We really had fun with this game. It was just enough area to be challenging while not being so big as to be tedious. Once we got into the swing of things, it did become a little bit on the easy side, but that will probably work itself out once more anomalies are added and more levels are put in. The intercom guy is hilarious and we can't wait to hear what new lines you're planning on adding in as the game continues.
The art style definitely fits a backrooms/anomaly liminal vibe. The only knock there is that the fidelity of some of the assets drops a bit when you get close up so things get a bit fuzzy. But, really, that's not that big of an issue.
The UI in terms of the HUD is a perfect fit for the minimalist liminal vibe of backrooms-style games. So that design choice works great. The fact that the menu can't be brought up in-game is probably a result of this being an alpha, but it is something that needs to be addressed. Also, going into the Options menu for some reason automatically sets the master volume to 0%, which made us think there was an audio bug when it was really just a settings bug. The Apply button in that menu could also use some kind of visual/audio feedback to show that it actually did something when clicked.
There's definitely room for improvement in the controls. The sensitivity is kind of difficult to pin down. It starts out too high, but when turned down a little, it feels sluggish. There's also a lack of parity between controller and keyboard. The controller has no 'E' on it, so even though you can move just fine with it, you need the keyboard to go down the slide. On more of a personal preference side, Y U NO HAVE JUMP OR CROUCH!?!??! We kid. But not really. We like to jump and crouch and there's a real missed opportunity to be able to crawl inside the tent (and to play the piano for that matter). We'd also have appreciated the ability to sprint, as only being able to mosey can make going back and forth kind of tedious. Again, the size of the room mitigates this to some degree, but not completely, so that could be helpful, even if it's just a little bit faster than normal walk.
On the audio side, the first thing we noticed was how loud the buzzing is and how quiet the intercom guy was. And, unfortunately, there didn't really seem to be a way to make that better. What even does the "sound effects" volume control? There are no sound effects, as far as we could tell. So, bumping up the intercom volume, reducing the buzzing noise, and making them distinctly controllable from the menu would go a really long way. All that said, the crunchy snow walking sound was just gorgeous. Put that in an IV.
As far as pacing, we think that hit the sweet spot, too. Of course, we don't know how that will change if you add more length to the game. But overall, the combination of the size of the room, the number of objects in it, and the balance of ease/challenge of identifying anomalies makes the time it takes to make a decision right in that zone where it's not too quick but it's not dragging either. The intercom breaking up the monotony also helps with this, though could definitely use more variety (which we know you already have planned).
Overall, we really love this. It's definitely something we could see ourselves playing on a lazy, rainy weekend. We kind of want to see if there's more to the story as you finish this out. Probably shouldn't get too specific and "peak behind the curtain" to keep its mysterious allure, but with the intercom narrative, it feels like it's going somewhere. Keep up the awesome work on this because with the millions of backrooms and anomaly games out there, we feel like this one is a real gem.