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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingSaint Kilda [demo][browser][casual adventure game]
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tpkth
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« on: January 17, 2015, 05:02:53 PM »



Hey all,

We would like, if we may, to take you in a strange journey.

Daphne is a young intrepid girl. Her uncle, very sick, asks her to make a trip to an abandoned island.
He has been researching it for a long time. Strange things have happened there.
The small population lived there with their sheep for a long time but one day they all left without much explanation.
This was 80 years ago.
The only fact that seems to trigger it was the brief disappearance of Mary, a young girl from the island. She was found eventually, unconscious and brought to mainland.
Her subsequent death was the final straw for the community.
What happened exactly? Why did she disappear? Unfortunate accident or is there something bigger behind this?

This is her journey. This is her investigation about Saint Kilda.

>> PLAY THE DEMO HERE <<



About us:
Saint Kilda is our pet project.
We are 3 friends who had an idea that inspired us.
It grew into this short playable demo. It is, in our opinion, fleshed out enough to be shown.
This is far from the vision we have for the final game but we would be very happy to receive any comments about what we have now.

Notes:
The game is designed for touch screens but since it's still under development, the Flash build is more stable and easier to share (thanks, Haxe). For the controls, pressing the mouse button equals to touching the screen (swipe would be a mouse drag).

Playtest:
The idea is to gather info from first players.
If you played the game (thanks!), please take the time to answer the following questions.
It means a lot to us and will help the game get better.

- Did you find the experience enjoyable? Why?
- Did you reach the end of the prototype? If yes, how long did it take you?
- Did you get stuck, did not know what to do next? When? Please describe in detail.
- Do you want to learn more about the island and the people who lived there?

Any other feedback is welcome.
Again, thanks for playing our game and helping us out!
« Last Edit: January 18, 2015, 10:04:22 AM by tpkth » Logged

nagual
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« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2015, 04:50:47 PM »

Thanks for all the comments. Please keep them coming.

QUICK UPDATE:
Bug fix for Title Screen not going away
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Dorgam
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« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2015, 05:35:18 PM »

Your uncle telling you to go complete his business is not interesting unless you were interested in his business before, so show the character first as a person who is interested in mysteries and adventures before she accepts her uncle offer.

The text is more of tutorial than self-talk try to tune the words to make it more like thoughts.

I really liked the graphics and the mystery I am trying to solve.
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tpkth
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« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2015, 08:42:25 AM »

Dorgam, thanks a lot for the feedback, it's very helpful.

The context uncle-niece was stripped down to its minimum because of the demo format. It is something that will be more developed in the full game. The amount of backstory needed is one of the crucial points we wanted to get feedback on (it is a subjective point). Good feedback Wink

The phrasing chosen is inspired by old school adventure games. Again, thanks, this fine balance of narrative and accessibility is the reason we put this here.

Great to know that you enjoyed the visuals (we find the game very pretty Smiley) and the fact that you were interested by the mystery itself.

Again, this is very good stuff. Thank you very much!
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LStro
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« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2015, 01:10:49 PM »

Hey tpkth. First of all, I must say that the art in the game is really beautiful. It was the biggest factor in me continuing to play through some of the game. I found that the plot and main character could be set up in a more interesting and appealing manner however. Something that would add a lot of intrigue for me personally is if the opening text was narrated by a good vocalist.
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Rarykos
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« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2015, 05:20:18 AM »

My problem was the inconsistency.
Like, on the start screen the art is beautiful but the text doesn't fit. Beginning exposition is written quite oddly, I don't know what the tone is, it read like different people wrote in the diary.
I love the title screen, it felt like an oldschool thriller movie. I guess this is a demo so you know how sparse the sound is.
I don't like how every time text needs to be typed out and I have to wait and usually I'd click so it would appear instantly but in here it just start over again. And it felt very weird to read it, I don't know if it's the position or the font or its contrast Shocked
I really wanted to get into the mood because the art is awesome and the mystery is definitely there but there are many jarring things that really took me out. It felt like there were many good ideas in there but not really polished. Like clicking on that church door and looking it up in the journal, if you could make it a proper mechanic that would be amazing! 

I might've missed something and I didn't know what I was looking for on the second screen so I felt lost and clicked on every interesting thing. It would be great if there was a way to see my goal, or to make it really clear when something happens, that this is my goal now. I can just skip some text (even unintentionally) and I'm completely lost .

