I'd recommend spacing better the active sections (in this case the crime scenes) with the more inactive ones (such as walking through halls). I know the hall scenes weren't long per se but in relation to the full length of the game it does feel like too much padding. The game would be more enjoyable if those sections served as connectors between areas instead of the majority of the gameplay itself.
Ideally, this would be done by expanding the exploration. When you go to investigate a crime scene, don't put the objective right in front of the spawnpoint, put it in the back so that the player has to engage and interact more with the environment. Bonus points if said environment was more fleshed out, having things such as NPC dialogues.
In short, since the majority of the game is a linear transition that lays in between scenes, it feels oddly paced and clunky. It's still fairly well designed, it just could use some better arrangement.
In all seriousness, 10/10 game, if my IQ wasn't in the single digits it would absolutely be one of my favourite games. It's just quite confusing in the beggining.
Yeah, I figured the mistakes weren't due to a lack of experience but a lack of time/opportunity. I played your other horror game, Demono, and it was a lot better so I knew you were capable of making a better game with enough time.
Also, I re-read my original comment and wanted to say sorry if I was rude. I was most likely too frustrated because the game is hard :p
I usually don't like commenting in games lashing out but this is outrageously bad. The horror aspect to the game is simply not there. The game is not scary whatsoever, just slightly unsettling in the beggining. Some cuts inbetween rounds with soft storytelling about the stranger would have made you actually feel more insecure about everything and maybe actually scared.
Also, the gameplay is just unbearable. Many collisions are really junky and feel unfair, specially the speed at which the stranger moves by the end. The mouse is also uncontrollable because you don't even know if you're in range of hitting the ball or not, that's even assuming you manage to put the cursor over it given you can only play at one horridly rapid mouse sensitivity. A sensitivity slider and some vidual clue that you can hit the ball (like the cursor becoming slightly bigger, for example), would make the game 1000 times better.
And before any of you call it a skill issue, here's me beating all 4 rounds:
The game looks pretty promising but I think it's current state is too unfinished, even for a demo. The ambiance is very well made, it's nicely backed up by the visual and sound design but the gameplay really takes a toll in the experience as a whole.
There are lots of empty bits that feel unfinished, most empty walking sections would benefit from having more text, things to see or noise stimuli, making the player wonder a bit more about what may happen instead of just mindlessly and boringly walk.
Lastly, the ammount of glitches is just absurd. I know this is a demo and I'm sure the final game will solve most of them. However as it is it takes away from the experience making this feel more like a beta rather than a demo.
All of this problems are solvable though, and I'll make sure to stay tuned for any future updates. Good luck with the project!
Edit: I just read the page again and found out this is your first game ever. This is actually really good for a first project, despite the glitcehs and the lack of gameplay (which are understadably hard to get right without that much experience), the game is actually pretty well designed, so good job
The game is really good, I look fordward to playing the update once it comes. My only complaint is that the game glitches and softlocks every other run, so it's really annoying and frustrating to play.
