Hey there. Played it. I'm actually not a huge fan of point and clicks, though... But I wanted to play it because it said 'detective'. I thought it was ok. It's pretty short and straight-forward, so it's unclear to me if it's going to be interesting. The demo was essentially go here, then here, then here.
I got stuck at the beginning, I don't think the system is intuitive at first, it'd be nice if you eased the player into it in a more controlled and direct manner.
I thought the writing was funny, that was probably what I liked the most. That and, looking around when entering new areas, the environments look cool.
The character is too slow, it's annoying to backtrack.
I felt like the inventory system was a bit clunky. Like, grabbing something and then trying to avoid other items in the inventory, but then overshooting and closing the inventory.
Oh, and, when I put the 8 turnips in the box, one of them stood on top of the others, and because of that the game didn't count it. I feel like that should've still counted as inside the box. I understood immediately what happened when the game told me there was 1 turnip left, but I might have not, you know?
So all in all, uh... I'd be down to play more, but I haven't really been sold yet. I don't know if I got a taste of what the game is about. Like will it have interesting puzzles? Will it require some deduction? I don't know. But it's cute, so if you make more content I'd like to play more.
I like it. The shift to interact is a nice feature, but when I think about it, it's not really essential so far. I hope you make some interesting things with it because I feel the potential.
The inventory and item moving is janky at times, like trying to take out items near npc and starting to talk at the same time. Tree billboarding is a bit jarring, since the z-sorting changes with camera movement. The lever for the door to the woods didn't open after switching it for the first time.
-I feel like the styles for hovered and non-hovered text should be inverted. Options should become more visible when hovered.
-Game viewport is letterboxed at 16:10.
-Dragging to open the door wasn't entirely intuitive, and you have to drag it twice to open it fully.
-Why do I have to stop and hold Shift just to interact with things?
-Is there a reason for why you can't move while holding Shift? I feel like it breaks the flow of the game.
-Text box fade out animation takes too long.
-Softlocked when I tried dragging the first turnip I picked up to the bag icon and it vanished.
-The trigger point for levers should be closer to the middle.
-Dragging items out of your inventory sometimes doesn't work, and the inventory sometimes opens on hover instead of only when clicked.
-Placed 7 turnips in the box, but only 4 appeared. The last one got launched off to the side and disappeared.
-Items in the world sometimes change location when you open and close the inventory.
-On the 3rd attempt of putting the turnips in the box, the 6th turnip launched another one into the ocean.
-I don't think the slow movement speed adds anything to the experience (at least not in a good way).
-4th attempt: 6th turnip got launched into the ocean when I took it out of the inventory.
-Finally managed to put the turnips in the box on the 5th attempt.
-Grabbing the inward doorknob on a door from the outside makes the door snap inwards.
-Walking into the witch's house makes you jitter back and forth.
-Clicking the inventory while looking at an NPC will both open the inventory and talk to the NPC.
-Giving NPCs items should be done by letting go of the mouse button, not just by hovering it over them.
-I don't think the text in the outro benefited from being auto-scrolling, and if you're going to have auto-scrolling text, it should be presented in a different way than normal text.
Text errors:
There's a lot of commas missing when the characters refer to the player as "Detective".
Intro (when skipping tutorial):
"character you meet" --> "characters you meet"; comma splice after the above.
Farmer:
"I'm in a pickle at the moment, would you help me out with something?" is two sentences. You can't have a comma there. If you want to emphasize a connection between two separate sentences, you use a semicolon.
Some of his lines have missing capitals at the start of sentences.
Another comma splice after "I counted yesterday".
"Hey Thanks" --> "Hey, thanks"
Old man:
"kings" --> "king's"
Guard:
"kings" --> "king's"
Missing some capitals.
Witch:
You can't have a comma after an exclamation mark.
"this but. There's a rumor" --> "this, but there's a rumor"
Outro:
Titles should only be capitalized if used in place of a name. Just "Old Man" is correct, but "the Old Man" is not.
Thanks for the very detailed feedback, you pointed out a lot of useful things.
are you playing at 165hz ? I think there might be some issues playing at higher framerate. probably why you've had so many issues with the turnips. I'll definitely have to look into it.
not being able to move while holding shift isn't locked in stone. I understand why you would want to be able to move. I'll try allowing it, see how it feels.
>The trigger point for levers should be closer to the middle.
agreed.
>I don't think the slow movement speed adds anything to the experience (at least not in a good way). Movement will feel better when I redo the map to be smaller.
>Grabbing the inward doorknob on a door from the outside makes the door snap inwards. This might also be a framerate issue. Doors are a little hacky right now. I have 2 hitboxes on each side of the door, to know if you're inside or outside. This flips the direction the mouse affects the door.
>Giving NPCs items should be done by letting go of the mouse button, not just by hovering it over them. didn't think of that, that's definitely much better!
I hope the video is going to be useful to you. You can probably tell I did some things I probably shouldn't be allowed to.
