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[vivek25]

Hi,

I'm Vivek from Kabuliwala Games. I've been working on a First person stealth/puzzle game for over a year now. I recently finished work on a demo of the game and I'm trying to get feedback from as many people as possible so that I can make the game better.

The game's called Graveyard of Thieves. You play as a thief trapped in an abandoned asylum reliving the best and worst memories of her life.

The Demo is the games' mechanical tutorial. I'm currently working on a stealth tutorial.

The Game is currently at a Late Alpha Stage. The inspiration behind making it were games like Thief, Dishonored, Portal and an anime called Lupin IIIrd (A woman called Fujiko Mine)

Download Demo Link

Screenshots

[Quicksand-S]

Always nice to see a stealth game here.

-There's at least one period that's missing a space after it (in the first note).

-"Jantars" sounds a lot like "Janitors" to me, which makes the note seem a bit goofy.

-The vocal recording sounds a bit distant and maybe has the wrong amount of reverb or something, but the reading isn't nearly as bad as I normally expect from an indie title. It didn't stand out at all, though, and came at times when I was thinking about puzzles and things so I didn't catch what was said. In the final game, subtitles and maybe a log of what was said would be nice.

-The light flashing on and off in the first hallway seems really weird and just annoying. I'd recommend not having it turn off all the way when dark (easier on the eyes) and having the flicker be a little more random. Also, the light model should probably flicker too, or else it just looks strange.

-The ducking animation is really...bouncy. The camera jiggles a lot when changing states.

-I pressed Escape, hoping for a menu with which to improve the mouse speed and check what the Sprint key was...Oops. I hate it when games just close without any confirmation, especially when pressing a pretty normal key like Escape.

-When I started again, I noticed the wall at the start. I had to use the flashlight to read it because it was so dark, so it's no wonder I didn't notice it the first time (I was also thrown off by being put straight into gameplay the first time). It would be a good idea to make sure that text is almost impossible to miss, with a light on it and maybe placed somewhere the player has to go.

-Ctrl for sprinting goes against everything I've ever seen as the default control setup in stealth games. Why not Shift? Ctrl feels like it should be crouch-related.

-It took at least four tries to get through the speed door. It was as though it wasn't properly slowed down until I used the "Slow Time" thing again, because the last time the door didn't even start closing while I ran. The same thing happened later. What makes it more annoying is that I'll get stopped even though the door is 95% open.

-The flashlight doesn't change my visibility percentage?

-For a while, I thought those statues were enemies. Between the red glow and what seemed like attacks, it was pretty misleading.

-I had absolutely no idea what was going on with the blue forcefield. I couldn't move, so I got a statue to pull me out of it. Then it appeared again and I got a message, "Use worked". Then the force field disappeared. I didn't "use" anything. I did, however, look around the room. It's very annoying that just looking at things, even from a distance, is enough to activate them.

-It's a little weird that the lights don't cast shadows.

-The Unreal Tournament double-tap dodge move is in the game. Is that intentional? It seems like it might break some puzzles, but maybe not. The sounds still seem like space marine sounds.

-I got through a green door somehow. It just stayed open for a long time, but when I returned it reacted to me again.

-I went into a room with bars around some item on a pedestal. I hit a switch that didn't give me a "Use" prompt but was supposed to lower the cage. It didn't. I had my flashlight on and heard a ding a few times, but wasn't sure what it was alerting me to because I didn't see any teleport symbols or anything. The ringing sound often does more to confuse than help, I find. I'm never sure what it's referring to, because if I have the flashlight on then I don't know what used to be invisible. Maybe things should flash or something when they are made visible?

I sort of rage-quit (not quite "rage" but just annoyance and boredom) after that speed door kept getting in the way even with time supposedly slowed. I didn't enjoy this game as much as I hoped to. I felt like I was wandering aimlessly rather than exploring, and a lot of the puzzles were either difficult to decipher (Sometimes I'd ask myself "Is this a puzzle or just a random room?") or solved accidentally. It didn't feel like a stealth game, or even a puzzle game, as much as a "figure out what is supposed to happen in this room" game. Without clear goals, it felt pretty aimless. That said, I think it's mainly a matter of tweaking the rooms so that it's more clear what the goal is, as well as making the mechanics more intuitive and more consistent.

I have a feeling some things have been placed in rooms without a real purpose, like the statues in one of the early rooms. I didn't need them to get through there, but having them on most of the tables made them seem important.

A brightness slider would be great too. Part of why I felt like I was wandering was that I couldn't see much. One way to increase the feeling of exploration is to put things in the distance that draw the player's attention. These corridors are too dark and empty for that at the moment.

