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[oahda]

Ah, sorry for forgetting specs. Mac indeed. Here's the summary:



Some Swedish but I guess you can figure it out. If not, ask.

[oldblood]

Awesome thanks. Will be a good point of reference.

Since it's on a new page now...

Download the alpha at: www.masochisia.com

Leave (brutally honest) feedback or bugs.

[Zizka]

Downloading, I'll let you know what I think. I will be very honest but I'll do my best not to insult you in any way.

[oldblood]

Downloading, I'll let you know what I think. I will be very honest but I'll do my best not to insult you in any way.

Looking forward to it. And don't worry-- it takes a lot to insult me... I work well with blunt.

[Cranktrain]

I've given it a download and played around for 10 or so minutes. I got past the beating scene, wasn't sure what to do after that so I may have exhausted the current content, but also perhaps missed what I'm meant to do next.

A few technical points first:

• The audio is exceptionally loud on the default settings! Perhaps take the default down to 70%?
• The framerate isn't great? I'm assuming you've not got to any optimisation passes yet, but when the framerate flickers between mid-30's and mid-40's the lack of consistency is distracting and particularly noticeable when scrolling around.
• I'm on a multi-monitor setup, and moving my mouse to one side of the screen currently means it escapes, so I can't scroll with the mouse (used the keyboard shortcuts) so I wonder there should be some locking of the cursor
• I'm afraid the scan-line/chromatic aberration/whatever screen effects did start to make my eyes a bit sore after the 10 minutes.

A question I've still got about the game, and perhaps I've still got the question just because I didn't get terribly far, is what is the gameplay? Some kind of point-and-click game, or a visual-story thing? I had to use the key on the door and the whiskey on the father, and click the pills button, but I'm not sure where this then goes? Will I have to solve puzzles, like an adventure game? If I get caught by the hallucinations, and 'die', will I have to repeat sections of the game and... presumably do it faster?

Now, about the setting, these are a few personal preferences but I think you'd get a more unsettling atmosphere by removing some of the exposition. "Who are you", "I'm the voices in your head remember", "oh yes, I do remember, thank you" is the first exchange in the game. I don't think you need to explain that so explicitly, I don't think you need to explain with words that the bogeyman is a hallucination, etc, etc. I think most players would be smart enough to work all that out, especially with a big ol' button labelled 'pills'. You've got a real opportunity to show and not tell, here, and let your intended atmosphere build over time.

Also, I'll confess to rolling my eyes a bit when the big 'Warning! This game might make you go crazy! Who knows what you'll do!' screen comes up at the beginning. It's almost as if the game is asking you to be unsettled without actually earning that right. It's the same thing you see horror films doing with their marketing (at least here in the UK) with adverts that proclaim "You'll never feel safe in your own home again!" It's both a bit too clearly over-promising, and asking for almost a kind of respect it hasn't yet earned. I'd just remove that message, and skip to actually making the player feel uncomfortable, which I have to confess that I wasn't.

If the 'gameplay' (going back to my first main question) is actually all about being immersed in the setting and the story, I think those are a few obvious improvements in that regard.

[oldblood]

I've given it a download and played around for 10 or so minutes. I got past the beating scene, wasn't sure what to do after that so I may have exhausted the current content, but also perhaps missed what I'm meant to do next.

Thanks for playing and for the detailed feedback. After the scene with your father, you should appear outside his room and talk to the voice in your head. Once you take pills, you're eventually directed to the backyard to go speak with the boy in the backyard. I'm curious if something didn't prompt or what caused you to stop?

A few technical points first:

• The audio is exceptionally loud on the default settings! Perhaps take the default down to 70%?
• The framerate isn't great? I'm assuming you've not got to any optimisation passes yet, but when the framerate flickers between mid-30's and mid-40's the lack of consistency is distracting and particularly noticeable when scrolling around.
• I'm on a multi-monitor setup, and moving my mouse to one side of the screen currently means it escapes, so I can't scroll with the mouse (used the keyboard shortcuts) so I wonder there should be some locking of the cursor
• I'm afraid the scan-line/chromatic aberration/whatever screen effects did start to make my eyes a bit sore after the 10 minutes.

Some good points there. A lot of the audio is placeholder or needs some work so duly noted. I haven't seen much in terms of frame-rate flickers but I've only run on my machine prior to and no, there has been no optimization at this point so I will look into this. Excellent point on multi-monitor setup. And you're the 2nd person to comment that the scan lines were wearing on you. So I may need to reconsider this aesthetic...

A question I've still got about the game, and perhaps I've still got the question just because I didn't get terribly far, is what is the gameplay? Some kind of point-and-click game, or a visual-story thing? I had to use the key on the door and the whiskey on the father, and click the pills button, but I'm not sure where this then goes? Will I have to solve puzzles, like an adventure game? If I get caught by the hallucinations, and 'die', will I have to repeat sections of the game and... presumably do it faster?

