How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
A bit too big. I was unable to avoid the monster and mostly gave up trying to get away from it. I just hoped it was in a different location
What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
The Panel Layout was good. It was a bit frustrating that i could not control my robot’s movement separately from what panel i was looking at. This actually has potential to be a fun multiplayer game where some players are piloting blindly, others are giving navigational directions, others are adjusting power/repairing the pod, others are lighting things/defending the ship. (not sure what the moment to moment gameplay would be for that, but the Star Trek Bridge Crew game and Captain Sonar board game kinda do this)
Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
The monster felt overpowered. It was definitely threatening. It felt very unfair to start and have the monster sometimes start very close to you. I honestly wouldnt introduce the monster until a later stage in the game. Let players get acclimated to the other features before introducing a threat.
This question is missing :)
Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
I didnt realize it was a thing until reading this. (then reading/skimming the directions). As a rule, you should not expect players to read. ;)
Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
I didnt use the window, just the map.
How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
Movement speed felt ok. Maybe a bit on the slow side, but since I had to switch between views it was probably fine.
How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
Map probably could have used a few more landmarks. It felt like a lot to juggle, movement, avoiding, trying to constantly orient yourself to the map
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
I think the map is too big. It is definitely not too open, I feel like the closeness of the map is good it's just too big to navigate with the speed of the ship. I also died a few times hitting something that was not on the map, is that supposed to happen? Was I hitting debris? How was I supposed to know that piece of debris was there without checking the window? It was pretty frustrating dying over and over trying to get through that part of the map.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
I think the panel layout is good to move through once II get the hang of it. Although, I can see one of the buttons to control the ship while looking at the map which I'm not sure was intended or not.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
The monster does feel balanced and it felt like a threat. i think the hide button as enough for me to escape the monster.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
It was useful and I think it's an essential part of the game.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
I did use the window and i don't think the oxygen feels balanced. I think it depleted too fast when using the window making the window very difficult to use.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
I think the movement is fine it's just too slow in my opinion. Especially if the goal is on the other side of the map it doesn't feel too fun to navigate through the whole thing.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was good. I'm not sure what you mean by landmarks but I think the minimap is helpful. However, there is the wall that I hit that i mentioned earlier that was very frustrating to hit as a player.
For this review, I'll be speaking for myself and my fellow who also tested the game.
1. Does camera feel good?
The camera was much better in this playtest. I think for the style of the game it has an interesting immersion to the game; However, for people who prefer fast-paced games, the camera movement/rotation will always have much left to be desired since it's a slower attentive style.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
The map isn't difficult to navigate, I was easily able to make connections from my current location to the map. The size seemed feasible, especially because there are quick routes to take around. There is an implication of walls that aren't being accounted for either on the map or radar map, because even when avoiding some walls, I would look back at my health and have been damaged somehow.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
The panel layout is generally intuitive. The only thing that wasn't was the hide button, as it looks like a harmful button without context. I'm unsure of how games like Iron Lung handle this, but the placement of the manual doesn't evoke a natural response to interact with for people who don't know about the game. When my fellow played it, he casually overlooked it and in turn missed information that was integral such as the context for the hide button, etc.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
I think the monster was very interesting, I watched it do some silly loops around and it looked more confused than I did with navigating the maze. It did feel like a genuine threat when amidst its pathfinding would suddenly come over to attack. I certainly utilized the hide button a lot more than trying to escape it through navigating away, however had a complication that will be addressed in the next question.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
The concept of the hide button is great, however there were cases when it simply didn't work. There were times when the monster is running towards the ship, and even when pressing the hide button, damage would still be taken.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
The window was never used. It's immediately more intuitive to interact with the movement arrows and relying on the radar map over using the window.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
This is one of those games where the movement is more focused and slower paced, but it can be agonizing to hold going forward and rotate between radar and controls to press between buttons and be meticulous. There was a comment mentioning different gears and that would be an interesting concept.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was definitely useful. The landmarks were fine, there was just confusion about some walls not being accurately defined on it.
1. Does camera feel good? - Yeah, the camera was easy to operate and maneuver around the place.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open? - The map, to me, was just right. It was big enough to add adventure and an open-world feeling.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently? - I think something that's a little strange is how I can press the turn left button while aiming forwards. Maybe have all buttons or none? Not sure which one.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape? - The monster was pretty cool. I thought it added a big challenge to the game, without it being too hard.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful? - The hide button was awesome. I got to hide away from the monster a few times, and it was pretty sick.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced? - I used the window, and it was nice to be able to physically see where I was going. The oxygen depleted pretty fast at the beginning, and I didn't get to do much while figuring out the game mechanics. It took me about 6 tries to actually start playing the game.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow? - The movement was nice and well-placed. I wasn't going sonic speeds, but it wasn't super slow either.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful? - The map was good. Very unique design.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
The map seems good but I feel like it wasn't properly synced with the minimap.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
The panels felt fine. I understand that part of these types of games is having everything be in a slightly suboptimal position.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
The monster really felt like a threat. There was maybe one time that I go caught and it didn't feel deserved. Otherwise pretty good.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
The hide button was definitely a good addition. I think it adds another layer of complexity to how you think about maneuvering.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
Didn't use the window much other than to see how it worked. It would be cool if there was some incentive to use it once or twice.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
I saw this in another comment and I second it: adding multiple gears would be really cool. I think that having a slight punishment for going fast could add a lot of complexity.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was good. I think it had enough landmarks to be discernable but I think having more wouldn't hurt.
1. It's good, although if you spam A or D a bunch, it queues them all up and leaves you spinning uncontrollably. Not a bug that's really going to cause problems for anyone, but a bug nonetheless.
2. The layout seems good for the most part. However, the mini-map isn't fully accurate to the world layout, there's some unmarked walls. For example, if you take a very sharp left immediately from the start and try to move between the two small wall pieces on your way straight to Hydroponics, you suddenly slam into an unmarked wall and die.
3. The panel layout is still good as-is.
4. The monster can still see and kill the player while they are hiding, even if they hide before the monster first sees them. It also seems like the monster can sometimes see the player through walls.
5. (No #5?)
