Bought the game, as I thought it looked promising. I was left disappointed. So I'll leave my critical thoughts, feedback, and I'll be uploading a video going through my frustrations later.

- Game is definitely unoptimized, had to turn everything down to low, and even then it would have drastic lag spikes and an FPS of around 10-15 while other random moments? Smooth - lowering the visuals to minimum barely helped it.

- The creature is.... quite a bit lame, there's no spook to it. It's just, you get touched? You die - gg, you dead - replay? No atmosphere, no sound effects for death, nothing like that. Ontop of that, the creature is a moron, you close doors and it just backs off and acts like "Shucks, the door cockblocks me from chasing the guy!".

- Holding E to activate a mouse that isn't visible to open/close doors is problematic and open/closing doors feels bad.

- What the developer fails to tell you what the game basically is? Is a Slenderman Clone in a House - but even worse, and for $5. I've seen better things for free, I'd request a refund if I could, honestly. Now why I say it's a bad Slenderman clone is? The GOAL of the game? Is just to collect 10 Recorders (Instead of 5, 7 or 10 Pages) and the incredibly lazy stunt that is pulled is that the Recorders you have to collect before leaving the house? They are scattered in select locations to be found - ONE at a time. Only ONE will be VISIBLE at a time, you FIND it? Then the 2nd will Magically appear in any of the rooms, hallways, or places you've already been in. They are invisible or non-existent until you find one, then the '1' next one appears, rinse and repeat. It is a poor way of extending the length of a game, that would then? Only be 10-20 minutes in length. The fact that the Recorders are INVISIBLE and ONLY appear after you grab one, is stupid. Slenderman, at least all the pages were visible and collectible based on whichever you can get to first. In this? You have to comb through the whole house for 1 recorder - find it - then Re-comb the house to find another recorder, rinse and repeat. That is horrid.

None of this is mentioned in the store page description, just this vague one: "The Wendigo - is a first person investigation horror game set in a Victorian era mansion, located in the heart of a forest. You must rely on your instinct and intuition to survive the horrors that lie within. With tools to aid you, you will seek answers, but will you survive?" - "Upon arriving, you and your team begin to setup for the investigation. After you finish unloading and assembling the command station you realize none of your friends have returned from preparing their areas...you must now find out what has happened to your team before their fate becomes your own..."

Hello! First off I would like to apologize if you did not enjoy the game and I would like to personally address the issues you had with it and maybe we can come up with some changes to implement into the game!

- "Game is definitely unoptimized" this is actually interesting to hear as through most of my testing the game ran great on a variety of machines (only had issues with 1 person who was playing on a laptop) so to clarify this if you could share your PC specs it would help narrow down the issue!

- "The creature is.... quite a bit lame" so I have actually heard similar comments to this before in the past, however I have not had much feedback in ways the monster could be better. The 1 shot kill is intended to increase panic levels in players as it forces players to have to use creative movements around the house to avoid being killed all while being chased. Also in terms of the doors, yes early on in the game he does get blocked by doors and is a valid tactic to use however towards the end of the game he gains the ability to open/close doors and going through testing we found this mechanic to be very hard to deal with which is why he gets it later in the game.

- "Holding E to activate a mouse that isn't visible to open/close doors is problematic and open/closing doors feels bad" so this is something I have been trying to polish for a while and cant seem to find a perfect solution just yet due to several different designs going on with the door at the same time. The controls for the door were chosen specifically to be difficult to preform while being chased to help increase players panic levels. The only time most players have issues with the doors are in those moments only from what I have seen (being chased that is). Otherwise most people have like the door mechanic but just wanted it to be a little bit smoother and I am tracking that in the current bug list.

- "Slenderman Clone in a House" So when the game was starting to be designed I wanted to keep the game simple (objectively wise) and also have something that could be played in 30-40 mins. I have enjoyed working on horror games in the past and liked the Slenderman game for its simplicity yet still scary type of gameplay. So that being said, yes the game is similar in alot of ways to it and I understand how some people would not like that, but for this being my first released game and working on my own I felt that gameplay style would suit this project best.

