Infinitap Games

I'm so glad to hear all this positive feedback!

Aludra wrote:Coming into a room to find an open closet with a vague but menacing shadow standing inside of it has to be one of my worst fears.

That was one of my most frequent childhood fears, so I'm glad I was able to effectively realize it in the game.

RightClickSaveAs wrote: The scratch dialog sounds great! I'd suggest using that yell he gives when being crushed by the baby monster when falling through the floor as well.

Yeah, we threw in the board breaking thing at the last minute, so Eduardo, our sound designer, didn't have time to work on that. I just threw in the wall breaking sound effect, so it wouldn't sound completely bad. I totally agree that we need a scream - at least a temp one. When he gets time, I'll be sure to have him revisit that.

RightClickSaveAs wrote: As for the hiding mechanic, I think it's introduced very well and you know what you need to do when the time comes. Are there plans to be able to hide in/behind/under more objects?

I'd like to, but it is a question of time. I really want to have hiding under a table as well. Hopefully we'll have time to revisit this and add more types of hiding. Behind curtains is a good idea!

RightClickSaveAs wrote: As for the baby monsters, seeing their eyes I assumed they were blind or at least very limited in vision as well as not too intelligent, so it made sense to me that they wouldn't be able to find you if you hide. The sniffing helped sell that too, is that the idea I was supposed to get from them?

Yeah, they are supposed to have similar intellectual facilities to a baby. They have been kind of a challenge from a design and animation perspective because they are supposed to be like babies, but they can't be cute or comical in any way. My worry is having them stumbling might make them less menacing. It's a tough balancing act, and I'll have to give it some more thought.

RightClickSaveAs wrote: Another suggestion I'd have is, for the monster that breaks through the wall, maybe give the player a fraction of a second longer to get to the door, as I found it really tight.

This is another challenging balancing act. I want it to feel like you just barely made it so it is more tense. I don't want to make it too easy because I worry it will remove some tension. I am definitely open to changing it, but I'd like to hear what others felt about the timing.

It seems like I might have to make some changes to the the baby monster when you go into the cabinet since that seems like a common concern.

Specifically in the chase sequence as well as in general, how are people feeling about the difficulty of the baby monsters?

Thanks for your feedback!

right now, i finished my first playthrough through the aplha version. it was great. great tone, great art, great music, overall great. for me, the difficult with the encounters was exactly right, i would leave it that way. i found no bugs, all is running very well. so, i love it.

i have a few suggestions to think about.

how about giving the baby a baby voice, not a dark voice. i think, that will maximize the fear factor, because it is so weird, if such a monster have baby voice.

if the baby knocks on the door, i would let it break the door after a few seconds. more fear factor.

i would slow down the grave scene and the death scene with the baby a little bit. the wake-up happens so fast. i think, the impact on the player would be bigger.

so, overall, i am very impressed with this version and your fears, we dont like it, are not needed. it is great and i love it so much. wonderfull artdesign and music.

thanks on the whole team.

I just finished my first playthrough. I really liked it, the open closet freaks me out every time as you don't know what could be hiding in there. Especially after you see that shadow hiding in one. I also really like the dolls, though it might be a good idea to have more variation. There are already a lot of dolls, but if you keep seeing the same doll it takes away some of the creepiness in my opinion.
I really like the baby, I'm curious to see what other enemies you have in mind. Unlike the others, I really like it that as soon as you hide in the closet the baby loses you. The sniffing is a nice addition as well, the first time he did it I was scared he'd find me. I also agree with Stefan to give it a baby voice. If you make him more dangerous, it'd be great to hear a baby voice coming out of him. It'd make him even more scary I think.
I also really liked that lost feeling you get. The mansion is so big, and some rooms look like other so you really get that lost feeling. When I walked in a bathroom I thought I was back at the beginning, as the main character has a bathroom next to his bedroom. It really confused me when I walked out and I was somewhere else. I really liked that.