I like point and click games. This one is a good start. I hope the obvious black and white 3d models with no textures are going to be replaced with some doodle textures in future just like the ground and trees.
Some trees clipped through buildings.
I wish there was sprinting.
Sometimes it was hard to put things in the bag (but I am sure I was not supposed to have that many items)
If you need feedback on anything specific, then ask away.
Thank you so much for the video! Very helpful indeed!
One thing I noticed is how you were always standing very close to objects you wanted to interact with. in reality the interaction distance is very long. the idea is that you can place everything you need to interact with into frame. Also, you push and pull objects away from you using the mouse wheel. I'll have to figure out a way to communicate this better.
I really enjoyed how you put a turnip in the witches cauldron. It's something I hadn't even thought of doing
> I hope the obvious black and white 3d models with no textures are going to be replaced with some doodle textures in future just like the ground and trees.
Definitely, I have a lot more shader experimentation I want to do. which hopefully I can showcase next DD
>Some trees clipped through buildings. Yeah I had to rush this to get something out for DD.
> I wish there was sprinting. Sprinting isn't out of the question but I think the main issue is that the demo area is way too big for the content it has. I'm planning on making areas a lot more concentrated so this will probably fix the need for sprinting.
>Sometimes it was hard to put things in the bag (but I am sure I was not supposed to have that many items) yeah I like the idea of it becoming harder to fit things in your bag as it gets more full. Kinda like trying pack your suitcase for a trip. But the bags definitely feels jankier than intended right now. Although I'm surprised how well it holds.
Also I just remembered your video showed a bug I thought I had fixed. Which is extra helpful. You're not supposed to be able to talk to NPCs while your bag is open.
Really, Thanks a lot for trying out the game and making a video. It's always immensely helpful to get to see someone play your game for the first time.
I'm happy you found it helpful. I think sprinting wouldn't needed as much if you make players be more on the look out for clues. You know, give them an option to sprint, but make it so they can miss things if they blindly sprint too much.
As for the shaders, you could prbably try to recreate something like Return of the Obra Dinn.
Yeah I had to rush this to get something out for DD.
Yeah, no matter how much time you get, there is still more things you would like to work on. It's good you made it in time
Comments
i really liked the design of the level, having that nice castle almost always in view kept me wanting to get there and solve some spooky mystery.
my monitor is 60hz, and the turnips got ejected into the ocean as well.
textures are too noisy from far away, did you try using anisotropic filtering?
for me the whole shift - click - drag thing didn't feel necessary, but were also intuitive enough so i was not bothered by it
Hey there. Played it. I'm actually not a huge fan of point and clicks, though... But I wanted to play it because it said 'detective'. I thought it was ok. It's pretty short and straight-forward, so it's unclear to me if it's going to be interesting. The demo was essentially go here, then here, then here.
I got stuck at the beginning, I don't think the system is intuitive at first, it'd be nice if you eased the player into it in a more controlled and direct manner.
I thought the writing was funny, that was probably what I liked the most. That and, looking around when entering new areas, the environments look cool.
The character is too slow, it's annoying to backtrack.
I felt like the inventory system was a bit clunky. Like, grabbing something and then trying to avoid other items in the inventory, but then overshooting and closing the inventory.
Oh, and, when I put the 8 turnips in the box, one of them stood on top of the others, and because of that the game didn't count it. I feel like that should've still counted as inside the box. I understood immediately what happened when the game told me there was 1 turnip left, but I might have not, you know?
So all in all, uh... I'd be down to play more, but I haven't really been sold yet. I don't know if I got a taste of what the game is about. Like will it have interesting puzzles? Will it require some deduction? I don't know. But it's cute, so if you make more content I'd like to play more.
Have a video:
I like it. The shift to interact is a nice feature, but when I think about it, it's not really essential so far. I hope you make some interesting things with it because I feel the potential.
The inventory and item moving is janky at times, like trying to take out items near npc and starting to talk at the same time. Tree billboarding is a bit jarring, since the z-sorting changes with camera movement. The lever for the door to the woods didn't open after switching it for the first time.
Good experience overall.
-I feel like the styles for hovered and non-hovered text should be inverted. Options should become more visible when hovered.
-Game viewport is letterboxed at 16:10.
-Dragging to open the door wasn't entirely intuitive, and you have to drag it twice to open it fully.
-Why do I have to stop and hold Shift just to interact with things?
-Is there a reason for why you can't move while holding Shift? I feel like it breaks the flow of the game.
-Text box fade out animation takes too long.
-Softlocked when I tried dragging the first turnip I picked up to the bag icon and it vanished.
-The trigger point for levers should be closer to the middle.
-Dragging items out of your inventory sometimes doesn't work, and the inventory sometimes opens on hover instead of only when clicked.
-Placed 7 turnips in the box, but only 4 appeared. The last one got launched off to the side and disappeared.
-Items in the world sometimes change location when you open and close the inventory.
