146 - 0.4 Features

[matt]

This video contains spoilers for game content, so watch at your your own risk. If you played the 0.3 alpha build, it shouldn't ruin anything, but if you haven't, then I'd recommend NOT watching this video since it talks about puzzle solutions and whatnot.

This has the stuff about the difficulty adjustment I mentioned and a bunch of other polish items and whatnot.

[gagaplex]

I like the cellar stairs. And you can really tell the graphics are high quality as the "zoom-in" doesn't seem fuzzy at all or anything.

I like the dynamic difficulty adjustment with the cupboard appearing. And now... I'm hoping for even more, like various doodads/more puppets etc. appearing as you keep dying, the hallway deteriorating further etc., but that's probably unrealistic to expect.

What's that pink line on the wall's corner around 7:25?

I love the idea of looking into the asylum's cells for a closer look. Please, please, please include a "In the Mouth of Madness"-reference if at all possible as one of the variations:

[matt]

To debug problems where we are missing art, we use a magenta clear color. In shipping builds we use a black clear color.

In most games, you don't clear at all in shipping to save some GPU time, but apparently on mobile hardware sometimes NOT clearing is more expensive, so we figured we might as well clear.

I was hoping the magenta line wouldn't show up when we compressed the video. Oops! Joe will have to fix the level art to remove what will appear as a black line to everyone else.

I did really enjoy "In the Mouths of Madness", but I'm not sure the religious iconography fits in exactly with the themes of the game. I'll have to give it some thought.

[gagaplex]

I did really enjoy "In the Mouths of Madness", but I'm not sure the religious iconography fits in exactly with the themes of the game. I'll have to give it some thought.

Well, you do have those Bible quotes ("Why have you forsaken me?") and even a Latin Bible in there.
But, sure, it was just a silly idea.

So, I'm guessing you're using magenta internally simply to spot it more easily?

[Grabthehoopka]

Well, you do have those Bible quotes ("Why have you forsaken me?") and even a Latin Bible in there.

I think that's a bit odd as well, with the latin bible, the verse scrawled on the wall, the wallpaper that I thought was crosses but you pointed out are actually daggers, and the praying doll that looks like a nun in Lost Child, I assumed that religion played some part in it. Of course, I don't know the themes and whatnot either, but I can spot the recurring motif of arms and the harming thereof, so here are some bible verses about arms and hands and whatnots for shits and giggles:

"And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm" -Isaiah 9:20

"His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me." -Song of Solomon 2:6

"Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." -Genesis 13:9 (I know that these aren't literal hands, but it is about telling someone to go away, so eh...)

"Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour." -Proverbs 3:16

"On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him" -Job 23:9

"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth" -Matthew 6:3

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame." -Song of Solomon 8:6

Anyways. I like the staircases as well, but perhaps that first staircase leading to the basement could be not as well lit? From the hallway, the staircase is unlit and goes into pitch blackness, but the staircase itself is well-lit with lanterns lining the wall. Perhaps the top of the stairs could be lit with light suffusing in from the hallway, and it could get darker and darker as it goes down, until they reach the pitch blackness of the basement? And, if there's an ascending staircase at the end when you go to the attic, since the lights in the hallway go out as you walk by them, have the light at the foot of the stairs go out as you walk up the stairs like the last light in the hallway just went out?

Also, perhaps making the bars on the cell doors colored to indicate that you can look into them? Maybe like oxidized bronze or rusty iron, something so they stand out without looking out of place, or without looking like someone went around painting the bars. I'm thinking something away from the red part of the color spectrum, since there's plenty of blood in that level and you can't interact with any of it, so if you make them bloody, or some other reddish color, it'll likely blend in with the background and get overlooked.

Also, it didn't occur to me until just now that the creepy man in the picture you replaced the slendermannish man with is holding an axe, and you find a bloody axe at the end of the level...awesome attention to detail!