6. The hide button only seems vaguely useful, it's hard to say how effective it really is. The fact that it's set to a fixed duration instead of being on a toggle is quite annoying. If you want to lock the player out entirely for X amount of time, then make it so the button is a toggle, but you can't go out of hiding until at least X seconds have passed, and have a visual and/or sound queue to go along with it.
7. What happened to oxygen slowly recharging when the window is closed? It's back to how it was in the first version, never filling up, and renders the window useless like before.
8. Turn and movement speed both feel spot-on. However, just like in the first build, the second item is next to impossible to grab, and might actually be even worse off than last time, as the mini-map makes it look like the gap is genuinely too small for the ship to fit through. I died multiple times trying to get it, and no amount of precise adjustments were able to get me through.
9. The map layout is much more identifiable this time, very good. Only exception being the aforementioned invisible unmarked walls.
10. It closes the game. Not sure why this needs its own question.
- What's the point of the "Do you want to start a new game" prompt? It doesn't seem to actually do anything, as the game state is never saved.
2. The map felt good to navigate but there were a couple of invisible walls that weren't on the map, not sure if that was intentional.
3. I like the panel layout but I wish there was a hard left/right. I think I'm probably the only one who would appreciate this though.
4. The monster's windup attack is so much better and makes avoidance so much better. Although, I don't think a health system feels good in this type of game, I think a time limit would fit much better and encourage the player to be a little more risky. You could have it so fixing systems takes a couple seconds which makes taking damage retain a penalty.
6. Hide button is probably the best mechanic in the game, I found it way too difficult to out run the monster so that's the only way that I'm avoiding it.
7. I didn't use the window at all, visibility was still too rough to be useful.
8. I think the movement could be faster at times. It's a lot to include at this point but maybe being able to shift into a slow or fast gear would be cool.
9. I liked the map, it was useful but I wish the navigation screen reflected the color of the room that you were currently in.
10. Self-destruct?
Really fun game, excited to see the final product.
For this version I liked the ship UI changes you guys implemented. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think the biggest issue I saw was that the monster would start spinning when it targeted me. With the new ship UI its actually slower to move than in the last playtest as there is a delay when switching view, and as such I'd recommend making the monster a bit easier to deal with. I think the hide feature is a really cool feature, it allows me to avoid 1-3 encounters with the monster in a playthrough, but if it started tracking onto me it would still bash into me and depending on the encounter one-shot me. I also noticed that I would take damage from it when it was spinning even if it didn't touch me. A fun feature now with the hide is that if you repair your screen with the power off the screen will turn on, same with anything else that was repaired.
The new map was interesting, I think the game play is pretty similar to what how the old one played and don't really have a preference. I think it would be very cool if you could select which ship to salvage. I did find that there's a wall at the very start that's not displayed on the map. Additionally, after collecting the last item, the goal to return to the start was weird as I didn't actually have to go to the start. I did find that as I improved with the control and understanding of the monster's spin it got easier to play and became beatable. The speed change from roaming to targeting is very confusing.
I look forward to see what you next iteration will look like.
So take this all with a grain of salt, as I had to use my incredibly laggy Windows computer
1. I found it a bit frustrating, as it felt as it would often come out of nowhere, and then never stop pursuing you
2. I found that they where relatively easy to figure out, but I found them infuriating to use. I very much disliked that I couldn't look at the mini map and still move at the same time, not to mention that opening your window is something that wasn't really intuitive, and so for a bit I was just quite literally flying blind
3. The only layout change I think it needs is to have the minimap just be part of your movement view, instead of its own panel
4. I had a lot of trouble working through my computer's lag, so I don't think I can answer this accurately
5. It felt a little slow to me, but again, that may just be the lag
6. not applicable
7. I wasn't aware there was an oxygen system, and it isn't clear how much oxygen you have left until you're already dead from running out.
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
- The monster was interesting, I think I found it a bit hard to understand and come up with some strategy to avoid it. It was not too hard to avoid but I would get idle sometimes and it just got me lol. I'm not sure if it's moving in a particular way or it is random. It would be cool if it is strategic and the player can figure it out eventually
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
- The controls was pretty intuitive, I think it was cool that you can still press down on the arrows even after you change screens to the map. Not sure if that is a bug, if it is, I would consider it a feature.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
- The ship's design is amazing, I am a really big fan of it. I think where everything is placed is perfect as is. The only thing that stood out to me was one of the buttons on the fixer was not the same as the others. It sticks out of the TV unlike the rest
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
- The game feels balanced to me, I wouldn't say I would lean one way or the other
5. How does the ship speed feel?
- I like the ship speed, I guess sometimes I wouldn't see the monster till last minute and wished there was a built in dash that you could use once or twice for an emergency escape
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
- Everything was decently accessible to me
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
- I was a bit confused on how the oxygen plays into it I would say. I didn't really get the chance to use the feature.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
- I really like the music! It made it really easy for me to get into the game because I am in a space of calmness and immersion. It really felt like I was in the game
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
The monster was a bit difficult to understand, and it didn't seem to move through the level in a methodical way. I think that it was pretty easy to understand how to avoid it, but it was difficult to actually do so, because the ship controls were a bit difficult to operate.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
I think that the controls were pretty difficult to figure out, as well as how to operate the ship. It took me quite awhile to find the instruction manual, and then a bit longer to understand that that's what I need to read to understand how to play. The controls felt a bit exhausting, and I didn't like having to switch back and forth between the controls and the map to steer the ship (if this was supposed to be how it's done).
