I have two problems with this game.

[Faisal]

So first off let me say I love the love that devs put to this game, it's just amazing but I really have two problems that take me out of the game. First off I feel that there are way too much happening everytime. Like I started Lucy's chapter and I started exploring his room and after 1 minute I started the chapter paranormal stuff started happening, it really takes me out because I can't explore the house like it should be because there's just too much stuff happening. And secondly the lights, oh my God why. In the Kickstarter video the house had lights everywhere (like a normal house) so I don't get why devs made the house so dark now, there are some places (like the room that is next to the clock) that have only one small light and im like dude, how do you live with only one small lamp? The house is just unrealistically dark.

[McpCosmO]

hm...those r just turorials..you can explore. i walked around half an hour and nothing happend except some lights turn off, so i go to the lightswitch and trun them on again....what brings me to the second part..search for light-switches to turn them on and correct your gamma settings in video options i have it set at the middle no matter if it says the lower text must be invisible..to mee it looks like exactly the demo footage.

[Temples7]

try checking in the walls for light switches. The house has plenty of light IMO. though the room you're talking about next to the big block, yeah is a kinda dark

[Faisal]

Originally posted by McpCosmO:

hm...those r just turorials..you can explore. i walked around half an hour and nothing happend except some lights turn off, so i go to the lightswitch and trun them on again....what brings me to the second part..search for light-switches to turn them on and correct your gamma settings in video options i have it set at the middle no matter if it says the lower text must be invisible..to mee it looks like exactly the demo footage.

Yeah and when that happens your sanity starts getting lower and more weird ♥♥♥♥ starts happening. There are even sometimes where a creepy sounds play but nothing happens. I really would like that they could give you more free time to walk and see the details of the house. And yeah I could turn the gamma up but that doesn't really justify how ridiculously dark some rooms are. Lucy's room has only one main light (don't know why there isn't ceiling lamps) and the other room next to the clock has only one small light. It takes all the realism of the house to the trash.

[PostPwnedU]

Originally posted by PlayerAgainstTheMachine:

Originally posted by McpCosmO:

hm...those r just turorials..you can explore. i walked around half an hour and nothing happend except some lights turn off, so i go to the lightswitch and trun them on again....what brings me to the second part..search for light-switches to turn them on and correct your gamma settings in video options i have it set at the middle no matter if it says the lower text must be invisible..to mee it looks like exactly the demo footage.

Yeah and when that happens your sanity starts getting lower and more weird ♥♥♥♥ starts happening. There are even sometimes where a creepy sounds play but nothing happens. I really would like that they could give you more free time to walk and see the details of the house. And yeah I could turn the gamma up but that doesn't really justify how ridiculously dark some rooms are. Lucy's room has only one main light (don't know why there isn't ceiling lamps) and the other room next to the clock has only one small light. It takes all the realism of the house to the trash.

Dude, just wait till all the light switches are taken out of the walls on you, IMO i think they should have a button you press so you can cover the candle with your other hand. Those damn things get blown out so easy, and make it so i can light it in my hand like literally any other person in exsistance can do.

[IntheDark]

Yes, I also think that a more calm time will benefit the immersion. Every few seconds (or minutes) a light turns off, again and again.

I love the game, but too many dark situations in my opinion. In fact, most of the time when the light goes off I can't even see the switch...

[Tex]

Agreed.

1) Slow the pace of paranormal events given how long it takes to figure out what to do.
2) Add some more dim lighting, things are too dark as it is, even with gamma turned up.
3) Fix the candles. their current implementation is very poor. If you have a lighter in your inventory, give me the option of lighting the candle at will when I'm holding it and for the love of god, why does it go out immediately when I move?!
4) Decrease rate at which sanity changes / allow areas for sanity recovery. Make it easier to recover sanity in general.
5) Make sanity level more clear.
6) Rework the ghosts so you can feel their presence, but aren't caught so often.

[IntheDark]

Originally posted by Tex:

Agreed.

1) Slow the pace of paranormal events given how long it takes to figure out what to do.
2) Add some more dim lighting, things are too dark as it is, even with gamma turned up.
3) Fix the candles. their current implementation is very poor. If you have a lighter in your inventory, give me the option of lighting the candle at will when I'm holding it and for the love of god, why does it go out immediately when I move?!
4) Decrease rate at which sanity changes / allow areas for sanity recovery. Make it easier to recover sanity in general.
5) Make sanity level more clear.
6) Rework the ghosts so you can feel their presence, but aren't caught so often.

I couldn't agree more with each and every one of the points that you have exposed.

[BittyMcBitBit]

I'll list my biggest complaints before listing the praise, since you guys probably find that more relevant right now

