I might have complained a bit too much. I don't hate the economy mechanics, and I think I understand why saving the game is so expensive. HOWEVER - I assume the game is not that long and that is your way of extending playtime. If that is the case........... That's not fun.
I guess the whole coin economy part is kinda like my personal peeve. Number limits don't seem like a fun way to limit player. I'd much rather prefer gameplay difficulty than an int comparator.
I like the shotgun and I like the shooting, but you NEED a way to check how many shells are loaded and how to reload. Even the most hardcore games let you take out a clip from the gun to see how many bullets remain. Come on. "Press RMB when you shot one shell to reload" is bullshit - do I even remember if I shot one? Also - why does it reload and not shoot one? Are we playing by the DOOM 2 rules?
Last complaint - being able to miss the shot when the ball has the tracking as if you're about to hit it is bs. I'm assuming you apply the hit to the ball only when it's hit by a shotgun pellet - but that feels like pure RNG at that point.
I dunno your design vision for the game, but I feel like golfing should kinda secondary. It's the premise for the spooks, and that's why I liked rotating the shotgun to putt with the butt. I don't mind shooting the ball, but I also kinda expect the "oh, you're focusing on the ball? Here, have a monster" type spooks. Right now (or at least at the starting levels) you're overwhelmed with numbers and resource management with not enough spooky stuff, and resource management makes me wanna either savescum or whip out a cheat engine.
As a fan of a more standard horror games I have to say I enjoyed it to a limited degree. Good atmosphere, gameplay loop is decent, but maybe not explained from the get-go, like you have three tries and three balls per try and you can exchange one try for ammunition wasn't clear. First-time player might be confused what is possible and what not.
Add manual reloading. I'm not asking, it's a basic human right. Also is there a way to cancel charged shot? It's a shotgun, you either press the trigger or you don't. Couple times I shot at the ball and it didn't register as being hit. I think it's unacceptable in a situation where slugs are very limited. Also couple times ball rolled back to the start and it costed me a whole try. That shouldn't be the case.
Smoking is a thing to relieve stress (Cosmicdev stole it from you I guess), but when you have more than one cigarette you'll automatically start burning the second one. I think you should make it so you stop smoking the first one and you need to start smoking again. I was smoking the last 20% and I presumed it'd stop at 0% but it went through the next one.
That scary thingy on the 3rd level is unstoppable and you have to hide in the closet, right? Well, let's say I don't like one-shots that take you to the start of the game. Give me three chances before sending me all the way back, also add option to heal for money instead of blindly saving the game. You might lose a lot of potential fans in your first 15 minutes if you're too hard-ass about the difficulty.
So yea, 10/10 really good, I did like three runs, each one moving further but since I was hoarding money I died and got send all the way back. Ease up with the difficulty and get that QoL improvements and you'll have another twitch streamerbait gold.
Excellent visuals, the colour quantization and palette works really well and it's all looking very polished and the actual core gameplay is enjoyable.
For points of possible improvements: It seems like maybe there's some randomization in the order you can get the courses - I think the second one I got was one that had a very steep climb with a barrier obstacle above it, I think that was a bit rough to start off so early with. As the game is first person, I didn't always know what I had to interact with straight away like if the door opened because I may have been looking down at the course when it happened. I also tried using the options menu but I couldn't leave it once I was on that page - tried escape, enter, backspace, clicking on apply, etc.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the main menu darkens the hovered option which was a bit confusing about which option was selected.
For the starting dialogue skip should complete the sentence first instead of skipping it right away.
First run I got to the area with the conveyor belt thinking I would save there before starting but I got instantly killed by a jumpscare and it sent me back to the beginning. I think putting players in charge of saving the game and having that save cost limited resources is a recipe for frustration. Second run got ended by an uphill + V-shaped barrier shot that I couldn't do. Uphill shots like that are much harder because the ball rolls back down and out of bounds which immediately fails your current try, if there were a barrier or the ball got reset to the starting position you could at least practice the shot 2 more times before starting your next try. Last run I was doing the corner thing and I didn't realize an enemy had spawn and it killed me. I did hear the thing open but I thought it was another load of fish. Enemies could use some sound when attacking.
