Thank you for playing!! Giving the players more choice has been the #1 feedback we're getting, and we're putting more effort into making sure the plot allows for more branching paths. The plot itself is aimed at being morally grey, and we hope that the options we present to the players will make for interesting, difficult choices. :)
Thank you very much!! Saying the narrative is easy to follow is honestly the highest praise, we have too many ideas written in our notes, and the hardest part was not tripping over ourselves to make the demo flow. That being said, we're really excited to show more of the emotional complexity that goes into these characters and their morally-grey motives.
We can't wait to show more interaction and puzzles, and pace the mystery in a way that allows you as the player to draw your own conclusions. The 2D platformer adds a whole bunch of new possibilities for puzzle mechanics, and thankfully transferring our Renpy branching-options-logic hasn't been too hard so far.
Thank you!! We are working on expanding the world and the characters, especially Violette and the main character Reverie. We didn't want to go too long with the demo but we are excited to show more story expansion in our writing.
Totally agree, a game is a means to tell a story, but a video game also has that unique job of making the player engage heavier with the story than just watching it unfold. We're working on making multiple endings, with more choices mattering throughout the game. In a similar vein of Life is Strange or the Dark Picture games, is the goal. Honest thoughts help make games better so always appreciated! :)
The original idea was to be made as a 2D pixel/ASCII platformer (for Unity, or Godot), that's our favorite medium personally. We developed a lot of map ideas and assets, but realized after a few weeks that, with the scope we wanted to capture in a demo, we would be biting off more than we can successfully chew before the deadline.
But we really wanted to hone in on the atmosphere and build the story behind our game, and then build more interactive mechanics that make players feel more immersed in this world. Puzzle elements are the next development step for sure, every dark narrative twist should feel like it's something the player was clever enough to get to the bottom of. Making this prototype system really helped us as the creators understand how this vision looks in its most basic form.
Haha! In that big jump/fall downwards, I was aiming to get that collectable item on the far wall. I was clicking the z and x buttons a ton as I went at that wall, and I got the item, but then I started to drift upwards and my character started flying up without me touching the keyboard. It was probably just a weird bug because I spammed too hard and the wall slide mechanic was just starting to kick in, I probably couldn't remake that bug happen even if I tried. XD
This is fun! I played this for longer than I expected I would. So, for the recommendations, I think that the skill tree could use some slight UI improvement with the logo colors. When the player comes back to the skill tree, it looks like some of the older skills are "greyed out" aka "maxxed out" (Even if there's more to unlock there!) so the player is more likely to run an ocean wide but an inch deep in the skills, by branching out to whatever the new shiny gold skills are, instead of putting more points into maxing out the skills towards the center (I hope that explanation makes sense). I played for awhile and couldn't beat the boss, but I'm sure I would have been able to easily progress past the boss challenge had I stayed even longer.
That all said, the strengths of this game is the skill tree, it keeps the player hooked in the game loop because progression feels so good. You come back with 200+ diamonds for your tree and you feel good about it because you always come back with even more. The gameplay mechanic itself is something new to me, you just align your cursor, and at first I wasn't sure how that would make an engaging game but I was very wrong! You do have to move the cursor to follow the enemies, but you also have to quick dart to catch your diamonds before they fall off screen, or else getting the enemies isn't worth it. So that is a good use of a very simple mechanic.
I wasn't sure where the agent theme comes in but I assume that is the more abstract use of the definition in the actual gameplay, where you are an "agent" of the slug? I guess in that sense, any game you are an "agent" of the character, but I think I see the connections in your game!
Overall, strong game! Good art and rewarding gameplay loop.
Not typically my style of game but Epic Space Battles has a really stellar soundtrack and sick visuals, movement feels immersive and the range of available ships is good. However the UI has a lot of scaling issues and tends to clutter the screen. Overall a really cool submission!
This game was really enjoyable and felt very original. The atmosphere is great and the UI felt crisp. I'd really like to see this expanded into a full game. My only complaints are: 1. That you couldn't change to fullscreen mid game and that 2. By making it so that there was only one browser window available, a lot of the gameplay became more about re-entering IP addresses than actually comparing info about the applicants. This also could have just been something I, myself couldn't figure out.
Love the player movement mechanics! The story was interesting, I like the use of "sleeper agent" as your use of theme. The movement felt very dream-like. I did get stuck in a few places however, and at one point I was flying straight upwards in the map, but nothing some bugfixing the wall slide can't amend.
