Post by XCVG in A Dream of Dusk jam comments

Magical Girl Game Jam #9 » Entries » A Dream of Dusk

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My first thought on seeing this was wow, this is a bold step for the series. I think it has toyed with these themes before, but this is deeper, darker, more real, and more serious.

That line about not being able to go back in particular hits hard.

I love the setting of the ruined dream city. We barely got to explore it in this game, but I'm excited to see more of it.

The graphics, animations, and FacemeltingSolos soundtrack are, as usual, spot-on. I like the mirror effect on the water in particular (being vague, because spoilers).

The UX... it breaks from adventure game conventions and I'm not convinced.. Having to be close to objects to interact with them is annoying, and it isn't helped by June's glacial movement speed. Clicking and dragging items to use them just feels weird, and it's not helped by the pop-in inventory panel. None of it kills the game, but all together it makes it feel awkward and kinda janky.

The hinting on what can be interacted with and how is much appreciated, though, and it feels immediately intuitive without needing explanation.

For better or for worse, my biggest complaint about this game is its brevity. It's a demo, but feels short even for a demo. I'm definitely excited for future updates!

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ShibeyFaceGames51 days ago(+1)

Thanks so much for playing, and your feedback! I really appreciate it!

I'm glad you enjoyed the different direction this one took. I was worried that it might turn players off a bit, but so far, so good. I'm also glad you liked the mirror effect! It started as a one-off detail in the first room, but became a little more important as I kept working on the game, building up to the end of chapter 1.

For the UX... I have to admit, I've played a few P&C adventure games, but not a ton... and it's been awhile. The last one I played had a fairly janky UX as I recall. (Though it was a very good story) Do you have any thoughts on what you'd prefer to drag-and-drop? More like, click once to pick up and hold an item? And then click again to use/drop it? I'm not promising I'll change it, but I might consider it. Same goes for the distance thing. I doubt I'll eliminate it, but I might loosen up some of the distance requirements.

As for your biggest complaint (the length) I assure you, I desperately wanted to add more. But I think there was brief thread on Discord about crunch and feelings around it. I made a target, ONE chapter. I mapped it out and planned it, and by sticking to those guns, this was one of my least crunchy jams in a long time. So while I wish I had been able to do more, I'm happy that I managed to do this much in a relatively healthy manner.

Still, I've got most of the story mapped out in my head, and intend to see it through! Just no promises on deadlines XD

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XCVG51 days ago(+1)

Most of the adventure games I've played were built with Adventure Game Studio, which is loosely inspired by Sierra and LucasArts games mechanically. In those, you'd select an item in your inventory, it would become your cursor and you'd click on things with it to interact with them. Interacting with something "out of reach" would usually result in your character automatically walking to it, and then running the interaction as normal.

I definitely get why you decided to limit scope like this. While it feels a bit thin to play, what's there is quite polished, and setting a smaller goal is probably a lot healthier as a developer.

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