-It was equally enjoyable and annoying
- I got to the church.
-I got lost, but not really stuck since I can spam clicks.
-Definitely!
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Panurge
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« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2015, 08:37:50 AM »

I really liked this. The art, writing and sound and worked nicely together and I could see myself being drawn into the story. I especially like the journal mechanic which requires a bit more deductive reasoning from the player than is usual for this sort of game. I hope it gets used even more widely in later levels.

I'm glad to hear that the backstory will be fleshed out in later versions. I also found myself a bit confused by the conversation with her uncle after she searches the mayor's house. She says she sent him the documents but how is she talking to him now? By telephone? I guess you'll make this clearer later on.

(Also picked up a small typo - 'barricated'.)

Anyway, great work. I look forward to seeing more.
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nagual
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« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2015, 07:17:32 PM »

@LStro. Thanks a lot for trying it and for your feedback. Having actual voice overs would be really great Smiley considering our current funding situation that is more a dream than a reality

@Rarykos. Could you explain what you mean by inconsistency? Sometimes I have the impression that you're talking about visuals (font, colors, text boxes, animations) and sometimes about the text itself. Also, the way we see it, understanding the question is half the answer.. Wink but yes, this is one of the points that we are most worried about: how to make the connection between the "diary" and the elements in the "world" clear yet challenging. don't believe there is an easy answer for that one. Thanks for the feedback and good to know you want to see more of St Kilda Smiley

@Panurge. Yes, in a way, the journal mechanic is our core gameplay, so you should be coming back to it often. We want to flesh out the context of the trip as the story progresses. Thanks for the typo and for playing the game. Hope we have more for you soon.
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RichSG
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« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2015, 09:32:06 AM »

Played the demo. Love the art style - gorgeous and unique. In response to your feedback questions:

1. I enjoyed myself, mainly. I liked the gameplay, and liked the variety (first, just clicking clues, then linking 2 things together). Not sure how long those mechanics would remain interesting for though, as it's relatively simple. I'm sure there's ways you can vary it further though.

2. I reached the end, took about 10 mins.

3. Never got stuck, but a couple of times just clicked around a lot to progress. The clue to the far right in the second room (second floor of mayor's house) is a bit obscure.

4. Not really. This is my main concern - the writing was very expositional (though not for the background items/objects, it was nice for them). I think mainly it was the intro text-  I felt a bit overwhelmed with information and didn't have enough time to process them. I would suggest putting the intro text alongside some more art (even static art is ok), just to add some context and slow it down a little. Maybe pictures of the heroine's journey TO the island (as when you start she's already there), or something like that. Either way I think the intro text needs to either cut down, or spread out.

v. promising & great looking game though so far! Best of luck with development  Smiley

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tpkth
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« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2015, 01:52:59 PM »

Hey all,

First of all, thanks a lot for the feedback. It was REALLY helpful and encouraging. And it's so exciting to finally receive external comments after months of silence Smiley

We released this demo out of nowhere on purpose because we wanted to see how you guys would react with the minimum of context.

So in case some of you are interested, here is more context!

1) About the roughness of the exposition, and the inconsistencies:
The demo is a slice of the full game that we have in mind. We didn't want to make a demo with the "first chapter" because the "first chapter" will probably be more about exposition and it might misrepresent the game flow. This is why we decided to showcase "chapter three".
Once the walkthrough of the demo was done, we realized it was lacking narrative context. Players had no idea what the story was about. So we decided to add the little introduction that most of you guys seem to find confusing Tongue

2) The demo actually represents what we call a "chapter":
It seems to take around 10-15 min to finish the demo. For the final game we're aiming for 10 chapters. That's roughly 2h to complete the game. We think we could sell it at a very low price, but we don't know how much yet. Then if this episode works, we could release sequels... Any opinion or advice on this model is welcomed!