Last time I played this it had a putt button. I suppose holding down a single button is more elegant and less random but it is counter intuitive. The camera smoothing is nauseating so I disabled it immediately but also the way the character moves feels bad to control, it's like you're dragging something heavy on ice. Bullet decals apply to the ball and the coins.
It took me a while to realize that I can reload a partly empty shotgun by pressing right click and that the lever on the shotgun indicates how many shots are left.
Got to the jumpscare guy again, I realize now that it's a roaming monster and not something that's meant to kill you as you go save, which is a problem because I didn't save (didn't have money) and I got cornered. I understand that you're trying to make the game more tense but I don't think this resource management system is doing it any favors. Spooky monsters would be enough imo. Also causes some randomness problems because those courses with the barriers you have to shoot to raise are an ammo sink. In some courses the ball can get wedged between an obstacle and the course's edge and it's hard to get an angle to hit it.
I finally managed to finish the demo, here's my feedback:
The visuals are the highlight of course, very good work on that. The atmosphere is spot on.
This happened very rarely but I swear to god I would point my shotgun directly at the golf ball and the pellets would avoid it completely at a very close range.
It would be nice to have a way to cancel the shot after it has already been charged up so you don't waste ammo. Sometimes I would hold the left mouse button by accident or whatever and I didn't know how to just cancel it, if there was an input prompt to do that I didn't see it at least, disregard this if there was one.
It would be nice to have a dedicated reload button, instead of looking at the shotgun and seeing if there are 1 or 2 shells left. I got used to it in the end though, if there was just one shell left in the shotgun I would press the right mouse button to reload. I'm guessing this is part of the planned gameplay though, but it does feel a little weird.
This is just my opinion, but the default button to check your status should be the TAB key. Using Shift usually results in the Windows "activate sticky keys" prompt. I changed it myself to the TAB key, just a thought.
When you are crouching pressing the space bar should make your character stand up (it's the common FPS control scheme, since it's usually the "jump" key).
I know this is part of the gameplay difficulty mechanic, but holding the mouse button to charge up the shotgun to see how far the golf ball will go feels very weird, as in "guns don't work like that" kind of weird lol - you get used to it in the end, but I still wanted to mention it. I know having to change the power of your shot with the mouse scroll could make the game too easy, but maybe that would be a good option for an easy mode.
By far the most important resource to buy is to save the game in my opinion, redoing the levels felt very frustrating, especially if you are 2 or more levels ahead from your last save point.
This is just a thought but after seeing the mini golf courses patterns 1 or 2 times you get a good idea on how to beat them easily - after losing a few rounds of course.
Overall it's a nice game, streamer friendly since it's horror. Nice work!
It's clearly not for me, thinking that Golfball can come any second stresses me out too much to aim and think. Level design for him seemed good.
+Shotgun UI +Smokes look good +Being able to shoot the turret +Ball reflecting indicator -Menu's UI's, they need some work -Buttons (text) gets gray on hover, instead of being Chosen it looks disabled, would consider some other color that fits your game, can be dark just would avoid gray. -I have to hold "Close" instead of click it (why?) /When resolution scaling was set to 50% the grain in darkness looked eye soring (2560x1440, 27inch, up to 144Hz), at 100% it was acceptable /hit direction is calculated based of my rotation, imo it should include also my position. (But I would assume we always aim in the middle of the ball as it is now) /In the beginning being unable to reload with keyboard and be allowed to aim just to be forced to reload was really annoying. I don't know which way you would like to take it but at least reload on left click down than up would be my wish, or an auto reload after shot (but it does'n solve shooting 1 and than wanting to shoot 2). /Shotgun UI could indicate in some way if it's loaded (I can left click to check it but if there was ammo means I have to left click again and than again, it's inconvenient) /I just read your comment that this demo added "You can now see if the shotgun is loaded or not", at no point in game I noticed /Got confused what to do if I want to change my mind after aiming (later figured I can reload and change aim by shooing "in the air", some players will think they will lose 1 "chance" just for shooting) /I clicked F multiple times and nothing happened, idk if tutorial told me to hold and I misread but animation of raising a cig to mouth play even if I just click would be nice (current hold mechanic may stay but show that clicking F does something to inform me I have to hold) /I don't know what crouching does /When smoke reaches 0% and I don't have any more it should stop (Maybe I got unlucky but if felt like I could smoke that 0% for hours) /When talking to guy that gives you second shotgun pause the Golfenemy and let people go through text manually. After each sentence I was thinking "I that it? Is he done?" and wanted to walk away, while if it's too fast some won't be able to read it.
