Great Job BananaJeff, the pacing and world building is great. And i would love to explore the outside and learn what's happening in this world and what is causing all this.
Very thought out Story, and makes you yearn for more.
It gave me this error, when trying to start:
Unable to parse Build/gmtk2024.framework.js.gz! This can happen if build compression was enabled but web server hosting the content was misconfigured to not serve the file with HTTP Response Header "Content-Encoding: gzip" present. Check browser Console and Devtools Network tab to debug.
Seems like it can be fixed by enabling this option in the project settings -> Player
That was a great eerie experience.
If you make a longer version, draw it a bit more out, maybe add a second POI to check and just throw in a few weird messages first, and let them respond to it, "no we didn't say anything" and the Alien interferes more and more.
Space is scary, very cool. The music gave me goosebumps.
First of all i'm really impressed by the graphics and Sounddesign. In that regard it is a great experience, but i'd moreso think that this would be more of an interactive movie than a game.
Every interaction is followed by a minutes long blurry camera animation after the train section, which was fine the first time, but got annoying later on. This paired with the extremely dark environment and slow walking (which makes sense in terms of the environment) was not a great experience, it felt like walking through a sticky mud. You press interaction, watch a blurry animation and high pitched sounds and i've got a bit of a headache to be honest :( The Animations themselves are well made though.
The Story has potential since it starts off in a Train and you get transported onto a research planet and there's endless possibilities of what could be happening there, it makes you wonder what is going to happen. Hope some of what i said is valuable.
Wish you good luck and good work.
The Art style is great, of course it reminds you of Among the Sleep, so the Story has to shine through more than in most Horrorgames, but it gives lots of options to play with the perception and the perspective of a child.
You are one of the devs that has a great grasp on HFPS and what you can do with it. The Cutscenes are great, the blinking effect, the scares. Idk how well to scare meter can be of use in the game, or if it can get annoying but i liked almost everything.
Maybe disable the splatter effect from the Enemy, it reminds you too much of the Backrooms Enemy.
A few notes because i really liked the Game.
You have to decide if you want to play into all the Meta Commentary or make the Game more serious and scary.
It breaks the immersion if you have so many "Jokes" in it. The clapping mechanic is great, and the interactions could be a bit snappier.
Some things appear/disappear suddenly, stuff in the fridge etc. but those are details.
I loved the ending and chase sequence, very well done and that was really scary. But please revise how you tell the Story, it's always a bad cliché to tell the Player right at the beginning, that something bad happened and will happen to him, just leave this untold.
And the Arms are attached to the head, and don't move when interacting, maybe don't make it physics interactions next time and just make a short animation for the arm when interacting.
The Neighbour says it, the Flyer, the Cop etc. etc. it's way too much, focus on the scary moments, and leave the meta-jokes out. Really good Job!
Fun overall, but there are a few hiccups. Maybe some thoughts for the next game.
The way the piece of paper for the password was placed is too hard to see. And typing it in was a chore, because some are too long e.g. the Password. So, those two things should be shortened, especially because you have to retype everything, when you mistype a key.
I was invested in the hacking Story, until the worms started appearing and it completely took me out of the Story, because they don't make sense.
It would be better to have the guy stalk you somewhere in the building, make a jumpscare with him and run away from him. Idk where the worm came from, what it is or why it's there.
Great vibes, very "System Shock-y" which is what you where probably going for.
Scary Enemies, good mechanics, very intrigued to see what the full Game will be like and what kinds of things you will do with the sanity and the items. It's just a demo so not much to critique but the overall atmosphere and gameplay is very fun!
(it's easy to forget that the flashlight is on, when the power turned back on)
Perfect FPS Controls, and i mean Half-Life like perfect. The mounting felt a bit floaty but it's a demo, so things will get worked on anyway.
It just feels great to play, what's there is already very solid. It immediately reminded me a of a certain old game by the name of "Manhunt", could it be that it was a source of inspiration?
The way the Enemies fall or can get back up is pretty neat aswell.
Also very coherent and beautiful art-style, very talented devs and the full release will certainly be great.
Again great Atmosphere, Sound Design and pacing. It is more of an interactive film and very text-heavy, but i never got bored (Poe's texts are great) because the accompanying shots are beautiful.
Your Games have a great flair and are simply a joy to play. Especially the Cutscenes seem to be your forté (are you also a filmmaker?).
Do a full-length one and put it on Steam. Style, Music, Menus, everything is top.
Great work emulating the Style and Gameplay, the way the scenes/interactions cut to a close-up is awesome. And the Art-Style is great aswell, very coherent and eerie.
