Thank you very much for such detailed feedback! It's really appreciated! And I'm really happy that you found the game so compelling! :D
(Also, my apologies for the delay in my response; the weekend was a slightly odd one for me. ^^; )
As you say, some of the points that you made have been addressed already since the demo. (And indeed, at least some should <> in the next demo, which I hope I'll be releasing soon!) However, others have not...
To start with, a few general responses regarding the controller bindings:
I'm... not a controller person (I'm very much a keyboard-and-mouse person), and not all that familiar with the standard controller setup. It's very possible indeed that my default bindings are less than ideal, I fear. ^^;
On top of that, my controller is a very cheap thing, and it's entirely plausible that what maps to one button on my controller ends up mapping to another on other controllers. :/
I've also tried to keep all the controls available on the controller (so that players need never switch to the keyboard and mouse if the so prefer), which may have led to some awkward bindings. ^^;
- I can move the main menu with a gamepad (with the Left Stick but not with the dpad, strangely). I couldn't find any way to actually confirm my selection, though.
...
- The inventory tutorial could also tell me how to pick things up. I couldn't figure out any way to do it on the gamepad. The controls menu suggests that Right Trigger should work but it didn't seem to work. Perhaps this is the same issue that prevented me from selecting the main menu items.
Hmm... Unless the bindings have been changed, right trigger
should be the button that performs the "action" command, and which thus activates menu items and picks things up. I'm not sure of why it wouldn't be working...
Would you be willing to check your gamepad bindings for me (in the options menu), please?
- Inventory controls are awkward - tried to press RB to change tab but it brought up the sword description instead.
I take it that "RB" means "right bumper", which is the right "shoulder" button? (As I said, I'm not all that familiar with controller-usage. ^^; )
If so, then indeed, I currently have that button mapped to the "look" command, with right ''trigger'' mapped to the "action" command. Hence the right bumper bringing up the description!
I take it that this is not a standard mapping, even when both examination and action are important verbs in a game?
- Sword description stayed visible after exiting inventory (Edit: I later realised that this is just how descriptions are displayed throughout the whole game, however it did feel like a bug on this occasion, because it felt like the description was part of the menu that had incorrectly remained on screen).
Hmm... I suppose that I could have such descriptions disappear when switching from a menu. Doing so does feel a little unnatural to me--but if leaving them there is likely to confuse players then it may be a worthwhile concession.
- Pressing Up on the dpad in the inventory shows "Loading" and then closes the game?
The up- and down- D-Pad buttons are mapped to quick -loading and -saving at the moment. The "closing" was likely a crash-bug--one that I
think that I've fixed since the demo, but which I've made a note to check on!
- Rebooting the game, the intro screen shows "Press Left Trigger or Back to continue" - why not just the A button?
Forgive me, but which one is the "A" button? ^^;; (I think that it's one of the four on the right--but my controller doesn't have the standard labels, and in any case, I gather that these labels vary from controller to controller.)
As to why left-trigger or back, I think that this is because those buttons map (by default) to "jump" or "close menu" (space or escape on the keyboard). I originally allowed a much broader set of controls to advance such screens, but had feedback that this could produce problems in which players could accidentally advance through cutscenes due to pressing buttons just after ending a level. Thus I limited the controls that advance cutscenes and the like to "jump" and "close menu", two actions that are unlikely to occur when exiting a level.
- Climbing the pyramid was awkward - had a lot of trouble jumping to the narrow ledge, and also doing the long jump from there to the next block. In first person platforming it's always difficult to judge where things are. I ended up making the wide jump only by looking straight downwards so I could jump when I reached the end of the narrow ledge.
Hmm... Troubling. That climb is still proving tricky for new players! :/
I had hoped that, between mantling and running, such platforming would be easier than that even given the first-person perspective. More thought may be called for here...
- Analogue movement controls on gamepad would be nice.
That's something that I can potentially look into, I believe! ^_^
Also the looking around does seem to have analogue controls, but the minimum speed is very high so it's hard to turn by small amounts.
Did you try adjusting the sensitivity in the options menu? It should, I think, be possible to reduce it if the default is too high.
- I think ESC should still bring up the pause menu even if the gamepad control config is loaded; otherwise it's awkward to switch back to using keyboard controls - especially if the gamepad is unplugged, which the game doesn't seem to respond to.
Hmm... That's a good thought. It'll call for consideration if I want to implement it, however, as it runs counter to the way that I've built the control-system at the moment...
- It's a bit strange that, when gamepad controls are being used, the mouse still works for looking around, even though all other keyboard/mouse inputs seem to be disabled.
You should find that something similar is true in the menus, too: if you're using a controller and move the mouse, the mouse-cursor should appear and allow you at least some control (I forget how much offhand).
I can definitely see this feeling off, however!
- After entering the pyramid I switched to keyboard and mouse controls as I was finding the gamepad too awkward. These controls seemed to fit the game much better.
In all fairness, keyboard-and-mouse is the control scheme for which the game is designed--and given my much greater familiarity with it, likely enough also the control scheme that's best polished. ^^;
- It felt harsh to be told that crossing the blue circle would begin the fight, and then have the enemy move towards me suddenly when I was going to examine the room. It makes sense for the enemy to initiate a fight with me, in terms of the story, but I felt that the tutorial text was misleading and suggested that I'd be able to choose when to begin the fight.
I think that I've had feedback to that effect before, indeed! And that text has been changed since the demo--it's now hopefully more explicit that the enemy will "wake up" when the player leaves the central dais.
- The fight tutorial did a decent job of explaining things. I appreciated especially being told when to dodge the first special attack.
