a little bit then players would have to be careful with the timing as to not get hit in return, which would feel more like handling a knife because you have to get up close. The gun then is a nice change to that as it is by nature forgiving with its range. I would also increase the gun damage to make it feel more distinct. Apart from that I have no notes!
The world feels rich and complex even if it has the "evil" nobility thing going on. The music was superb, i felt dreadful throughout and when it changed I got really creeped out. The sprites look gorgeous and the facility is thoughtfully crafted. Overall it gives me a Dune vibe somehow, I think because of the nobility and space religiousness. But it stays unique and has its own cold, dreadful vibe. Love it and keep it up!
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Thanks for trying it, and for all this detailed feedback!
You are absolutely right about the knife hits, and good job being the first person to bring this up. In fact the zombies have 5 hp, but most hits seem to hit twice. I'd like to get to the root of that issue, but I didn't prioritize it because I thought a little bit of unpredictability "worked" in the context of the game.
Good thoughts about the use of knife vs gun. A lot of people seemed to feel that knife combat was too hard as is... Tweaking the difficulty is always hard without playtesters; after the ratings period I'll add difficulty levels.
I have been developing this setting for a while now. If you're curious, The Derelict Orpheus, The Gnawing Hunger, and Dagger's Last Testament all take place in this world. The first of these games was made in 2021. Then I read Dune last year, and I was, uh oh... 😂
Yes playtesting and gathering data is definetely a good idea, before tweaking something based off one comment! About the unpredictability, I see that it works for the dreadful setting and could see a scenario where you keep it like this without it being a bad thing. If you find the issue and fix it you could still keep that unreliability by choice. What you could even do is: keep the unreliability for the knife but have it changed for the gun. So that the gun gives players more control over the situation. Then when players find more ammo they will cheer and thank the gods of sol and luna, because the gun gives them a sense of security, while the knife remains the "sloppy" alternative. Then limit the ammo drops even more and you'll have desperate players biting their nails with stress haha.