Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(2 edits) (+1)

Honestly, a decent first effort. You have some good ideas and did some things right. It's a solid foundation to build on, and I really do hope you come back next year. :)

The dog mechanic was really quite cool, and the little puzzles were not bad either.

I liked the sound design even if it was sparse, and the controls and UI were quite logical.

The TTS voice gave off cool retro vibes, though I know that not everyone could understand it well.


Unfortunately, you didn't include the keystrokes list in the description or a readme file packaged with the game, nor enough of an explanation of the base mechanics. That really hurt your player interactions, which is a big shame.

For instance, I didn't know whether the game was using a 2d system where WASD would move you in a direction by one step, or if it was free rotation, or if it was limited rotation that snapped you to certain points on the compass. I didn't know whether I should hold the turning keys down or not, and it took me a bit of guesswork to figure out that I had to interact each time to play a note for the puzzles. I also couldn't tell what direction I was facing, or if I had been in that part of the area before, which may have been purposeful but it wasn't explained that way.

The maze was lacking in general ambience [possibly an esthetic choice] and the dog sounds didn't change in pitch to indicate in front and behind, so following it could be hard at times.

Openings weren't indicated in audio, leading to allot of wall bumping and guessing.

There was seemingly no way to sidestep, leading to allot of weird turning to try and line up with doorways.

Sadly, nothing in the options menu worked.

There was no way to learn which sounds meant what before the game started.

I didn't know if I was supposed to keep heading in a general direction, or if things were always randomly generated.

At one point the dog got stuck on the other side of a wall when I called it back while inside a room, and then after that point the dog sounds were doubled as if there were now two dogs, but one of them would never come back to me properly.


Despite my criticisms, I still think this has potential, and especially the keystrokes list and mechanics explanation issues are things that can still be solved quite easily even now just by editing the game description on the page.


Thank you for participating!

(+1)

Hello. Thank you so much for the criticism provided.

I agree with you (although the two dogs part leaves me confused, thanks for pointing that out, we never got that) and you gave great pointers to becoming better at working with sound

Regardless of all the issues, we're both proud with what we achieved and we know it's another step to making better games in the future.

I'm really glad that you're proud of your work. I know how that feels as I've worked on the sound design/advising side of jams like this before. Even if you don't have the product you wanted, you still achieved many sub goals along the way, you met the deadline, and you now have more skill and more knowledge of what to do next time.