Played through y'all's game, here are some things I noticed:
So first I will say that the art, theming, concept, and music are really good. Very much put me in the mood of someone trying to get through some ancient crypt. All of the various elements within the soundtrack, and even things like the UI looked really good!
That said though, I unfortunately saw a few issues when playing the game. First thing would be that (and this is either a UX problem or a tech problem, not entirely certain) but 9/10 times whenever I would try to bring up the menu to command my skeletons, it just wouldn't work. Could be due to some bug/lack of signifier around the skeleton showing where specifically to click. Additionally, when I would make a skeleton do something, it seemed like it never did specifically what I wanted? Again, could be a UX or technical issue, not sure. I was only able to make it through the first level before the issues with the command system weren't working at all.
Two other things I had noticed were an issue with the signifiers and affordances of the game itself as well as the UX of the HUD in this game. Puzzle design kind of lives and dies on signifiers, so when I would encounter things like a box on a ledge next to a pressure plate looking object, I think to push the box onto the pressure plate/command the skeleton to push the box. At least for me, this was not the case, and I just had the skeleton step on the pressure plate, and everything was fine. As far as the HUD though, it's a very quick fix. When you darken the icon whenever you select one of your summons, it might be a lot nicer of an experience for the player if it darkened and stayed darkened until the player used the spell. This could possibly lead to other issues with the UX, but I think that would be a great start to streamlining the process.
Overall I will give this game a 5/10, but most of the issues I saw are relatively easy fixes. I don't see any of the game needing to be redone, so if those bugs + UX problems are solved later in the process, this could easily be a 7/10, maybe an 8!
LD55 — Summoning (1)
Crypt Decrypt by StorythreaderFox 2024-05-01T03:34:10Z ♥ 0
Hello there,
Played through y'all's game, here are some things I noticed:
So first I will say that the art, theming, concept, and music are really good. Very much put me in the mood of someone trying to get through some ancient crypt. All of the various elements within the soundtrack, and even things like the UI looked really good!
That said though, I unfortunately saw a few issues when playing the game. First thing would be that (and this is either a UX problem or a tech problem, not entirely certain) but 9/10 times whenever I would try to bring up the menu to command my skeletons, it just wouldn't work. Could be due to some bug/lack of signifier around the skeleton showing where specifically to click. Additionally, when I would make a skeleton do something, it seemed like it never did specifically what I wanted? Again, could be a UX or technical issue, not sure. I was only able to make it through the first level before the issues with the command system weren't working at all.
Two other things I had noticed were an issue with the signifiers and affordances of the game itself as well as the UX of the HUD in this game. Puzzle design kind of lives and dies on signifiers, so when I would encounter things like a box on a ledge next to a pressure plate looking object, I think to push the box onto the pressure plate/command the skeleton to push the box. At least for me, this was not the case, and I just had the skeleton step on the pressure plate, and everything was fine. As far as the HUD though, it's a very quick fix. When you darken the icon whenever you select one of your summons, it might be a lot nicer of an experience for the player if it darkened and stayed darkened until the player used the spell. This could possibly lead to other issues with the UX, but I think that would be a great start to streamlining the process.
Overall I will give this game a 5/10, but most of the issues I saw are relatively easy fixes. I don't see any of the game needing to be redone, so if those bugs + UX problems are solved later in the process, this could easily be a 7/10, maybe an 8!
Thanks a ton, I hope too see this game again :)