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
I think that the game may be easier to play and more enjoyable if there wasn't a need to steer then look, and repeat that cycle. The style of having a control room I think is great, especially in the FNAF layout it seems to have. Looking through cameras I think may be more immersive than having to steer the ship on the minimap. I like the coziness of the control room though, but I'd still like to be able to go out and explore the ship on foot a bit, see the monster for myself.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
The game feels balanced, but just a bit difficult to play at the moment due to the controls. I had a lot of difficulty going back and forth between screens, which made me feel like I couldn't focus on other gameplay aspects that I would've liked to, such as running away frorm the monster. The game was a bit difficult to initially learn as well, and I feel that if there were a few more hints as to what to click or how the game is supposed to flow then the difficulty would be a bit easier, in that aspect.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
The ship speed feels adequate for the stop-and-go type of movement in the game, as I don't think that it would matter too much how fast I can go because my ability to navigate is limited to how fast I can turn the ship. I think that if I could see the ship as I was controlling it, then I may be able to control the ship with more speed.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
I don't feel like I was able to navigate very well through the game level, not necessarily because there was a threat looming, but more because I was the actual threat to my ships survival, crashing many, many times. It got frustrating having to reset the controls each time, and I do wish that it was a bit more forgiving in this aspect, like maybe just damaging a component of the ship on impact instead of disabling it.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
I actually couldn't understand what the use of the oxygen was. The only thing that I found it was used for was as a countdown until death if I accidentally hit the red button...which I did entirely too many times. I think this was actually a good thing, it's fun having a "big red button that you don't press", because then the gameplay becomes not only what you need to do, but what you are not able to do.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part has been the artwork, I think that it's both unique and fitting. I get a Fallout vibe from the style, which works well with the "doomsday" type of narrative. I think you guys are off to a great start, I really like the idea of being in a cozy spaceship control room with a big monster just on the other side of the door. I think having a 3D representation of the monster via character model would be spectacular and very scary. This is a great start to your team's project, and I can't wait to play the game as it's developed further!
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
The Monster felt okay to me. I noticed that I could easily avoid the monster when I would happen to run near it but it was not often that I would but when he spotted me it felt very game over from there cause there wasn't much option to get away from it.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
I understood the controls pretty easily and they were nice to use and it was very identifiable when the controls would break. I learned that I didn't like swapping between the map and the controls that much as it became tedious and kind of got me a little motion sick swapping constantly.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
The features of the ship I felt was pretty well done. I could figure out what everything was, I just think we need a little further back FOV to really see more on one side of the screen.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
It felt a bit difficult to me, I was mostly struggling with moving around the map and trying to avoid the monster by the time i could get anywhere. I couldn't really tell when I was by salvage and never actually ended up getting many of them.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
Speed of the ship was pretty okay, i think it was just when it came to the monster itself it was hard to get away only because its hard to navigate with the controls and map on separate panel screens.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
There was a small margin of the differences of the areas with the side map but overall I felt i was able to access it easily.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
No, I think I was struggling with Oxygen a lot. It goes down very fast, which does make sense with the setting, but I think there needs to be a way to gain oxygen, either passively or actively, so that you can use the door more without fear since it does go really quickly down.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part of this game was the fact that the first thing I did when I was exploring the ship was press the red button, it was very comedic to me.
My least favorite part was definitely the fact that the map and controls were on separate screens. I think that needs to be put together because it becomes very tedious and specifically when running from the monster you can't easily see where you are going because it is on different screens. It makes you slower and you can't navigate as easy as i think it was expected. On top of that you can't use the open door to navigate because of the oxygen depletion.
I also think there could be a sound cue for the salvage or something like a radar sound so you can know if you are getting close to salvage easier and then use the window to really figure out exactly where it is. It was hard for me to find them.
Other than those I think the game is very cool, I really like the concept and first playtest! I can't wait for the second playtest to see the improvements from now till then!
1. The monster felt less like a monster and more like large wildlife. This may be what you were going for, but in the view of Iron Lung I think that the monster needs to feel a little more unsettling. Show the player remnants of the last guy who came down here, or low res pictures of an alien figure. Sound design would also do wonders here.
2. Moving the ship was relatively clear, but other parts of the ship felt slightly disorienting. I wanted to use the paper map but the radar is so zoomed in it's difficult to make out any features. Repairs weren't frustrating but just felt a like it didn't have much impact (even if it let me move again)
3. I think repairs could invoke more of your goal if you had to hold down on each element for a certain amount of time, maybe adding a quick time event if you'd like the gameplay to be a little slower. The repair panel could also feel a little more connected if it was underneath the center console since that's where the buttons went out.
4. I wouldn't say it was too hard or too easy, but not balanced either. I just felt a little at the mercy of randomness, meaning sometimes I would hardly see the monster and others it would be right on top of me. Maybe a one shot kill from the monster is too punishing since the player can't know where they are, what if it shook the hull violently and gave the player a scare, then reset itself on the map. That could increase tension a lot!
5. Ship speed is about how I would've expected it to be. It fits well with the tightness of the local walls, but turning around from a dead end that I spent awhile going through took a little longer than comfortable.
6. I'm not really sure if I made it to all the areas, my position felt like more of a suggestion than a location.
7. Oxygen never killed me since I never really had a need to open the window. The monster one shot me way before I was below 60%.
8. I think the sound design and other polish features mentioned would go a very long way. Iron Lung is a super simple game and doesn't ask the player to do much of anything, but it gives such a thick atmosphere and some tantalizing lore to the player which hooks them, so I don't think anything has to be added, just refined.
1. The monster feels very inconsistent, sometimes spotting the player with ease and other times it's blinder than a bat. It also has a tendency to suddenly lose sight of the player and forget about them entirely, even if the player is just standing still.
With how fast the monster moves compared to the player, along with the constant screen swapping, whether or not you can survive/avoid the monster feels almost entirely up to luck. It spawning right next to the player isn't great either, as the beginning of every run is just waiting and hoping that it moves out of the way.
2. The controls are fine, though swapping back and forth constantly to align the ship little by little can get a bit tedious. Being able to keep the mouse held down to move in one direction while looking at the map really help with this; I imagine it was unintentional but I'd recommend leaving it in.
The only thing that felt unclear to me was the button for the collector. It took some time to realize it was clickable or that it was for the collector, and I'm still not entirely sure what each color indicates for it. Otherwise, everything was pretty intuitive!
3. The ship looks good so far! I especially love the instruction booklet, it's got a lot of charm.
Really the only thing that felt off is the position/objective display. The panel is uncomfortably close to the camera and the font is so large that it's hard to read it off at a glance, requiring your eyes to pan across almost the entire screen.
4. As mentioned previously, dealing with the monster feels like a game of chance, especially with the map being essentially just one corridor with no options to go somewhere else. If the monster between you and the objective, there's nothing you can do but sit and wait for it to go away. The small walls and hiding spots off to the side aren't really usable thanks to how fast the monster is and how tedious it is to go around corners.
