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Hello and welcome to Feedback Quest 9! My name is Hythrain, and I'm one of the hosts for this lovely event! I'm also one of the streamers, so both the game and this feedback are being done live! If you want to see the see the VOD, let me know and I'll link you to it when it's uploaded to YouTube!

Right off the bat, as a game in early development, it's honestly pretty solid in the design. I liked how easy it was to understand and I had a lot of fun with the puzzles. So awesome job there. That said, there is absolutely a ton of room for improvement.

First, I recommend not using ESC to just quit the game, even in a playtest. Instead, ESC should bring up a menu where the player has the option to return to the title screen or to exit the game. I say this because my muscle memory when playing games during these events is to use ESC to access a menu to pause the game, tab out of the game to write down notes, and then go back into the game and hit ESC to unpause. This made me close the game several times, to the point where I stopped playing after I did it once despite still having 20 minutes or so that I could dedicate to the game. It's just super frustrating to accidentally close the game and have all my progress on a level reset.

Speaking of menus, there should be a way for the player to change mouse sensitivity. This game's sensitivity is really high and I know a lot of people would like to reduce it. 

I would also suggest changing how saving works. First, make the game autosave when you reach a new level. Then make it that when the player saves, they save their progress in a level. That way, if a player needs to stop playing mid level (or in my case, closes the game by accident) they're able to retain the progress they made.

During the tutorial level, I noticed I couldn't begin moving until the level text went away. Personally, I'd say to just let the player begin controlling immediately.

Next, I would suggest making it that the player doesn't need to keep holding down the E button in order to hold objects. This can make it difficult to also move around, since the finger most people use for pressing E is also the finger they use for pressing D. If, for some reason, you like it being this way, then at least add an option to switch between Hold  and Toggle so people who dislike it can switch.

I also eventually learned that using the left mouse click can ALSO be used to hold blocks. This is just superior to holding E and I don't understand why this wasn't told to players. Maybe it wasn't intended, but I do like it more. If you plan to get rid of using left mouse click, then do my suggestion above. If you plan to keep it, drop using E and instead just use the left mouse click.

In Level 2, you have platforms that the player has to use to cross a gap. I recommend adding a brief stop to these (and to any other moving platforms that you'll expect the player to use) as doing so will  allow players to be able to get on them without feeling rushed. It doesn't need to be a long pause, just a second or two.

In a similar vein, it occurred to me during Level 2 how much the boxes obscure one's view (which in turn made jumping onto moving platforms even harder). What I'd recommend is that when a player is holding an object, that object becomes transparent so they can see through it and alleviate this problem.

I also generally found that when I'm holding boxes, they're able to clip through the floor while being held. While you have code in there to ensure they don't get lost (I did experiment with dropping boxes into holes), it still kinda made me nervous. If you're able to, maybe try to work in some special hit detection where the box can't pass through floors, walls or other objects while being held. This may not be needed depending on how extensive your safety nets are.

One thing that I felt iffy about was how the world looks. Everything is black and white, and it can sometimes be challenging to discern what things are. Some colour would be an idea, especially for the lines that you see with the glasses in order to help determine what each line is in relation to.

The next few notes are just little things, so I'll just bullet point them.\

1. There's a weird lip on the exit door for Level 0.
2. I noticed a weird line above the targeting reticle.
3. The pointer part of the arrow is off centre from the arrow line.

Lastly, I have an idea that may really benefit this game. I'd recommend trying to create platforms that can be jumped up through from below but which you can't drop through. Think of the clouds in Super Mario Bros. 3. You could then set these up above wind turbines that shoot the player up, making it that the player begins on a platform instead of needing to maneuver to one.

That's all I got. Overall, this is pretty solid so far and I can see it being way more solid it a lot of the ideas above are implemented. Hope to see more from you in future events!

Hello, Yes I want to be linked to the VOD when it is uploaded on Youtube. Thanks for testing the game and giving feedback!

ESC is yes going to be changed to a UI but I’m still making the UI so I decided to put the temporary mechanic of using Esc to close the game till I finish it, and same for mouse sen.

I thought there was an auto save, maybe I uploaded wrong version. Thanks for noticing that.

I thought It’d be a good idea to not be able to move until the text goes out, but I wasn’t so I put it in gametest.

Players will be able to change it to toggle through settings, and I forgot about the left click thing, but when game is released, you will be able to change controls through settings.

I’ll put it in mind to make a 1-2s moving platform stop.

There is only one issue with transparent cubes, It adds more degrees of colours, which ruins the point of the game being 2-colours only, But I guess if I add inventory to store cubes and items, it’d be better for the game.

About cubes noclip, I’m currently working on it.

About that the game’s black and white concept, I feel like it gives tons of ideas to manipulate minds and it’s also the reason I made this game.

Also for the last 3 bugs, I don’t understand what you meant.

The platform that can be passed only from under. I already thought of it, but I feel like it’s more of a 2D game thing like SMB3.

Thanks again for playing and giving a feedback :)

Auto save per level might be there and I just didn't notice, but I was thinking more in regards to the save function and how it works.

As for the limited colour... what I think would be interesting then is to make open spaces black instead of white. That way, the player can quickly recognize that white = solid while black = empty.

For the "bugs," hopefully the VOD will make these more clear. However, to summarize them... I found I couldn't exit the tutorial level unless I jumped first. I otherwise got caught on something. For the weird line, I noticed this at some point later in my playthrough but I would see a black vertical line that sat ABOVE the cross that acts as the player's targeting reticle. And for the third one, the second stage has platforms that shoot the player in a direction indicated by an arrow on them. However, the arrows looked slightly off. This one in particular should be more clear with the VOD, which will likely take me another few days to get up (I'm getting my first VODs set up now and setting up release days).

Finally, there are 3D games that have these platforms too. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind is another Mario game: Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World!

Yes, I’ve realized already and fixed all of the 3 bugs and made a better UI and saving system, but music is still a problem though. The 2 colours are going to be switchable in settings so that you can switch black with white, but I’m working on a good animation for it right now. There will be another playtest ver with most of bugs fixed, UI and saving system right before the voting time though if you are interested :)

I’ve released Gametest2 of game and fixed all bugs and issues above (except for music and SFX) before voting

I’d be glad if you try it :)