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[JohnyBGooD]

Somewhere on Zibylon

(work in progress)

Gameplay trailer:

About the game:

Sci-fi exploration puzzle game with stealth elements, set in deep space and without gravity.

The signal from the Control Center of the colonized planet Zibylon has been lost. A repair drone is sent to the station. Upon arrival, it detects loss of control over the stations and strange activity taking place in them. Using the capabilities of the drone and the orbital module, explore Zibylon, solve puzzles, hide from enemies and fight with them, search for resources and produce equipment to capture stations and mines. If you want to regain control over the stations, figure out the tangled mechanisms and structures and avoid the many dangers that threaten you.

Main features:

      - Explore the space stations and the entire planet.

      - Solve the variety of environmental puzzles.

      - Use stealth to find ways to avoid skirmishes with aliens.

      - Combat the alien forces, using the capabilities of the orbital module.  

      - Search and capture space bases and mines.

      - Mining, crafting and researching technologies for equipping and arming the orbital module.

Game modes:

(Explanation of the game process and game modes).

The game contains two game modes - Drone Mode and Planet Control. The essence of the game is to reach new levels in Planet Control mode, and then pass them in Drone Mode.

In Planet Control mode the player controls the orbital module, which explores the planet and finds the captured stations. Destroying the aliens' defensive weapon first will give access to most stations. Installing the weapon and the reinforced hull to the orbital module increases your strength. Extracting resources and using the crafting mode to produce all the necessary details are key to winning. Producing these requires certain technologies; they become available after passing the corresponding level in the drone mode.

The Drone Mode refers to exploration of huge space stations, solving logical tasks and avoiding collisions with aliens by using stealth.

Screenshots:

Any feedback is appreciated!

[AaronB]

I played the first level which I really enjoyed.

I like the environment and sound – very immersive and gives a mysterious feel.  However the ambient sound did not seamlessly loop which broke the immersion slightly.  The puzzles, though simple, did always have a slight catch, so there was an element of satisfaction at progressing through them.
 
The escape challenge was cool but you need to resolve some of the camera clipping. One of the puzzles was slightly spoiled by 'seeing' into the next chamber, and it really does take you out of the experience.

When I first started playing I wanted a greater fov. As I progressed however, the limited fov began to add to the sense of confinement – I don't know if this was intentional, but for me it did add to the overall experience.

One big gripe – please offer mouse sensitivity for both horizontal and vertical movement.  Turning / looking around was a chore. Increasing the mouse sensitivity for left/right made up/down way too sensitive – so I stuck it out with a lot of wrist movement.

I like the checkpoints and how the game remembers where I am up to – that was a big plus.

I briefly played the planet mining portion of the game, but it didn't appeal to me – I prefer exploration and puzzle solving, so I won't comment on that part of the game.

Thanks for a great half hour, I feel SoZ has great potential - particularly with the exploration and puzzle elements.

[JohnyBGooD]

Thank you for such a detailed report. All your remarks will be considered in the further development of the game.

Planet Control mode also has logic and research tasks, but they are not disclosed in the free demo.

[nu_muso]

Very smooth handling. I loved the exploration and the atmosphere

[JohnyBGooD]

Thanks! 

[JohnyBGooD]

New video with demonstration of game process has been released:





In this example the player needs to pass through the spheres connected with each other. In each static sphere there is a rotating sphere with openings. To pass to the following static sphere, the player has to pass through openings of two rotating spheres. To avoid a deadlock, you need to think over the path before beginning the task.

You can play the free demo of the game to try to pass through the spheres:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/somewhere-on-zibylon/downloads/somewhere-on-zibylon-v03-free-demo

Greenlight voting:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=841325825

[QuadrupleA]

Hey, just took a stab at this. I have to admit I didn't make it very far. At first the controls were way too loose - I had to move the mouse fully across the pad 4 or 5 times to get 15-degrees of turning. I went into settings and bumped the mouse sensitivity to the max, but it didn't help much. I switched the game to my faster GPU (weird feature on my laptop) and with the better framerate it was reasonable, but still not as sensitive as I'd like. It looks like maybe you're doing per-frame mouse movements rather than some kind of time-based interpolation, I'd suggest the latter so it still handles the same with poor framerates.

Once I got moving I was pretty confused. There were two crosshairs/cursors which I didn't really understand, an orange dot and a tech-looking radial thing below that went in and out. I eventually got that I could bump into the first switch, and got into the second room.

The second room lost me though. Something about throwing a box and going through a door - I hid the description after a quick read because it was so long and hard to remember all the controls listed, and tried it and couldn't make any headway. I think you're giving the user too many controls and info right off the bat, things need to be introduced a little slower. And the game could really, really use some control simplification. E.g. do we need W/S for forward back, but also shift/control for accelerate/decelerate? Do we need up/down when we can point upwards and move forward to gain vertical height? Do we need a separate throw key, why not pick something up by holding the button and then throw upon releasing? Etc.