The second objective is far too tight of a gap. The ship only barely fits in, requiring a solid minute of fiddling about, made worse by the ship icon not giving a good indication of what the actual hitbox is like. Getting caught by the monster is almost guaranteed here if it comes by.
5. The ship speed feels good, though the monster far outpaces the player, especially when it comes to turning corners. I would try to tweak the monster to fix that, and not change the ship speed too much, since too fast of a speed would mean crashing into things all the time.
6. The paper map doesn't seem to line up very well with the actual game layout, and I only have a vague idea of where the starting location fits on it.
7. I never really had to use the window much, so I'm not sure if there is or isn't enough O2. It does drain way faster than I would've thought, however. As for the window itself, it usually doesn't offer that much more information; the lack of textures makes it really hard to see what's going on outside.
8. There's definitely a lot of potential here, I'd love to see where this all goes! My main advice would be to have a few more branching and connected paths for the layout, so there's more to explore and some actual options for avoiding and getting around the monster. That, and to make the monster more consistent and make sure the paper map matches the game.
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
I think the monster was okay. I just felt like outrunning it wasn't much of an option. I know you guys said the player speed is faster than the monster speed but the act of switching screens to see the map and controls causes you to be much slower, especially with all the turns. I made my brother playtest too and we both kept dying relatively quickly unless we're just both bad I think the monster should maybe be even slower? I'm not sure.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
The movement controls were straightforward but the rest wasn't. I feel like the fixing station should have icons so you can quickly look at it and click the right one instead of reading through all the options. I just ended up clicking all of them instead of bothering to look for the right one. Also, the claw button should maybe have a claw icon rather than a hand. Also, make sure to spellcheck your instruction manual because it had some errors in there such as the "Driving conrols". Also, could you guys make the manual blow-up bigger on the screen cause I'm lowkey kinda blind so it was a chore to try to read it. Although, I loved the manual drawings. Also, I thought it was funny because I didn't read the manual at first and thought uh what does this button do- and then blew the hell up. Make sure to keep that in the game lol.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
No, I think it was good. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to tell where you are on the map. I'm talking about the welcome to Coriolis map. I couldn't locate my spaceship's position in relation to the Coriolis map. If you can't use it to guide you then I think it serves no purpose other than nice decoration. Maybe the spaceship map changes the wall color to be the same as the Coriolis map. For example instead of green then the walls appear blue because that's where I am on the bigger map.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
No, I don't think so. I think it's too difficult. I didn't even get to salvage anything lol. I think that when the monster touches you the spaceship blows up right away.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
It's good. Although you can only go rather slow since there are so many turns.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
If you are asking if I felt like I was able to get to all the areas without much issue then no lol. I didn't even leave the beginning area.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
Yes, because I felt like there wasn't much need to open it. My brother thought he could hack the system by opening the window and navigating that way but then dropped to 50% oxygen in a second lol. I was just casually waiting for him to blow up.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part was when Curiosity killed the cat and I pressed the big orange button. My least favorite part was how quickly the monster got to me. Definitely room for improvement. Overall, enjoyed your game. I think something cool would be an option to shut off all your systems so the monster passes right by you. Perhaps the consequences of that would be it also depletes your oxygen levels.
Hi, I like how you guys have setup your game. It looks really nice, and I really enjoyed the Beauing pun. The controls were really easy to figure out. Idk if it was intended but, you can press and hold a movement key followed by A or D to look at the map while moving. I think its nice how that plays out.
Each component had its own perks and down falls. The map did not feel like it lined up properly with the ship nor with the wall components. At times I would just really far from the map element and it was a bit confusing. The repair module needs some sort of limiting factor/punishment for clicking wrong. I would just smash every button on that panel for the slightest repairs. I think the window feels pretty well balanced. A touch more accuracy on the maps and its no longer required for play but is a nice cute feature. I did feel like the actual map didn't match the paper one, which is ok, especially if the map looks very similar from overhard, but its a bit confusing.
The monster was intersting. The monster doesn't feel particularly strong but the chase mechanic can catch you in a bad spot. I did get soft locked by the monster when collecting the second target. Because I could fit into a space the monster couldn't, but it never lost track of me and just trapped me. If you moved out if its way you also tend to "avoid" damage. At some point the monster just "soft locked" itself in the center of the ship.
I think adding a bit of slowness to the screen swap can make the game play feel nicer and less disorienting.
Overall, I really like your game and where you were heading. After a few tweaks it should feel really good.
1. The monster felt pretty good, in my opinion. Wasn't too difficult to avoid but was punishing if I wasn't being careful.
2. I think the most difficult part of the playtest was learning all of the mechanics. Moving the ship was easy enough to figure out but other things were much more difficult. I had a hard time figuring out what the objective was and I couldn't figure out how the minimap fit into the larger map. I thought balancing all the various tasks was fun but I'd recommend adding a little bit more clarity to all the controls/systems.
3. If anything, I'd say that the ship needs less decorative elements. Just to make the visuals that matter stand out more and make it easier to quickly swivel around.
4. I think he game is a little too difficult. Mainly I'd just suggest giving the ship a bit more health or perhaps a way to regain some lost hull integrity, like a crank or something to make small repairs. It's possible that you already have that mechanic and if so then I'd just suggest making it more clear.
5. The speed of the ship is honestly perfect, in my opinion.
6. I'm not sure what this one is asking.
7. To be honest, I didn't really ever feel the need to open the "window" so I didn't really have to worry about the oxygen. I'd say the visuals outside the ship need a bit of a buff because it was difficult to see anything.
8. I honestly really enjoyed the playtest aside from some initial pains in figuring out all the mechanics. I do think there's room for improvement but it would be weird if there wasn't at this stage in development. My favorite part was maneuvering the ship by quickly swapping cameras. My least favorite part was trying to figure out where to go and struggling to connect the dots between maps. Overall, good job! I'm excited to see how you all further refine this game!
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1. Does camera feel good?
