Pseudonarrative Dissonance

kscorp 2018-04-25 03:27

You did a lot right! Sounds/music is great, makes a good mood. The "story" fits the mood as well. I like how the game looks as well.

Just a few comments: - The text is really hard to read... you shouldn't use fancy fonts like that all the time, it's tiring. Use an easier-to-read font for the long bits of text, and use the fancy fonts for keywords or other small bits of text. It would greatly improve the game, especially since reading was kind of important. - It wasn't clear at the end if I failed and had to start over, or if I simply reached the end of the game. Make your failure states clear. If the player is doomed and can't do anything more, you might as well game-over them. And don't make the failure too punishing if you can avoid it. - Small issue: the mouse loves leaving the game area when playing in a browser. A bit annoying having to click back into the game every time some text pops up.

sanjeev 2018-04-25 03:40

Cool game! I loved the noir theme; seriously good work on the audio and visuals. Each interaction was also unique and fun. You had me googling slang to solve that riddle 😄. Was the code puzzle the end of the game, I walked around a little but couldn't find anything else to interact with.

Keep up the amazing work!

corc0 2018-04-25 03:40

**PROS:** Great mood, music, and style. Very noir. It's hard to make different kinds of interactable objects - and make them work well - in just 72 hours. You did! Monologue reads surprisingly well.

**CONS:** Like the previous comment said, it's hard to tell if we've failed or finished by the end. Not a strong web build; the mouse goes off the edges, unless we're in full-screen, where it's super-hard to control.

**OVERALL:** Short but solid. Technical issues aside, it's a strong jam* game. Congrats!

*EDIT: It's a compo entry!? Seriously, nice job.

solrun 2018-04-25 05:47

How you did the setting was very nice. The dark alleyway setting with the fog, the streetlights and the moon giving off the monocolour light all sold me on the noir theme. I can't say I really understood what he was talking about most of the time, but the words I did understand and the structure of the narrative immersed me in the world.

miggyg 2018-04-27 03:47

The music and atmosphere of the game feels very nice! I enjoyed the dialogue/story it felt immersive. However the mouse control on the web version was a little annoying at times. Overall a nice game. Great job!

kleinzach 2018-04-27 04:14

Amazing atmosphere. The look and the sounds made the game for me. The riddles/puzzles worked pretty well, though the unity standard ui assets stood out in an otherwise great looking game, I'd recognize those default sprites anywhere! Speaking of UI, I would recommend using the Canvas Scalar for the on screen text, as everything got really small when playing on a high resolution monitor. You can tell it to scale based on resolution, then design it once and it will be consistent across all screens. Great job overall!

deadly-apps 2018-04-29 04:20

Great atmosphere, had trouble with the 3241 code. There were just 4 white squares and clicking them in any order was not working. Great mood and sound though. Nice work.

jezzamon 2018-04-29 05:18

Stunning atmosphere and writing! A shame that game didn't have a greater purpose to it, some goal or a win state

mektidas 2018-04-29 19:21

Great work @Baby Dino Herd

love the ambient of the game! 5/5

hadi-danial 2018-04-29 22:02

I feel like the text was too small to read comfortably, but it's a cool game, like the music!

notpresident35 2018-04-30 01:50

Good job! I love the way you did the atmosphere! First of all, don't have a long hallway if you're not going to use all of it. It was too tempting to just wander towards the darkness. I love the art though, and the writing is quite good (although really, the detective stereotype was laid on WAY, WAY too thick. Tone it down a little.) The music is nice too. One thing I have to say though is that I don't understand what the genres are. I can think of a large number that would fit this game (mystery, detective, puzzle, narrative), but that doesn't mean a whole lot until you specifically tell what the genres are.

Good job, and good luck!

bloodyaugust 2018-04-30 05:07

Not sure how it fits the theme, and the text definitely could be more readable (and size better for larger screens), but otherwise this is a great entry! I really enjoyed the music, and thought that the overall mood and visualscape was a lot of fun! Really, I just wanted more, but this is a great starting point for something larger, well-polished, and about the amount I'd expect from an LD entry. Nicely done! :smile:

EDIT: I played this on stream and provide extensive feedback there, please go and have a look! [Twitch Stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/256065115?t=00h00m07s)

zinkler 2018-04-30 10:17

It's a pity this wasn't made into a full game, at least a small one. I'd love to see actual plot implemented through it. There is a sense of purpose, one essentially important for the detective/noir genre, and it is left unsatisfied. The visuals are stunning, and the music is great. Fantastic job!

amras0000 2018-04-30 20:47

As has been pointed out, the text is tiny and hard to read. I played in browser, so I was able to zoom in that way, but the text really should be much bigger - you have the space.

I was tempted to write my review with the noir language you were using, but I know I can't even begin to reach the *excellence* on display here. The language had me impressed and laughing for most of the game. It's beautifully camp and perfectly moody.

On top of that, you managed to back the moody language up with a phenomenal visual and audio atmosphere. The endless tunnel and abstract architecture gave me a strong Beginner's Guide vibe (probably helped by the streetlights being a dominant theme :P). I adore that aesthetic it's very rare to see that outside of Davey's work, so thank you for getting it to work so well.

The puzzles aren't the greatest mechanically. They fit in the theme, but they feel unnecessarily contrived. The first two puzzles made sense - they were simple almost tutorial-like devices that gave the player the feeling of participation without breaking the timing (again, Davey Wreden comes to mind). If all the puzzles had been in this style I would not have complained. But the latter two puzzles (the math and code) broke the immersion the rest of the game had so wonderfully kept. I had to google "sawbuck" and the code didn't seem to register the correct answer so I tried a bunch of strategies, tried to work out if SWIFT was referring to a bank, googled some more, then came back and solved it. I think more input-the-right-word puzzles would fit in with your theme, if you do want to create that challenge. Button pressing didn't do much for me.

I love the footsteps, I love the shaders, I love the writing, and I love the atmosphere. If you'd had nothing else in the game I would have been a happy camper. The puzzles added a layer of depth and purpose, and even if they didn't stand up on their own, they contributed to the game as a whole, making it that little bit deeper and more enjoyable. This is a LD gem and I hope you keep on doing stuff like this.

P.S. - all this said, I have no idea what incompatible genres you were combining here.

impiaaa 2018-05-01 04:53

I don't have much feedback to give, but I just wanted to add just how blown away I was by how clever and detailed and charming this entry is, especially for being made in 48 hours. Incredible graphics, incredible music, incredible writing, and a really clever use of UI components for the puzzles (and the transition between mouse states is really smooth!). Of course I realized after I played it how simple much of it really was, but that just goes to show how cleverly it was put together!

(but also I don't know what genres its mixing--eh, whatever, it's a bogus theme anyway)

(Edit: Oh, I guess I could see the combo being something like "adventure+puzzle" with the little QTE minigames)

quadtree 2018-05-10 03:59

Loved the graphics and the music, very impressive. The puzzles were simple but amusing, I actually had to look up what a "Sawbuck" is. As other people mentioned, there's an issue where the WebGL build doesn't capture the cursor and it can escape the window, but I'm not sure if that's an issue with Unity or the game.