Questions:
Hi! First of all, I like your game it's pretty technically impressive and has a lot of potential :)
To answer your questions:
As a final piece of advice, I'd add more risk and reward. There's currently no risk as the player can't lose and rewards don't feel as meaningful since there're tons of them around and they don't necessarily change game play, they're essentially fancy keys.
Overall the game lacks information for the player which can leave them confused.
I like the fantasy setting though and hunting down unique items! Keep making games, I'm curious to see how you progress.
Some things that came into my mind after one playthrough (on tiny-mode). I hope you find them useful.
Opening screen looks like a cheated wife who is about to destroy her husband's things (for real). Otherwise objects (and ending) were clear. I knew I was in a last screen right when I arrived.
Observations and suggestions:
- The amount of information is quite overwhelming. It's like playing a memory game. Map size selection is a very good feature.
- I liked the surreal objects (the story could back up those much more), but it is hard to tell what is what by the graphics. I picked up an object, forgot what is was, and wasn't able to retrieve information from the inventory (or did I miss something?). I ended up writing them down, which was cumbersome.
- I found it hard to position myself in a world (even in tiny one). I'd welcome an overall map that shows where you are and perhaps places you no longer need to visit. At least the header should tell, which world you're currently in.
- Common problem with the procedural approach is that without good heuristics everything tends to go completely random. Perhaps you should abandon procedural approach at start, create a hand-crafted levels and polish them according to user feedback. First level can be extremely simple: get object and open portal. Second one could use couple objects, perhaps two worlds etc. This would give rhythm to the game: milestones for the player and points where you could take the story further. Also, it would be easier to evaluate and improve game logic when you can adjust details according to feedback. After that you can start adding procedural elements one by one while keeping the good parts in.
- There was also a tiny bug: battle doesn't work every time. Sometimes when I swing the sword over an enemy, flashing doesn't occur. After visiting another screen and coming back, it works again.
Keep up going. If you need more testing, don't hesitate to ask.
