ELDER71'S PROFILE

author=flapbat
Haha- it was a bit slow (although it picked up after the first dungeon). But I'd say the only really long wait was the elevator descent.

I've already condensed it by about a minute and a half. Just going through things and reducing the 60-180 frame waits down to 20-100 frames (where appropriate)

author=flapbat
Just to insert, I actually really liked the time limit for this game. At first I was a little appalled, wondering how much of a crunch it would be. But it worked.

As far as tutorials, can you make them in character? Like have Orphan narrate his own tutorial instead of a black screen? Not sure if it would work or not, but it might keep your pacing a little better.

How long do you expect the full game to be?

-flap

I'll have a think about it, but at a glance there doesn't seem to be a way to do tutorial's that way without hinting at a fourth wall break or using a narrator, which doesn't fit with the style.

author=Link_2112
For all the cool stuff, I find it's all bogged down by slow ass event pacing. Things like music fading and waits between certain event actions are brutal. I'm looking at a countdown clock and my characters are walking 2 steps forward, wait, turn his head, wait, say something, wait, turn his head the other way, wait.... I want to run to save my buddy already! The entire game is like this.

This is also something I'm gonna look at. It's one of those aspects that I've played through it too often too notice anymore. And yet, having said that, I did have a vague sense of having been too liberal with the 'wait' function. I think I might just go through it event by event and cull the 'waits' by 50%.
There's a wealth of points to get fixing and improving on, which I'm looking forward to doing.

Just wanna thank everyone for their pointers and hope that you'll all give it another go when the issues have been seen to :)

Great review!

A few points in response, if that's okay? (They're not in any sort of order) I'll deal with the 'negatives', since improving them is what I'm most interested in.


- Skyler's Development
This is a tricky issue, since I wanted to demonstrate as much as I could about the characters without sacrificing the pacing I had in mind and cramming the demo. Skyler is the pragmatic one, with an ability to distance herself from emotions when required (she balances Orphan's emotive-ness in that way). Throughout the demo, her reserved, aloof and even cold attitude is deliberate and there's tons to her that will be unfolded later, though I can see the merits of revealing more of her character in this sample. It's definitely something I'll think about.


- The Grunt's attacks
"I just didn't like how Grunt only attacked instead of doing something distinct like Skylar and Orphan"
This is a great point of feedback. To be honest, it's a point that's already been festering in the back of my mind for a while. I'll address it by giving him some more skills in the next version!


- "it took a bit of time to get used to the game's battles"
Do you think that a tutorial of some kind would be useful? This is something else I've considered, but I've been reluctant to use too many tutorials unless absolutely necessary.


- "Time Limits, though, probably aren't considered as great as the other two because you're on pressure wherever you go, and each moment you spend is significant on a time limit."
If OMNIS feedback has any point of contention, it's the time limit. I wanted to offset the sense of 'pressure' by making sure the time limit was big enough to never be much of a real threat, but maybe it's time to concede that having a time limit hovering over you over such a comparatively large portion of game play is a no-no.

Finally:

- "you are given the option of pressing arrow buttons in order to enhance the original attack force of the skill, thus making the outcome of the skill in total, far more stronger than the original."
Sadly, this isn't how it works. That's how it's GOING to work if I can get funding to hire scripters, but for now the button combos just allow you to execute the attack, not boost it.


Anyhow, I'm grateful for all the points to work with here. More than anything I'm chuffed with a 5/5 score and I'm so glad you enjoyed playing. I'll keep you posted as I work on making things even better :)


EDIT
I should add a point about the commercial side of things, in case anyone reading supposes I'm presumptuous or pretentious or whatever:
I'm still learning the financial/business side of things, but as far as I'm concerned the philosophy is "sell it for as little as sanely possible" not "as much as possible". Profits, such as they might be, are already earmarked for the game's sequel (it's forward planning, not 'getting ahead of myself' :) )

author=orochii
<3

:)

I've been experimenting with main title images, trying to get the right balance between establishing a theme and making it visually appealing. This is my favourite so far.

author=flapbat
The study journal got me curious, yeah. I actually advanced the plot to the point that I couldn't go back to that door my first time, so I loaded a previous save file and got it open ;)

You'll see on my review, but I really enjoyed your game. You've made something totally unique. I don't know if it's natural talent or hard work and testing, but you've got great skills as a story-teller.

-flap

I'd like to hope it was a bit of all three - though my severely arched spine and squint can confirm the hard work and many, many hours of replaying the demo over and over can attest to the thoroughness of testing... :)

EDIT: PS
I'm relieved that it ran from start to finish without crashes (or did it?) There's so much to keep track of; stupid (but easily made) mistakes are a real fear. For a long time I was stuck in a loop where I never felt like I could be sure that I'd tested everything intimately enough.