At the Mountains of Madness is one of my favourite Lovecraft's stories, so it's really nice to see a game inspired by it.
The architecture was weird and eerie, I liked it, as it creates a nice atmosphere for a horror game. It also had some interesting mechanics, like using the ladder to reach far away areas or the pick to break the ice. The lore bits were really nice too, and it was well thought that you could write them down to check them later.
Some feedback:
- The collisions of the stairs were strange: it didn't let me go upstairs sometimes.
- Pausing the game to explain the controls was immersion breaking. Maybe is there a more subtle way to explain them?
- With in-game notes (maybe they are a bit immersion breaking too though)
- A smaller popup in one corner of the screen
- I felt that there were too many equipments from the beginning, so starting the game with that many options was a bit confusing. Maybe you could can pick new items while exploring the ruins and add them to your equipment instead?
- I forgot to pick up the ladder and I couldn't go back to get it again as there was a small wall that was preventing me to do so. Having to take care of your equipment is a really cool mechanic, but it could break the level design easily!
- Using the ladder was a bit clunky sometimes. That is not bad by itself though, as it could be really interesting to have to use the ladder while something (aka Shoggoth) is chasing you, for example.
It was a really nice demo! It has a lot of potential to become a cool Lovecraft inspired game. Looking forward for more updates!