Yes, the camera feels good.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
I think the map is too big. It is definitely not too open, I feel like the closeness of the map is good it's just too big to navigate with the speed of the ship. I also died a few times hitting something that was not on the map, is that supposed to happen? Was I hitting debris? How was I supposed to know that piece of debris was there without checking the window? It was pretty frustrating dying over and over trying to get through that part of the map.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
I think the panel layout is good to move through once II get the hang of it. Although, I can see one of the buttons to control the ship while looking at the map which I'm not sure was intended or not.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
The monster does feel balanced and it felt like a threat. i think the hide button as enough for me to escape the monster.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
It was useful and I think it's an essential part of the game.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
I did use the window and i don't think the oxygen feels balanced. I think it depleted too fast when using the window making the window very difficult to use.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
I think the movement is fine it's just too slow in my opinion. Especially if the goal is on the other side of the map it doesn't feel too fun to navigate through the whole thing.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was good. I'm not sure what you mean by landmarks but I think the minimap is helpful. However, there is the wall that I hit that i mentioned earlier that was very frustrating to hit as a player.
10. What does the big red button do?
Self destruct :(
For this review, I'll be speaking for myself and my fellow who also tested the game.
1. Does camera feel good?
The camera was much better in this playtest. I think for the style of the game it has an interesting immersion to the game; However, for people who prefer fast-paced games, the camera movement/rotation will always have much left to be desired since it's a slower attentive style.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
The map isn't difficult to navigate, I was easily able to make connections from my current location to the map. The size seemed feasible, especially because there are quick routes to take around. There is an implication of walls that aren't being accounted for either on the map or radar map, because even when avoiding some walls, I would look back at my health and have been damaged somehow.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
The panel layout is generally intuitive. The only thing that wasn't was the hide button, as it looks like a harmful button without context. I'm unsure of how games like Iron Lung handle this, but the placement of the manual doesn't evoke a natural response to interact with for people who don't know about the game. When my fellow played it, he casually overlooked it and in turn missed information that was integral such as the context for the hide button, etc.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
I think the monster was very interesting, I watched it do some silly loops around and it looked more confused than I did with navigating the maze. It did feel like a genuine threat when amidst its pathfinding would suddenly come over to attack. I certainly utilized the hide button a lot more than trying to escape it through navigating away, however had a complication that will be addressed in the next question.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
The concept of the hide button is great, however there were cases when it simply didn't work. There were times when the monster is running towards the ship, and even when pressing the hide button, damage would still be taken.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
The window was never used. It's immediately more intuitive to interact with the movement arrows and relying on the radar map over using the window.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
This is one of those games where the movement is more focused and slower paced, but it can be agonizing to hold going forward and rotate between radar and controls to press between buttons and be meticulous. There was a comment mentioning different gears and that would be an interesting concept.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was definitely useful. The landmarks were fine, there was just confusion about some walls not being accurately defined on it.
10. What does the big red button do?
Game over.
1. Does camera feel good? - Yeah, the camera was easy to operate and maneuver around the place.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open? - The map, to me, was just right. It was big enough to add adventure and an open-world feeling.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently? - I think something that's a little strange is how I can press the turn left button while aiming forwards. Maybe have all buttons or none? Not sure which one.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape? - The monster was pretty cool. I thought it added a big challenge to the game, without it being too hard.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful? - The hide button was awesome. I got to hide away from the monster a few times, and it was pretty sick.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced? - I used the window, and it was nice to be able to physically see where I was going. The oxygen depleted pretty fast at the beginning, and I didn't get to do much while figuring out the game mechanics. It took me about 6 tries to actually start playing the game.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow? - The movement was nice and well-placed. I wasn't going sonic speeds, but it wasn't super slow either.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful? - The map was good. Very unique design.
10. What does the big red button do? - O.o
1. Does camera feel good?
Camera feels fine if you use it normally.
2. How does the map feel to navigate? Does it feel too big? Too open?
The map seems good but I feel like it wasn't properly synced with the minimap.
3. What are your thoughts on the panel layout? Does it feel easy to move through? Should things be grouped differently?
The panels felt fine. I understand that part of these types of games is having everything be in a slightly suboptimal position.
4. Does the monster feel balanced? Did it feel like a threat? Did you feel like you could escape?
The monster really felt like a threat. There was maybe one time that I go caught and it didn't feel deserved. Otherwise pretty good.
6. Thoughts on the hide button? Does it feel useful?
The hide button was definitely a good addition. I think it adds another layer of complexity to how you think about maneuvering.
7. Did you use the window? Did the oxygen feel balanced?
Didn't use the window much other than to see how it worked. It would be cool if there was some incentive to use it once or twice.
8. How is the movement? Do you feel like you're able to move through the environment properly? Fast? Slow?
I saw this in another comment and I second it: adding multiple gears would be really cool. I think that having a slight punishment for going fast could add a lot of complexity.
9. How was the map? Did it have to many landmarks? Not enough? Was it useful?
The map was good. I think it had enough landmarks to be discernable but I think having more wouldn't hurt.
10. What does the big red button do?
I would hope you know.
1. It's good, although if you spam A or D a bunch, it queues them all up and leaves you spinning uncontrollably. Not a bug that's really going to cause problems for anyone, but a bug nonetheless.
2. The layout seems good for the most part. However, the mini-map isn't fully accurate to the world layout, there's some unmarked walls. For example, if you take a very sharp left immediately from the start and try to move between the two small wall pieces on your way straight to Hydroponics, you suddenly slam into an unmarked wall and die.
3. The panel layout is still good as-is.
4. The monster can still see and kill the player while they are hiding, even if they hide before the monster first sees them. It also seems like the monster can sometimes see the player through walls.
5. (No #5?)
6. The hide button only seems vaguely useful, it's hard to say how effective it really is. The fact that it's set to a fixed duration instead of being on a toggle is quite annoying. If you want to lock the player out entirely for X amount of time, then make it so the button is a toggle, but you can't go out of hiding until at least X seconds have passed, and have a visual and/or sound queue to go along with it.
7. What happened to oxygen slowly recharging when the window is closed? It's back to how it was in the first version, never filling up, and renders the window useless like before.
