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[Manikin]

Silhouette is a 2 player, turn based game where one player plays as a victim trapped in a house, and the other as a creepy killer hunting him down! The victim must escape by finding an exit, but to do this he must find a hidden key by searching through side tables scattered through the house. Both players play on the same PC.



Unity Webplayer
Download: Windows (~15mb)
Download: OS X (~15mb)

Controls:
Player one (Victim):
Movement: W A S D keys
Search table: Left shift
Sprint: Left Shift (Hold)
Use health syringe: R

Player two (Killer):
Movement: Arrow keys
Attack: Right shift
Attack: Right Alt

The game started as mine and a team mate's entry into this year's Global Game Jam, and we've been working on it since. However, we're still not entirely sure how much fun the core mechanic is.

I'd really appreciate some feedback, so please give it a try and post your crits. I'm planning to add a bunch of content for the mansion (eg. creepy pictures, bookshelves, multi-levels) and prototype a few new gameplay features that might make the whole thing more interesting and hopefully nerve-wracking.

Thanks all!

[Manikin]

 Hi guys, I've just uploaded a new build of the game: www.manikingames.com/silhouette

It's got a bunch of awesome new sounds, some extra housey stuff like bookcases, and quite a lot more you can see in the changelog. In terms of new gameplay, there's a change to the way players find and use pickups like health, as well as the addition of sprinting for the victim player.

I'd love some feedback on the sprinting in particular, because I haven't really had too much of an opportunity to test it properly with 2 players. I know it needs balancing, so anyone who has a pal around, please give it a go and let me know how the chasing mechanic works/doesn't work.

Thanks!

[deathtotheweird]

You should read the feedback forum guidelines. Not sure if you notice but there is a disproportionate amount of people posting games asking for feedback and people actually posting feedback. This is not really a place where you can dump your game in your first post and then get all kinds of feedback.

Anyways I don't have anyone to play with right now so this is just some quick thoughts playing by myself.

It's a cool concept, and the sound design is really good. Graphics a bit rough but they get the job done. I like the main menu design. Certainly inspires me to put more effort into my main menus.

The one thing I don't like is that you play on the same computer so you can pretty easily track the opponents moves. And turning your head or otherwise blocking your vision isn't really an option because some of the turns get really short. The only way to solve this, of course, would be to add online functionality. Two strangers going at it would really add to the tension as well.

The core gameplay isn't bad. It's not particularly deep, but I think it would be pretty enjoyable as a tablet/phone game. Something you'd pop open for a quick couple of rounds when you have some spare time.

I think it would benefit more from handcrafted maps, rather than procedural ones. There's a time and a place for procedural generation, and in a game where 90% of the gameplay revolves around the map you ought to take more care of it's design. IMO it's better to view procedural generation as a supplement for level design not a substitution.

[FrankForce]

You should read the feedback forum guidelines. Not sure if you notice but there is a disproportionate amount of people posting games asking for feedback and people actually posting feedback. This is not really a place where you can dump your game in your first post and then get all kinds of feedback.

I concur. I checked it out though and will give you my thoughts. Allen was being nice, your game is not very fun. The controls are set up horribly. The core gameplay mechanic is fundamentally flawed.

My advice. Forget about adding new content for now. Focus on making the game fun. Rethink what you are trying to accomplish and do it in a better way. For example why is taking turns funner then both players playing at the same time? Maybe it would be better to have both players play simultaneously or make a single player game and just focus on the vicitim or the killer's perspective.

[Manikin]

Hi guys,

Apologies for missing those forum guidelines. I'll introduce myself in that thread and provide some feedback on others' projects.

Thanks for your feedback. FrankForce, a lot of the choices that I made in terms of the core gameplay mechanic were made because of earlier limitations. This being a game jam game, I wasn't about to make a first attempt at networked multiplayer when we put it together, and I'm still learning about how to approach that kind of code. I'm also not such a big fan of split-screen, and that wouldn't solve the problem of seeing each other's position. So it wasn't so much about deciding that turn-based was more fun, but rather it's what I started with at the beginning, and haven't really had a go at changing it.

However, I do agree with you that there are alternatives to the core system that would likely make it a lot more fun. That being said, the turn based thing was originally intended to give players a sense of helplessness, but if that turns out to be more frustrating than fun, I'll have to change it. In terms of controls, I will get xbox controller support in, and I'd like to eventually get multiplayer going. I'm also in the process of adding AI.

Anyway, I want to use these options to experiment with different game modes, including turn-based and playing at the same time. Even if this results in players being able to choose between the two.

allen: The thing of being able to see the same screen is a tricky one. As I said above, it also comes down to the way we originally designed it, and would also benefit from a change when we get multiplayer in.

I agree about the procedural maps too, to a large extent. I actually started working on a basic map editor, but got caught up with some other parts of the game and haven't returned to it. I'd like to, because it would definitely allow one to tailor a map to the gameplay. What I do like about the procedural generation though is that it puts players on equal footing, because nobody would be able to learn a particular map.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback all!