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Feedback on my horror demo

A topic by Danielle's Games created May 01, 2021 Views: 329 Replies: 15
Viewing posts 1 to 5
Danielle's Games3 years ago

Hello all,

I'm looking for feedback on my horror demo Of Shifting Images about:


The overall atmosphere:

How do like the atmosphere?  Is it spooky to you?  Do you think it's interesting?  Is it too busy?  Do you think there should be more drawings moving?


 The music:

Do you think the music fits?  Is it loud enough?

 

The map layout:

Were you able to find all the rooms?  Is the layout disorienting?


The room transition:

Does it fit with the rest of the game, or should it just not be there?


The demo can be found at danielles-games.itch.io/of-shifting-images

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Appa's Papas2 years ago

Morning!

I've spent ~15 minutes with your demo.

  • After going into a room that takes me to the hallway with notes, I found this error:
    • ERROR: Node not found: Timer.
         At: scene/main/node.cpp:1381 SCRIPT ERROR: _ready: Attempt to call function 'start' in base 'null instance' on a null instance.           At: res://world/gametunnels.gdc:6
    • The music stops, I go back to the main room, but I'm not sure I'm getting the full experience. No other room triggers anything.

The atmosphere wasn't particularly spooky for me. Very dark, yes, but almost too dark (see Screenshot 2). I also had a problem with draw distance (see Screenshot 1). That in particular pulled me out from the overall experience. Could the skybox (or whatever background is being used) be set darker than that blue? If almost black, one may not notice the "pop in" effect as much.


Screenshot 1 - Blue skybox visible

I did like the hallway with the notes about Cooper. That section legit started to give me "spooky" vibes. Perhaps if it was put first? Or at least encountered before the room with the crayon? It helps give context to the experience.


Screenshot 2 - Hello darkness my old friend

Have you tried increasing the movement speed of the player? Even by ~1.5x, it might help keep players engaged with the game. Super slow movement almost always makes me want to quit a game, unless there is a lot to look at (Vanishing of Ethan Carter, or Gone Home as examples). That's just my opinion, though, so make sure it's something you like!

I don't think the game is too busy, per se, but instead a little too open. I like the black texture used for the walls. I think the red texture has a harsh border that makes the units a little distracting once tiled.

For the drawings, yes, definitely. It might be fun to make a jump scare (when players get close to certain ones, maybe it triggers movement, or runs away, or something). If you want more subtle horror, you could make it so that drawings do tiny things, like blink, every once in a while.

Layout:
The layout was a bit confusing, but I was able to build a mental map of the area fairly well. The only thing that really confused me was after the hallway. I think I'm respawned in the room opposite from the one that triggers the event. . . or if not, I got turned around both times I played after that event.

Music:
It was ok. In both play-throughs, the music stopped after the hallway scene. While there, it did help set the tone (dark, alone). Since these are children's drawings coming to life, perhaps a dissonant music box (like Jack-in-the-box music) that slowly plays behind the wind-like music? Again, that's up to your vision/ direction.  :-D
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Danielle's Games2 years ago

Hi Appas Papas,

I'm running into a challenge coding wise and I'm hoping you know what I should do to fix it.  Ok, so, I'm trying to have an animation play after the player goes into one of the rooms and a timer goes to zero.  I've changed the area before the crayon(now crayons) room somewhat and added a couple of jumpscares,  but those are set to run when the scene starts.

 I have the code setup so that when the player body goes into the Area, the Timer would start.  When the Timer times out, the Animation should play.  It doesn't, though.  I tried to have that happen with an object at the room entrance and it did nothing.  I even tried having an Area and Collision shape attached to the Sprite and not attached to the Sprite but in front of it.  Nothing has worked.  

What am I doing wrong?

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Appa's Papas2 years ago (1 edit)

Hrm. . . . I'm not sure. I use Unity / C#, and I've never used Godot before. But, here is how I would set it up for Unity:

  1. Depending on the game, I'd have a Rigidbody component either on the trigger GameObj or the player GameObj. Let's say it is on the player.
  2. Create a GameObj that has a Collider on it. *Make sure it is set to trigger!* That's important.
  3. Have a script with code (sorta like this) on the trigger GameObj:
[SerializeField] private float timer = 10f;
[SerializeField] private float timeForAnimation = 3f;
// State
private bool startTimer;
private void Update()
{
    if (startTimer)
    {
        timer -= Time.deltaTime;
        if (timer <= 0f)
        {
            GetComponent<Animator>().SetTrigger("Scare");
            Destroy(gameObject, timeForAnimation); // This could be extracted as a function to use as an anim event
        }
    }
}
private void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other)
{
    if (other.CompareTag("Player") && !startTimer)
    {
        startTimer = true;
    }
}
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Appa's Papas2 years ago (1 edit)

Are you sure the timer is working? Have you printed the time remaining on Update? Or print a message inside the if statement that you expect to run after the time runs out?

