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[KaizerJ]

Hi there, So I have a game coming to kickstarter next month and I'm looking for a some testers to let me know what they think, I think its great, but I also spend several hours a day staring at it. Its called Fantastic Journeys, its a platformer made with Unreal Engine 4.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/clok2fsffga4hav/Fantastic_Journeys.rar





Let me know what you think.

[Quicksand-S]

Any new features or major changes since your previous post?

[KaizerJ]

yeah, pretty much everything's changed.

[Quicksand-S]

Ah. Sounds good. I'll download it and try to remember to give it another try then.

Update:

Well, I tried it. It took ages to start up. The menu changed my screen resolution to something like 960x720 instead of being widescreen. The resolution options didn't fix the ratio. Then I clicked to start the game and it froze. I had to use the Task Manager to quit. My hard drive was making weird noises for a few minutes after that as if it was still struggling to deal with whatever tasks it had been working on when the game froze.

Is there a way to run it in a window using an INI setting or something? I'd rather not deal with the resolution issues again, and games often seem less likely to mess up my computer when in a window.

[KaizerJ]

hmm thats odd, what type of video card are you using? you can change settings manually at:
Fantastic Journeys\FantasticJourneys\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor, GameUseSettings.ini
are you using more then one monitor?
the levels are huge, so there will be some loading.
is your pc capable of running other unreal engine 4 games?

[KaizerJ]

I can guarantee it wont mess up your computer, unless your computer already has problems and can't handle heavy work loads. the games been downloaded 34k times (almost entirely in France and I cant understand there language) and I've never heard anyone say it damaged there pc.

[Quicksand-S]

I made a few adjustments to that file and got it running. When I ran it last time, I set the resolution to the 720p option. In GameUserSettings.ini, the resolution was set as 1920x1080, and the LastUserConfrimed resolution was 1600x900. Not sure why neither of those matches what was supposed to be set.

Manually setting it to 1280x720 results in that incorrect aspect ratio I mentioned before. While it sets the height to 720, it's like the 1280 part isn't being used in that case.

Also, FullscreenMode is set to zero but the game still runs in full-screen.

Anyway, at least it's working now. It still takes a while to load while my old HDD makes worrying noises that no other game I play causes, but once in-game it works pretty well.

I'm not a fan of the jumping sound, and the stomp move seems too quick even from anything less than three jumps up. The text for the buttons when I quit didn't fit inside the button graphics either (I was running at 1600x900 at the time).

The mouse doesn't work (ie. can't look around) until I shoot. Then it works fine.

I get a little bit of slowdown, but I'm pretty sure that's just my computer. Some extra graphics options like a view distance slider might be nice.

The reflections are very distracting in that they aren't generated for my entire field of view. The sides of the screen have reflections that fade to black, and when I turn it takes a moment for the reflections to be generated. For me, it really takes away from what is otherwise a pretty nice looking game.

In terms of gameplay, I love that I can actually explore interesting places this time. One issue, though: I was getting shot at by the enemy up on the "Use Enemies as Platforms" tower and I shot it. I thought there would be another way up or it would respawn, but that didn't seem to be the case.

On a slightly related note, the bloom from the sun can be pretty blinding sometimes. I could hardly see the enemy I was shooting at.

Bug: If you ride inside the "ferris wheel" thing with the black circles spinning around vertically, you eventually clip through the one you're sitting in and fall back to the ground for some reason.

I think the game could really do with some unlockable shortcuts or something. Falling from an incredibly high island and knowing you have to make your way all the back is frustrating. It was even worse when I entered a door thinking it would lead somewhere good and it led me back to the beginning. Also, the ground level is really uninteresting for the most part. It would be nice to see some more places to explore on the ground (and more super-jump pills. That was great).

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty huge improvement over the last version I played. It's an interesting world and exploring it by jumping incredibly high is pretty enjoyable. While getting shot by an enemy I couldn't see wasn't great, I think the combat does feel a lot better than it did before. Nice work.

[KaizerJ]

There are a ton of shortcuts, you just need to find them. there are destructible objects all over the place, that once destroyed they lead underground and to many other places. If you try to find one there's always a way to get to any platform for instance on the "use enemy's as platforms" part you could jump on the one of the trees first then easily make the jump.

Did you think it was fun?
Did you like the art style?
Do you think the the control's learning curve is too high?
Would you play it again?
Do you have a oculus rift(or plan on getting one), and would this be the type of experience you would enjoy on it?

Could you tell me your pc specs?

Thanks for taking the time to play my game.

[Quicksand-S]

There are a ton of shortcuts, you just need to find them.

Do they look like anything? I visited a bunch of landmarks that seemed important but didn't notice anything special about them or the objects around them. As for destructible objects, I only found one and all it did was leave very shiny pieces lying around for a minute. Nothing looks destructible so I never tried shooting any of it.

on the "use enemy's as platforms" part you could jump on the one of the trees first then easily make the jump.

I tried that the first time and couldn't quite make it. Considering that's essentially the tutorial section, it seems reasonable to think that players won't be used to making long jumps at that point, so it might be worth making the enemies there respawn or having a platform or hint about the trees appear if the player killed one of those "should've been used as a platform" enemies.

That sort of tree shortcut still doesn't get very far, though. I used the super pill to get incredibly high and then fell while trying to jump to the airship. Is there a fast way to get there again? And do the pills respawn?

Did you think it was fun?

When I wasn't falling off of high platforms, yes, but only in that it's an interesting world. I didn't get the sense that there was much gameplay other than just finding/unlocking new areas to explore.

Did you like the art style?

Apart from the reflection issue I mentioned, yes.

Do you think the the control's learning curve is too high?

Not really. It's easy to control even when sprinting. My only issue was with the stomp move (I missed an enemy and fell really far), but I never actually needed it because I had so much control over my movement in the air.

Would you play it again?

Only for testing purposes, I think. It doesn't run well enough on my computer (if you add more graphical options, that'd be great), and I only find exploring the world enjoyable to a point. If there was more to do or interact with (NPCs, puzzles, devices to activate, etc.) then yeah, I'd probably play more. I feel like there needs to be a better feeling of progress at the start too. It said I had to destroy eight things to open a door. I didn't find any, and didn't see any in the distance, so my progress just halted right there. At least the first door should be a little faster to unlock, I think, or those objects players are supposed to smash should stand out more.

Do you have a oculus rift(or plan on getting one), and would this be the type of experience you would enjoy on it?

I'll be getting one at some point, but not until the consumer release. I think I'd enjoy jumping really high in VR. The first games I want to try are things like that. I don't know how I'd feel about shooting with my face rather than an independently-aimed weapon, but I haven't tried VR yet.

Could you tell me your pc specs?

Current specs are not that good.

Windows 7 64-bit
Intel i7 920 (Quad-core 2.67GHz)
nVidia GTX 285 (1GB VRAM, iirc)
6GB RAM

It doesn't seem to run at full-speed but it's perfectly playable at 1600x900. When I look out over long distances, though, the frame-rate drops quite a bit.