Anyway I tried throwing the box several times at the bright light on the left with no effect. I eventually found a poorly-lit rail switch thing on the right (needs brighter lighting) and hit it but could not see the effect of the door opening although I heard a sound that could be that, and when I sloppily worked my way through the hole in the wall ahead the door behind it was shut. Am I supposed to sit in the hole and throw the box from there? The rail thing doesn't face that hole so it doesn't make sense, and when I tried it I don't think I hit the rail thing (but then, I had 2 crosshairs that went in different directions so I didn't know which one my throw was going to move along).

So - I'd definitely recommend you polish the controls and user interface a fair bit on this one, do what you can to simplify, I think you'll grab a lot more people's interest that way and have a better chance of success.

Sorry for all the critical points . On the plus side, I really liked the atmosphere and graphics. The title screen & menus reminded me of some classic sci-fi DOS games, which is cool. Sounds like the game is fun once people get into it, I'm sure if you do more playtesting, watch people play, fix problems where people get confused, and repeat, you'll make the controls and interface accessible enough that more people can get into the content you've created and enjoy the game.

[AaronB]

One man's meat is another man's poison

I actually liked how the visual cues were slightly misleading - this turned what would be a very simple and boring puzzle into a "oh now I get it" type experience.  I had a real sense of discovery in a very simple environment.

[QuadrupleA]

True, a lot of games feel dumbed down because they make it so obvious what to do next by putting a big light around it, etc. So something to say for that. For this game, maybe it could save the misleading cues etc. for a little later in the game?

I like your profile icon.

[JohnyBGooD]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your feedback.

QuadrupleA, can you tell me more about your laptop: processor, videocard, Ram, screen resolution?

The controls are justified for the future puzzles. It is very hard to make them even easier and they correspond to the controls of other games with spacecraft game mechanics.

About the cues: there is "press H for full help" message at the bottom of each tip. So you can back to the controls description, if you forget some key. Maybe it is not enough and I need to add more tips. You right, I need to hire some testers and watch video footages how they play. 

By the way I have already increased horizontal mouse sensitivity by half after the feedback of AaronB.

[QuadrupleA]

Sure - it's an older laptop, Asus A53SV. Intel Core i7 2670QM with onboard video (Intel HD Graphics 3000) and also an external card (NVidia GeForce 540M) that I can choose between when I run a program. 6GB RAM and 1920x1080 resolution (I eventually ran it windowed at about 720p and it was a solid ~60fps on the NVidia card). Not sure how old of computers you want to support, this one's about 5 years old. I like using a bit older hardware to encourage me to keep things optimized & compatible.

If you haven't seen it already the site fiverr.com is nice for hiring game testers - I got some helpful feedback from people on my game there, it's amazing how many things I thought were obvious that were actually confusing.

[JohnyBGooD]

Thanks for the link and your hardware information.

[JohnyBGooD]

Planet Control game mode will look like this:

[JohnyBGooD]

Some players say that the puzzles were too easy, some - too difficult. It is hard to understand for me what to do next.

Write your review of puzzles, if you have already played the game.

[JohnyBGooD]

Free demo v0.5 has been released.

Improvements, bug fixes, new grab-carry system, intro scene has been added. Now you can also capture level 2 in the Planet Control mode.

Link to download:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/somewhere-on-zibylon/downloads/somewhere-on-zibylon-v05-free-demo

[JohnyBGooD]

Description, graphical assets, free demo have been updated (see the first post of the thread).

[quantumpotato]

Thanks for the link and your hardware information.

letting players customize mouse sensitivty is a nice setting

[JohnyBGooD]

Yes, I agree. There are mouse and joystick sensitivity settings in my game. And also inverting of the Y-axis.

[Karin E. Skoog]

Hey, just took a stab at this. I have to admit I didn't make it very far. At first the controls were way too loose...

As QuadrupleA noted, a slower progression would help a lot to get into the controls. It took a little while to get used to them, but once I did, I had a blast flying around!

I only played a little bit of it for the time being. I'll get to more of the puzzles another time, but I wanted to send along some initial feedback:

I was also confused by the first puzzle. I heard a sound when I hit the switch, but it was only after a few tries of hitting it and looking around that I saw what the switch was actually doing. Maybe add a window to the doorway separating the switch from the other room or make it one big room so it's more obvious what the switch does? I was probably facing the wall or something though when I first hit the switch since I was still getting used to the controls.

Is there a reason the boxes are so small? If you throw them around enough, they can take some time to find again. It actually reminds me of a small space level I made in UE4 a while back, where I had a large battery pack that players had to use to charge a door. I made the battery pack pretty big though so that (even with space physics), it was pretty easy for the player to find it again once they let go of it.

I only had a little time to try out the 2nd puzzle, so I'm not sure whether it was the controls or something else, but I had trouble interacting with the lights for longer than a couple seconds. Maybe it's part of the puzzle though. I'll find out next time.

Interesting concept though. I'll be on the lookout for your future demos! As others mentioned, the ambient sounds are really nice as well. Looking forward to seeing more of the game!

[JohnyBGooD]

Thanks for your feedback. I agree that the first puzzle a little bit confusing (as for the first puzzle). I am going to fix it.