Well in relation to what other people are saying:

I like the instant evasion hiding as it does make sense seeing as the enemy is a baby, although I can understand why some people would find it strange. I'm not sure how you would rectify that, perhaps make it so that the baby beats on the cupboard a little so that it looks wrecked but then have him be distracted by something else (As it is a baby so short attention span). Then if you get caught again going into to that cupboard the baby would just wreck it completely, that way you're given like one chance to get caught going into that cupboard but if you do it again then you end up being forced out and have to run. I think if you were to make it more unforgiving in that if he spots you going in then he'd yank you out would end up being rather difficult as I had a few close calls myself, it may end up being annoying for some people. Just a suggestion though! I imagine that my idea would be hard to implement so hahaa

In regards to giving the baby a voice, I think it might help establishing that it is indeed a creature that is based on a baby. Though there's a fine line between having it still be menacing and just end up making it goofy if you give it a baby voice. Perhaps you could have elements of a baby's voice in there but make it really warped and twisted so it sounds enough like a baby that it'd be recognisable but unnatural enough that it's unnerving in that you know there's something not right,

Also that chase sequence funny enough was where I died the one and only time in the playthrough. I think that in that instance it makes sense that the success window is rather tight, I remember it being rather intense when I just barely made it through the door before the baby caught me which was great and how it should be I think! Though I don't mind if other people think that you should be given like a second or two more to reach the door, any more than that though might be pushing it.

Just my opinions on the matters that have cropped up here anyway

--Edit--
Completely off-topic but that death sequence is really well done I think, just how it ends so suddenly and right before it gets to its worst point is great. Also the scream, the blood spray, that crunch and how you slowly see the character start to crumple is brilliant. Shows you just enough so you know what's happening but also allows your imagination to fill in what happens right after the cut off point, grisly stuff

matt wrote: This is another challenging balancing act. I want it to feel like you just barely made it so it is more tense. I don't want to make it too easy because I worry it will remove some tension. I am definitely open to changing it, but I'd like to hear what others felt about the timing.

It seems like I might have to make some changes to the the baby monster when you go into the cabinet since that seems like a common concern.

Specifically in the chase sequence as well as in general, how are people feeling about the difficulty of the baby monsters?

I played the part where the monster breaks through the wall a couple more times and I now think the timing is about perfect. Getting caught once isn't necessarily a bad thing, and the big problem was I was using up my stamina too soon the first time, so that's a good lesson to teach the player; be ready to get away quickly and don't run unless you have to.

I think the difficulty in general with the monsters is fair. Their range of detection is low enough that you can avoid them if you pay attention. It was intuitive for me that you could walk behind them also, as long as you didn't get too close.

The closet hiding is interesting, since there's no possible way to run away fast enough once they spot you, there needs to be an option like that to hide instantly, but maybe it could be tweaked so you need a little bit more of a lead on the monster to be able to hide successfully and it won't work if they're right on top of you.

It's so easy to sit back and toss out ideas, sorry, but how about something like a sequence where you're being chased by a monster and have to hide in a closet like the one from Nightmare Begins, where you think you saw a shape and/or something moving in there? Making the player quickly choose between being crushed by a giant baby monster or going into a closet full of potential horrors!

Spoiler-stuff and said before reading what the others have written, so please pardon repetitions.

So, Gabby and Adam are very probably siblings then...
I liked the Bible, by the way, especially with the whole "why hast thou forsaken me" in Latin.

Mostly minor stuff and suggestions. The alpha works fine, so none of these are of a particularly high priority, just things I noticed.

Level 1

I see there are new portraits (presumably of backers?) which are cool, although they seem too "clean", if you know what I mean. The other (fictional) people and images (like the animals) seem more realistic in how they are drawn, more "wrinkly" and stuff. Although I guess that gets less and less noticeable with the increasing number of cobwebs, shadows and so on.

I like the doors opening and closing, but I wonder if it's possible to add artwork on the floor instead of the black abyss there. Maybe like a "gradient" of floorboards turning into absolute blackness?

The shadow-man is awesome, but the sound effect too loud, I think. It should be less "woosh, he's gone". And maybe make the man even slightly less visible by having him be a little less dark/less solid? Make it a bit harder to see him so that him vanishing is even more weird to the eyes.

I wonder if it would be better to have the pedestal with the Latin Bible be black-and-white and only the Bible itself coloured. It's a HUGE coloured object there like this.

Make the blood spatter of the bird who flew against the window something to interact with? It is coloured, after all. Something to look at more closely? Maybe even have the spatter upon close/magnified inspection vaguely resemble something weird or threatening, like a mini-Rohrschach?

Level 2

The room transitions with the new layout feel good!

Oooh, I like the new cellar with the holes in the ground and all that. Way worse. Any plans to add stuff like old wine barrels or other random crap or is the barren feeling intentional? It would make sense: Empty, deserted. With only the axe there.

When picking up the axe, the candle Adam put down "phases through" the axe. Is it possible to have the candle be placed in front of the animation? Or have the candle be behind the axe always?

I would probably add a "death" (waking up in bed) to the hallway "chase scene" with the darkness, because as it is you can walk all the way back into it in darkness and there's nothing to stop you.