This has been a challenging point for me. The initial game idea was "survival horror" and resource management with leveraging your medication to stave off deadly hallucinations. But I found as I worked on this, it wasnt the game or story that I was interested in doing.

So the game has evolved into a more linear story with basic puzzles and some usage of the insanity/pills but not the true survival horror I initially set out with. The challenge is striking the balance between what is a "game" and what is just an "interactive story". It's also harder to convey in this early slice of the game which is pretty much dedicated to just setting the stage with who you are and who your family is. I'm hoping later in the game that balance is better struck but it may be worth finding more ways to find the balance early into the game. At it's heart, its a narrative. As I said at the beginning of the devlog, less "game"- more "experience".

It's based on a true story, for those interested in finding out what it's all about.

Now, about the setting, these are a few personal preferences but I think you'd get a more unsettling atmosphere by removing some of the exposition. "Who are you", "I'm the voices in your head remember", "oh yes, I do remember, thank you" is the first exchange in the game. I don't think you need to explain that so explicitly, I don't think you need to explain with words that the bogeyman is a hallucination, etc, etc. I think most players would be smart enough to work all that out, especially with a big ol' button labelled 'pills'. You've got a real opportunity to show and not tell, here, and let your intended atmosphere build over time.

Yes. I've found my writing tends to fall into the heavy-handed pretty easily. I can do a lot of things, but I'm not great at most. I've debated bringing in a writer to help me better convey the story without it getting too "on the nose". But I think there are a shortage of quality writers interested in working on experimental indie games... So I will take your notes and revisit the dialogue. I'm sure it will be revisited hundreds of times before the end.

Also, I'll confess to rolling my eyes a bit when the big 'Warning! This game might make you go crazy! Who knows what you'll do!' screen comes up at the beginning. It's almost as if the game is asking you to be unsettled without actually earning that right. It's the same thing you see horror films doing with their marketing (at least here in the UK) with adverts that proclaim "You'll never feel safe in your own home again!" It's both a bit too clearly over-promising, and asking for almost a kind of respect it hasn't yet earned. I'd just remove that message, and skip to actually making the player feel uncomfortable, which I have to confess that I wasn't.

Let me give you some background on this and see if you can shed some light on perhaps a better way to handle this. The beating from Father is supposed to make you uncomfortable, but it's not really that "bad". It's simply exists to establish the fact that you've been abused. It's not horror as much as setting the tone of your family.

We haven't gotten to the uncomfortable stuff. You're on the path to becoming a violent psychopath. So if the game asks you to kill your father, is that justified because he is a bad father? What about killing an innocent person? How do you justify that? What about killing a child because that's what you like? Can you be a violent sadist and a victim at the same time? And of course, can you change from the path you're destined for?

Eventually, the game is supposed to take you to some places that (to my knowledge) aren't really in many or any video games. Just being totally transparent with you, I have a lot of "goals" for the game. I want the player to ask themselves a lot of questions as they play deeper. One of the primary goals being: I want the player to feel guilty about killing in a video game. The only way this can occur with such a disconnect between reality and virtual reality is with making them increasingly uncomfortable with what they're doing.

At the same time, this wont be going to the ESRB because I don't know what rating I'd get what what the player will be doing. And I dont want some 12 year old kid to play the game because there is no rating on the game and it looks like a 2D point and click horror.

So the warning isn't about setting the mood. It's about establishing that if you're not 18, I dont want you to play it. Yes, its worded a bit in the style of the game so perhaps it's coming across more as "hype" than as an actual warning but that's why I put a warning in. Perhaps I need to word it more straight-forward and lose the hyperbole-esque feel to it...

Either way, thanks for all the detailed feedback. I have a lot to consider.

[zilluss]

Ok, now I know why I couldn't play the demo on OS X: the menu (play, options, quit) isn't shown. It could be because I have a dual screen setup but I'm not sure. Also, I think it would be great to have the alpha link in the first post, because that's where I looked for it when I installed it on my Windows VM.

So I don't have much to criticize (yet). The Valley landscape reminded me of the Heart-Shaped Box musicvideo, kinda surreal, I liked it! The parallax effect instantly grabbed my attention, very cool. Some pictures in the home looked a bit cliché, but maybe that's on purpose.

In my opinion, if you want to make this a narrative game, I think you don't need any fancy gameplay elements or even puzzles at all, if they don't serve the story/ambiente/setting. For example, Gone Home doesn't have any actual puzzles. Another good example is Saya no Uta, which has like 4 decisions in the whole game and doesn't even have the technical possibilities your game has. But both games have a good writing and in my opinion, that's your game's only relevant weak point.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

hmmmm.... i messed around in the option trying to click unclick fullscreen and change the resolution without success and when i went back , the menu wasn't shown anymore.
i tryed to erase everything and reunzip and all. the problem remains.