- "Is just to collect 10 Recorders (Instead of 5, 7 or 10 Pages) and the incredibly lazy stunt that is pulled is that the Recorders you have to collect before leaving the house? They are scattered in select locations to be found - ONE at a time. Only ONE will be VISIBLE at a time, you FIND it? " So I am still going back and fourth on how the items should be spawned in the house...I have it setup to be 1 at a time due to feedback from my stream saying that since the house is not that large it works to have players re-canvas areas they have been through. Otherwise, yes the game would only last 10 mins if you could just run through the house find all the tapes and collect them really fast before the monster has time to power up. So this exact thing has been an issue that I have been trying to optimize for gameplay experience for some time now and had to make a final choice or the game would never have been done.

All this being said, I can see how this game is not "ground-breaking" or anything that will win "best game of the year" and as a first project working solo in my free time its something I am proud to have released. If you have any ideas or suggestions for things that could be added/changed in the game I would love to hear them as I would like to make the game more enjoyable. I stream 100% of the games development live on twitch and can clear any of this up on there if you want or you can contact me directly on any of my listed social media.

Thanks again for trying out the game even if you did not enjoy it

-Warka

twitch.tv/warka101

twitter: @warka101

- Specs I use are:
CPU - i5-4670K - 3.4GHz Quad
GPU - Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB (AMD 280x)
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws X - 16GB DDR3
Windows 10, 64 bit.

- Wasn't criticizing one-shot death moreso, but just the, abrupt and anti-climactic 'feeling' it gives off by dying. It's simplistic compared to others, basically?

- Well, I'm not master of rotations and game design with mouse integration so I'd not be able to give suggestions or help there.

- Slenderclone statement - Well, it's how I feel, others could share your sentimentality, so if the game goes on Steam and people disagree with me, that is all well and fine. I have picky tastes and I know that. Though I can also see many who may agree, so the proposition that it could be a make-or-break depending on both Timing, and Mood of the community and the way the game is portrayed, advertised, etc? Is crucial.

- Indeed, the house, although it isn't relatively small, it isn't large enough to have it fully out in the open at the get-go, or people could just speedrun it in 1-2 minutes, without a doubt. A suggestion then that may not 'feel cheap' or make very little sense could be if alternative creatures, lore, is added that introduce the idea that 'Things in the house want to help you, and are against the Wendigo, or simply want to have fun by playing games with both of you" like little Gremlins that scatter the evidence/recordings in boxes, even with perhaps a necessary puzzle - or additionally-needed Key to open it. So you play Cat and Mouse with one mechanic of creatures hiding what you seek - and only giving it if you meet their requirements, whether puzzles/keys whilst being chased by the Wendigo and needing to be cautious of where its location is. If it's just You and Wendigo, it leaves you little room. A suggestion of 'additional characters/creatures' makes it so you have more room to explore 'Why/how/what'. Hell, even that creepy doll that moves and stares at you, if not used for other things, could be the one leaving you the evidence, the clues on where, when? Is by little footsteps and noises it makes, or if within a radius, you hear it, see it in the distance at the corner of your eye running around a corner, hinting 'it's this way'.... If not that, to trick you into leading you to where the Wendigo is if not paying attention to troll you. Potential always exists where ideas exist. If at least that, or similar were introduced, it'd not seem lame - but enhance the story and lore and atmosphere all in one, but it'd require more work, of course. At the end of the day, such work is always appreciated by consumers and those who recognize the effort put into a game, the little things go a long way.

If not that I'd just boast that I leak ideas and suggestions like diarrhea so it's never an issue for me to think of workarounds or fixes - I just don't have the coding and dev-skills to implement those ideas.

Thanks for handling my criticisms maturely.