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[Zillix]

Hey everyone!

Cameran is an atmospheric exploration games with an emphasis on puzzle solving and animal catching with photographs.  It features music and art by Selenoscope.

It's not finished yet and has quite a ways to go, but a lot of the experience is already there.
We still have to add the story and narrative, finish the art, and do a variety of gameplay improvements.

If you want to give me some feedback, check it out at
zillix.net/CameranBeta.html
and send me an email through the site!  Comments on this thread are appreciated as well.

We're looking for any feedback you can give us!  Particularly, general impressions and exerience, which regions and puzzles worked and were the most or least interesting, any descriptions of how to reproduce any bugs found.

Screenshots!

[lapsus]

havnt played that far yet, but just want to say that i like it.
i got the game to get stuck in the remove-picture move (only displays crosshair) but could fix that by pressing e, just got a bit confused when i couldnt take more photos

will play more tomorrow to see how far you can take the photo-mechanic

[Thardus]

Neat stuff.

Comments:

# what you liked the most

When I was randomly wandering I came across a puzzle that had a small opening moving back and forth. Rather than taking a picture of the opening, I had to take a picture of each half of the opening when it was at its most open to squeeze through. I loved the puzzle, because it made me think a little (as opposed to just timing to hit platforms) and it's what inspired me to keep playing the game after I was losing enthusiasm.

# what you liked the least and how it could be improved
The "intro section" just above the house where you start out. I understand that it's supposed to be an introduction to the game, but after the 4th or so screen of taking pictures of objects and jumping on them it seems like maybe this is all the game is going to have. The entire world has all these cool concepts and interesting uses of the mechanic, so why put your least interesting material as the first thing the player encounters?

Also, I don't like that you get dumped right on that screen again when you finish 'rescuing' that first white person. I genuinely wondered for a minute if I had finished the game.

# if you got lost, and where
The area just below the elevator was the first place I went after the starter zone and I found myself feeling like I'd accidentally dove into the deep end. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm used to such "dramatic" areas being harder to reach. I felt like I was in the wrong spot, or had accidentally jumped ahead.

# if you got stuck or confused, where, and what confused you
I am currently stuck! On the "Desert with power lines" section when rescuing one of the doods. I've run around and taken pictures in the area, but nothing seems interactable, and I can't escape. What do I do?!

Also, in the area with the monkeys on the far-right of the map, I took a picture of the eagle, and it flew away and never came back, stranding me. A bug?

# what regions you explored and how far you got
I explored a large portion of the world to the right of the starter area, including the ocean, the lava cave, the military base thing, and the monkey-tree-land.

# which puzzles were too hard or too easy, and how they could be improved
For the most part, what I encountered was fairly easy. The bubbles confused me for a bit before I remembered that I could just take pictures of them, heh heh. Waiting for the whale to move so I could jump off him was annoying and kind of boring.

# any bugs you find, and how you found them
Certain bubbles and other particle-style effects continue spawning in front of your photo when you take a picture of them - but they don't affect you.

# if the game ran really slowly
Nope!

# any other suggestions!
I feel like we really need some better indication of progress, since it can be very hard to tell how far you are. Also, can we pleeeease get a world map of some kind? Perhaps have it reveal itself as you explore? Most players won't be able to remember the entire world layout, and when one gets towards the end of these sorts of games it's very helpful for remembering those few areas you haven't been to yet.

Also, I feel like the main character could have faster horizontal movement. At times exploring was just a craaaaawl.

[bigGIANTcircles]

Very cool concept!  I don't really have anything constructive to add atm, but I'll play it some more and get back with you.  But I really dig the idea

[increpare]

I don't know what I like the most.

I got stuck at the bottom of an elevator shaft (or rather, the volcanos below it).  I had no idea what to do, I felt like I should have my camera, but wasn't sure what to do about it.  I had a similar experience on one of the areas a little further east. I felt weird without my camera, and wasn't sure whether or not that meant that the areas were 'locked' and that I should go find somewhere else that I could use my camera, or what.

random thoughts as I played:

I went to 'progress' rather than the centre door when i was looking to start the game after the tutorial - couldn't figure out what to do on that screen.  Eventually went back and tried the door
walk-cycle seems very slow - the character slides along the ground