Anyways the experience started great as it made me nostalgic for the first American McGee's Alice ambience wise.

Lookin forward to play it !

[Zizka]

I didn't read what the others said so here goes (I typed in my comments in a .doc):
-cursor: stray pixels
-music is awesome
-waving text effect is awesome
-have the cursor change to a hand when you pick up items (would looks nicer, you could have a creepy hand cursor)
-pixel hunting...? (not sure if this is a good thing, where you have to check everything with your mouse to make sure you can interact with it or not...)
-no music in game (I guess this will be changed later on).
-sound go up the stairs open the doors is the same, should be different
-inventory should show up when you scroll to the top of the screen (as opposed to having to press "i")
-animation before act 1 is really freaky, works well!!!
-couldn't go to woods
-scrolling speed is really slow (please fix this or give the option to change this)
-Backgrounds look awesome

I think I've done everything. Pretty cool so far, well done.

[oahda]

-inventory should show up when you scroll to the top of the screen (as opposed to having to press "i")

Agreed!

[oyog]

I've just read through the devlog and I'm fascinated. I'll probably avoid playing any demos till you've finished the game. I'd like to have the entire experience in a single sitting without spoilers.

Also, I'll confess to rolling my eyes a bit when the big 'Warning! This game might make you go crazy! Who knows what you'll do!' screen comes up at the beginning. It's almost as if the game is asking you to be unsettled without actually earning that right. It's the same thing you see horror films doing with their marketing (at least here in the UK) with adverts that proclaim "You'll never feel safe in your own home again!" It's both a bit too clearly over-promising, and asking for almost a kind of respect it hasn't yet earned. I'd just remove that message, and skip to actually making the player feel uncomfortable, which I have to confess that I wasn't.

...

So the warning isn't about setting the mood. It's about establishing that if you're not 18, I dont want you to play it. Yes, its worded a bit in the style of the game so perhaps it's coming across more as "hype" than as an actual warning but that's why I put a warning in. Perhaps I need to word it more straight-forward and lose the hyperbole-esque feel to it...

Having not played yet I'd suggest a simple disclaimer before the game starts. Something along the lines of "This game is not suitable for minors." or even a simple "Are you 18 years or older? Yes./No." I think a short, formal disclaimer will do less to create preconceptions for the player about the games content. I imagine the game will have more impact if a player goes into it with fewer expectations.

EDIT: fixed a broken quote.

[oldblood]

Thanks to everyone who has download the demo and especially to all of you who've left feedback via this devlog, email or twitter. It's much appreciated. In total, looks like 85 people download the demo over the weekend, which isn't bad considering I don't have much social media presence yet. We got a decent amount of views and downloads of the demo from AlphaBeta Gamer doing a tiny bit of coverage on the demo: http://www.alphabetagamer.com/mascohisia-alpha-download/

At this early stage, all coverage is helpful...

***

Ok, now I know why I couldn't play the demo on OS X: the menu (play, options, quit) isn't shown. It could be because I have a dual screen setup but I'm not sure. Also, I think it would be great to have the alpha link in the first post, because that's where I looked for it when I installed it on my Windows VM.

Ah, interesting. That gives me something to look into.

In my opinion, if you want to make this a narrative game, I think you don't need any fancy gameplay elements or even puzzles at all, if they don't serve the story/ambiente/setting. For example, Gone Home doesn't have any actual puzzles. Another good example is Saya no Uta, which has like 4 decisions in the whole game and doesn't even have the technical possibilities your game has. But both games have a good writing and in my opinion, that's your game's only relevant weak point.

Yeah, you may have called it there. If the game is about the narrative, then that's all it needs to be about. I've been trying to figure out how to make it both game and narrative, and maybe that's not what this game is about. I think there will still be some basic puzzles, but not the kind to melt your brain-- but more to help keep the player physically interacting with the story...

hmmmm.... i messed around in the option trying to click unclick fullscreen and change the resolution without success and when i went back , the menu wasn't shown anymore. i tryed to erase everything and reunzip and all. the problem remains. Anyways the experience started great as it made me nostalgic for the first American McGee's Alice ambience wise. Lookin forward to play it !

