itch.io

Not a problem, I am turning this into a series, so updates on my end should be relatively consistent.

I can't really say much about it, despite being highly confused on what I was doing, and the directions didn't sound clear to me.. I just saw that there were several moving parts to this experience that didn't help the situation...

Everything seemed fine until I clipped upward to the sky and escaped.

Pros:

• At first glance, the story is interesting; a father goes missing and is replaced by an anomaly, pretending to be your father.

Cons:

• The gameplay is a drag to get through, a lot of mundane tasks locked to a slow walking speed, both of which have no real point of being there except to pad out gametime (aka. to make the game feel longer than it really is). Its a very common issue I run into with small projects like this, as it tells me that there's no passion into making the game's story or there a lack of direction or vision that is needed to make the story more interesting.
• With the previous issue being apparent, I found this game to be very cookie cutter and predictable, resulting in an unfortunately dull experience as there's no emotion. I could tell almost precisely when scares were gonna appear, and I didn't feel any sense of threatened as it was bound to happen.

Advice:

I would definitely strengthen the story more, even if adding more mundane tasks are included, make them have more reason of being there. Ex. have our dad talk more, make demands; "take out the trash," "fetch me a beer," "get me batteries for this stupid remote," it isn't much, but it gives more value to the plot, and it makes us build a relationship with him, good or bad. Because currently, he just sits there the entire time and then scares you maybe twice.

I hope you take these words to heart, because I would hate to see you or any indie developer have projects fail.

I have played all of your odd games since Lord of Chaos lol! Strange, funny, and completely unhinged! I always like supporting other creators such as myself. So thank you for the experience, and I anticipate the next installment.

Why everybody dying when the escape?

Not a problem!

That being said I really want to like this game, the concept, music, and atmosphere overall is amazing, and you have a very creative approach to this project. But the controls are what ultimately killed this experience for me. I was pretty mellow in the video, but I was getting frustrated with the controls as I played this further, and the swaying of the camera didn't help either. Now granted, I like this tank/point and click control theory in concept, it's very unique; but it does not mix well in chase sequences or other high stress situations because of how much time it takes to even try to escape. I didn't even bother trying the first time, and when I realized where the rat was the second time, I didn't have time to react.

I think if you add the option to switch to the standard fps controls, I will come back to this. Because I really want to explore this game further, just not in this state.

That being said, here's my honest feedback on the demo:

The atmosphere is great, having to wander a dark, eerie forest gave me some flashbacks to Afraid of Monsters. Apart from that though, there isn't really much I can say as there wasn't really much besides wandering around. Navigating in the dark proved to be a bit annoying, being heavily amplified further with the obnoxious collision with the map and it's elements, I got stuck on things I couldn't even see several times and walking through doorways also proved to be a challenge at times, combine that with the lack of direction, the game's tone goes from creepy to irritating.

There's obviously a lot of ground for improvement here. Some polishing with collision will help greatly, and try to add more horror elements.

I hope I didn't come off as harsh in my critique. I just think it's incomplete overall.

Not a problem

Not a problem. Again I hope I didn't come off harsh towards you. I wish the best for growing creators such as yourself.

All things considered, I have some honest opinions that I would like to share, and please do not take this as an attack, because I speak this for you to improve for the future.

I will start with the pros:

The game looks great graphically speaking, and the story was a interesting one, though slightly confusing. I love seeing Caseoh every time with these games as well.

The cons:

There's only one, but its combined with major issues I tend to see with a lot of these kinds of games: The game feels like a drag to play, and it killed the immersion overall. (I could speak on the swaying camera, but a slight adjustment to the sensitivity helped out a bit.)

Firstly, there was no sense of direction in the beginning, I spent 10 minutes wandering around the office wondering what I am supposed to do. In a couple of instances I noticed the hitboxes were a bit difficult to interact with, leaving me wondering if I actually interacted with the element already or not.

The game is also too dialogue heavy, and very cookie cutter to other games I played of this nature, a couple of weak jump scares and endless talking. I got impatient a few times reading instead of playing. Horror is best expressed with less telling and more showing.

And lastly, the mundane tasks. Having to go through a lot of small, unimportant labors that have no real impact or relation to the story.

These elements created a sense that killed the creepiness and horror. The game is 30 minutes long, not because there's 30 minutes worth of gameplay, but because its forced to be 30 minutes with all the previous elements padding out the gametime to make the game to feel longer than it really is. Take out all the issues and the game would be maybe 10 minutes at most.

To conclude: 

I hope these words help you, and I apologize if I come off too harsh. I see you have a lot of passion for making games in graphical elements, but your skills in story making need to be polished a bit more.

Not a problem!