Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD37 → Crawlout
By bracula
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 1798 |
I like it! Very pretty art. And I like how the player needs to balance between eating/drinking and actually using those resources to build. I think this is an awesome concept. However I also think:
1) It's a bit slow-paced
2) Not sure how to stop the radiation.
3) How do you get the core reactor and filter thingy? Do you make them? Do you find them?
4) I think your resources need to fall quicker (food and water etc) so that there is more urgency.
This sequel is bad, is this NoMoreAForests? No trees, bad survival game -2/10.
This is cool, guys! I like the art, and the mood is great. I also like the world you've set up, and the way you build it in the little interactions. The big faces when you interact with people are really cool.
I think the game could have been condensed a bit more. Like the nihilistic nature of collecting resources and interactions is cool for a while, but then it just gets a little boring. :)
Especially because everything is so expensive? I played for a while and only got 100 scrap, and eventually just gave up, because it was so long between finding things of scrap. I think making the time between finding scrap less might have made me play longer. Also, I think you need a first building/construction that is cheap so players get committed. With nothing built after 10 minutes of playing, it's pretty easy to put the game down, because you don't really lose anything.
From that first conversation I got the sense that there were area/buildings where stockpiles of resources might be, but I never found them. I just ended up the black end of map at the top. I think little arrows pointing to where to go is inelegant, but you kinda need it right now because there's so little direction in the game. In Don't Starve, you collect things like every minute, so you keep engaged. Either make collection plentiful, or give destinations for players to travel too. Doing neither makes it hard for players to keep interested I guess?
UI is really neat and clever. Love that you mouse over top things in order to eat/drink etc. Elegant.
The sound and music is really lovely too.
Other stuff:
- First text interaction a bit of a slog
- Walking animation not in time with movement, feels like you're sliding
This is one moody and atmospheric piece, I really love that feel that struck me as the game kicked in. It absolutely communicates the desolation and isolation. That's cool.
BUT
The "fantasy" of desolation is not interesting at all if literally nothing happens at all. I click somewhere, and wait for my little dude to get there. I go and make coffee. I think I picked something up, I'm not sure because I'm busy making coffee or doing something else. I was hoping that the footsteps would stop when you reach the destination to "notify" me that I'm there. But no, apparently I'm moonwalking in place the whole time.
You can have a slow-paced game and still have stuff going on. You can depict desolation without it being absolutely devoid of interest. Respect the player's time investment, give them a point. Some goal. Interactions along the way. Something. There's no way to know where to find anything - so it's literally guess a direction and find out 10 minutes later whether you guessed right. It's like Pokemon Go without the payout at the end of catching something cool.
The UI, the interactive bits are all great. But I need a design intent to keep me engaged.