8. Turn and movement speed both feel spot-on. However, just like in the first build, the second item is next to impossible to grab, and might actually be even worse off than last time, as the mini-map makes it look like the gap is genuinely too small for the ship to fit through. I died multiple times trying to get it, and no amount of precise adjustments were able to get me through.
9. The map layout is much more identifiable this time, very good. Only exception being the aforementioned invisible unmarked walls.
10. It closes the game. Not sure why this needs its own question.
- What's the point of the "Do you want to start a new game" prompt? It doesn't seem to actually do anything, as the game state is never saved.
1. Camera felt good, no notes.
2. The map felt good to navigate but there were a couple of invisible walls that weren't on the map, not sure if that was intentional.
3. I like the panel layout but I wish there was a hard left/right. I think I'm probably the only one who would appreciate this though.
4. The monster's windup attack is so much better and makes avoidance so much better. Although, I don't think a health system feels good in this type of game, I think a time limit would fit much better and encourage the player to be a little more risky. You could have it so fixing systems takes a couple seconds which makes taking damage retain a penalty.
6. Hide button is probably the best mechanic in the game, I found it way too difficult to out run the monster so that's the only way that I'm avoiding it.
7. I didn't use the window at all, visibility was still too rough to be useful.
8. I think the movement could be faster at times. It's a lot to include at this point but maybe being able to shift into a slow or fast gear would be cool.
9. I liked the map, it was useful but I wish the navigation screen reflected the color of the room that you were currently in.
10. Self-destruct?
Really fun game, excited to see the final product.
Hey,
For this version I liked the ship UI changes you guys implemented. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think the biggest issue I saw was that the monster would start spinning when it targeted me. With the new ship UI its actually slower to move than in the last playtest as there is a delay when switching view, and as such I'd recommend making the monster a bit easier to deal with. I think the hide feature is a really cool feature, it allows me to avoid 1-3 encounters with the monster in a playthrough, but if it started tracking onto me it would still bash into me and depending on the encounter one-shot me. I also noticed that I would take damage from it when it was spinning even if it didn't touch me. A fun feature now with the hide is that if you repair your screen with the power off the screen will turn on, same with anything else that was repaired.
The new map was interesting, I think the game play is pretty similar to what how the old one played and don't really have a preference. I think it would be very cool if you could select which ship to salvage. I did find that there's a wall at the very start that's not displayed on the map. Additionally, after collecting the last item, the goal to return to the start was weird as I didn't actually have to go to the start. I did find that as I improved with the control and understanding of the monster's spin it got easier to play and became beatable. The speed change from roaming to targeting is very confusing.
I look forward to see what you next iteration will look like.
So take this all with a grain of salt, as I had to use my incredibly laggy Windows computer
1. I found it a bit frustrating, as it felt as it would often come out of nowhere, and then never stop pursuing you
2. I found that they where relatively easy to figure out, but I found them infuriating to use. I very much disliked that I couldn't look at the mini map and still move at the same time, not to mention that opening your window is something that wasn't really intuitive, and so for a bit I was just quite literally flying blind
3. The only layout change I think it needs is to have the minimap just be part of your movement view, instead of its own panel
4. I had a lot of trouble working through my computer's lag, so I don't think I can answer this accurately
5. It felt a little slow to me, but again, that may just be the lag
6. not applicable
7. I wasn't aware there was an oxygen system, and it isn't clear how much oxygen you have left until you're already dead from running out.
8. No additional comments
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
- The monster was interesting, I think I found it a bit hard to understand and come up with some strategy to avoid it. It was not too hard to avoid but I would get idle sometimes and it just got me lol. I'm not sure if it's moving in a particular way or it is random. It would be cool if it is strategic and the player can figure it out eventually
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
- The controls was pretty intuitive, I think it was cool that you can still press down on the arrows even after you change screens to the map. Not sure if that is a bug, if it is, I would consider it a feature.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
- The ship's design is amazing, I am a really big fan of it. I think where everything is placed is perfect as is. The only thing that stood out to me was one of the buttons on the fixer was not the same as the others. It sticks out of the TV unlike the rest
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
- The game feels balanced to me, I wouldn't say I would lean one way or the other
5. How does the ship speed feel?
- I like the ship speed, I guess sometimes I wouldn't see the monster till last minute and wished there was a built in dash that you could use once or twice for an emergency escape
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
- Everything was decently accessible to me
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
- I was a bit confused on how the oxygen plays into it I would say. I didn't really get the chance to use the feature.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
- I really like the music! It made it really easy for me to get into the game because I am in a space of calmness and immersion. It really felt like I was in the game
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
The monster was a bit difficult to understand, and it didn't seem to move through the level in a methodical way. I think that it was pretty easy to understand how to avoid it, but it was difficult to actually do so, because the ship controls were a bit difficult to operate.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
I think that the controls were pretty difficult to figure out, as well as how to operate the ship. It took me quite awhile to find the instruction manual, and then a bit longer to understand that that's what I need to read to understand how to play. The controls felt a bit exhausting, and I didn't like having to switch back and forth between the controls and the map to steer the ship (if this was supposed to be how it's done).
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
I think that the game may be easier to play and more enjoyable if there wasn't a need to steer then look, and repeat that cycle. The style of having a control room I think is great, especially in the FNAF layout it seems to have. Looking through cameras I think may be more immersive than having to steer the ship on the minimap. I like the coziness of the control room though, but I'd still like to be able to go out and explore the ship on foot a bit, see the monster for myself.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
The game feels balanced, but just a bit difficult to play at the moment due to the controls. I had a lot of difficulty going back and forth between screens, which made me feel like I couldn't focus on other gameplay aspects that I would've liked to, such as running away frorm the monster. The game was a bit difficult to initially learn as well, and I feel that if there were a few more hints as to what to click or how the game is supposed to flow then the difficulty would be a bit easier, in that aspect.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
The ship speed feels adequate for the stop-and-go type of movement in the game, as I don't think that it would matter too much how fast I can go because my ability to navigate is limited to how fast I can turn the ship. I think that if I could see the ship as I was controlling it, then I may be able to control the ship with more speed.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
I don't feel like I was able to navigate very well through the game level, not necessarily because there was a threat looming, but more because I was the actual threat to my ships survival, crashing many, many times. It got frustrating having to reset the controls each time, and I do wish that it was a bit more forgiving in this aspect, like maybe just damaging a component of the ship on impact instead of disabling it.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
I actually couldn't understand what the use of the oxygen was. The only thing that I found it was used for was as a countdown until death if I accidentally hit the red button...which I did entirely too many times. I think this was actually a good thing, it's fun having a "big red button that you don't press", because then the gameplay becomes not only what you need to do, but what you are not able to do.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part has been the artwork, I think that it's both unique and fitting. I get a Fallout vibe from the style, which works well with the "doomsday" type of narrative. I think you guys are off to a great start, I really like the idea of being in a cozy spaceship control room with a big monster just on the other side of the door. I think having a 3D representation of the monster via character model would be spectacular and very scary. This is a great start to your team's project, and I can't wait to play the game as it's developed further!
