I really like the atmosphere and style of this, and would have loved to finish it (I love SH so this scratchs and itch) but I couldn't proceed, either I hit an inventory/item glitch or the item was hidden so well I just couldn't find it. The first playthrough ended randomly after being hit by spector/ghost things a bunch while looking for the code (or whatever came next) with the UV light/matches. The screwdriver was in the gate at the furthest end, during this playthrough. Then second playthrough I could not find the screwdriver in the gate, or indeed, anywhere. I thought it was just super well hidden this time around and I was being dumb, but I reloaded again and same diff. So I only really got to play it properly the first time I suppose.
Cons:
Matches are super annoying. You'll be a quater through exploring a frame and have to relight, and each match has a light animation so it only lasts a very brief window at full light before you have to light a new one.
You need a mouse sensitivity setting, because with the hardest part of the game for me was the scene at the beginning with the mouse box. It was almost impossible to get through it, and I had to try three or four times every playthough just to get through the first segment. The game also chidded me at one point for not being able to do it, which almost made be quit, because you can't poorly design something and then blame the player for it. Maybe as a developer you should 'get gud' lmao
Other than that I loved it, minus the fact that I legit couldn't find one of the items I needed to proceed after checking every screen three or four times with my ever-dying matches.
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Thank you, TECGOTHICA. ^w^ I appreciate that you enjoyed the atmosphere and I hope you'll be able to beat the demo in your future playthroughs.
Firstly: The game is randomized, items that were there in the first playthrough will spawn somewhere else in the second playthrough.
Secondly: This is something I said to almost every youtube letsplayer that played this game, but matches last around 20-35 seconds. The way you move your mouse (while the match is lit) determines how fast the match will die. If you move your match around the area fast, it will die faster. This was sort-of added to encourage careful exploration because [sometimes] the items blend into the background and you won't notice them at first glance. If you switch to EASY ACTION DIFFICULTY, then your matches will be less affected by your mouse movement. There is a way to get your match to never burn out.
Thirdly: I don't have a name for that section, so for now I'll call it the [DON'T MOVE] section (even though that's probably taken by Until Dawn™). The [DON'T MOVE] section can have its speed tweaked, but it's tuned enough. Switch to EASY ACTION DIFFICULTY if it's too difficult for you to pass it on NORMAL (rip HARD mode). As for the "get gud", nah- that's all on you. xD (I'm joking btw, but I made it hard on purpose. There is a "tactic" to make it a little easier, but at the same time it depends if you're playing with a mouse or the laptop's touch pad. "Mouse Sensitivity" is, in my opinion, a bad design choice because everyone will take advantage of it to make the [DON'T MOVE] section always easier... but that's just how I see it. If you want the [DON'T MOVE] to be easier, play on EASY action mode and practice there for other modes.)
I hope this info helps, and good luck. :)
I appreciate the response. I was aware that the items were randomized, my point was the item stumped me for 20+ minutes in both playthroughs that followed the first playthrough. That's no good. Are you using heatmaps to determine the best spots to place items? Are you watching playthroughs to see where players most often get stuck? Although the game is slick and pretty, the placement could use some work (also whilst I could barely, if ever find the key items, weapons were almost too numerous - all three playthroughs ended with me carrying an arsenal of weapons but no key item). If you want the game to be as hard as it sounds like you do, the game needs to be balanced one way or the other.
Secondly, the matches lasting longer depending on how you use them is a pretty neat mechanic, and I didn't see it mentioned anywhere? I might have missed it but if it isn't mentioned, it should be, since it's a mechanic I don't think many players intuite. If you have to tell ever single youtuber than I'd recommend maybe explaining that in game. Thirdly, I tried the Dont Move section on both Easy and Normal, and yes the bounding box becomes larger, but I don't think it makes the actual movement mechanic in that area easier outside of the fact you have more of a chance to mess up. My mouse sensitivity made it so I literally could only slightly nudge the mouse a fraction to try and complete it, and most of the time it would simply shoot out of the box. I'm sorry, that's not good design, and it's certainly not balanced correctly against the difficulty curve of the rest of the game.
I'll try again tomorrow since I quite liked the style, I think it has plenty going for it, but don't shy away from fixing things that need to be fixed if player testing goes against what you believe. I'm just one player so I might be an outlier, but all feedback should make you at least reconsider if things need adjusting.
