Amazing feat, congratulations! Any hint as to how secrets work? Does pressing "E" even do anything or I have to look in a completely different direction?
Thank you for making this and keeping the retro spirit alive!
szederp
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A member registered May 22, 2022
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Extremely huge fan of the game and the atmosphere. Great general design, brilliant sounds, really conveys the idea that no matter what it is if there is money in it, corporations will find a way...
Some thoughts on the endings though - SPOILER ALERT!
I think most people will have no problem reaching the Dark Endings.
However I found the Good Ending quite cryptic, I think it is quite unintuitive for several reasons:
To get the key in "Pipeline B" you need to go lower than the "Pipe depth". This is in no way encouraged in the game and we are not offered any clues (at least I did not find any). If anything the game leads to the opposite direction:
- there is a paper explaining how to remove the clog "go down to pipe depth, remove clog then go up"
- the game is very much about your running around fixing problems it encourages you to be fast and efficient, it does not in any way encourage you to explore.
- the SE event is on a timer, again putting the player on the edge just to make sure the station works optimally, no time to go running around.
- the monitoring system could be a great way to give players a clue who decide to explore the camera system. I tried it with all cameras, I was not able to find the key on any of them. At this point the camera system serves no purpose as all the problems are reported on the screen that counts the in-take (main hall).
- lastly, this is more of my fault but I failed the Good Ending because I did not know where the elevator would come down, I did not think it was the same elevator that dropped me here in the first place. Also upon entering the elevator in time I rushed to the screens in front of me - because that is the first thing in sight - only to miss the button which I needed to push to start going up. Maybe if we could start the game by pushing that button would rectify the situation?
All in all this was a great experience and seeing how this "body horror genre" is becoming very popular (Incision, Meat Engine, Meat Grinder etc.) I think you have a solid chance of developing this short game further.
Much love from Eruope!
Descent came out really early in 1995. It was still all Doom back then...our feet was firmly on the ground :-)
There were of course space sims but even there you had no real feeling that you have 6 degrees of freedom because you were basically surrounded by nothing....space.
Descent 1 devs came along said....hmm, let's build a simulator but you get to play WITHIN the confines of closed spaces. Let's make maps that utilize this 6 degree of freedom and since now we were not in space the player could really appreciate that sometimes the floor is the ceiling. You entered a vertical shaft and suddenly the walls were the floor etc.
The game had such an impact (and was still financially not so successful) that to this day there are still people around trying to bring the essence of the original back. Forsaken, Miner Wars, Descent 3, Sublevel Zero (roguelite) and a huge project called Desecrators on Steam now.
Meanwhile people from the original Parallax Crew are working on Ships That Fight Underground (STFU!).
As for changes...you need a solid first person view. Third person reveals too much and takes away from the mind-bending aspect of the experience.
You need levels that thrive on the 6 degrees. I think I have seen smaller projects where you piloted a spaceship and you flew from room to room but the you always had the floor beneath you and the ceiling above you. The player just could have just walked. No good.
Weapons: yes you are inside mines (great choice by the original Devs) but you are still flying a modified spaceship. Descent was fairly straightforward with its lasers but later Descent-likes introduced rockets that upon explosion created a gravity field, pulling nearby enemies there, or missiles with cameras so you could guide it to your target just around the corner. Drones with cameras, drones who would help you find keys or even more.
The color palette: many Descent clones play extremely well (Forsaken, Overload) but - and I know this is a technical issue - everything looks the same. Descent 1 used a very wide range of colors, you had no problem identifying what you were fighting. Compare System Shock 1 original to the remake. I'm either watching a neon show at times or I'm stuck because everything is the same color or shade of color...can't tell if I'm facing a wall, a door, or something else.
Well, sorry for the long post but I hope I was helpful. Strictly my two cents as somebody who grew up during the 90s.
PS: I really like Project THF and that you grasped one the greatest strength of the game...the non-linear level design. Been a while since I played it, hope you won't abandon the game.
Kind Regards
Peter from Hungary
I happily bought the alpha for a dollar and enjoyed the hell out of it. However I heard you are going to change to Unreal engine 5....which makes me extremely sad. Not everyone has a rig to run UE5 games and I think it will change the way the game looks right now which is perfect to support this twisted atmosphere.
To be honest I thought I was playing a black dude, at least that was my first impression upon seeing the portrait. Based on the video I think you made some steps in the right direction. If you are hell-bent on having a heroine, then perhaps you should ask a friend (girl) and record some simple lines so there is no confusion.
(and no, I don't give a damn about liberalism, we in Central Europe think differently).
Keep up the good work, wish you great success in the future!
Peter from Hungary
It plays like the amalgam of Quake 2, Unreal, Sin, and Blood2.
Your movement is a bit wobbly, therefore your aim is wobbly too I somehow like it.
Level design is great, lot of interconnected room, feels like a maze, excellent job here.
The secrets are quite easy to find, found all of them and I'm not particularly perceptive :-) They still feel good.
Atmosphere is nice. Music is a bit repetitive but the lighting and color palette helps the immersion a lot.
Enemies do not poes a huge threat though. That jump they do is a bit ridiculous, it is as if we were on the moon :-)
All in all you really captured that RAW retro feeling.
Basic keybindings work but making E both the use button and the reload button is a bit awkward.
Also, when your character is hit you he/she(?) sounds like a cat who got her tail stepped on :)
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your reply. I understand where you are coming from. As I said this is a very promising project, the atmosphere is perfect and the story unfolding so far is great (I like science fiction).
I am simply frustrated about the fact that you worked so hard to put this demo out and yet you did not include a save function of any kind. Playing your game over an hour just to check every nook and cranny and then suddenly I lose all my progress. There is no excuse for this, don't get offended so easily. You are a game developer, people will praise AND criticise your game. That is the way forward.
And no, the instructions are not clear at first and they disappear too soon. Maybe add an option to "press a key to continue" so that people might have some time to acknowledge what to actually do.
I don't need any "privacy policy" that is not what I was talking about the Appdata folder. I just like to have an option where I install my things...just like most people do.
Finally, I understand you but you should try to understand me. The demo is like an advertisement. This is what potential customers like me experience the first time. If the experience is bad (like losing all your progress in one second) then people will likely be turned away from purchasing this great game.
Hope it's clear where I'm coming from. I wish you great success on this project!
Really excited about this project but the fact that you cannot save and have to start all over again after you die to the monster (and it is still not clear where I'm supposed to go to hide) is just a huge turn off. Just horrible.
Also your little game installs to the Appdata folder on my system drive without questions? Bro....