Demo Thoughts

[anailater]

I'll start by saying I definitely have not 100%'d the demo, not even close, but seeing as my thoughts are almost exclusively praise I think that's fine lol.

Okay yeah this kinda rules ass. The "meta comedy about video game characters who know they're in a game" genre is kinda overfilled even I can't deny that. But playing into the very specific tropes of resident evil style survival horror, the problems with legacy sequels, game dev hell, and the existential horror of existing in a cancelled project, make it work a lot more I think. On a gameplay level this game is doing some fascinating stuff. The idea of collecting "traits" by looping around through the specific points in time you make choices is super cool, cant wait to find out what maxing out "broken ankle" and "bad ideas" gets me in the main game. Also the idea of using visual novel style choices to move around a big metroidvania map is RADICAL. And I love that each battle is it's own weird mini variant of match 3 with different rules I enjoy. Like how The final boss of the demo is a pure rush to get enough of each symbol or [spoiler[the fight agaisnt the flyer who can do chip damage and clear your banked symbols, but only has to be hit 3 times [/spoiler] it's all just super interesting. I do have some minor foibles, I think the menu should let you hover over the feats for small descriptions for example, and I think the map could do with a bit of overhauling visually? Just to look a bit more interesting and like an RE Map. But I'm for sure checking this out when it releases in April. You did amazing work with this :)

[slimmedtwig]

Originally posted by anailater:

I'll start by saying I definitely have not 100%'d the demo, not even close, but seeing as my thoughts are almost exclusively praise I think that's fine lol.

Okay yeah this kinda rules ass. The "meta comedy about video game characters who know they're in a game" genre is kinda overfilled even I can't deny that. But playing into the very specific tropes of resident evil style survival horror, the problems with legacy sequels, game dev hell, and the existential horror of existing in a cancelled project, make it work a lot more I think. On a gameplay level this game is doing some fascinating stuff. The idea of collecting "traits" by looping around through the specific points in time you make choices is super cool, cant wait to find out what maxing out "broken ankle" and "bad ideas" gets me in the main game. Also the idea of using visual novel style choices to move around a big metroidvania map is RADICAL. And I love that each battle is it's own weird mini variant of match 3 with different rules I enjoy. Like how The final boss of the demo is a pure rush to get enough of each symbol or [spoiler[the fight agaisnt the flyer who can do chip damage and clear your banked symbols, but only has to be hit 3 times [/spoiler] it's all just super interesting. I do have some minor foibles, I think the menu should let you hover over the feats for small descriptions for example, and I think the map could do with a bit of overhauling visually? Just to look a bit more interesting and like an RE Map. But I'm for sure checking this out when it releases in April. You did amazing work with this :)

First of all, THANK YOU. When people GET IT, it makes our whole team happy. While I can't promise some of these changes, your feedback is tremendously helpful and feels very true to our intent. Thanks again!

[anailater]

Originally posted by slimmedtwig:

First of all, THANK YOU. When people GET IT, it makes our whole team happy. While I can't promise some of these changes, your feedback is tremendously helpful and feels very true to our intent. Thanks again!

No thank you! I'm just some rando on the internet, you're the people doing the work :3 I appreciate it a ton you'd even reply, I know how nice it can feel to get some meaningful feedback, so I've been trying to do it with demos for a long time now. Best of luck to your entire team!

[chrita]

Echoing the above sentiment, thank you so much for the kind words!

[PapaPolski]

One of my favourite demos I've tried so far! Keep up the great work :)

[Thorn]

Piggybacking on this thread. Just finished the demo and I think I explored most of it. Your game is very silly. And very fun! I actually really like match 3 games for some reason, so wrapping that up with an actual story, and a meta comedy one at that, is right up my alley. Super in to this. Wishlisted. Hope it goes well for your team!