itch.io

Hi, this is a cool game!

I'm having a problem on night 3, though. Multiple times now, I have been getting killed by a wraith I didn't know was there. I kill one, then 5 or so seconds later, I'll get killed by a second one from a different direction.

Sometimes, I'll be listening to one of the wraiths finish his countdown, and I'll hear, "7, 6, 5, I'm right in front of you." So I'll shoot in front, then I'll be killed by what I assume to be the other wraith, which still had a few seconds left. I'm hoping that made some sense!

In any case, I really love the concept of the game. I gotta admit, I actually feel bad for not being able to save my little sister!

Hi,

I'm really liking this game, even though I am terrible at it! I can barely make it past the first few rounds, but I'm really looking forward to any updates or new games you put out!

I have a few thoughts. Please let me know if it looks like I'm misunderstanding something btw.

The upgrade machines seem to be labeled in Spanish on the radar, which makes it tricky to figure out which machine I am approaching since my language is English.

I think it would be helpful if the cost of the upgrade could somehow be viewed during gameplay, so I wouldn't have to keep going back to the manual to refresh my memory.

I also wonder if there should be a way to snap your character north (or whatever the starting direction is), since navigating the field can be disorienting after I've changed my direction during combat.

One last thing: The manual says you can press up/down arrows when aiming, but that doesn't do anything for me. Only left and right arrows seem to do something (and obviously I have to hold down ctrl).

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with this, though I desperately need some practice!

Just tried the updated game and level 1 is indeed fixed. Level 2 seems fixed also and is actually pretty fun to play imho.

On level 3 though, the game gets buggy. First off it repeats the level 2 prompt. And sometimes the panning of the beep changes unexpectedly i.e. when traveling on the z axis, the sound tends to pan from left to right abnormally, and even if my distances on all axes are less than 0.5 m, the sound is still panned far right when I touch down and I crash.

But I really like the concept and where it's going! My only real complaints are:

1. The inability to interrupt the computer voice. In general, when I press keys, I'd like status messages which are speaking to be interrupted. This would be useful in cases where I only care about the beginning of the message i.e. I only care that my speed is 300 something, I don't care about the rest of it, yet I am forced to listen to it before I can check other things in the game's current state.

2. Numbers after decimal places are a little weird, as they are not spoken in digits but are grouped like non-decimal numbers. That can make things a little daunting to take in, especially with the non-interruptable speech prompts.

Another suggestion I have is to implement support for NVDA, a popular screen reader for the blind. Using the NVDA controller client dll, it is possible for applications to tell NVDA to speak any information needed. It is often used in audio games to save the trouble of handling recorded voice prompts. It also offers three other advantages: NVDA speech can easily be interrupted as desired, numbers can be sent as is without processing them to fit pre-recorded numbers, and the user can use the voice and speaking rate they prefer. In a game like Arrival, I think a brisk speaking rate on a voice that you're comfortable with would make it easier to take in and process all the information you need to keep track of.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts/suggestions, they are not at all intended to be annoying/difficult :). I really hope you continue this. If you do, I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to trying future updates!

after trying the game again after the tiny update, I can say the hurdle race is quite a bit easier for me. Nice work, that made the game considerably less frustrating, but the challenge of getting a really nice score is always there, so I really like how it's balanced now.

I had similar experiences to darkempathy. Couldn't figure out how to kill the zombies.

Hi,

I have good and bad news.

Good news, I'm actually getting pretty good at this game now! I have no idea how, either. I think I just started sort of subconsciously getting a feel for what does and doesn't work. I can't even explain why I couldn't get debris earlier, because now I have no problem with it :)

Bad news, I found a pretty big bug. On wave 4, my ship starts slowing down tremendously. First the max pitch of the radar beeps decreases, then my projectiles slow down. Eventually the slowdown progresses to the point where I can't move fast enough to chase down satellites.

If it'd help, I'd be willing to record a bit of wave 4 to show what it does. Not sure if that'd be helpful or how you'd want to coordinate that though. hope it can easily be remedied in any case.

Yep, that makes sense. I've tried that and still have little success when collecting debris though...

But I'll keep working at it.

This is solid, I like it! It's just too short.

What would be cool would be a mode where there is no end, the game just throws stuff at you randomly while the creatures increase in speed. And when you are overtaken, you'd be told your survival time. That would give it replay value.

But yeah, really great start into audio games. If you make any more games in the future, I'd definitely love to check them out!

Unfortunately getting the same error as Mastro2k.

Really great sounds and concepts all-round.

One thing I don't understand is how the up and down arrow keys affect your ship. Do they just adjust the angle at which your ship points so that the bullets can run into things instead of pass over them?

My primary difficulty with this one is that I find it nearly impossible to hit things. I can usually destroy satellites from around 100 units away, but I cannot collect their debris, or even so much as crash into it; I always go right past it. Also, I'm cofnused about whether the up/down arrow keys affect debris collection.

But maybe I'm doing something wrong.

This is a neat game but it just wasn't jiving with me. The panning of the sounds was a bit confusing for me (no difference between in front and behind is a bit annoying), and not being able to tell when I was walking as opposed to bumping into a wall was confusing as well. The sonar helps, but still leaves me unsure at times where to go. The monsters are also quite hard for me to predict and dodge. Because of this, I found myself madly running around a lot, and wasn't really able to finish the game.

The sounds are interesting. Some are very harsh and gave me a bit of a headache, though the pings for the sonar and finding the nodes fit really well. The footsteps and the node hum though don't fit that well for me.

My suggestions would be to change the sound of the node hum to something a little less harsh, and perhaps having an audible indicator for when you bumped into a wall.

Really like this! The deliberately ps1-inspired sound quality is a neat touch. Really makes me feel like I'm playing a retro cutting edge game. Would totally play other entries in the retro series if they ever come out lol

The hardest event for me is by far the hurdle race. I can do it if I can get control of my speed, but it's quite picky. Sometimes I have decent races and other times they are dismal lol

My favorite is by far the

bicycle slalom. In fact, I could see this idea being made into an Enduro-like game. I kind of wish the gates weren't quite so wide, but hey, it adds challenge, and it's quite exhilerating cruising at just the right speed, barely avoiding the gates but not crashing. I managed to do a race like that pretty much the whole way through once, but it's not easy.

Really love this game! Only made it to level 3, and just barely. Usually I die somewhere on level 2. What ends up getting me more often than not are stupid accidental hits.

My suggestions would be to implement some way of getting extra lives. Right now it's pretty much just 3 hits and you're out, and if I've taken a hit or two on the first level, it's kind of discouraging knowing that I have pretty much no shot of getting through level 2. Perhaps when scoring is implemented, earning lives could be a possibility?

I would also love a keystroke which tells me what is around me. The game does it every so often, but checking it on the fly would be nice, and in some ways I think I'd prefer that; the automatic announcements get distracting.

Anyway this is a really awesome game. Hope you can continue working on it!