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A Wandering Songbird1 day ago

This was so much fun. The story was super cute and gave a nice backdrop for the game play. I liked the interactions between Grandma and McKenzie; they were really sweet and wholesome. The artwork was beautiful and made me want to keep going back to see what else I could see.

I would have liked a little more control with the camera. There were times where I felt like I got more of my character into the shot than I had thought I would. Maybe include a “no character” mode or something similar, so that you can get pictures without worrying about the character being in the way of the shot.

It would have nice to be able to enlarge the pictures when I got back to Grandma. For me, part of the fun of games with picturing taking elements is being able to take a closer look at the pictures afterwards and look for details I might have otherwise missed before. Similarly, it would have been nice if there was a way to look at old pictures you had taken. I know only being able to keep the last 3 pictures I took in each run was part of the gameplay loop, but I would have loved to have an option to save your best/favorite photos for a photo gallery. Again, for me part of the fun of these kinds of games is being able to take a bunch of pictures and look back over them again. Sometimes I just get that perfect shot, and even if I go back through the level I can’t quite recapture it.

I played on my computer, and mostly used my keyboard. I found the controls to be alright. The in game explanation made sense, and I was able to pick it up fairly easily. I think the biggest thing I was missing was the ability to move backwards. I feel like that would be easy enough to do for keyboard, but I don’t know how best to implement it for mobile/touch. Since you are designing this as primarily a mobile game, I understand why it wasn’t included.

I would have loved to be able to spend more than a minute at each location. They were so beautiful, and I wanted to spend more time exploring and enjoying. Having multiple spawning locations for each world was wonderful, but I still wanted more time. That said, I think the 1 minute time limit lends itself well for a mobile game. It gives players a very clear and defined amount of time they can expect to spend on any one run, and the short time works well for someone who might be on the go and only have a few minutes of game time. It was easy to be able to return to the same location if I wanted to go back to it and spend more time there, and the multiple spawn points did allow for greater exploration.

I liked that you had a score for the photos, without making it a requirement for getting to new locations. They gave a low-stakes goal to work towards, while still encouraging me to just take pictures because I liked the shot.

I wasn’t completely sure how the spyglass worked. Other than letting me see the dwarf NPC that one time, I didn’t really notice it making much different in game. Was I missing something, or is it going to be more of a feature as you continue working on the game?

I really enjoyed playing this one. Sometimes it is nice to be able to just wander and enjoy looking at beautiful things for the sure joy of it.

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Total Noob Curiouser Kate1 day ago(+1)

Wow, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to write up such thorough feedback! And there are really actionable items to me.

Yep, I did think of storing the photos. In fact, I already have the code to save the photos to the computer or photo gallery on the phone. Some screenshots were actually snapshots during my playtest. But I disabled it in the posted game for both technical and privacy reasons. I will rethink keeping this feature in the final game.

As for the spyglass, you don't need it to see the dwarf. To use it to see "things," click on the spyglass, it will be placed on the side of McKenzie's head. Then, my secret "algorithm" of scoring the photos will be revealed! The key objects to be scored may be rendered in solid white with a black outline, like an ink drawing. All the hot spots that my code checks for scoring are shown as tiny hot pink dots. In general, the more pink dots are included in the photo, the higher the score will be, although each dot may have a different weight and even directional weight. Note that Grandma gives McKenzie the spyglass when she says she wants to get a higher score. So, the spyglass has something to do with getting higher scores. Player may or may not be able to figure it out, but it does not affect the game flow in any way, regardless.

With the spyglass turned on, you may also see some random flying particle trail effect, like what Finn (Grandma's golden retriever) sees in the barn intro scene. (The story in the final game will later reveal that Finn has been sneaking into the game so many times that those magical things follow him out of the portal, and they need to do something about it.)

Click on the spyglass again to toggle it on/off anytime. However, as Grandma tells McKenzie, once you take a snapshot, it will disappear for that run. This constraint makes the player to weigh spending more time watching through the spyglass searching for hot spots vs. just capturing the current fleeting moment they don't want to miss.

But I should (and plan to) add more stuff for the player to see with the spyglass, in case the player never looks in the direction of the photo hot spots. Perhaps some collectibles, like spinning coins.  :D

Yep, I started making the game solely to, as you say it exactly, "be able to just wander and enjoy looking at beautiful things for the sure joy of it." And I even plan to make those worlds into VR for myself to go in to just chill. :D  The photo-scoring was added only to make it more like a game, so it's more likely to be shared with others. Well… I am really glad my game found you!

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A Wandering Songbird21 hours ago

Thank you so much for explaining how the spyglass works.  I completely missed that I could click on it to use it.  I will have to go play around with it!

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