Tester's suggestions and notes for improvement

[JOBdOut on YT]

I want to point out first that I bought the game, didn't enjoy it - and refunded it. The dev approached me to beta test the game as he aims to fix things and make them better. That is the difference between a "bad" dev and a "learning" dev - noone's first game is Rockstar North-worthy - hell even the makers of GTA themselves made a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or two (Dr Evils Welcome to my Secret Underground Lair) - I appreciate that this dev is putting up with the negativity from Jim Sterling (whos video I saw) and Nerdcubed (whos video I havent) - so I have been approached to test the game and find things that I feel could be improved upon - so that the game can be fixed. If you post constructive things to fix instead of "this game sucks" - I am pretty confident Devdan will take them into consideration.

For transparency's sake - Devdan, the creator of this game, is on my friendslist - he approached me to test the game via steam.

I also don't know the goal of the story so my notes are going to try not to 'rewrite' the story but may offer ways to brnig more focus to it.

I livestreamed the affair and the replay can be found here - there's positives, negatives, criticisma and suggestions all found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLEUv5M2pk8


First notes - Original Mode
-The intro is too long and quiet. We don't get any premise of what's going on other than "dude drives car" and instantly viewers train their eyes to look for problems. You can't give them that opportunity and need to forcefeed them some backstory - maybe he's on CB radio and hears some distress followed by growling - something to clue you in that theres something bigger going down.

-Sound is your friend. There needs to be something to break up the monotony of light jazz followed by bipedal footprints. Put a radio playing some timely music in the mechanics garage - put a television with a dead-air static or a testpattern in the diner - things that make you want to stop and investigate your surroundings.

-Realism - this may seem off in a game where you're attacked in a truckstop by mutants but a big floating baseball bat and petrol can separates the idea that you should be concerned or scared and reminds you that this is a game. Petrol cans could be made more visible but honestly - th ey should be just laying around in practical areas - the mechanics garage, by a gas pump, in a garbage pile, etc. As for the baseball bat - maybe change it to a crowbar and stick a storage closet in the garage or something. Ideas like that. It's about atmosphere.


First Person - one of the first ridicules people gave was to do with the design of the protagonist -who we don't actually see outside of cutscenes because the game is in first person. Think about scrapping him. While I enjoy escaping into the story of another person - a lot of people today want to envision themselves in the first-person role. They don't care who this guy is and he's unnecessary. The cutscene could be done through your own eyes - you're driving, you look at the radio - you see your gauge reads that you're low on fuel and you pull up to a ghost-town. You probably could still have the bit where a foot exits a car door (thats not what it looks like by the way - set a camera infront of a car and step in, and step out - and model the scene to look like that) - As for the thumbnail and press images - gas station, wrecked car, alien standing ontop of it. When your game is called The Alien Wasteland there is little point to hiding the aliens or making some big reveal midgame.

As for Night mode - which I admit is more pleasant on the eyes because it's not as orange as day mode - but it's (so far) the same game. Infact - it'd be a more ideal setting because you'd have an excuse to incorporate fire into it. Who gets scared during the daytime? Horror is for nighttime.

I also encountered a bug when escaping the borders during night mode - the note says "ouch it's too hot" (which is the same as daytime) but should probably be changed to too cold or unsafe. Wandering the desert at night isn't smart afterall. There needs to be a reason not to just run off into the night - like something blocking you from exiting. In the Hunger Games film - they did the gigantic firestorm to stop you from hitting the end of the map - consider something like a thick fog you can't see through or some wreckage blocking the road (which allows you to change things up so you arent just collecting petrol cans - you could make a mission of purposefully destroying the environment or assembling a spotlight so you can escape it by the end of the level) - and if you go too far - just spawn something to chase you back or kill you

BUGS
The graphical glitch where you kill the monsters seems to have been fixed - though they can still attack you through walls - I tried taking solace in a corner during the 2nd wave and took damage - turned around to face the wall and all the enemies had spawned inside where I was originally looking. UPDATE - there are scenarios where killing a monster will lead to their arms and legs continuing to move in a paddling motion until the disappear.

There is no HUD on nightmode - cant tell how much healh or ammo I have

I encounvered a bug where, when standing ontop of the barn - some monsters stuck in the car underneath (inside the barn) are still able to hit and do damage.

There is a spot behind the garage-shop building where aliens wll spawn and get stuck.

If there are medkits (white boxes) I cant find them or can't differentiate them from other environmental objects - theres no reference to them in the opening splash. Might I suggest just replacing medkits with say.. alcohol bottles stashed in the diner?

After dying in nightmode by running outside the borders - I continue to get the flashing red damage notification as I'm looking at the stats screen.

Hope this helps, will keep taking notes. We have this bad mindset these days where we all want to complain about things but offer nothing to improve upon them. It's not constructive if you don't want to help construct. I'd much rather have a hand in making something better than wasting my time talking abuot why that thing is worse.

[JOBdOut on YT]

EDIT - I have found one medkit - a greenbox that looked very similar to the light ammo boxes - there needs to be something to more easily differentiate it from the rest - perhaps an image similar to a domestic first aid kit (white childrens-lunch-box type look) or a glow or something

[Devdan]

Thank you for your feedback ! I was waiting for it, I have read all your posts and I will watch the video later.

So I am taking note about making the game to be more immersive and scary. I am aware that the character is not well modelled/rigged and isn't important for the game. For now, I shall remove it and make the introduction sequence to be only set in a first-person view. I will also move the opening splash from the beginning of the level to the menu of the game. To fix the floating items killing the realism I plan to make them highlighted and laying on the ground like in Left 4 Dead.

I also like the idea of some animated TVs/radios inside the buildings and I will try to add it if I have the time, and basically anything that could improve the atmosphere on the map.

About the bugs with the aliens, I am planning to entirely redesign the gas station and almost all of them will be fixed once I make the buildings and the environment destructible, since the aliens won't be stuck if they can break/push everything around ! Nonetheless I will try to improve as much as I can the navmesh.

The HUD on nightmode is intentionally empty since this mode is supposed to be harder ! There should also be no crosshair. Medkits are normally white boxes with a red cross. I didn't know about the red flashing damage notification still flashing when running outside the borders and I am going to fix it.

So thank you for your feedback, don't hesitate to post more suggestions and once the updated version of the gas station or the incoming new map is available for testing, I will let you know.

[Sharp Income]

I was wondering (couldn't find it mentioned anywhere in discussions) and I'm guessing the answer is a no, but does this game have iron sights/aim down sights? I think it'd really help add to realism/immersion, and also help on night mode if there's no crosshair.

[that's what she said]

Originally posted by Sharp Income:

I was wondering (couldn't find it mentioned anywhere in discussions) and I'm guessing the answer is a no, but does this game have iron sights/aim down sights? I think it'd really help add to realism/immersion, and also help on night mode if there's no crosshair.

No.