With all Feedback Quest 9 games, I play each game for 30 minutes or so to provide context for my comments.

I really liked the concept of this game, but I found it really difficult to actually play and enjoy.  The game asked if you wanted a tutorial, but didn't actually give a tutorial, which likely added to the frustration.  For example, I was never quite sure what all the red marks that were growing were supposed to mean, though I presumed it was bad and recognized that holding my eyes closed made it go away.

I liked the multiple views that were color-coded, and that blinking changed the scene, but I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be 2 or 3 versions.  Some doors that were open appeared closed while doing the blink thing, unless I was standing near it; then they were properly open again.

Having to drop the battery and then insert it into the gun was a frustration point, and it seems like it should just have a load option when you mouse over.  Some of the mouse-over area hitboxes seemed a little off as well.  And when I inserted the battery into the shield per the image, it never actually worked or showed, even with the battery fully charged and trying to swap between the two I had.  That's where I got stuck and stopped playing.

Some of my viewers found the constant blinking of the shield not having a charge annoying.

VOD link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2880630045?t=01h19m37s

I think the mechanics of this game are super neat! Reading some of these other comments and seeing that you made the game in such a short amount of time is really truly impressive. I don't think I've seen a game do this before!

That being said, I do agree with the general sentiment that a better tutorial would definitely help the game. Since the mechanics are so novel, it would definitely help to have them be explained a bit more concretely. Having to attach the battery to the shield was especially confusing, as with the minimalist art style, the tutorial image was hard to decipher. Once I kind of understood the gameplay loop, though, I was having a good time!

Part of me wonders if the game would benefit from some handmade levels as opposed to just randomly generated ones - When the game first started, and I had to juggle the unique mechanics along with the enemies that all have their gimmicks and no real sense of direction, it was hard to not feel overwhelmed. I think randomly generated levels are definitely impressive, and a fun thing to include, but having at least a few hand made levels thrown in might help create a sense of purpose in what exactly the goals of the player should be, if that makes sense?

I feel like I'm being a bit critical, but I want you to know that the mechanics are really, really cool, and I'm so into the look of the game. I think this could absolutely be something special. Looking forward to what comes next!

I played it on stream around 5 minutes in:

The concept, hook, and execution are kind of wild. I had just watched the episode of The Office where they debate whether a wall still exists when nobody is looking at it, so the timing was perfect.

The neon-blue wireframe corridors keep the geometry readable while making everything feel unstable and alien. I also like how immediately understandable the game is. The minimal controls let you focus entirely on the puzzles instead of wrestling with inputs.

I did not hear any music or sound while playing in Chrome on Windows 11. That could have been an issue on my end, but if audio has not been added yet, I think it would do a lot for the atmosphere.

Since rooms changing when you look away is the defining idea, a five-second looping GIF would communicate the effect far better than any still screenshot. Overall, this was really fun, and I would absolutely play it again.

If you have two minutes, try BEAT BAES and smash some spinning mechs together for science. Builds get busted, physics gets questionable, and I need feedback before the BAEs become self-aware.

Commit mech violence · Document the incident

Hey I played your game!  I love the minimalist aesthetic, and the game mechanics are interesting.  I even kind of like the way you can store batteries based on looking at your belt.  But a lot of it felt very unintuitive, and I was stuck on the tutorial for a long time (I never actually figured out how to put the battery into my shield and only knew that after skipping the tutorial).  Also, after putting the first battery in the door, it's not clear that I have to grab it again to recharge it.  I did figure that out, but then I didn't realize you had to wait for charging, so I put an uncharged battery in the door and it seemed like I couldn't get it back out, so I had to restart.  So I think the tutorial could use a lot of work.  Maybe you could start with forcing the player to charge a battery so you know how that works.  Also, I'm not sure how to make it clear how to put the battery in your shield, but demonstrating that should be clearer too.  Then by the time I tried the level after the tutorial, I just kept dying from the enemies before I could get out of the first section.  So I was never really able to progress past that.  I don't know if it's just a me problem, but I feel like the onboarding and early game needs to be restructured to ease the player in.

I guess my main takeaway is, since you have such a novel set of mechanics (which are really cool!) you really need to hold the player's hand and make each part of it very clear.  You have a cool base here, so just a lot of iteration and testing and should be able make something great.

