Demo review

[Tachi Lax]

I just finished the demo and have some feedback I'd like to share.

It's nice to have the feel of an old game of this genre, and so far this game seems like a gigantic love letter to the original Myst & Riven.
Some things have evolved since them and would be good to implement into Neyyah as well I think.
For example, controls are only mouse based. On its face, it obviously works, but even the remakes of old games have incorporated keyboard shortcuts for those. Using arrow keys or the usual FPS movement keys would let the player navigate through the world without having to pan the mouse constantly through the screen for faster traversal.
Right-clicking could also be used to "zoom out" of those zoomed in views without having to aim out of interact-able screen space.

Speaking of which, I feel like the menuing is a bit slow and detracts the player from the game. Having to reach out for Esc to get it instantly gets me out of the immersion, which in a game that's made to literally plunge you into alien worlds is kind of a big drawback.
Since the problem is reaching out to the key, could it be better to use the right click and/or middle click to access it ?
For example, a radial menu spawning on middle-clicking to let players choose between the different options in the menu would make accessing it more fluid.
It's just an idea, but I think it illustrates how I felt better.

For the content of the demo itself, I guess it felt a bit too hand-holdy ? Like I was just following a bunch of instructions, the only bit of thinking I had to do was to how to use one item at one point, and the rest I was just blindly following what some piece of text (either from a dialogue, a book, a tablet) was telling me to do.
In a game that's clearly made to be about exploring and getting an understanding of the world around you, I felt like I had no option to explore anything and was just handed over a paper with the answers already written in for understanding.
Obviously, I cannot talk for the rest of the game, since I assume the demo only covers the very beginning, but so far I'm sorry to say that wasn't very impressive.

Given how the ambiance, graphics, sounds and story were pretty immersive, this game has the makings of a new reference in the genre. However, I personally feels like it would benefit from being a lot less directive.

It's a hard line to thread for sure: some players will complain and get lost because they don't understand... But isn't that the very point of these games ? I've been stumped a fair bit of times in those games, but that's why figuring it out felt so good: it was my own achievement, not just regurgitating something that someone else figured out.


Anyway, despite the above feedback, I did enjoy my time in Neyyah and would like to see more later. I'll be keeping an eye on the progress of your work.

[Pharap]

Originally posted by Tachi Lax:

let the player navigate through the world without having to pan the mouse constantly through the screen for faster traversal

Did you try using fast mode (the F key) at all?

Personally though, I don't see why fast travel is particularly desirable.
These sorts of games aren't really designed to be rushed.

If you rush through everywhere the game will just be over quicker, and it's not something you can replay in a hurry because you'll remember all the puzzle solutions. You'll also potentially miss out on some of the scenery, which is one of the best parts of the game.

Originally posted by Tachi Lax:

Since the problem is reaching out to the key, could it be better to use the right click and/or middle click to access it ?

Did you try clicking the middle mouse button to see what it does?

It already brings up the menu.

Also, everything on the main menu has a hotkey (e.g. I for Inventory, M for Maps, J for Journals).

[Defy Reality Entertainment]

Originally posted by Tachi Lax:

I just finished the demo and have some feedback I'd like to share.

It's nice to have the feel of an old game of this genre, and so far this game seems like a gigantic love letter to the original Myst & Riven.
Some things have evolved since them and would be good to implement into Neyyah as well I think.
For example, controls are only mouse based. On its face, it obviously works, but even the remakes of old games have incorporated keyboard shortcuts for those. Using arrow keys or the usual FPS movement keys would let the player navigate through the world without having to pan the mouse constantly through the screen for faster traversal.
Right-clicking could also be used to "zoom out" of those zoomed in views without having to aim out of interact-able screen space.

Speaking of which, I feel like the menuing is a bit slow and detracts the player from the game. Having to reach out for Esc to get it instantly gets me out of the immersion, which in a game that's made to literally plunge you into alien worlds is kind of a big drawback.
Since the problem is reaching out to the key, could it be better to use the right click and/or middle click to access it ?
For example, a radial menu spawning on middle-clicking to let players choose between the different options in the menu would make accessing it more fluid.
It's just an idea, but I think it illustrates how I felt better.

For the content of the demo itself, I guess it felt a bit too hand-holdy ? Like I was just following a bunch of instructions, the only bit of thinking I had to do was to how to use one item at one point, and the rest I was just blindly following what some piece of text (either from a dialogue, a book, a tablet) was telling me to do.
In a game that's clearly made to be about exploring and getting an understanding of the world around you, I felt like I had no option to explore anything and was just handed over a paper with the answers already written in for understanding.
Obviously, I cannot talk for the rest of the game, since I assume the demo only covers the very beginning, but so far I'm sorry to say that wasn't very impressive.

Given how the ambiance, graphics, sounds and story were pretty immersive, this game has the makings of a new reference in the genre. However, I personally feels like it would benefit from being a lot less directive.

It's a hard line to thread for sure: some players will complain and get lost because they don't understand... But isn't that the very point of these games ? I've been stumped a fair bit of times in those games, but that's why figuring it out felt so good: it was my own achievement, not just regurgitating something that someone else figured out.


Anyway, despite the above feedback, I did enjoy my time in Neyyah and would like to see more later. I'll be keeping an eye on the progress of your work.

Hey, thanks for reaching out! I definitely agree with how this style of game should just 'plunge' you into the world. Trust me, I get it, and this was my original intention. In fact, this demo area of the game was originally open to a lot more exploration. But I found this could be too overwhelming for 'most' players. It's finding a balance which will appeal to everyone. So far, the game is playing well in Next Fest, hitting Top 5 in puzzle and adventure, top 300 in all games (which comes to about 2000 games - insane). While this initial first segment of the game might feel hand-held / linear, once you reach a certain point (a bit later), the world suddenly opens up. Although I'll be cutting back on exposition for the start points of the game to allow more exploration, show don't tell, etc, this first hour to 2 (or 4) hours of gameplay just gets the player in, understanding some of the story and interactions. I think you'll really appreciate the style of the rest of Neyyah's gameplay, which definitely fits more of that open world Riven feel.

I am thinking an option at the start on New Game click which will ask the player if they want to have the tutorial pop ups come up or not (will word in a particular way). Almost like giving the player two ways to play (easy or hard mode, kind of thing, but more integrated to Neyyah's world).

Regards Neyyah's world looking the same, this was quite intentional, as our world doesn't need bright sparks of colour to suddenly show us something ... Our streets all look the same, and everything for the most part will look quite desaturated, which I love and builds that realistic feel Neyyah has. Action Highlights with spacebar performs a glowy interaction highlight. so levers / buttons which may not be completely visible stand out. I think this is better than having random yellow paint splashed all over the place, like I've seen some games too. Of course, it's all a step up from OG Riven, where the tiniest button may blend very well into the textures / shadow cast of a particular scene, and the cursor never even changed to show an interaction. I did see this as a problem, and created something in Neyyah which was more modern, and DID use the keyboard.

You mention there's no keyboard. I always have my left hand over the keyboard now when I play Neyyah due to the amount of hotkeys available lol. The main menu can be opened with middle mouse, though the instruction isn't clear, unless you read the controls page. This is quite a lot of info to take in, but there are a lot of controls, and like everything with Neyyah, you have to take your time - and this pushes against a new modern way of gameplay thinking, I know. But it's unique now in a lot of ways :)

Hope you stick around for full release! There's so much more to Neyyah, and the hand held puzzles don't last for long .... *laughs evilly*.