The Story was a bit too clear, but i liked the way it was done. The interjections by his conciousness was great. Good Job and very fun Game.
The only thing that i didn't like was the Beginning, running all the way to the house, only to run back to get a crowbar, and then to the house again is probably the most annoying thing. Just to open the front door, and not use it anywhere else.
It was probably done to build atmosphere, and to read the note, but that's already on the radio at the start and could've been done in another way, because it doesn't add too much. The walk is already long and enough the first time. Having the crowbar in a shed nearby and putting the bunny jumpscare there would've sufficed.
Beautiful design of the Museum and Benches, and good overview of the anti-social structure, very coherent art-style. They even completely took away benches at some stops where i live, so no one can rest. NO social spending, that's terrrible, we do have enough to bail out banks and billionaires with our taxes though.
I don't really like the bars, i know it's for the aesthetic, but a third option to get rid of them would be cool.
Interesting, you could get into a myriad of problems later on though. I don't know your particular setup, but you could adjust the height and with of the collider, when you need him to go through tiny gaps.
I'm trying to play it again now, but it's better to adjust now, and do it properly, because it will give you headaches later on, when you work on bigger games. Maybe this can help you?
Try if it works for your Project.
It adjust your characters capsule collider by half or whatever you put into the inspector, that should give you an idea, how you could make it work to get through tiny spaces.
using UnityEngine; public class CharacterColliderControl : MonoBehaviour { [SerializeField] private CapsuleCollider characterCollider; [SerializeField] private float normalHeight = 2f; [SerializeField] private float crouchHeight = 1f; [SerializeField] private Vector3 normalCenter; [SerializeField] private Vector3 crouchCenter; private bool isCrouching = false; void Start() { if (characterCollider == null) { characterCollider = GetComponent<capsulecollider>(); } if (normalCenter == Vector3.zero) normalCenter = characterCollider.center; if (crouchCenter == Vector3.zero) crouchCenter = normalCenter / 2; } void Update() { if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.C)) { isCrouching = !isCrouching; if (isCrouching) { characterCollider.height = crouchHeight; characterCollider.center = crouchCenter; } else { characterCollider.height = normalHeight; characterCollider.center = normalCenter; } } } }
That's sadly too old/weak for Games, even if they have a pixelated look. Mid-range mobile Phones are more powerful than that.
But there are good CPUs with integrated graphics coming like the 8700G or save a bit for a refurbished Steam Deck directly from Steam, those are sometimes "cheap" still 250$ or something though :-/
Jeaaaaaah... congrats i love horror games, but this is the first one that freaked me out too much that i couldn't play further, because of my fear of tight spaces. That first jumpscare completely took me out. I will try again sometime but, no thank you for now :-I
Also great ideas for the tool-mechanics.
I didn't get the "repay" thing but this was pretty much perfect.
This is probably the best iteration of those "Game taking over" or "Game within a Game" Concepts i've seen. The events taking over, the Scares are awesome. The Footsteps being in sync with the Game and the overall sound design.
Awesome work!
I think the goal was to emulate a certain Style and type of Game, and it was done perfectly.
Cool little Story, also the Border Patrol confused me a little bit, where everyone was suddenly gone.
For the Story: You've had to have a lot of suspension of disbelief, because it would certainly be very suspicious if a "train attendant" took your bag while you sleep and put something in it, and no one says anything. And the Bag in the toilet is a bit obvious, but still okay, to keep it moving along.
Just as food for thought: maybe let him check your bag, and after that there's the drugs in it? As a kid you'd be trusting if someone from "train security" or something came along and asked you if you travelled alone. He could say, that he'd need to check your bag before we approach the border. And as a thanks comes again later and gives you a Soda from the "staff kitchen", since he heard that you wanted one.
Some Errors:
- Bug: Game got locked up after the waitress brought my food, laptop was still there and food on top of it, and i couldn't interact with anything anymore, and had to restart.
- The time should always be PM, because you are using the train from midday onwards, and the last one (if it is at night) should be something like 11:50 PM.
- Error: The Picture in my messages after the food came is of japanese pancakes, but i got a croissant.
- Error: Any time you use the toilet he says he needs to go back to the seat, before the food arrives. And he doesn't wash his hands ewwwwwww.
- Those aren't ticket numbers but the Flight Number, it should be just one. I don't think every family member would use a different Airplane.
- If you are using a Scroll View in Unity for the SMS-Messages UI. Look for the "Scroll Rect" Component on it and set it's "Movement Type" to "elastic". That way it feels more like a real phone, and the scrolling is not so static.
Great Job, it was very fun to play, and hope there are lots more!