It really felt like those times of grief where your mind wanders in billions of direction trying to make sense of life.
I tried not using hints for the longest time, by focusing on the names and their actions, but then I got lost haha. Good thing the feature is there, or I would have abandoned without knowing the full story.
A few suggestions:
- The cursor's color can blend with the text sometimes, and is hard to find again.
- When you select a word, if it uncovers words that are already in the text, maybe you could remove the past occurences of the text? That would avoid cluttering with repeated words. (Also I noticed a loop with the word "Focus")
- I think having a "tick" sound when you click a word (very small and low volume) would make the experience more enjoyable. I believe there are checkpoints for when the pen scratching sound appears, but in-between it's pure silence (aside from the music).
- I would also add a second background music to have some variation during the game.
I think cluttering is a part of experience as it (to me) reflects that weight of memories and the process of trying to think about something but being distracted by past thoughts. Might not be the best thing from a gameplay perspective, but I think it's a bit poetic :D And it was also done to motivate users to use "clear head" button
As for sounds, yeah, it was my first time doing my own music, so I spent 2 evenings just trying to figure it out haha So it would defenitely benefit from having more melodies, but I've only had time for this one
I think you really have something here. I can see the concept being ironed out and be a full game of its own. Great UI, great music, as many others have already mentioned.
My thoughts and suggestions, which, I want to emphasize, does not undermine the creativity of your work, in no particular order:
The main story expanding from a single sentence is also what I’ve thought of before but this is a very clean execution of it. The only issue remaining is, if the player goes off tangent, they may not remember where they were before. All words are of the same color, same font; so helping player preserving their progress OR limiting their progress to just a couple branches at a time, then have them converge every now and then, is likely necessary.
I think as a tutorial, you could’ve made the very first sentence very short. Just for the player to quickly learn the mechanics. I think operating your UI is intuitive enough; just give the player a chance to settle that in, then throw them into the full story. (I had the same issue with my own game)
the fading words in/out is a bit delayed from my own point of view. But this is not a universal suggestion - everyone will have a different reaction speed, and your UI need to accommodate everyone, or at least your target audience. I don’t have a good idea off the top of my head here unfortunately.
Good job! I think you’re onto something really unique.
Thanks for such a detailed review, really appreciate it.
1) Yes, that's probably the main danger spot, that players can kinda get lost in the story as it gets bigger and they explore more and more. I've partially tried to deal with it using "remember" mechanic, that allows you to "save" some words to see their meanings anytime and restart the sequnece from there. Was this mechanic clear or not that much actually?
The fading was made to help players see what they've unlocked by clicking before it gets lost inside the other text, but the timing may really be a bit too long.
really lovely implementation of this concept! it was fun being on the active player side this time! i think the letter writing as the solution mechanic (borrowing from the obra dinn format) is really clever! i definitely was stumbling my way around making guesses, and enjoyed myself just allowing the text to drown me. i learn a strat towards the end to brute force the whole thing and find the last missing words.
But basically you recover the story through connections in words and then fill out the right answers in the letter (first appears when you open 5% of words and then as you progress new parts are added)
Thanks! It may be possible that you can't complete it right away since it depends on how you decide to move through the words. That's why it's worth remembering (right-clicking) something that seems important
A very interesting concept! I also love the UI design, super smooth! With it being a new concept, it did take me a moment to try and understand how to progress but once I got the hang of it I started to see the potential of where this can go! Well done!
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Hey! Very cool game and story!
It really felt like those times of grief where your mind wanders in billions of direction trying to make sense of life.
I tried not using hints for the longest time, by focusing on the names and their actions, but then I got lost haha. Good thing the feature is there, or I would have abandoned without knowing the full story.
A few suggestions:
- The cursor's color can blend with the text sometimes, and is hard to find again.
- When you select a word, if it uncovers words that are already in the text, maybe you could remove the past occurences of the text? That would avoid cluttering with repeated words. (Also I noticed a loop with the word "Focus")
- I think having a "tick" sound when you click a word (very small and low volume) would make the experience more enjoyable. I believe there are checkpoints for when the pen scratching sound appears, but in-between it's pure silence (aside from the music).
- I would also add a second background music to have some variation during the game.
Thanks for a review!
I think cluttering is a part of experience as it (to me) reflects that weight of memories and the process of trying to think about something but being distracted by past thoughts. Might not be the best thing from a gameplay perspective, but I think it's a bit poetic :D And it was also done to motivate users to use "clear head" button
As for sounds, yeah, it was my first time doing my own music, so I spent 2 evenings just trying to figure it out haha So it would defenitely benefit from having more melodies, but I've only had time for this one
I think you really have something here. I can see the concept being ironed out and be a full game of its own. Great UI, great music, as many others have already mentioned. My thoughts and suggestions, which, I want to emphasize, does not undermine the creativity of your work, in no particular order:
Good job! I think you’re onto something really unique.
Thanks for such a detailed review, really appreciate it.
1) Yes, that's probably the main danger spot, that players can kinda get lost in the story as it gets bigger and they explore more and more. I've partially tried to deal with it using "remember" mechanic, that allows you to "save" some words to see their meanings anytime and restart the sequnece from there. Was this mechanic clear or not that much actually?
The fading was made to help players see what they've unlocked by clicking before it gets lost inside the other text, but the timing may really be a bit too long.
Thanks for the review again!
really lovely implementation of this concept! it was fun being on the active player side this time! i think the letter writing as the solution mechanic (borrowing from the obra dinn format) is really clever! i definitely was stumbling my way around making guesses, and enjoyed myself just allowing the text to drown me. i learn a strat towards the end to brute force the whole thing and find the last missing words.
also really beautiful how it all wraps up!
Thanks for playing and being an inspiration!
cool game, but it didn't really get it but still thanks for this game! (also the words fade out may be a little slow, but cool graphics)
Yeah, it's a bit experimental but thanks for trying it out!
But basically you recover the story through connections in words and then fill out the right answers in the letter (first appears when you open 5% of words and then as you progress new parts are added)
oh i think i got it, i completed the first letter, and it was somewhat messy just like you said, but fun!
Thanks! It may be possible that you can't complete it right away since it depends on how you decide to move through the words. That's why it's worth remembering (right-clicking) something that seems important
Really impressive UI! Everything fits together so well, really creative.
Thanks a lot!
great concept! great UI!
well done
Thank you :)
The idea is so creative and awesome. Also love the way the text moves super clean.
Thank you!
A very interesting concept! I also love the UI design, super smooth! With it being a new concept, it did take me a moment to try and understand how to progress but once I got the hang of it I started to see the potential of where this can go! Well done!
Thanks!