I would explain on how the randomization works, but I'm afraid I would ruin the "illusion". All I'm gonna say is that I manually placed all item-spawn locations. As for the weapons, yes there's a lot more of them, and some of them spawn if certain things are done. If you're exploring for a long time, you're gonna need as many of them as possible. As for the normal items (like the screwdriver), it's supposed to be in weird places (sometimes in places that the item wouldn't normally appear in... which is why sometimes you'll find it impaled to a wall and sometimes it'll be stuck on the gate/door).
We watch all the playthroughs on YouTube, and some on Twitch. Most of them fail the DON'T MOVE section at the beginning but they get used to it. Some people get stuck with the padlocks, but we added a tutorial for those people (the game tries to detect if you're stuck in a certain way, so it will give player a hint. This isn't added in the currently-available demo yet, but it's something that will be added in an upcoming update). The matches logic is something that isn't too annoying for people: Most of them scan through a room careful or don't move it around too much- so they don't notice. Some people do but because of infinite matches they don't mind. Some people do mind because they play the game like a speedrun. One of them is the reason why on EASY mode the matches have a longer duration, but that's as far as I'm making it easy for the matches. I thought about telling the players about the matches draining faster if you move your mouse faster but I still believe that's something that should've remained hidden (something players should learn through experimentation after a few playthroughs)... but if a lot more people have issues with the matches then I might add a tutorial or something.
As for the DON'T MOVE section: On EASY (not sure about NORMAL) the movement should be a little smoother but the main difference is that the box is bigger. You're supposed to move your mouse slowly, but... If even a LITTLE movement causes the "dot" to fly off into the never dimension, then that's not supposed to happen. The "dot" will start flying towards the edges at random, that's normal. But if even a little bit of your mouse movement causes the "dot" to fly off instantly outside the box-boundaries... then yes, it's a mouse sensitivity issue (because the dot is relying on the desktop settings for the mouse). If it's an actual error, then I'll try to fix it. Problem is, all of the devices we tested this game on didn't have this issue- so this is completely new and we'd need to find a way to recreate it. (I'll check if changing my desktop mouse sensitivity does anything)
I completely get what you're saying, but I hope that you also understand that: We listen and do consider a lot of feedback, suggestions and criticism- we just don't add most of the things people suggest because it goes against the game/design choice we have in mind for the game (in this game, you're supposed to be heavily disadvantaged. The moment you get something good, you also get something that makes the game harder... I think you noticed that when you got the UV Light). The game's super short, so it makes more sense to make the game really challenging (it's hard, but not unbeatable).
I understand what you're saying, it just initially sounded like feedback was unimportant because it was designed to be frustrating (which you must admit is a bad design position to start off with.) I'll try the game again today keeping in mind you went for weird positions (such as impaled in the wall) and see if I have better luck now that I understand how the matches work as well.
The mouse issue may be a mixture of hardware and game balance or something else entirely. If the dont move segments are supposed to be the hardest thing in the game by a mile, then it works, but on my setup it is particulalry dreadful. I can't think of anything else in the game that is anywhere near as frustrating, but from memory that was the only real minigame. Defending in the other sections is a simple drag and drop weapon movement. Anyway, I'm running win10 64 bit, sensitivity set to just under half, razer deathadder elite. Any info that might help beyond that let me know.
No, I didn't design this game to torture players (too much)... but this is a game that will not hold your hand as you go through it (or when you start). I am sorry if you're against the design choice, but for this game (type and length) it makes sense. However, I feel like in this case it's a problem of the [don't move] section on your end since you're unable to beat it even once (as far as I understood). I spent the entire yesterday thinking about how to improve the [don't move] without making it drastically easy. I could make it so that the game keeps track of how much you're losing at the [don't move] section, and every time you lose it will get 5% easier (at least on EASY). However, if you reach a certain percentage of help, the game will punish you in a way (just in case people take advantage of the help they are getting).
I'm glad you got the hang of defending yourself in-game (some people didn't know how to use defensive items at first couple playthroughs). I checked my mouse settings: pointer speed is set to middle and [Enhance pointer precision] is toggled on. In case it helps, the "dot" in [don't move] section needs to be kept in the middle for maximum survival chances. If you drag it near the edge, there's a chance it could jump to that nearest edge. Good luck and let me know if you made it through, I have my fingers crossed. :)