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
The Monster felt okay to me. I noticed that I could easily avoid the monster when I would happen to run near it but it was not often that I would but when he spotted me it felt very game over from there cause there wasn't much option to get away from it.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
I understood the controls pretty easily and they were nice to use and it was very identifiable when the controls would break. I learned that I didn't like swapping between the map and the controls that much as it became tedious and kind of got me a little motion sick swapping constantly.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
The features of the ship I felt was pretty well done. I could figure out what everything was, I just think we need a little further back FOV to really see more on one side of the screen.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
It felt a bit difficult to me, I was mostly struggling with moving around the map and trying to avoid the monster by the time i could get anywhere. I couldn't really tell when I was by salvage and never actually ended up getting many of them.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
Speed of the ship was pretty okay, i think it was just when it came to the monster itself it was hard to get away only because its hard to navigate with the controls and map on separate panel screens.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
There was a small margin of the differences of the areas with the side map but overall I felt i was able to access it easily.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
No, I think I was struggling with Oxygen a lot. It goes down very fast, which does make sense with the setting, but I think there needs to be a way to gain oxygen, either passively or actively, so that you can use the door more without fear since it does go really quickly down.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part of this game was the fact that the first thing I did when I was exploring the ship was press the red button, it was very comedic to me.
My least favorite part was definitely the fact that the map and controls were on separate screens. I think that needs to be put together because it becomes very tedious and specifically when running from the monster you can't easily see where you are going because it is on different screens. It makes you slower and you can't navigate as easy as i think it was expected. On top of that you can't use the open door to navigate because of the oxygen depletion.
I also think there could be a sound cue for the salvage or something like a radar sound so you can know if you are getting close to salvage easier and then use the window to really figure out exactly where it is. It was hard for me to find them.
Other than those I think the game is very cool, I really like the concept and first playtest! I can't wait for the second playtest to see the improvements from now till then!
1. The monster felt less like a monster and more like large wildlife. This may be what you were going for, but in the view of Iron Lung I think that the monster needs to feel a little more unsettling. Show the player remnants of the last guy who came down here, or low res pictures of an alien figure. Sound design would also do wonders here.
2. Moving the ship was relatively clear, but other parts of the ship felt slightly disorienting. I wanted to use the paper map but the radar is so zoomed in it's difficult to make out any features. Repairs weren't frustrating but just felt a like it didn't have much impact (even if it let me move again)
3. I think repairs could invoke more of your goal if you had to hold down on each element for a certain amount of time, maybe adding a quick time event if you'd like the gameplay to be a little slower. The repair panel could also feel a little more connected if it was underneath the center console since that's where the buttons went out.
4. I wouldn't say it was too hard or too easy, but not balanced either. I just felt a little at the mercy of randomness, meaning sometimes I would hardly see the monster and others it would be right on top of me. Maybe a one shot kill from the monster is too punishing since the player can't know where they are, what if it shook the hull violently and gave the player a scare, then reset itself on the map. That could increase tension a lot!
5. Ship speed is about how I would've expected it to be. It fits well with the tightness of the local walls, but turning around from a dead end that I spent awhile going through took a little longer than comfortable.
6. I'm not really sure if I made it to all the areas, my position felt like more of a suggestion than a location.
7. Oxygen never killed me since I never really had a need to open the window. The monster one shot me way before I was below 60%.
8. I think the sound design and other polish features mentioned would go a very long way. Iron Lung is a super simple game and doesn't ask the player to do much of anything, but it gives such a thick atmosphere and some tantalizing lore to the player which hooks them, so I don't think anything has to be added, just refined.
1. The monster feels very inconsistent, sometimes spotting the player with ease and other times it's blinder than a bat. It also has a tendency to suddenly lose sight of the player and forget about them entirely, even if the player is just standing still.
With how fast the monster moves compared to the player, along with the constant screen swapping, whether or not you can survive/avoid the monster feels almost entirely up to luck. It spawning right next to the player isn't great either, as the beginning of every run is just waiting and hoping that it moves out of the way.
2. The controls are fine, though swapping back and forth constantly to align the ship little by little can get a bit tedious. Being able to keep the mouse held down to move in one direction while looking at the map really help with this; I imagine it was unintentional but I'd recommend leaving it in.
The only thing that felt unclear to me was the button for the collector. It took some time to realize it was clickable or that it was for the collector, and I'm still not entirely sure what each color indicates for it. Otherwise, everything was pretty intuitive!
3. The ship looks good so far! I especially love the instruction booklet, it's got a lot of charm.
Really the only thing that felt off is the position/objective display. The panel is uncomfortably close to the camera and the font is so large that it's hard to read it off at a glance, requiring your eyes to pan across almost the entire screen.
4. As mentioned previously, dealing with the monster feels like a game of chance, especially with the map being essentially just one corridor with no options to go somewhere else. If the monster between you and the objective, there's nothing you can do but sit and wait for it to go away. The small walls and hiding spots off to the side aren't really usable thanks to how fast the monster is and how tedious it is to go around corners.
The second objective is far too tight of a gap. The ship only barely fits in, requiring a solid minute of fiddling about, made worse by the ship icon not giving a good indication of what the actual hitbox is like. Getting caught by the monster is almost guaranteed here if it comes by.
