Post by HumanBean25 in Report - Bugs and Gameplay Improvements

ARES - Automated Relay System » Community

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Hey, I really enjoyed this game. Played to ending 1/2 on html (chrome). The theme was interesting and it's nice when a game's UI is in-universe and works well. I played it almost right when it released (just happened to see it) so I don't remember everything exactly though. There were some bugs. The first bug I encountered was when you pick up a call (I think in the battery hold) and get a creepy sort of response. The game engine showed an error as the text came up and I had to restart. I think it mentioned that something (off the top of my head it was something like "badneighbor.png"(?)) couldn't be loaded. It worked as intended the second time through without any issues.

After reaching the first ending, I went back to the part where you control the drone (sentinel) and direct it walking around the ship. I assumed that the difference between the two endings is whether or not you choose to force the shutdown of the drone (not sure if this is actually what it is). In terms of gameplay the whole sentinel section was confusing to me, it took a bit of randomness to figure out what I was supposed to do. Anyway, when I was attempting to reach the other ending by playing that part all the way through, I ran into the known bug that occurs there. Certain combinations of "take snapshot" / "warning message" were able to leave the snapshot on the screen while the game thinks you're in the part where you're directing the sentinel around, leading to a soft lock. It happened to me and I stopped playing then.

I also noticed some clunkiness with the controls of the game in the terminal (normal gameplay). I know the game is meant to be played with mouse, but using the escape key worked in some situations, but did not work in others. If I play this again I'll comment on this more accurately.

In terms of the story I don't remember it perfectly, but the ending that I got felt very strange (in a good way, I thought it was interesting). This made me want to play the other ending because it felt like I was missing some very important context / information.

I might play this again to see the other ending, so maybe I'll leave a reply with more details.

Edit: I played from a save and got the "bad ending" thanks to the helpful info in the game description. Is that ending 2/2 or is there anything else? Anyway as I've sort of mentioned, I enjoyed the semi-"free roam" aspect of this game, but occasionally it can feel like you don't know what you're supposed to be doing (or why you're doing it).

ChXris275 days ago (2 edits)

Big thanks for the detailed review! I'll address everything you mentioned:

I believe it's the friendlyneighbour.png you're referring, yes, I caught just before submitting it for the game jam, haven't seen the error pop again, hopefully it's fixed.

The whole sentinel section is a bit vague, I agree completely. It's a common feedback I've seen, so it's definitely one of the priorities. I added to the main page some tips for it as a lifeline while I wait for the jam to be over to update the game. The "take snapshot" bug I believe it's contained to the low decks and it has been identified and corrected for next release. Sorry for the inconvenience!

As for the ESC key, I think the engine takes it in the same value as Right Click for cancel. I didn't want to completely kill keyboard support as I do intend to add a sort of 'hotkey' support, like computers of old, so it's likely some keys have functionality here and there that's not reported on screen as a leftover.

The Bad Ending does not count towards the endings (so, technically, there's three), it's essentially a game over screen. If you managed to visit the low deck, you're already on path for ending two, you just got to listen to the audiologs when you get back to your main interface. It isn't vey intuitive, as it's the only part where audiologs are a thing, definitely another priority to fix.

I did wanted the player to feel less constrained on what they could do to push for a more 'explorative' pattern, but given the limited playtesting cycle I had, it was bound to have a lot of hiccups. This last week has been very productive to reshape my approach and I'm confident I can fix the "what do I do" moments now that I've been able to see more people interact with it!

Again, huge thanks for taking the time to comment, and I'm very glad you enjoyed it in spite of its shortcomings! Hopefully you come back for ending two, as it kinda explain what's going on haha. Though some sound effects got lost in the upload, so prepare for some definitely intended silent parts.

itch.io

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