3) About the game mechanics:
What we are trying to achieve is a mix between the old school adventure genre we enjoyed so much in our youth, where you get deeply connected with the story, and the more recent Hidden Objects / Escape The Room games our moms enjoy so much on their phones. So the game is purposely linear and simple.
We're constantly struggling with ourselves not to add let's say an inventory system, or the ability to navigate freely between scenes, because this is what we as players would like to. But we're afraid it would become too "gamy" for non-gamers. We might be wrong. It's not easy to find the right balance so once again your feedback is more than welcomed. You can also let your non-gamer relatives play and let us know Wink

4) The game flow:
Basically we have 2 game mechanics for now: "collecting clues in the journal" aka "Collecting" and "linking journal clues with the scene" aka "Solving". The game is linear so the flow would look like this:
Chapter 1:
Scene 1: Collecting Clues #1 #2 #3
Scene 2: Collecting Clues #4 #5 #6 #7
Scene 3: Solving Clues #2 #4 #6
Chapter 2:
Scene 4: Collecting Clues #8 #9 #10
Scene 5: Collecting Clues #11 #12 #13 #14
Scene 6: Collecting Clues #15 #16
Scene 7: Solving Clues #1 #5 #8 #11 #15
Chapter 3:
Scene 8: Collecting Clues #17 #18 #19
...etc. until the end of the game

So you "collect" and "solve" clues as you progress through the game, but you don't solve as many clues as you have collected. So the more you progress though the game, the more unsolved clues are scattered through your journal and the more difficult it becomes... And as RichSG suggested, we'd like to add variety to the "Collecting" mechanic with straight-forward simple puzzles or mini-games.

5) About the art:
Nagual and I kidnapped this guy and we've tied him inside our basement to work on Saint Kilda (be reassured, his hands are free):
https://www.artstation.com/artist/Ludo


And that's all I have in mind for now. Any comments/thoughts/advice?
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Rarykos
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« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2015, 02:51:53 PM »

@Rarykos. Could you explain what you mean by inconsistency? Sometimes I have the impression that you're talking about visuals (font, colors, text boxes, animations) and sometimes about the text itself. Also, the way we see it, understanding the question is half the answer.. Wink but yes, this is one of the points that we are most worried about: how to make the connection between the "diary" and the elements in the "world" clear yet challenging. don't believe there is an easy answer for that one. Thanks for the feedback and good to know you want to see more of St Kilda Smiley


That's exactly what I meant ! I think UI barely matches ingame assets, looks more like placeholders and that takes me out of the game, it's too contrasting. I don't usually notice this in point and clicks, that's why it's jarring here. I mean, the yellow box when I find something is exactly like boxes in debug view in my physics engine! Smiley Normally these games do some sort of simple animation without being so contrasting.
And I meant the text is odd, it's like reading a page and sometimes skipping a sentence. So I might expect and follow-up sentence or the pace suggests I'll get one more sentence but I don't and I'm left surprised and questioning the game.

And because I might skip important points telling me what I should be doing on this screen (like what kind of clues I'm looking for) I might end up clicking on random stuff and be surprised something small and barely noticeable is the clue. But that's only because I don't know what I'm supposed to do and what the story wants me to do and what would be a logical progression of the story. The perfect situation is I know what I need to do because it was told to me and it makes sense in the story that I need to do that. Like, if I know the girl has a problem because of a lock I know I have to look for a key. And the more the story bangs on about this objective "I need a key" the more I believe it and don't need an explicit objective like "OBJECTIVE: FIND A KEY"  Wink

4) The game flow:
Basically we have 2 game mechanics for now: "collecting clues in the journal" aka "Collecting" and "linking journal clues with the scene" aka "Solving". The game is linear so the flow would look like this:
Chapter 1:
Scene 1: Collecting Clues #1 #2 #3
Scene 2: Collecting Clues #4 #5 #6 #7
Scene 3: Solving Clues #2 #4 #6
Chapter 2:
Scene 4: Collecting Clues #8 #9 #10
Scene 5: Collecting Clues #11 #12 #13 #14
Scene 6: Collecting Clues #15 #16
Scene 7: Solving Clues #1 #5 #8 #11 #15
Chapter 3:
Scene 8: Collecting Clues #17 #18 #19
...etc. until the end of the game
I love this idea! Just collecting and needing to solve some puzzles then having a diary then to solve clues is good enough. I believe an inventory system would destroy this tightness, but that's my mental model of your game after playing a demo !  Wink

And please, add more oldschool film-y moments like that opening title sequence! Really added a lot to the style and mood.

Just a quick thought : at first your game reminded me of

and that's not a bad thing!
« Last Edit: January 29, 2015, 03:00:48 PM by Rarykos » Logged

tpkth
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« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2015, 12:17:56 PM »

Thanks a lot for your feedback Rarykos. And thanks for the comparison, it's very flattering :D
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