I hope I was of some sorta help. . .

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Danielle's Games2 years ago

Hi Appa's Papas,

You were a help in suggesting I check to see if the Timer's working.  From what I remember at first it wasn't and then I got it to work on its own.  Thing is, though, even though the Timer's working, it won't play the AnimationPlayer.

I'm not sure how to do what I'm trying to do, but I went and asked a question on the Godot Community.  Hopefully someone there will know what to do.  If not, well, then I may have to do something else or go and have the scene change to another scene where the character spawns in or near the same area and have the Timer start when the new scene starts.

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Danielle's Games2 years ago(+1)

Good news.  I got an answer to my question and, after playing around with the information I got, the Animation Player is now playing my animation like I wanted.  

Reply
Appa's Papas2 years ago

Yay! I'm glad you got it working. I wish I could've helped more, but I'm pretty new to development.

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Danielle's Games2 years ago(+1)

Thank you and I'm glad too.  I'll let you know when the demo updates/changes are done.

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Danielle's Games2 years ago

Hi Appa's Papas,

Things have finally been updated.  I had gotten my game demo to where I wanted it before today, and then I ran into some challenges with exporting it and stuff and had to redo/fix/change some things.  In any case, I made it so the hallway with the notes has been moved to the beginning and changed a little, the lighting has been changed, the outside environment color has been changed, I've added animations that happen when you're in different areas of the second scene, the music has been updated some, and I've increased the player movement speed.  

Let me know what you think of the updates.

Reply
Appa's Papas2 years ago

Much better!

  • Lighting was greatly improved. It was dark, but not total black. The fog helped "shape" the rooms, so the back half without the fog was still harder to see, but I like the contrast.
  • None of the jump scares scared me, but I liked the movement of the objects (the crayons and the objects). The drawing that moved in the back then ran away was a nice touch, as was the first one on the right (in the back area).
  • The darker skybox is a major upgrade! It was only truly noticeable with the bathroom-glass wall (since the green is so bright compared to all the other textures), but the darkness was definitely better to see than the blue.
  • That music box music. . . . is both annoying and offsetting. I think it definitely helps set the mood. I kinda even like it. Is it possible to "balance" your music by playing that track slightly softer than the wind one? It's your game, of course, so do what you want. :-D
  • The player speed is spot on! Do you like it faster?
Reply
Danielle's Games2 years ago(+1)

I'm glad to hear you think the demo is much better.  As far as the music box music, it wouldn't be a problem to lower the volume.   I'll have to see how it sounds like that, though. I'm glad you think it helps set the mood.  

 As far as the player movement goes, I do prefer it the way it is now.  I had run into one of several issues with my demo and had lost the quicker player speed.  I, however, had exported the demo and forgotten to add it again.  When I played it, it was definately noticable how slow the player was actually moving.  But, in anycase, yeah, the quicker speed's definately better.

As far as the jumpscares are concerned, jumpscares are subjective. I'm glad you liked the movements, though.

Reply
Danielle's Games2 years ago

Hi Appas Papas,

When you were talking about the music box music being annoying and offsetting, you were talking about it doing a weird double playing thing right?  I didn't realize that until I was playing the last version of my game demo tonight and heard that part of the music playing twice.   I'm sorry about that.  I've gone and updated things, though, and the music, at least from what I can tell, isn't doing that anymore.  

Reply
Danielle's Games2 years ago

Hello Appa's Papas,


Thank you so much for the feedback and screenshots.  They're very helpful.  In regards to the room after the hall with the notes, I'm sorry you were confused.  You did respawn in the room opposite of the room that triggers the event.  I didn't realize having the respawn point be like that would be confusing.

In anycase, I'm working on updating things and I'll post something when things are updated.

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White Box Gaming2 years ago

I did not see hardly any images on your page for the demo. Can you post more?

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Danielle's Games2 years ago (1 edit)

Hello White Box Gaming,

Sorry for not replying sooner.  I've added several game demo images to my page.  

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