I'm personally okay with the grandfather clock only chiming once. I know it's a dream and all, but unless something is different the second time, having it chime a second time doesn't really add anything, not unless you're confident that not enough people are seeing it the first time. I know you only intended for it to chime once, I'm just defending your decision.

I'm glad that you're still doing art passes and doing little tweaks to details like this! I assumed you were still in 'bigger picture' mode and this stuff was on the "if there's time" pile.

[RightClickSaveAs]

The stairs are looking snazzy! Because I'm anal, I counted them, and it looks like there are 13 steps in both of the staircases you showed off. One of the scariest numbers, for sure.

The glass stands out much better now. The footprints showing up after you die a few times is a really cool way to drop a hint.

To debug problems where we are missing art, we use a magenta clear color. In shipping builds we use a black clear color.

In most games, you don't clear at all in shipping to save some GPU time, but apparently on mobile hardware sometimes NOT clearing is more expensive, so we figured we might as well clear.

Just for the uninitiated/ignorant, what does this mean? Is missing art the bug, or the problem is art needs to be redone? Also what's a clear color? I'm just full of questions. But I'm asking for uh, a friend. Who doesn't know about these things.

[JPrice]

Well first off, I like the tweaks that you made with the dyamic difficulty settings. I think that's a nice way of going about things, especially given the amount of times you have to die in order to have it initiate.

Also I like the new zoom in with the stairs, gives the whole thing a more claustrophobic feel to it. The new art within all of the asylum is cool as well, though there's one or two things I'd maybe look at. The one thing that you already mentioned was the variety of things that you'd find within each of the rooms,I think that you should definitely add some variety. Although you already mentioned this so you'll probably change it hahaha. The other thing is that it isn't all that clear (At least from what I saw) on which cells were interactable. I noticed that they looked like they had a darker tinged frame around the cell windows though it was hard to notice at first, I think that some players may have trouble noticing that you can interact with those cells as a result. Then again it might just be me and you may have plans set up for that already so hahaha

All in all though the new changes you've made look great! Can't wait to play 0.4

[matt]

There is definitely religious content in the game, but it all serves a narrative purpose. At least for what I have in mind, I'm not sure crosses would fit in. I don't want to talk too much about this because it ventures into spoiler territory. I imagine post release, I will say what everything means in the director's commentary and whatnot, but for now, I want to keep quiet. heheh

Anyways. I like the staircases as well, but perhaps that first staircase leading to the basement could be not as well lit? From the hallway, the staircase is unlit and goes into pitch blackness, but the staircase itself is well-lit with lanterns lining the wall. Perhaps the top of the stairs could be lit with light suffusing in from the hallway, and it could get darker and darker as it goes down, until they reach the pitch blackness of the basement? And, if there's an ascending staircase at the end when you go to the attic, since the lights in the hallway go out as you walk by them, have the light at the foot of the stairs go out as you walk up the stairs like the last light in the hallway just went out?

Well, we could play with the lighting in the the cellar stairs, but we can't make it too dark because we are setting up a mechanic where you die in the darkness. I guess we could have the light go out in the attic, but I'm not sure it will be all that dramatic since we did it for a while before.

To me, I thought the grey little window was colored enough to indicate you can look through, but I guess maybe we can revisit that. It is REALLY hard to get metal to look right in color with our art style... I guess we can see how it feels when we push a new build and you can see how it fits in game, and if it seems inadequate, I can have the artists take another pass at it.

Just for the uninitiated/ignorant, what does this mean? Is missing art the bug, or the problem is art needs to be redone? Also what's a clear color? I'm just full of questions. But I'm asking for uh, a friend. Who doesn't know about these things.

Joe would have to tweak placement of the art assets, so there are no holes in coverage. The clear color is what color you set the screen to at the beginning of the render. If you set it to magenta, than it is easy to see what pixels you aren't drawing to.

Anyway, thanks for the initial feedback. I think you'll be pleased with the actual build.