It looked good, there was clear effort into the level design and it communicated the idea maybe too well. That’s it for positives, honesty it reads like homework for a game class and I hope that’s what it was.
My friend put it best, it's not a game. Yeah you push buttons and you move or interact but that's it. Nothing happens, your choices don't matter until the end meaning that the first 30 minutes was for nothing and definitely didn’t help make it feel like a game.
The dreams, the walking, the dialogue it all feels like it was to add to the run time. The walking was slow, the dialogue slower and the dreams did nothing to add to the story. At least the dialogue told you what was happening and even then it was so spelled out for you that you don't need much thought to understand. There was no mystery, nothing to hook you into playing more and before the first day was over we both wanted to quit playing because we knew what was happening.
I hoped it would surprise us, maybe the father wasn’t lying, maybe we would get to see the outside and find a wasteland. That would have been cool. Nope. It was exactly what you think it is. It’s exactly what was so clearly shoved in your face before day one was over. The worst part, I saw the dev say that it was meant to be a conversation about this topic but there wasn’t even a phone number to a help line, no line of text at the end saying “if this is you, reach out and get help” nothing. It comes off as an attempt to make a shocking game about a real subject but it was so half baked that it failed to even be fun or scary.
Scary is a good word and it's not one you could say about this. The atmosphere was like a park in the middle of the day, well lit and no tension. Nothing built up to be scary and the one time you might have been scared was a loud sound in a dream after finding an apple. Maybe there was something to jumpscare you but I didn’t see it, mostly due to how the dreams are impossible to see anything and have this wavy effect that is horrible to look at much less move around in.
I hope this dev improves, I hope they can make a game and this isn’t it. This is harsh and I hope not mean but this was honest. This showed that the dev understood the fundamentals of a game and there are many things one can do to improve it.
My advice:
- The players' choices make them matter and have them impact the game in some way.
- The nightmares need something to be added or they need to be removed fully but as it stands it does nothing for the story.
- Something at the end to show care for the subject
- Tone it down, let there be mystery, let the player question if this is truly it or if there is more to it