Beta 0.7 Discussion [SPOILERS]

[matt]

Please post all your thoughts about the 0.7 build here! Also, look for the thread about the contest! I hope you like the game! I think Destroyed Dreams ended up being pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Note that we are trying something different this time with respect to bugs. If you could post about them in the dedicated bug forum (one post per issue), it'll be easier for us to track them.

Could everyone who ran into the graphical glitches when changing the settings verify it works and post about it here? Dan thinks he got it, but we couldn't reproduce it on our end, so there is no way to know for sure until you try it. (The 30 fps with the "low" graphical setting bug was pretty embarrassing. We were reusing our OUYA graphical config, which clamps down to 30. Whoops!)

I look forward to getting your feedback and your bugs!

[JPrice]

Ok so seeing as this is based mainly upon the new build. I'll just cover the new level and everything that's been added!

- First major noticeable thing, the audio. Wowzers it sure just got a large upgrade! I love the reverb effect you've added Also I swear that some sounds have been replaced or at least enhanced by the reverb like walking and using doors. Great stuff

New level stuff! Not gonna lie I found the divergence for the other path somewhat hidden in a way as you're only given a split second to notice it.
PATHWAY SPOILERS
Honestly the only reason I found it was because I thought it may have been triggered by the Blade Girl in the darkness. Like if she stabbed you before you had the chance to avoid her then it'd change your path, but then it just spawned me back in a room, which then lead to outside into the darkness. This made me realise "Oh you can use these doors in the darkness". So the next one I saw was next to the Gabby corpse on the operating table so naturally I went for that.
I'm not sure how easy it'll be to figure out for others so I guess you'll have to wait and see what the general consensus is!

Onto the new stuff itself though:
- Love the aesthetic, like the asylum but a little cleaner and more sterile. Yet it still manages to get deteriorated throughout the level
- New enemy! When I first saw him come at me, I remember distinctly saying to myself "Oh God what is that, ahhhhh run away D:". I dunno what it is, I think it's the grin on the face that just rubs me the wrong way *shivers* So yes it's a pretty great monster added to the roster I say haha
- One thing that I thought was missing was the lack of interactables as I don't remember there being all that many. I'm sure that you'll add some more later though so s'all good!
- When the darkness kicks in, made me nervous I must say hahaa. Nice one
- Love the constant descent into holes. Adds a nice level of despair as you just keep getting deeper and deeper, with no way of returning back up. Helps solidify the atmosphere nicely!
- The ending: I liked it actually, little more straightforward than the first ending but still something that makes sense within the context of the game. Only thing was that I thought it was rather abrupt you know, like it caught me off guard a bit. It's not a bad ending though, I liked it! So don't take my small critique as a sign that I didn''t like the ending

So yeah overall, great stuff
I must say that everything's coming together quite nicely in this game for you and the team Matt. Given that you haven't really made any huge misteps so far, I love seeing everything come together relatively smoothly. Shows how much effort that you've all put in I suppose

Still loving the game and I look forward to the next build

[matt]

- First major noticeable thing, the audio. Wowzers it sure just got a large upgrade! I love the reverb effect you've added Also I swear that some sounds have been replaced or at least enhanced by the reverb like walking and using doors. Great stuff

Yeah, besides adding the reverb, Eduardo redid a lot of footsteps sounds. I think like all of them... hahaha

As far as the branching being hard to find, two people seem to have found it and no one has complained yet. I want to encourage the idea of exploration, so I'm okay if it's not obvious, but we'll see what everyone else thinks. I can adjust the timing and positioning to make it more obvious if people find it too hard.

One thing that I thought was missing was the lack of interactables as I don't remember there being all that many. I'm sure that you'll add some more later though so s'all good!

Yeah, I realized that recently that we have NO interactions in the level at all. :-/ We have some good ideas, but we probably won't get to them until September... I want to make sure we get in all the levels. hahaha I think we might be forgiven for some missing interactions, but missing levels might be bad. hahah

Only thing was that I thought it was rather abrupt you know, like it caught me off guard a bit.

I'm glad you enjoyed the ending! Can you elaborate about the abrupt part? The only thing I don't like about the ending is that it was supposed to look like he was deliberately jumping to his death in the dark abyss. Right now, it kind of looks like he trips because it's dark and falls to his doom... I haven't written that bug up for Joe yet though. haha If it doesn't look like he is tripping and instead looks like he is resigning himself to the sweet embrace of death, will that make it less abrupt?

