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[Rl]

Hello,
I'm working on "L'Hydre" (Hydra), a little game and I'd like some feedback.

Hydra is a puzzle/adventure game who takes place in a tiny world.

The Story:
The Prince has been kidnapped by the Dragon. The king, advised by the Wazir, sends you on a mission to save him. The Troll demands a tax. The Tanner is in pain, and the Sphinx is full of mystery. They are all part of the Hydra that rots your life.

In this puzzle game, you have to combine magical artefacts in order to reach one of the fifteen endings available (Most of them are death, though).

The game is close to the end of his development but I'm a bit lost. I don't know where I'm going with it and I would enjoy to have feedbacks on some issues:

Mostly on design : Are the puzzles too difficult ? Or too easy ? Is the Sphinx Mechanism working ? Are endings too difficult to reach ?

About music and sound design:
I'm having some difficulty creating it, so any advice is welcome. For the moment, it's a bit messy. The music of the opening sequence is not mine but it's temporary.

And finally on graphics : Are they fine ?

English is my second language, I had help with the translation but if there are problems with vocabulary or grammar, I would be happy to get feedback!

The game is available (in secret) here: https://r-l.itch.io/centfin?secret=kreFQSjK8k5sq2NDWe19tXcHFDE

Thanks in advance!

[micatrix]

Hi RI,
I played the game for a while and I'm happy to give you some feedbacks.

Puzzles: they are pretty good, I solved the first part of the sphynx one thanks to the hint by the actress.
The game flow is a bit strange though. For example, the pyramid puzzle. To open the pyramid gate I have to: teleport into the pyramid, look at the hint on the wall, die and start a new run to exploit the hint. It's a bit confusing. I think it should be better to make it more linear (you find the hint outside the pyramid) or justify it narratively: when you die it's not game over but you start the same day from the begininng again (as in the movie "Groundhog Day" or in some games like Majora's Mask or The Sexy Brutale).
I like the teleport mechanics (the idea you teleport an entire area and not just the main character) but it needs more explanation. I think you can create more puzzles based on the teleport and the mask.
The puzzle to get the Pledge of Allegiance final is too complex.

Controls: I think mouse control (point and click) should be more suited to the game

Inventory: I think the inventory management is a bit annoying (I have to remember where I left an item) and a useless complication. There are few items in the game, I think an inventory system like that from point and click games should be more suited.

Graphics: the environments are better but need more shading, they're a bit flat. I think some characters are good (the visir) others could be better (the dragon). The main character seems more like a magician to me than an assassin.

Setting: I find a bit weird the presence of a visir, a pyrmaid and a spynx in a european medieval setting.

Music: I think you can find some good medieval music on some marketplace online.

Summing up, this is my opinion about the direction the game should take:
A more linear point and click game with a unique and clear goal (free the king's son after overcoming the dragon and the visir) and lot of puzzles based on spells (like the teleport and the disguise). Maybe the main character could be a magician.

[Rl]

♥
Thank you for playtesting the game micatrix !
And thank you for your wise advice.

Inventory: I think the inventory management is a bit annoying (I have to remember where I left an item) and a useless complication. There are few items in the game, I think an inventory system like that from point and click games should be more suited.

There is indeed a hint of Point&Click in this game! My first intent was to make a Point&Click game with Zelda's control but now that you mention it, I would have been more inspired to make a Zelda game with the controls of a Point&Click. For inventory management, for the combat system... it would actually simplify everything!

I like the teleport mechanics (the idea you teleport an entire area and not just the main character) but it needs more explanation. I think you can create more puzzles based on the teleport and the mask.

Cool! There are actually other puzzles with the Mask and the Teleport Stone, since they must be combined to obtain certain ends. But somehow, they don't look like proper puzzles... I don't know why. I can't make the player want to finish the game an other way than saving the Prince. The first puzzles were designed to teach the player how to use objects... But they became the core gameplay somehow. Maybe the multiple endings system is too obscure and the earlier puzzles too difficult and strange? The all "making variation on the classical scheme Hero-save-Princess" stuff seems to fall apart with the actual design.

Summing up, this is my opinion about the direction the game should take:
A more linear point and click game with a unique and clear goal (free the king's son after overcoming the dragon and the visir) and lot of puzzles based on spells (like the teleport and the disguise). Maybe the main character could be a magician.

Thanks again for all the valuable feedback! Profound changes seem necessary. It helps me see them more clearly!

[micatrix]

Cool! There are actually other puzzles with the Mask and the Teleport Stone, since they must be combined to obtain certain ends. But somehow, they don't look like proper puzzles... I don't know why. I can't make the player want to finish the game an other way than saving the Prince. The first puzzles were designed to teach the player how to use objects... But they became the core gameplay somehow. Maybe the multiple endings system is too obscure and the earlier puzzles too difficult and strange? The all "making variation on the classical scheme Hero-save-Princess" stuff seems to fall apart with the actual design.

I think you have two options:
1) A more classical and linear adventure with a clear goal and a single ending (or maybe two or three endings but all placed at the end of the adventure)
2) Keep the current structure but the goal of the game should become unlocking all the endings and, most important, you should give the player an hint for unlocking each ending.
For example: you must trap a dragon to unlock this ending or you must burn the king to unlock this ending or something more vague and enigmatic. If you don't do this way unlocking an ending results in a random outcome and doesn't give the player any kind of reward.