That's rather good to read! Thank you! ^_^
The tutorialisation there has been changed a little since the demo in response to other feedback, if I recall correctly--hopefully it's even better now! ^_^
- Perhaps some more effects and feedback would be nice to make it more obvious when my attacks against the animatum are successful - satisfying sounds of splintering wood, for example, would really tell me that my attacks are doing some damage.
Honestly, audio work is perhaps not my forte. I have very much tried to make sounds that are as you describe, but perhaps I've yet missed the mark.
I do think that I recall beefing up the "blood" particles (wood-chips in the case of the animatum) since the demo, so at the least there should be more visual feedback!
- I like the subtle magic effect on the inside of the brass bowl, that's a nice touch.
Thank you very much! ^_^
- When jumping from the tree to the roof of the structure, I felt that maybe a sound at the point of 'grabbing' the ledge would be nice. To provide feedback that I've successfully begun climbing onto the ledge.
I seem to recall that I tried making such a thing once, and wasn't happy with what I came up with. Perhaps I should have another go, however!
- I feel like I remember you mentioning this in the devlog previously, so it may not be possible, but being able to use the mouse wheel to scroll through menus (in this case, the inventory menu) without needing to hover the scroll bar would be nice.
Yup, I very much agree! (And indeed, it's something that's been mentioned a few times before, as I recall.) The issue is currently sitting on my "unanswered matters" issue-list, as I have yet figured out a way to implement it that doesn't involve going through most of the UI elements--including those that aren't active controls, but layout elements and so on... :/
- The hitbox for the stone plate is so big that it overlaps the keyhole - it can make it awkward to do actions on the keyhole itself, especially when standing quite close to the door.
That hit-box can be reduced, I do think!
- The translation mini game was enjoyable. Not very difficult - which is fine - rather it was nice to just spend time examining the words and seeing which parts I recognised. More satisfying than levelling up Lara's Greek language skills in Tomb Raider :D
That's excellent to read! I'm really glad to know that said minigame is being found enjoyable. ^_^
- Some visual distinction between the keys would be nice, given that they each fit different locks.
A good thought, I do think! Noted!
- I enjoyed the puzzle of putting together the symbol from the three pieces. At times I felt like I had surely got it right - but after looking more carefully I was able to figure out the correct solution. It was nice to have full control over the placement of the pieces without them snapping into the correct place in any way. I'm curious how precise the placement has to be?
I'm glad to read that you so enjoyed it! ^_^
As to the precision of placement, it theoretically
shouldn't be overly precise--but I have had some feedback that it might be a bit too precise nevertheless as implemented in the demo. If I recall correctly I've reworked the means by which it detects a match in placement, and it hopefully should be at least a little less precise now!
- The paintings of people felt like they should be examinable, given that old flecks of paint seen previously were examinable. The full paintings are surely more interesting!
That's fair!
I do wonder whether the answer is to add descriptions to the paintings or to remove the descriptions of the paint-flecks. On the one hand, the latter aren't all that interesting, after all--and I'm not in a position to add descriptions to absolutely everything, I feel! On the other hand, however, the paintings might well be interesting enough to warrant descriptions...
- Genuinely scary to see the mummy standing in the darkness. Thankfully quite an easy fight but the sudden whisper of "die" was creepy o_o
Hahah, I'm kinda glad to read that! (At the least it makes for an effective moment, it seems! ^_^)
I'm not making a horror game, honest! I mean, these aren't the last undead the player will face, and there are other supernatural foes beside them, and there's lots of going into dark, desolate places...
B-but it's not a horror game! Honest! XD
I'm also glad that the fight wasn't too tough: it's all too easy, I've found, to make a game much harder than one realises.
- I was surprised that the metal rod wasn't able to push the key out of the locked door. I also went back to the silver dagger in a previous room which seemed like it would be perfect for the job, but was still unable to pick it up. At this point I felt a bit lost as I felt I'd explored everything fairly well.
- Immediately after writing the above, I found the smaller rod, which did work to dislodge the key. Perhaps when trying to use the larger metal rod on the locked door, it should describe that it's too wide to fit in the lock, rather than just 'that doesn't work'.
Honestly, I thought that I had a response to using the metal rod in that way! If I don't, then I very much intend to add one!
- I found a hole behind a curtain and crawled through into a series of tunnels. I found this area very disorienting - while the rock is very visible, the soil is extremely dark, which makes it hard to make out the shape of the rooms and tunnels.
Yup, I've had similar feedback from another too, I believe.
The aesthetics of the game have had a pretty serious overhaul since the demo--and a part of that is improving visibility in dark places. That "pit" should, I hope, be far more navigable with the new aesthetics!
- I was trying to climb some blocks - it was in the first pit that I had dropped into initially:
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while trying to grab this rock, I fell down died! This felt extremely harsh, not least because the most recent autosave was quite some time ago - it was saved just as I was entering the large room that contains the small metal rod. This was very demoralising; in such a puzzle- and exploration-heavy game I basically never want to lose any progress, as it's not very interesting to comb through all the rooms again to find all the objects that I can interact with. I would suggest at least making the game autosave when entering the room in which I died. Alternatively just removing the instant death here would be very welcome.
Ah, I'm sorry to read that it was so demoralising! :/
I can very much put an autosave that covers the two main entrances to the "pit" area, I believe.
For what it's worth, the game also allows manual- and quick- saves, by which you can save whenever you want.
- I investigated a little further; I found some loose soil that I presumably needed the metal rod to break open, but after dying I hadn't bothered to pick the metal rod up, so I stopped playing at this point.
Fair enough!
I hope that you enjoyed the game as far as you played!
As I said, I'm hoping to put out another demo in the not-too-distant future (although I'm not sure of when); perhaps some of the issues that you've highlighted here will be addressed in that version! ^_^
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Wow, the pit is much darker than I recall! ;P