Post by jonsprojects in Haunting Overhaul

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Played, very stylish in sound design and visuals, great job on that front!

I played a couple matches and found out what I was supposed to do by playing, but I do think it could benefit from a tutorial match of a kind, just to sort of ease you into the game. It's quite fun when you get going, but the initial hard bonk on the head of being clueless I think will probably turn a few players off. Big ups on the presentation though - I especially like the transition screen - might yoink that kind of transition for my own project, haha.

Dougie2 days ago

Thank you so much for giving it a fair shot and taking the time to give feedback.

You're right. One of the challenges has been balancing the "thrown into the woods" feeling with making sure players actually understand what they're supposed to do. It's nice to hear that things clicked after a couple of matches, but I agree that the initial confusion could be better. I'm currently experimenting with some solutions during the opening moments of a run without going full hand holdy.

Also, the transition screen has gotten a surprising amount of love, so feel free to yoink it if you like haha. I can try sending you the code depending on what game engine you use.

Are there specific points where you were REALLY lost?

jonsprojects2 days ago

My pleasure, man!

I use godot - but not to worry, half the fun for me is working it out. Heck, if I get it implemented I'll let you know haha.

Initially I wasn't aware you can dash over water, so I was for a moment a bit lost on where to go, but I sort of realised that might be a thing due to the length of the dash, hence I tried it, and it worked - I realise that's the intention now, but that kind of thing requires the player having played a game before that has that "dash over gaps" mechanic. I've played Hyper Light Drifter, so I got that, but for someone who's played, say, only 3D roguelikes, or roguelikes where that mechanic isn't present, or even just a usual player of "another genre" might not realise.

Beyond that, the "clues" system had me thinking I was looking for something, over just advancing through the level, but even then I wasn't completely sure what I was supposed to be doing with it, other than it being a level progression mark.

Bottom line is it would just really just benefit from a vertical slice tutorial of "this is what this means, this is what this means" and so on - I agree hand-holding isn't great, you shouldn't have to type stuff like "walk around with WASD, this is your health" and so on, as these things tend to be quite obvious, but mechanics that aren't present elsewhere, or of your own making, will need explaining.

I'm a perpetrator of this too! PSYCHE, my current project, has literally no tutorial to it, and features a method of shooting enemies for extra damage by shooting the replicated platforms that surround the arena - I should really make at least a note that says that somewhere, because not everyone's going to read the whole itch page, but that game is more something special to me over something I'm looking for mass downloads on, so I'm sort of alright with that being something a player might "find out" - I get the impression, especially with a steam release, that you're looking for that player count and eventual sale, so that might matter a lot more for you!

Either way, I definitely think you've got something cooking, visually it's a very pleasing game, and it feels pretty good! It just needs clarity imo.

Best of luck with your project!

itch.io

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