• Youtube Link / Twitch Link
• Graphics : Minimalist / Wireframe-esque , mostly I like it , but there's certainly some things that could really use a touch-up.
• GUI : Fairly minimal and "imsim"-y , both good and a bad thing in it's current state.
• Performance : Flawless
• Music / Sfx : 
  • Music : Completely absent, please add some songs.
  • SFX : Mostly fine but might need some tweaks.
• Gameplay : A somewhat strange, somewhat unique puzzle game with SCP vibes.
• Misc Issues : 
  • There's numerous clipping issues found throughout the game
  • Enemies and the player seem to be able to clip through objects are somewhat random intervals
  • Some walls seem to be see-through, I believe some might've been intended with others being a glitch.
  • Sometimes rooms can just switch colours every 0.5s or so even if you're looking at them (?)
  • What happened at the end, was I supposed to just walk in the room and it end, stand there, touch the boiler? Something is off.
• Notes : 
  • I believe the the maps are randomly generated?
    • I'm not keen on this, a handcrafted experience would be far more preferable , especially if it runs the risk of being softlocked.
  • More colours aside from Red / Blue / White could make later levels even more crazy / complex.
  • I like that there's different threats based on different colours.
  • I'd like to see some variance on puzzles, e.g. we only had to shoot a thing on the wall once and I think that was explicitly a tutorial.
  • Enemies (atleast blue frog/lizardmen) are nice in their variance [model-wise but also mechanics] and would like to see a little bit more 
  • Some items would be nice, e.g. Eye drops : Stops the need to blink for X seconds or restores them back to full.
    • Mirror : Plop in front of a blue guy to just stop him as long as it's in front of him
    • "Eye" : Keeps the room it's in / looking at , as the colour it currently is permanently OR , has it's own eye timer.
  • I'd prefer if guns were more lethal with the obvious cost of energy usage going up. As it is, it just feels kinda slow/bad as it takes so long to kill.
  • Chargers need to look distinct from the puzzle holders
  • The player model could do with a bit of a touch-up, it looks a bit rough.
  • Interacting with various items , especially on the right most slot of the belt and just in general management feels a little bad. [Reloading, Trying to swap out batteries with others , be it colour or charge variance]
• Final Thoughts : I see the idea here and I think it's good, but the execution is a bit mixed. I somewhat enjoyed the game, but figuring out the puzzle and then being able to execute it due to the somewhat fiddly mechanics is another.

Hello and welcome to Feedback Quest 9! My name is Hythrain, and I'm one of the hosts for this lovely event! I'm also one of the streamers, so both the game and this feedback are being done live! If you want to see the see the VOD, let me know and I'll link you to it when it's uploaded to YouTube!

This game is a really fun concept! Having each room change whenever you look away or blink is just really cool! I like it a lot! It creates some good puzzle elements and really makes you have to keep in mind where previous rooms are in the colour rotation. On the most basic of feedback, I wish it had better sound design. Some music or ambient sound and just some audible flair when you win would be great. This should be easy to fix, so I just want to get it out of the way before I tackle anything bigger.

First, I discovered a bug during the tutorial: if you grab the gun and attempt to holster it before you have the holster, it just crashes the game. While this is only in the tutorial, it can still leave a sour taste in one's mouth. On top of this, the game outright presents the controls for stowing the batteries before you have the holster. However, when you do this you just drop them. What I would personally recommend is that either the player has to get the holster first or that they always start with it, even in the tutorial. That way, it won't create confusion. Alternatively, you could just hide the stowing controls until you have the holster, but then you still need to force the holster before the gun.

When playing, I found myself getting frustrated when trying to put batteries into stations. The game demands very high accuracy when doing so, and being off by pixels results in the player... storing the battery on the wall. I even had this issue result in a battery getting trapped BEHIND a station where I couldn't get it again. So for starters, you should only be able to put a battery down on a horizontal surface so it always sits on top. Second, the interactable area for the stations should be much larger so you don't need to be as accurate.

Another thing I found frustrating to deal with was how batteries behaved when you were trying to power something over multiple rooms. The battery would input power until it reached a room it couldn't go into due to the wrong colour, then would pop out. Even if you went and fixed the alignment, you still had to take the batter out and put it back in. I assume this was to ensure the player had to have all the rooms correct in order, but it honestly just felt annoying to me, particularly because it took me a while to realize that the room only changes colour when you LOOK at the room rather than once you look away. As such, I struggled when it came to powering something that was 3 or more rooms away from the station. One thing that I think could make this easier would be some sort of map system that shows whatever state a room is in. While there could be difficulties with making this (since you'd have to ensure there aren't bugs from glancing away from a room when you go to check the map), I think it would be helpful for players.

Another thing I found odd was how you get out. In the two runs I did, the exit was through a door that required three stations of power. That was fine. However, it wasn't clear where you had to go once inside the room in order to initiate the escape. In my first room, I got lucky and only had to approach a circular console to do so. In the second one, though, I was more confused and kinda only found it on accident. Perhaps something to indicate where to go to finish the level? 

Finally, while I understood how to switch between stowed batteries, I found it harder to do in execution. This was particularly true when it came to the right-most battery, as this one was often very close to the shield battery and I'd often have a hard time trying to target the stowed battery.  I understand the purpose of this is to force the player to look away and thus potentially change things in front of them when they look up, but I feel like the forced blinks do this as well... at least, I assume those exist. I never let the eye strain get to the end of the line, so I don't know what happens. I assume if you don't blink in time, either it does so for you or perhaps hurts you. I think that, instead of having a quick select for your gun, you should have a quick select for your batteries and be forced to look for either getting your gun or changing your shield battery. In that way, you set up that the items that make you look away are the ones that are integral to any combat in the game, and looking away can change your combat situation. How would you load the gun with batteries then? Simple: press the appropriate shortcut key! Instead of using Q and R for stowing and pulling out stuff, you use 1, 2 and 3 for each battery and have a small piece of UI interface that shows what colour battery is in which slot. If you have your gun out, pressing a button then makes you load that battery. If you eject a battery, it goes into the first available storage slot (and otherwise drops to the ground if you don't have one).

I'm excited to see what you do with this game! :)