Hello, I have been working on a game with me and my developer, @Kyodoru, and I personally think the game is done and ready for release.
I am asking on here as I know you guys will be able to help and give feedback on the game. So, basically what i’m asking is, “Do you think this is good and would you enjoy?”.
This is my first ever proper game i’ve made, so i’m trying to make it the best I can.
Before I give the link, let me explain what the game is and what you do.
Start of by going through the story line, this should help you understand the setting a bit.
Check for the notes around the map, these should help you on what to do.
There is a few blatantly obvious buttons, others are not so easy.
What to do
Find and click the buttons to escape, the buttons are easy to find if you use your head and take the hints the game gives you.
Game to me is extremely dark & when I try to move my mouse/move camera, it’s really hard to do that. Maybe add more lightings to the flashlight so you can see better in the dark lighting & allow the camera movement to be a little softer & easier.
Right, so I’ve changed first person a bit, and I tweaked the lighting so it’s not bright but not to dark, I’ve also changed the flashlight so it’s actually bright and can show you where you’re going.
Number one problem is that it’s confusing. If players can’t quickly figure out how to play, it’s over. They’ll leave out of boredom or frustration. The fact that this thread includes a “What to do” section is a red flag.
The thumbnail does not show what the game is
Intro text is slow and probably not the best way to start the game. In the smart phone age people are less patient than ever, and they will judge new games within 7 seconds. So it’s important to show what’s fun or interesting about your game within those 7 seconds, otherwise players will leave without even trying it.
The way the notes close isn’t intuitive. Some people won’t be able to read that fast, or may be momentarily distracted for whatever reason and be unable to read it. Instead, consider using a keybind to close the gui.
Where is the sound design?
Clicking buttons should have more feedback: visual and audial. The counter goes down, which is good, but that isn’t sufficient to make the act of clicking the button feel like an achievement.
The alarm is the best part so far, but the fact that the red flashing lingers even after deactivating the alarm was hurting my eyes so I left.
I wonder: Does the game end when the player finds 10 buttons? It seems like it does. Maybe there’s more to it, but if so, there’s no indication of that. If it really is just the 10 buttons, then there probably isn’t enough content to keep people interested.
Overall, considering the points above and more that aren’t listed here, I don’t think it’s ready for the general public.
This isn’t to be rude, but to be honest and to help you decide what drastic changes to make to this project:
This game concept is just bad.
People want variation and it gets boring just after you hit the first button. I don’t feel any need to continue after the first tiny rush of dopamine that I get from hitting the first, easy-to-find button. It just feels frustrating and useless after a point, and it’s not only that…
The story is not interesting enough to hook the person in, and the story is not really portrayed evenly throughout the game. There are so many games like this already, and some of them have more twists and differences that keep the player playing.
This one is just about finding things in a dark room. If you add more onto it or make it a competitive process it might be interesting, but right now I don’t feel like this has a chance of becoming a popular game.
Yes but you should probably fix the flashlight, the running animation makes the light teleport from side to side and the introduction text seems to cut off the screen since im on mobile, you should probably make it smaller
I forgot about mobile users! The game will probably not be avalible on phones, but it will be for iPad and tablet users. And about the flashlight, that is done based on where the cursor is pointing, but for mobile you dont have a cursor, so it goes wherever the touch goes.
Wow, thank you for the detailed response. I’ll add a bit more to the game (after you click all the buttons), like maybe a shootout or whatever. I’ll also make it a lot more interesting.