5. The ship speed feels good, though the monster far outpaces the player, especially when it comes to turning corners. I would try to tweak the monster to fix that, and not change the ship speed too much, since too fast of a speed would mean crashing into things all the time.
6. The paper map doesn't seem to line up very well with the actual game layout, and I only have a vague idea of where the starting location fits on it.
7. I never really had to use the window much, so I'm not sure if there is or isn't enough O2. It does drain way faster than I would've thought, however. As for the window itself, it usually doesn't offer that much more information; the lack of textures makes it really hard to see what's going on outside.
8. There's definitely a lot of potential here, I'd love to see where this all goes! My main advice would be to have a few more branching and connected paths for the layout, so there's more to explore and some actual options for avoiding and getting around the monster. That, and to make the monster more consistent and make sure the paper map matches the game.
1. How does the monster feel? Is it frustrating? Harmless? Suggestions for improvement?
I think the monster was okay. I just felt like outrunning it wasn't much of an option. I know you guys said the player speed is faster than the monster speed but the act of switching screens to see the map and controls causes you to be much slower, especially with all the turns. I made my brother playtest too and we both kept dying relatively quickly unless we're just both bad I think the monster should maybe be even slower? I'm not sure.
2. How easy is it to figure out the controls for your ship? Was anything unclear? Are any of the controls frustrating to use?
The movement controls were straightforward but the rest wasn't. I feel like the fixing station should have icons so you can quickly look at it and click the right one instead of reading through all the options. I just ended up clicking all of them instead of bothering to look for the right one. Also, the claw button should maybe have a claw icon rather than a hand. Also, make sure to spellcheck your instruction manual because it had some errors in there such as the "Driving conrols". Also, could you guys make the manual blow-up bigger on the screen cause I'm lowkey kinda blind so it was a chore to try to read it. Although, I loved the manual drawings. Also, I thought it was funny because I didn't read the manual at first and thought uh what does this button do- and then blew the hell up. Make sure to keep that in the game lol.
3. Does the ship feel like it needs anything? Features? Layout changes?
No, I think it was good. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to tell where you are on the map. I'm talking about the welcome to Coriolis map. I couldn't locate my spaceship's position in relation to the Coriolis map. If you can't use it to guide you then I think it serves no purpose other than nice decoration. Maybe the spaceship map changes the wall color to be the same as the Coriolis map. For example instead of green then the walls appear blue because that's where I am on the bigger map.
4. Does the game feel balanced? Does it feel too simple or too difficult?
No, I don't think so. I think it's too difficult. I didn't even get to salvage anything lol. I think that when the monster touches you the spaceship blows up right away.
5. How does the ship speed feel?
It's good. Although you can only go rather slow since there are so many turns.
6. Do you feel to you all the areas without too much issues?
If you are asking if I felt like I was able to get to all the areas without much issue then no lol. I didn't even leave the beginning area.
7. Do you feel like you have enough oxygen?
Yes, because I felt like there wasn't much need to open it. My brother thought he could hack the system by opening the window and navigating that way but then dropped to 50% oxygen in a second lol. I was just casually waiting for him to blow up.
8. Misc: What did you think? Any room for improvement? What was your favorite part? Least favorite part?
My favorite part was when Curiosity killed the cat and I pressed the big orange button. My least favorite part was how quickly the monster got to me. Definitely room for improvement. Overall, enjoyed your game. I think something cool would be an option to shut off all your systems so the monster passes right by you. Perhaps the consequences of that would be it also depletes your oxygen levels.
Great job on your game so far!
Hi, I like how you guys have setup your game. It looks really nice, and I really enjoyed the Beauing pun. The controls were really easy to figure out. Idk if it was intended but, you can press and hold a movement key followed by A or D to look at the map while moving. I think its nice how that plays out.
Each component had its own perks and down falls. The map did not feel like it lined up properly with the ship nor with the wall components. At times I would just really far from the map element and it was a bit confusing. The repair module needs some sort of limiting factor/punishment for clicking wrong. I would just smash every button on that panel for the slightest repairs. I think the window feels pretty well balanced. A touch more accuracy on the maps and its no longer required for play but is a nice cute feature. I did feel like the actual map didn't match the paper one, which is ok, especially if the map looks very similar from overhard, but its a bit confusing.
The monster was intersting. The monster doesn't feel particularly strong but the chase mechanic can catch you in a bad spot. I did get soft locked by the monster when collecting the second target. Because I could fit into a space the monster couldn't, but it never lost track of me and just trapped me. If you moved out if its way you also tend to "avoid" damage. At some point the monster just "soft locked" itself in the center of the ship.
I think adding a bit of slowness to the screen swap can make the game play feel nicer and less disorienting.
Overall, I really like your game and where you were heading. After a few tweaks it should feel really good.
1. The monster felt pretty good, in my opinion. Wasn't too difficult to avoid but was punishing if I wasn't being careful.
2. I think the most difficult part of the playtest was learning all of the mechanics. Moving the ship was easy enough to figure out but other things were much more difficult. I had a hard time figuring out what the objective was and I couldn't figure out how the minimap fit into the larger map. I thought balancing all the various tasks was fun but I'd recommend adding a little bit more clarity to all the controls/systems.
3. If anything, I'd say that the ship needs less decorative elements. Just to make the visuals that matter stand out more and make it easier to quickly swivel around.
4. I think he game is a little too difficult. Mainly I'd just suggest giving the ship a bit more health or perhaps a way to regain some lost hull integrity, like a crank or something to make small repairs. It's possible that you already have that mechanic and if so then I'd just suggest making it more clear.
5. The speed of the ship is honestly perfect, in my opinion.
6. I'm not sure what this one is asking.
7. To be honest, I didn't really ever feel the need to open the "window" so I didn't really have to worry about the oxygen. I'd say the visuals outside the ship need a bit of a buff because it was difficult to see anything.
8. I honestly really enjoyed the playtest aside from some initial pains in figuring out all the mechanics. I do think there's room for improvement but it would be weird if there wasn't at this stage in development. My favorite part was maneuvering the ship by quickly swapping cameras. My least favorite part was trying to figure out where to go and struggling to connect the dots between maps. Overall, good job! I'm excited to see how you all further refine this game!