-On the 3rd attempt of putting the turnips in the box, the 6th turnip launched another one into the ocean.
-I don't think the slow movement speed adds anything to the experience (at least not in a good way).
-4th attempt: 6th turnip got launched into the ocean when I took it out of the inventory.
-Finally managed to put the turnips in the box on the 5th attempt.
-Grabbing the inward doorknob on a door from the outside makes the door snap inwards.
-Walking into the witch's house makes you jitter back and forth.
-Clicking the inventory while looking at an NPC will both open the inventory and talk to the NPC.
-Giving NPCs items should be done by letting go of the mouse button, not just by hovering it over them.
-I don't think the text in the outro benefited from being auto-scrolling, and if you're going to have auto-scrolling text, it should be presented in a different way than normal text.
Text errors:
There's a lot of commas missing when the characters refer to the player as "Detective".
Intro (when skipping tutorial):
"character you meet" --> "characters you meet"; comma splice after the above.
Farmer:
"I'm in a pickle at the moment, would you help me out with something?" is two sentences. You can't have a comma there. If you want to emphasize a connection between two separate sentences, you use a semicolon.
Some of his lines have missing capitals at the start of sentences.
Another comma splice after "I counted yesterday".
"Hey Thanks" --> "Hey, thanks"
Old man:
"kings" --> "king's"
Guard:
"kings" --> "king's"
Missing some capitals.
Witch:
You can't have a comma after an exclamation mark.
"this but. There's a rumor" --> "this, but there's a rumor"
Outro:
Titles should only be capitalized if used in place of a name. Just "Old Man" is correct, but "the Old Man" is not.
Thanks for the very detailed feedback, you pointed out a lot of useful things.
are you playing at 165hz ? I think there might be some issues playing at higher framerate. probably why you've had so many issues with the turnips. I'll definitely have to look into it.
not being able to move while holding shift isn't locked in stone. I understand why you would want to be able to move. I'll try allowing it, see how it feels.
>The trigger point for levers should be closer to the middle.
agreed.
>I don't think the slow movement speed adds anything to the experience (at least not in a good way).
Movement will feel better when I redo the map to be smaller.
>Grabbing the inward doorknob on a door from the outside makes the door snap inwards.
This might also be a framerate issue. Doors are a little hacky right now. I have 2 hitboxes on each side of the door, to know if you're inside or outside. This flips the direction the mouse affects the door.
>Giving NPCs items should be done by letting go of the mouse button, not just by hovering it over them.
didn't think of that, that's definitely much better!
Also thanks for the proof reading!
Congratulation on your DD submission.
I played the whole thing.
video with no commentary:
https://litter.catbox.moe/2qnl3g.mp4
link expires in 3 days.
I hope the video is going to be useful to you. You can probably tell I did some things I probably shouldn't be allowed to.
I like point and click games. This one is a good start. I hope the obvious black and white 3d models with no textures are going to be replaced with some doodle textures in future just like the ground and trees.
Some trees clipped through buildings.
I wish there was sprinting.
Sometimes it was hard to put things in the bag (but I am sure I was not supposed to have that many items)
If you need feedback on anything specific, then ask away.
Thank you so much for the video! Very helpful indeed!
One thing I noticed is how you were always standing very close to objects you wanted to interact with. in reality the interaction distance is very long. the idea is that you can place everything you need to interact with into frame. Also, you push and pull objects away from you using the mouse wheel. I'll have to figure out a way to communicate this better.
I really enjoyed how you put a turnip in the witches cauldron. It's something I hadn't even thought of doing
> I hope the obvious black and white 3d models with no textures are going to be replaced with some doodle textures in future just like the ground and trees.
Definitely, I have a lot more shader experimentation I want to do. which hopefully I can showcase next DD
>Some trees clipped through buildings.
Yeah I had to rush this to get something out for DD.
> I wish there was sprinting.
Sprinting isn't out of the question but I think the main issue is that the demo area is way too big for the content it has. I'm planning on making areas a lot more concentrated so this will probably fix the need for sprinting.
>Sometimes it was hard to put things in the bag (but I am sure I was not supposed to have that many items)
yeah I like the idea of it becoming harder to fit things in your bag as it gets more full. Kinda like trying pack your suitcase for a trip. But the bags definitely feels jankier than intended right now. Although I'm surprised how well it holds.
Also I just remembered your video showed a bug I thought I had fixed. Which is extra helpful. You're not supposed to be able to talk to NPCs while your bag is open.
Really, Thanks a lot for trying out the game and making a video. It's always immensely helpful to get to see someone play your game for the first time.
I'm happy you found it helpful. I think sprinting wouldn't needed as much if you make players be more on the look out for clues. You know, give them an option to sprint, but make it so they can miss things if they blindly sprint too much.
As for the shaders, you could prbably try to recreate something like Return of the Obra Dinn.
Yeah, no matter how much time you get, there is still more things you would like to work on. It's good you made it in time