It's the config system... sounds like it needs some work... Sorry about that. Here is a link to download the registry. It will reset your data for the game: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bohuk8pwl6t8jcp/Masochisia_Registry_Reset.zip?dl=0

I didn't read what the others said so here goes (I typed in my comments in a .doc):
-cursor: stray pixels
-music is awesome
-waving text effect is awesome
-have the cursor change to a hand when you pick up items (would looks nicer, you could have a creepy hand cursor)
-pixel hunting...? (not sure if this is a good thing, where you have to check everything with your mouse to make sure you can interact with it or not...)
-no music in game (I guess this will be changed later on).
-sound go up the stairs open the doors is the same, should be different
-inventory should show up when you scroll to the top of the screen (as opposed to having to press "i")
-animation before act 1 is really freaky, works well!!!
-couldn't go to woods
-scrolling speed is really slow (please fix this or give the option to change this)
-Backgrounds look awesome

I think I've done everything. Pretty cool so far, well done.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. The cursor is VERY placeholder. It's still the same as the original prototype I did in the first week of January. Needs to be replaced. And yeah, no music in the game but there will be once we're farther into music. A lot of the SFX are placeholder, but since I had no music- I wanted to some SFX in to help better establish the mood. Woods, you can't access yet simply because I haven't made it that far so there are a few areas you hit in the demo where you can't go that way yet.

For the scrolling speed, something to keep in mind. Currently you scroll faster indoors and slower outdoors to sort of simulate taking longer to get around outside verses how quickly you can get around inside, but I'm sure the values can use some tweaking. I really like that idea for the inventory, will see what I can do!

I've just read through the devlog and I'm fascinated. I'll probably avoid playing any demos till you've finished the game. I'd like to have the entire experience in a single sitting without spoilers.

Wow, thanks for reading it all. I understand on not playing the demo, I'm the same way myself. But I appreciate everyone thats playing and giving feedback, it's exactly what I need to know if I'm moving in the right direction.

Having not played yet I'd suggest a simple disclaimer before the game starts. Something along the lines of "This game is not suitable for minors." or even a simple "Are you 18 years or older? Yes./No." I think a short, formal disclaimer will do less to create preconceptions for the player about the games content. I imagine the game will have more impact if a player goes into it with fewer expectations.

Yeah based on what DizzyDoo and you are saying, I will update it to follow something more in-line with that. The original version was basically a simple disclaimer as you've described but I thought something "more in character" would help it, but apparently that's not the case. You're right, going in with fewer expectations would be preferred and the important message of notating the content is not suitable for minors has been made clear.

[oldblood]

DEVLOG 36.

Well. Alpha is out... The demo is now linked in the first post.

Thanks to everyone who has played it and given feedback thus far. I know what I need to do now.

I haven't worked over the weekend because I was recovering from crunching for a month on the alpha. I'm compiling notes based on feedback and trying to determine next steps. It's always a bit hard to get back into the groove you were in during crunch after taking time off (even if it's just a few days).

Time to get back at it...

***

I was encouraged when I found a link to what (I think) is the very first Let's Play of Masochsia. This is surprising cause I didn't reach out to anyone on this. Someone just shared a link to the alpha to him. Watching someone play your game and react in "real time" is a powerful experience. You instantly see what is working, or what is not working... things that I thought would work well, didn't. And things that I thought wouldn't work at all in their current state- had big reactions...

The youtuber is "CoryxKenshin". I've never heard of him before today. He has a little over 70,000 subscribers. I enjoyed the video and was surprised he edited out the curse words so clearly he runs a "tighter" YouTube channel than most. Which is even more surprising that he wanted to play this game... If you're curious, you can watch his playthough of the demo here. He was incredibly positive about the demo:

His reactions and the general reception to the video seem very positive which is incredibly encouraging for me because frankly-- I feel like I work in a box. This is a very personal project for me and I don't know how anyone can or will respond to it. So seeing stuff like this gives me hope that people may actually be interested in this and figuring out what this is all about.

...And this comment I really enjoyed:

...He's right. It did leave a .txt file for him. And no, it wasn't there before. As you hit certain points in the game, the character will leave "letters" on the desktop of the player... At first I thought this may cross the line and leave people feeling a bit "violated" by the game but... I really liked the idea so it stayed in. At the end of the demo I leave a small note to the player from me. But in the game itself, the letters will be much more personal...

Back to the grindstone I go...

[Osteel]

Haha, that's genius. If you could only hide it in random places on someone's computer ... haha. 

[oahda]

Woot? I didn't get any file!

Lovely playthrough video! Over 5000 views for you. That's fantastic. I feel the kind of feelings I would feel if it were my game on there.

[EdFarage]

Saw the video on youtube, that was good stuff man.
I sense some high incline incoming towards your game
All the best man

[Miziziziz]

Just saw the video: this looks freaking awesome!

[Seaport]

Just watched the video looked really good

[Zizka]

Congratulations on your youtbe! I'll admit I'm a bit jealous!  :eyebrows:Things are looking up for the game! Well done!

[zilluss]

I'll admit I'm a bit jealous!

I hope you meant

 


Congratulations on the Let's Plays!

Also, I tested running the game without the second screen on OS X and the error doesn't occur. So maybe you use the desktop size to position the menu where the window size is needed but that's just a hunch.