I would have had more fun playing this if there was more clear control over Bruce. I think there is really great concepts here... like, really cohesive and engaging mechanics. With more polish and different options for controlling the character, this would be top tier!! XD I enjoy games that implement a first person type view experience so I would come back to play this with better control and interaction mechanics over the Derrick and Bruce. If this had controller support for all the movement and mechanics over Bruce = #WIN!!
I noticed that when Derrick and Bruce met at the middle, I was still able to used the WASD to move throughout the entire time. I am assuming this is intended but then trying to use Bruce to continually project to surfaces and grapple to the middle points while using the WASD felt a little bizarre.
I kind of liked that the environment was dark but only because for me when I started playing, I'm thinking.... okay, so Bruce is this light that I need to use to explore the environment (is my first impression). Then I'm like okay... I can use him as a sort of grappling hook, but we meet at the middle, which is definitely something to grapple (lol!) with, in terms of mastering control over the character. I think using Bruce as an exploration mechanic in its own, can be fun and useful for different kinds of intended exploration if it does not conflict with trying to engage enemies at the same time in areas of darkness.
You will definitely need more information and logic regarding the enemies. I had no idea I was getting killed but because it made me panic when this creature was on top of me and blocking my view, my instinct was to sic Bruce on it, which I learned could kill it. But since there was no kind of feedback between Bruce and hitting the Enemy, you may not make the connection to continually force Bruce to collide with it in order to kill it. Which I found using Bruce to hit and damage the enemies was also pretty engaging.
Bruce is used for all the things!!! The lighting needs to be adjusted though because I definitely am like... what door is supposed to even be open right now? Having gone and grappled up to that green obelisk key, I back tracked figuring maybe I had missed something in the beginning, which the path was there (not sure if there had been a door there though because if there was, I had missed it the first time around, being drawn to the lit area in front me after following the hallway of text).
The environment needs work the scale and lighting (but obviously part of the point is to use Bruce to traverse a lot of the environment) and guiding the player to an area that may potentially be available. There should be some sort of indicators for the distance you can project Bruce. And also better communication for if Bruce get's stuck somewhere, you can't retract him back to you and Bruce will be forever lost. This did happen to me~ where I had unlocked the at the Green Key Obelisk. I didn't realize I left Bruce up there and by the time I go to the Spider Queen area, I kept calling him. And when he was not coming I went to go look for him. The only way I found where he was, is because his lighting effect was clipping through the wall so I went back to retrieve him. So Bruce's pathing needs some love. Or control over how he works if you become too separated in the ginormalous level.
Eventually the Spider Queen killed me after I sic'd Bruce on her dozens of times.
I didn't hear any volume? No music or sound effects...? Nothing obvious anyway... ::shrugs::
I am also interested to know more of a story background for this.... like we know nothing about Derrick or Bruce and of the magic involved. So those would also be some fun things to explore too.
I really like the concepts here, I would come back to play this if it continues to be developed and grows. There is a lot of fun to be had with all of the concepts if they get refined and polished.