Wow, thanks for all the feedback and suggestions! It's going to be a bit challenging to reply to all of it here, but I'll do my best.
Stefan8000:
Giving the baby a baby voice is an interesting idea. I'll have to think about that.
For the grave scene, there will be another mini-nightmare (a scene of graphic mutilation like in the trailer) in between the wreath and the wake up, which I think will help make that seem less sudden.
We have like 20 or so variations of dolls. The problem is that we have like a hundred dolls in that level or something. It would be difficult to make them all original. Perhaps in a later art pass we can go back and add more.
JPrice:
your ideas with the cupboards are quite good, but that would be a lot of work. Maybe I can do a solution with the timing or something that makes this less of an issue. I'll try that first and see where that gets you.
The monster encounters are set up to discourage running when you don't need it. If you use up your stamina when you are just exploring, you may be punished. It seems like that part of the design is working.
RightClickSaveAs:
The closets are spaced such that you can usually make it to one once they spot you. That isn't always the case - if you are spotted when one is right on top of the cabinet you are going to, you probably won't be able to make it back to the previous one, but we did a lot of testing if you run or walk from the start point, there is usually a way you can survive. If you wait a while for the baby to be in a random point in its patrol, it can be a lot harder, and your best bet is just to hide and wait it out. Perhaps you can try again and see if you can evade them? What I always do is NEVER run, so I have maximum stamina, and then run as soon as they appear on screen, and it works for me.
Gagaplex:
Adam's name has been changed to Thomas as per the backers suggestions. That isn't actually reflected anywhere in game presently though.
AWESOME! We had a debate on the dev team how long it would take someone to figure that out, and you beat all of our expectations. haha
I agree that the portraits don't quite match the style of the rest of the paintings. I think there are a few reasons for that:
1) They are done by Chris, and the other portraits are done by Adam. Each artist has a bit of a distinct style, so they are never going to match perfectly.
2) The portraits of actual people are a bit less stylized since they have to look like real people.
I think we are going to have to be smarter about placement and making them feel like part of the world rather than stamping them everywhere like in the current build.
The cellar is a funny story. Joe added wine barrels and stuff like that, but I felt that it looked better empty and deserted.
The axe/candle ordering thing is a bug, and we'll fix it. I had it written up for Dan a while back, and he said he fixed it, but apparently not.
I think when I get a chance, I'm going to prevent walking backwards in the long hallway. I've been really busy.
I don't think we can do anything to prevent people from making things look lewd on the internet. Teabagging started because there is a crouch move! While I wouldn't be pleased if that became a popular gif or whatever, I am not sure I can prevent that. I was planning on putting some work into smoothing over some animation things, which might help that. Who knows.
I'll have Joe take a look at the attic.
The differences in the room layouts are intentional. Basically, we don't want the start of the level to feel same-y, so even though the layouts are the same in 1 and 3, they look different because 3 is a destroyed version.
Hmmm.. I'm not sure. We were planning on having huge colored cabinets. I want to make sure it is very obvious you can hide there. I'll give some thought to see if we can reduce that.
There are specific bedrooms you respawn in, but they are not marked or indicated in any way. I feel like if you knew there was a "checkpoint" bedroom, then you'd know there is an enemy encounter coming up. (We have a checkpoint before every enemy encounter, so the player isn't punished much for losing) Is there a reason you'd like to see respawn room marked? I liked that they are unmarked because you don't know what to expect.
Were you trying to run past the baby monsters? You can't do that. You have to hide.
The idea behind having closets in hallways without monsters is so that you don't know what to expect. If we do a 1 to 1 correlation, then you'll know you need to hide when you see one. If we mix it up a little, then you can be surprised.
The door trigger is actually fairly large, so I don't think you necessarily have to walk upwards to activate it. Once you activate the door trigger, you are "safe". We can tune the trigger for it though. Your suggestions were good.
The shaking is for atmosphere.
Regarding the breach in the wall - I have plans for that. (Much further down the line though)
Harry Sunderland:
For reaction videos, do you have dropbox? It's free, and should give you enough space to send me the video.
More JPrice:
It's possible we could do that or do something along the lines of Gagaplex's suggestion. It seems like we do need to do something to make it a little easier mechanically. I'll have Joe take a look and see what he thinks is easier.
Ranger_Lennier:
I don't think you missed much. There are some side rooms, but there isn't anything super awesome in them but more dolls. Long term, I am hoping to have more interactable things in the level (and in the side rooms), but we'll have to come back to that when (if?) we have time.
The paintings definitely repeat a lot, but we are planning on creating a bunch more as we build out new levels, so then we'll do a pass and put new paintings in every level.
Jprice:
At the end of the first level, he says "Gabby no", but he mysteriously gains a Puerto Rican accent for that line, so it is a bit harder to hear. Our sound designer recorded a lot of the stand in VO.
Actually, I recorded some as well that hasn't gone in the game yet. We are putting a scene in the beginning of A Coming Storm that will be kind of confusing and weird.
Gagaplex:
It originally was "da da". I think Eduardo changed it to Mama, which works too. In general, I think it's fine if people don't know what the baby is saying. I have several godchildren, and when they talk to me, I can't always understand what they are saying either.
Okay. I think I responded to everyone's questions. Please ask again if I missed one. Thank you so much for playing the game and really thinking long and hard about how to improve the game! You've given me a lot to think about.