Just a good game, I like it, I actually have no idea how to deal with the scary golf dude. I'm not sure if you put the dying guy there before, but I appreciate the game telling me that you can't kill the golf dude.
first time i actually manage to reach mr golfy lol i appreciate the improved putt-aim for the shotgun, but i don't see why it was needed to remove manual putting entirely i had some tough spots right next to a corner where putting traditionally would have given me a better control of the direction and power of the shot
Comments
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2563735232
I might have complained a bit too much. I don't hate the economy mechanics, and I think I understand why saving the game is so expensive. HOWEVER - I assume the game is not that long and that is your way of extending playtime. If that is the case........... That's not fun.
I guess the whole coin economy part is kinda like my personal peeve. Number limits don't seem like a fun way to limit player. I'd much rather prefer gameplay difficulty than an int comparator.
I like the shotgun and I like the shooting, but you NEED a way to check how many shells are loaded and how to reload. Even the most hardcore games let you take out a clip from the gun to see how many bullets remain. Come on. "Press RMB when you shot one shell to reload" is bullshit - do I even remember if I shot one? Also - why does it reload and not shoot one? Are we playing by the DOOM 2 rules?
Last complaint - being able to miss the shot when the ball has the tracking as if you're about to hit it is bs. I'm assuming you apply the hit to the ball only when it's hit by a shotgun pellet - but that feels like pure RNG at that point.
I dunno your design vision for the game, but I feel like golfing should kinda secondary. It's the premise for the spooks, and that's why I liked rotating the shotgun to putt with the butt. I don't mind shooting the ball, but I also kinda expect the "oh, you're focusing on the ball? Here, have a monster" type spooks. Right now (or at least at the starting levels) you're overwhelmed with numbers and resource management with not enough spooky stuff, and resource management makes me wanna either savescum or whip out a cheat engine.
But the game is pretty solid.
As a fan of a more standard horror games I have to say I enjoyed it to a limited degree. Good atmosphere, gameplay loop is decent, but maybe not explained from the get-go, like you have three tries and three balls per try and you can exchange one try for ammunition wasn't clear. First-time player might be confused what is possible and what not.
Add manual reloading. I'm not asking, it's a basic human right. Also is there a way to cancel charged shot? It's a shotgun, you either press the trigger or you don't. Couple times I shot at the ball and it didn't register as being hit. I think it's unacceptable in a situation where slugs are very limited. Also couple times ball rolled back to the start and it costed me a whole try. That shouldn't be the case.
Smoking is a thing to relieve stress (Cosmicdev stole it from you I guess), but when you have more than one cigarette you'll automatically start burning the second one. I think you should make it so you stop smoking the first one and you need to start smoking again. I was smoking the last 20% and I presumed it'd stop at 0% but it went through the next one.
That scary thingy on the 3rd level is unstoppable and you have to hide in the closet, right? Well, let's say I don't like one-shots that take you to the start of the game. Give me three chances before sending me all the way back, also add option to heal for money instead of blindly saving the game. You might lose a lot of potential fans in your first 15 minutes if you're too hard-ass about the difficulty.
So yea, 10/10 really good, I did like three runs, each one moving further but since I was hoarding money I died and got send all the way back. Ease up with the difficulty and get that QoL improvements and you'll have another twitch streamerbait gold.
Excellent visuals, the colour quantization and palette works really well and it's all looking very polished and the actual core gameplay is enjoyable.
For points of possible improvements: It seems like maybe there's some randomization in the order you can get the courses - I think the second one I got was one that had a very steep climb with a barrier obstacle above it, I think that was a bit rough to start off so early with. As the game is first person, I didn't always know what I had to interact with straight away like if the door opened because I may have been looking down at the course when it happened. I also tried using the options menu but I couldn't leave it once I was on that page - tried escape, enter, backspace, clicking on apply, etc.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the main menu darkens the hovered option which was a bit confusing about which option was selected.
For the starting dialogue skip should complete the sentence first instead of skipping it right away.
First run I got to the area with the conveyor belt thinking I would save there before starting but I got instantly killed by a jumpscare and it sent me back to the beginning. I think putting players in charge of saving the game and having that save cost limited resources is a recipe for frustration.