Thanks for playing and finding the branch so quickly.

[AironNeil]

I'm glad you enjoyed the ending! Can you elaborate about the abrupt part? The only thing I don't like about the ending is that it was supposed to look like he was deliberately jumping to his death in the dark abyss. Right now, it kind of looks like he trips because it's dark and falls to his doom... I haven't written that bug up for Joe yet though. haha If it doesn't look like he is tripping and instead looks like he is resigning himself to the sweet embrace of death, will that make it less abrupt?

I'm not sure how JPrice thought about it, but for me the ending seemed abrupt because it was a whole lot shorter then the last ending. I feel like some kind of slow fade before the credits might help since I can't remember exactly how the scene went now the more I think about it (I suppose that's how dreams are, after you wake from them, but I don't think that's intentional). Perhaps a little bit more dialogue could help?

I wonder how others will see it though...

[JPrice]

Well in regards to the ending, it was more of what AironNeil said. Just the ending itself (I.e. the cutscene) was a lot shorter than the previous ending, which is what caught me off guard. Perhaps you could add an extension to it though, like AironNeil said, with dialogue or something else.

In terms of the jumping into the void, I did think that Thomas tripped into the hole until you just said that he's not supposed to hahaa. Maybe you could add an animation or a cutscene where he stops, peers over the edge, comes back up, closes his eyes and just falls in with open arms (Either forwards or he turns around to do it). Might help with conveying the fact that he's just given up and wants to die to escape this place.

[matt]

Well, to some extent, it is supposed to be abrupt because I don't want Thomas to have a conversation with Gabrielle. The game is more about the nightmares than the "reality", so I want it to be pretty brief after he wakes up. What if I added another line for Gabby, so instead she says "Thomas, you're awake... Thank God". I suppose Thomas could say something like "Gabby..." but I'm not sure I'd want him to say anything more.

Would that make it less abrupt? Or do you just want to hear what Thomas has to say after he woke up? I think that would ultimately distract from what the game is about though, so I'm not sure how much I want to add.

If you guys think this ending is abrupt, I'm not sure you'll like what I have planned for the next ending... :-/

[miumiaou]

Well I too think it's abrupt but if this end was longer it'll lose the shock effect it has. after all there's hint all through the game of why Thomas is at the hospital it needs no more explanation

[JPrice]

After thinking it over a bit, I've come to the conclusion that it is better that Thomas doesn't say anything. However adding maybe a little extension to Gabby's dialogue might help slightly! As is though I think that the ending is fine so you don't have to worry about it all that much haha

Also, on an unrelated note, I only just noticed that I haven't been really critiquing the main menu/options menu all that much. I'll go through it now actually and see if there's anything noteworthy, just in case it might help or something hahaa

[matt]

Sure, I think looking over the menus would be great. To be honest, they are pretty basic because we are focusing our efforts on the important parts of development.

I think spacing out Gabby's lines with longer pauses between them might help the ending seem less abrupt. Someone said in the survey it was so short that they couldn't think about it because it was so quick. I was thinking the lines would flow better with longer pauses between them, but I tightened up the timing because I was worried about people getting bored - but really, if you only see it once, I don't think that's a risk. I watch everything 1000 times, so I'm not a good judge. hahah

I'll have the voice actress record "Thomas! You’re awake! Thank God you’re okay." for the end. Not sure if I'll use the second part but better to have it than not once we get our actual VO.

Thanks for your feedback! Any other suggestions on the ending would be appreciated.

[JPrice]

Ok so I dug through the options menu and I have two things to note.

- First on the Graphics option menu

I think the options are fine, however people might have trouble distinguishing exactly what the differences between them are (Unless they try each one). I know that the differences are stuff like Anisotropic Filtering levels and AA, so perhaps you could subtitle each graphics option. Like at the bottom of the screen have a little descriptor for what each option entails. For instance like "2x Anti Aliasing, 8x Anisotropic Filtering, High Quality Shadows". It's only a suggestion though so do with it what you will

- Second was some audio options

I know you have stuff like Headphone mode and the like but I know that there are people who like to have audio sliders. Perhaps there's a way to incorporate mutiple sliders like one for Master Volume, one for Music Volume and one for SFX Volume. I know it's a minor thing but hey just thought I'd mention it rather than not put it out there!

The rest of the menus seem fine to me however! Hopefully that was of some use to you, if not then I do apologise hahaa