I just made my game public, I worked on it entirely by myself and I will also drop a trailer soon.
I want to know if it requires any necessary changes
4 Likes
The game is very well made for me and I didn’t see any major bugs (I didn’t check everything). I like this game and maybe one day I will come back to play it, so I wish you good luck in further developing the game.
1 Like
The game is alright, nice mechanics and gameplay. I like the vibe of it.
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Hello! I played your game Spooky Encounters, and it looks promising. Yet, there are a few points I want to give out, of course, this is my personal feedback on what you can do to make your game even better! I’ve made a list of things you can consider to make the gameplay even more fun!
Also, this is probably the longest time I spent writing a feedback on a game, so I hope it helps you out not just in this game but any other game in the future.
Subtitle Issues:
I can see that subtitles here are a way for the characters to voice their opinions on the mansion and what is going around. The subtitles are very vital in not only guiding the players but also in storytelling.
As you can see the video I’ve posted below showcases the common issue that I faced. This is for all the subtitles, not just this one.
Due to the buggy nature of the subtitles, it was really hard for me to be immersed within this experience as I had to move my character back and forth to read what the subtitles were saying.
Another thing I wanted to point out is that there are subtitles such as the image below, that don’t make sense. “Fashion Sense” was not clear to me. If it is vital for the story, let it so the character questions what this painting or picture is.
Buggy Nature (Performance):
I wasn’t able to play the game properly due to the buggy nature that it had. You can check the video below, I compiled some of the issues I faced:
How do we fix this issue? By optimization. Of course, through that, you would make the game more accessible to other devices that cannot run high performance. I had my graphics quality set to low, and I ensured my Internet connection was all alright, yet I still faced some issues performance-wise.
Lack of Player Guidance:
I didn’t know what I had to do most of the time, and in the end, I was confused about what to do with the axe. Through subtitles, you can easily guide the player (for example: “Hey, I saw something outside, maybe this can help me break it open”)
If you’re not guiding the player correctly into what to do, they might feel frustrated if they don’t know how to reach the game’s objectives.
For example, for the crowbar, while it does tell the player that they need to find one, you can drop clues over time to aid the player with where to find it (if they were not able to)
Also, wanted to point out that some doors make a sound when they can’t be unlocked, or use subtitles to say “I need to find a key to unlock this”, or “This door is locked”, and make it for all the doors, also make the proximity prompt take less time if the player does not have the key. Of course, everything is optional but this is just a tip.
- No key = ProximityPrompt (Open?) - takes no second, produces a door knob sound effect, and the subtitle “I need to find a key.”
- Key = ProximityPrompt (Unlock) - takes a second, produces key unlock sound effect, then opens the door
Sense of Environment and Ambience
Through using the environment we can tell a story of what happened to the place. Now, I learned that this place is haunted. Is it abandoned, or are there people still living there? If it’s abandoned then there shouldn’t be any lights or electricity, and the condition of the house should be worse; yet if people are living there we need to fill it up with more decorations and pieces that make it show that someone is interacting with the furniture.
First, the usage of music is important. If you want to make a horror game, you must have eerie sounds that evoke an unsettling feeling in the players. (basically leaving them on the edge of their seats). The only time I was scared was when I was opening the door, the sound effect scared me for a second. But, nothing else did.
Outside is the same as inside, and that is not ideal, you can make it so that when the player enters the house, the sound of the crickets is no longer playing, and for example, the sound of the ceiling fan gets the spotlight.
Looking at the exterior, we can see that the trees are very identical, and you can make the world more dynamic by sizing the trees differently and rotating them. (Unless this is the look you’re going for)
But, I really liked the fog and the environment overall for the exterior; it was skillfully implemented and I noticed you added more effort to the environment outside than the interior of the home.
Moving to the interior, there are a few things you can implement to improve the overall ambiance. You can try your best to remove the glitching and overlapping parts that do this effect. As nothing unnatural has happened yet, and it looks more like a developer mistake.
Furthermore, if your house has someone who lives in it, then I need you to imagine yourself in their shoes. What would you do if you lived in this house? Painted bedroom walls? Added photos? Added paintings and plants? Any decorations? These few details show us the personality of the house owner and give us more depth when it comes to lore, and creating an environment.
By adding a vase, table, plant, some pictures on the wall, and decal//texture to walls; you can make the place look more like a house that people lived in once before or live in. I made a picture that can show you the difference in adding a bit of touch.
Of course, you can experiment with lighting to create something that can make the game more horror-like. I made a quick edit to show you what it might look like:
Some other areas, I recommend taking advantage of; and adding more details. It doesn’t have to be very detailed or take up a lot of memory that can ruin the performance of the game. But, since the player is in the house more than outside, then making the trees less important is vital.
Overall Gameplay
You can add more puzzles, such as collecting certain pieces and combining them into one thing, to unlock an area. Because, I noticed that the gameplay is very repetitive, you pick up some keys, go around the place to try to find which door to unlock, and then repeat the process. You can always add a bit of challenge or be more creative of course.
This is my (lengthy) personal feedback on what I think about your game, it is amazing; and I felt compelled to write this long list of things you can do to improve your game, and to help you out with making your game stick more with the horror genre, now sadly I didn’t get to finish the game due to some bugs, but I wish you the very best in your development journey. Thank you and good luck!
2 Likes
I appreciate the effort and amount of time You spent writing and recording these clips trying to show off what changes need to be made in the game and I appreciate that, I will be making more changes in the near future, so expect the game to be getting updates.
1 Like