Second run got ended by an uphill + V-shaped barrier shot that I couldn't do. Uphill shots like that are much harder because the ball rolls back down and out of bounds which immediately fails your current try, if there were a barrier or the ball got reset to the starting position you could at least practice the shot 2 more times before starting your next try.
Last run I was doing the corner thing and I didn't realize an enemy had spawn and it killed me. I did hear the thing open but I thought it was another load of fish. Enemies could use some sound when attacking.
Last time I played this it had a putt button. I suppose holding down a single button is more elegant and less random but it is counter intuitive.
The camera smoothing is nauseating so I disabled it immediately but also the way the character moves feels bad to control, it's like you're dragging something heavy on ice.
Bullet decals apply to the ball and the coins.
It took me a while to realize that I can reload a partly empty shotgun by pressing right click and that the lever on the shotgun indicates how many shots are left.
Got to the jumpscare guy again, I realize now that it's a roaming monster and not something that's meant to kill you as you go save, which is a problem because I didn't save (didn't have money) and I got cornered.
I understand that you're trying to make the game more tense but I don't think this resource management system is doing it any favors. Spooky monsters would be enough imo.
Also causes some randomness problems because those courses with the barriers you have to shoot to raise are an ammo sink.
In some courses the ball can get wedged between an obstacle and the course's edge and it's hard to get an angle to hit it.
I still think the golfing is really fun.
Hey bro,
I finally managed to finish the demo, here's my feedback:
Overall it's a nice game, streamer friendly since it's horror. Nice work!
Got to level 4 and dropped it there.
It's clearly not for me, thinking that Golfball can come any second stresses me out too much to aim and think. Level design for him seemed good.
+Shotgun UI
+Smokes look good
+Being able to shoot the turret
+Ball reflecting indicator
-Menu's UI's, they need some work
-Buttons (text) gets gray on hover, instead of being Chosen it looks disabled, would consider some other color that fits your game, can be dark just would avoid gray.
-I have to hold "Close" instead of click it (why?)
/When resolution scaling was set to 50% the grain in darkness looked eye soring (2560x1440, 27inch, up to 144Hz), at 100% it was acceptable
/hit direction is calculated based of my rotation, imo it should include also my position. (But I would assume we always aim in the middle of the ball as it is now)
/In the beginning being unable to reload with keyboard and be allowed to aim just to be forced to reload was really annoying. I don't know which way you would like to take it but at least reload on left click down than up would be my wish, or an auto reload after shot (but it does'n solve shooting 1 and than wanting to shoot 2).
/Shotgun UI could indicate in some way if it's loaded (I can left click to check it but if there was ammo means I have to left click again and than again, it's inconvenient)
/I just read your comment that this demo added "You can now see if the shotgun is loaded or not", at no point in game I noticed
/Got confused what to do if I want to change my mind after aiming (later figured I can reload and change aim by shooing "in the air", some players will think they will lose 1 "chance" just for shooting)
/I clicked F multiple times and nothing happened, idk if tutorial told me to hold and I misread but animation of raising a cig to mouth play even if I just click would be nice (current hold mechanic may stay but show that clicking F does something to inform me I have to hold)
/I don't know what crouching does
/When smoke reaches 0% and I don't have any more it should stop (Maybe I got unlucky but if felt like I could smoke that 0% for hours)
/When talking to guy that gives you second shotgun pause the Golfenemy and let people go through text manually. After each sentence I was thinking "I that it? Is he done?" and wanted to walk away, while if it's too fast some won't be able to read it.
Just a good game, I like it, I actually have no idea how to deal with the scary golf dude. I'm not sure if you put the dying guy there before, but I appreciate the game telling me that you can't kill the golf dude.
Ran through the demo just fine, no issue.
Noise texture is buggy at 4k?
in beginiing it is uncertain press e to skip entire intro or only textbox
first time i actually manage to reach mr golfy lol
i appreciate the improved putt-aim for the shotgun, but i don't see why it was needed to remove manual putting entirely
i had some tough spots right next to a corner where putting traditionally would have given me a better control of the direction and power of the shot
It was removed because of the new ammo economy. Being able to manually putt without losing ammo would make the game far too easy.
Thank you for playing!
** Changes from last DD **