While I don't think this works as a tutorial, I do think some of the mechanics seem like they could be interesting if I knew how they were meant to be used and I'm curious to see how the stealth feels.

[vivek25]

Thanks so much for playing it and giving me feedback ! I've only ever had friends play it so far it was refreshing to get fresh eyes on it.

- The Gray door being irritating to get past has been a common thread from all feedback I've gotten so far. Will definitely be looking at fixing that.

- The idea of having some of the anomalies flash white and some flash red was to make them distinct as active (ones that have to be used by the player to work) and passive (ones that are activated as soon as the player looks at them).

- I really need to get better at giving the player feedback. That's clear from the experience you had with the puzzles.

 - Will iterate on/try to fix everything you've mentioned here.

- I'm working alone so updates will be some time in coming. I will include the Stealth tutorial and this one in the next update.

Thank you again for taking the time out to give me feedback  

[vivek25]

Hi,

So I've been working away at the game, here's a link to an updated version. please play the game and let me know what you think.

A lot of stuff has changed since the older build that I had put up here. Looking forward to getting some more feedback on the game.









please play the build and let me know what you think !
Thanks,
Vivek Ramkumar

Edit :  Added Screenshots, Thanks for the suggestion You Blister My Paint !

[You Blister My Paint]

You should post some updated screenshots. After a year of work it must be quite the difference!

[Impmaster]

I played until the laser room with the tables, because I got bored. Here's my notes:

1. I don't like how hitting escape brings up a quit menu. Ditch the options room, get a real menu.
2. The loading screen is a different resolution from the game, there's letterboxing.
3. The mechanics are kinda hard to learn. I didn't realize I could hit the eye for a while, I thought it was a direction. If it was a button or something it'd be more obvious. Also the monkeys, I couldn't understand what they did for a while
4. Your sucking monkey will suck me even if I'm already in the right spot. It should deactivate once I've reached the platform.
5. The art style seems like a sewer, while the story talks about ancient temples. This is very odd.
6. I have some huge tits wow.

From the little I saw it seems like a competent experiment, but the story doesn't interest me, and the gameplay is kinda glitchy and not understandable on first glance. First impression is the most important. I think you need to smooth out how the monkey's move you. Good luck though, it's always good to see people trying to make something different instead of the infinite 2d pixel platformers here.

[vivek25]

I played until the laser room with the tables, because I got bored. Here's my notes:

1. I don't like how hitting escape brings up a quit menu. Ditch the options room, get a real menu.
2. The loading screen is a different resolution from the game, there's letterboxing.
3. The mechanics are kinda hard to learn. I didn't realize I could hit the eye for a while, I thought it was a direction. If it was a button or something it'd be more obvious. Also the monkeys, I couldn't understand what they did for a while
4. Your sucking monkey will suck me even if I'm already in the right spot. It should deactivate once I've reached the platform.
5. The art style seems like a sewer, while the story talks about ancient temples. This is very odd.
6. I have some huge tits wow.

From the little I saw it seems like a competent experiment, but the story doesn't interest me, and the gameplay is kinda glitchy and not understandable on first glance. First impression is the most important. I think you need to smooth out how the monkey's move you. Good luck though, it's always good to see people trying to make something different instead of the infinite 2d pixel platformers here.

Hey Thank you for taking the time to play my game and give me feedback !

Could you specify where the bit about ancient temples came in the beginning ? did the Narrator bring it up or was it in scroll or a newspaper article that you find early on ? because that opening area is meant to be a sewer there shouldn't be any Voice Over(VO) about a temple there, I am checking the build atm and I cannot find any mention of temples in the opening area other than a Newspaper Article. If you've heard any VO that refers to a temple do let me know.

I've been working on the push/pull thing for a while now still trying to find the right balance with those.

The mechanic of looking at objects in game to activate their abilities could use another layer of visual feedback, I was playing around for a while with portals that open up when you look at the eye showing you where it's taking you.

Thanks for the feedback again, I'll keep polishing and upload a new build soon !

[Impmaster]

It was the newspaper, plus all the references to old ancient powers, made me think that the sewer was supposed to be a temple. It really looked like a sewer so I was surprised

[vivek25]

It was the newspaper, plus all the references to old ancient powers, made me think that the sewer was supposed to be a temple. It really looked like a sewer so I was surprised

Ah thanks! I am working on adding more visual storytelling cues in the game, To add clarity to the narrative ! The temple is the second level so I thought maybe the wrong VO was playing somehow.