Carrying the axe, I can be incredibly immature by having Adam walk and sprint in quick succession, resulting in him rubbing the axe shaft suggestively. Add the groaning that he makes while sprinting and, well. It would probably be better to change that, because you know how the average internet user and gamer will react to that.

In the attic, running to the left "above" the stairs causes Adam to "slide along the wall" and fall down the stairs. Is it possible to put a barrier there?

Level 3

God, that... music. Awful. Like a music box through a broken telephone. Perfect!

Is it intentional that Adam's room is the same layout as in level 1 (with the open closet), but in level 2 the layout is different? I first thought (seeing level 1 and level 2) that it was simply different each time, but seeing that level 1 and level 3 are the same, that doesn't seem to be the case. Only level 2 is the odd man out there.

The rotting decor is great.

The door handles on doors on side walls are way smaller than door handles on doors on the back wall.

Closets for hiding are also very huge coloured objects. Is that in your intent or would it be better to have parts of them coloured (like their handles ir maybe that "star" at the top) instead?

Sumo baby.

When I died, I respawned in another bedroom. Is this going to happen with every bedroom or will this only be a few? And if the latter, will they be marked in some fashion? With coloured bits, for instance? Or is it the Gabby dolls that mark respawning rooms?

The hiding worked well. Running past never seemed to work. Is it supposed to be impossible to run past or did I just get unlucky?

Later on: Two closets in a hallway with no monster? I get the first one without a monster (so the player can try it out), but that latter occasion seemed weird to me.

Agh! That chase scene! And you said you didn't like hard games, Matt! I died three times to that monster breaking through the wall because "activating" the door is not that easy with that little time to get there and walk "upwards" to it.

A praying nun doll?! Doll in a cage? A doll stuck to the corner with cobwebs? So many dolls everywhere? That's messed up.

What does the shaking of the hiding closets do? I didn't see any negative effect. Is it just for atmosphere?

The scene with the baby crashing through the wall, I expected to have to reach a closet, hide, and then go through the newly made breach in the wall rather than continue on in the level. Maybe that can happen in another level, I suppose?

Alright, these are my thoughts pretty much as I played through the game. This version is great and - from what I can tell - already perfectly functional, so take these comments above for what they're worth: Nitpicks and personal observations.

EDIT:
Responding to Matt's question:

The chase sequence is a wee bit too hard for so early in the game, I'd say. What might help is to place random garbage below the door in a triangle shape, so that Adam is automatically "shoved" towards the door (so getting him to open it happens more easily) or by increasing the "activation radius" of that particular door perhaps? A big problem for me was the random garbage on the "upper" wall because that kept me from getting close enough to activate the door mid-run.

The "normal" monster sections aren't hard. Very doable with a bit of patience. Certainly easy enough for an early level.

Matt,

I just played the Alpha and I created a reaction video, where you can get both my wife and I's reactions and see some of the bugs that occurred during play.

The only problem is I created the video in MP4 and it looks like crap when I uploaded it to youtube. Do you want me to just e-mail you the video? It's a 200 MB file.

How should I share the video with you?

Actually I just had a thought with that baby that chases you after he smashes through the wall

A few people here have said it's a little too difficult but maybe moving the door to be right at the end, rather than on the backwall could help. So that it's just instant running forward into to the door rather than having to spend the second or two adjusting to move upwards and go through the door that's there now.
Having that door be on the right instead of upwards might be a help along with the suggested second or two more leeway that I suggested in an earlier post

I did die from the monster a couple of times, including when it breaks through the wall behind you. But I don't really think it's a problem. You never seem to get sent back very far, and once I knew what I had to do, I managed it just fine.

I didn't have any trouble finding my way through the third level. It seems like I just took every door I found and ended up progressing. I do wonder if I ended up missing anything interesting, though.

What's the dialogue some people have mentioned? I don't remember anything that I could distinctly make out. I remember the baby kind of mumbling at one point.

Overall, great art and music, and ran bug-free for me. I could really only think of minor quibbles. Along the same lines as the repeating dolls someone else mentioned, I thought the paintings on the walls repeated too much. But that's definitely not a high priority.

ranger_lennier wrote:What's the dialogue some people have mentioned? I don't remember anything that I could distinctly make out. I remember the baby kind of mumbling at one point.

I think we're mainly talking about at the end of the first level when the the character says something like "Oh god...", that and the scream when you die I suppose. I might be missing something else but there's not much dialogue anyway hahaha