Complaints:
- I had a very hard time getting the camera item to spawn. I had to watch a couple Let's Plays before realizing I was supposed to interact with the TV playing the wedding footage. I didn't interact with it because I didn't think I needed to, and I assumed turning off the TV would remove a source of light and deplete sanity
- Not enough indication that I needed to interact with the rug in order to climb down and remove the plank from the eyeball hole in the wall
- The "Rusty key" wasn't visible enough, despite being next to the candle. I had to wander back down after feeling like I must have missed something
- I personally super dislike tutorial pop-ups that take away player control. Like, I'm in the middle of walking around, approaching something, picking up an item and SUDDENLY BAM!! "Sirens! Stop playing the game and read these lines of text!! Right now - it's urgent!!!" I feel like there's always a better solution to teach players without plunging a steak knife into the game's pacing. For example, with the Progress Room, I'd have preferred to realize what it is organically rather than have a text interruption tell me and kill the mystery of that room. Without the text, I can see it's much different to the rest of the house. Dynamic text tells me "something must go here" when I interact with the display plates. When I pick up the jaw, some dynamic text could clue me to bring it to that room, or to find it there later, or let me find it on my own since I'll probably wander back to it knowing that it's a unique room and must be special. Another example - the lightbulbs in particular don't need a pop-up, since I'll eventually see a broken light and then the bottom-screen controls saying "left-click with lightbulb" and I immediately understand their purpose and that I need to look for one. In short, "show, don't tell."
- Hard to understand the audio from the radio in the treehouse
- Audio from parents' voices in the big 'void' area was much quieter than the rest of the game's audio mixing, so it was hard to hear
- Can't quite tell what makes me evade the monster with the claws. If I hear the growling I just run around for a bit, then it seems like I can just resume what I was doing. Easy to repeat pattern made the monster much less threatening

Nitpicks:
- Would be nice if the player climbs into the bloody bathtub a little faster
- I didn't realize what exactly I was doing when pulling the plank from the eye in the wall. I continued wandering around before going back and trying that door again. Maybe letting that door open a little wider so I get a better view of what's blocking it
- Would prefer to interact with objects with left mouse click - particularly opening doors & drawers (like in Amnesia)
- Speaking of.. there are sooo many drawers. One thing I don't like about Amnesia-style games is not knowing if something important is hidden in a drawer and feeling obligated to open *all* of them. It gets tedious pretty quickly. Maybe if I can only open drawers in the smaller white cabinets, so that it limits the time I have to spend rummaging around and can identify interactable drawers just by looking at them. The brown drawers are a little harder to see anyway, particularly in the Cage Room.
- Would like it if there was more of a reason for my lighters to suddenly stop working. Having text pop up that basically says "doesn't work for some reason" feels like there could be a better option. Maybe in the lighter-less areas, each time you turn on the lighter, a ghostly breeze sound wooshes by and puts out the flame. Eventually the player realizes that the ghost is messing with them or something and they have to resort to the camera.
- Would like the sprint to be a little faster in the 'void' area when moving between the animated visions/memories
- I'm... not a big fan of the baby doll face on the main monster. Kept reminding me of the movie Happy Death Day, which made it look cutesy and goofy to me. Maybe if the hood obscured it some more, or the mouth was open like a scream
- A little silly I can interact with the giant saw blade in the garage. Not just that it clips through the wall, but also the idea my character is spinning this huge heavy blade around and giving it a thorough inspection for no good reason, lol

My favorite scares/moments:
- The monster slowly walking toward you when you first pick up the camera. I was expecting it to vanish shortly, maybe rush at me first, but instead it kept shuffling forward.. closer and closer. I thought "Oh.. am I supposed to run away from this?" Tried to hide in a room but realized there was no longer a door I could close. Came back out and the monster was still walking forward. "Oh.. ♥♥♥♥...." And then it started backing up and left behind and item, and I was relieved. Masterfully done scare moment. Really threw me for a loop and made me feel in real danger.
- The girl showing up in the camera flash when going up the stairs during the part where you're stuck with the closet door "locked from the other side." Great timing on that moment
- The part of the wedding footage zooming in on the bride's eyes in the mirror for an uncomfortably long time. Was just the right amount to make me go "Uhh... wtf..." (in a good way)
- Camera flashes are well-timed in terms of how quickly you can spam the flash. The lighting looks super nice, particularly in the Cage Room
- Game starting exactly like P.T. after the opening scene - waking up on the ground in a small cube cement room, looking at a door with the camera out of focus, then standing up and walking through it. My euphoric distaste for Konami loved seeing that. "Ha! These guys finished what you won't!"
- I loved that I could dual-wield lighters. I joyfully ran around the house with two of them lit up feeling invincible

I'm really glad you guys are working on this project. You're on track to making a horror game classic. The genre needs more dedicated developers like you, and we're super lucky you're doing this for us :)

[Faisal]

Originally posted by Tex:

Agreed.

1) Slow the pace of paranormal events given how long it takes to figure out what to do.
2) Add some more dim lighting, things are too dark as it is, even with gamma turned up.
3) Fix the candles. their current implementation is very poor. If you have a lighter in your inventory, give me the option of lighting the candle at will when I'm holding it and for the love of god, why does it go out immediately when I move?!
4) Decrease rate at which sanity changes / allow areas for sanity recovery. Make it easier to recover sanity in general.
5) Make sanity level more clear.
6) Rework the ghosts so you can feel their presence, but aren't caught so often.

THIS, please devs you gotta fix these things, the game is awesome but it has these really annoying things.

[Rene]

I feel like the current lighting plays a big roles into making this game as scary as it is. Especially when a room is completely dark and u walk through it until you find a light switch to turn light on! That alone is scary for me. The biggest complain about this game is the inventory ad the way you interact with the objects... It's so clunky and during stressful situation i completely mess up keybinds. it needs to be simplified. You should be able to press numbers from 1-5 and automatically equip the item. Plus the interaction between candle is lighter is just bad. I think they should reduce the number of lighters on the house. This way the ighter becomes a must object to have and save the gas on it. And use it just to light candles. And as for candles you should be able to hold them on your hand and walk with it.