Adorable aesthetic, awesome premise. Things I'm hoping for if you continue developing this game:
- Jumping
- Upgrades/End-of-level scores
- Ranged attacks (for both player and enemy)
- Enemies that are larger and/or take more hits
All just suggestions, of course, but I think they'd help round out the experience a bit more. It's good so far, and it's got plenty of room to grow.
Hey, just wanted to give a heads-up. I was editing the model (modifying for more feminine features) and found some edges and vertices that were overlapping, but disconnected. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but just in case, I wanted to let you know. I had to merge those edges and vertices to make the modifications I needed (Blender threw a hissy fit when I tried). The area where I noticed the missing edges and vertices was on the front shoulder/chest area, but there may be more.
Still, thanks for the model. I can't afford to donate anything, but I'll be sure to credit you for the model base.
I really enjoyed the game and was hoping I could leave a review somewhere. Can't seem to find a better place to leave one, so I'll put it here (warning: I tend to leave lengthy reviews).
I must admit, the trailer really drew me in. It was pretty obvious that pictures alone wouldn't do the game justice, so I had to check out the video. Didn't take long for me to already feel endeared to characters I hadn't even met yet. So to whoever made the trailer: oh yeah, gg!
I really wanna start on a high note. The highest. And that is, without a doubt, the expressiveness. The way Halen speaks feels natural and realistic. Her audible panic after picking up Sharp? Very accurate! Just about how panicked I'd be in the situation. And in later cutscenes (I'll hold spoilers for anyone who hasn't played yet), the emotions are clearly presented. Confusion, sympathy, sass... Predictable, but in a good way. A natural way. It's not just the voices, either. Some of the animations feel pretty real.
On to the voice acting. It does tie in closely with the last point, yes, but there's more to it (also, I wanted to keep the previous paragraph from getting too big). I like how there was no restraint. Some try to avoid overlapping voices to avoid confusion, but it works well in that cutscene! It helped convey the panic. Quality-wise, it's cleaner than other games I've played. That said, in the opening cutscene, the engine drowned out the name of the planet as it was said. A bit of work on balancing, perhaps?
One of the tags is 'funny', and I agree with that. Humor everywhere! Even during the boss fight. It's also nicely-paced humor, never lingering too long on a single punchline. The humor didn't take over the heartfelt scenes, and that's good. It's possible to inject jokes into sad scenes, but it's difficult to pull off. The way Halen and Sharp are presented (jokes and all) really helped me feel that endearment I mentioned before. Not a lot of visual humor, but I'll come back to that.
The enemies were designed clearly. It was easy to tell them apart, even from a distance. The colors, the shapes... It did bother me that the enemies could fire at me from across the map. Perhaps limit the projectile range? The boss was aggravatingly tough, and I died a few times. With no way to use the sword to attack the boss (and the boss's extreme ability to dodge my shots), I was at a loss. At least progression isn't reset when killed. I'd've never beaten the boss without that handicap.
We've reached the part I don't want to write: the criticisms. I want to keep saying more good things about the game, but there's some glaring issues. To start with, the visuals needed a bit of polish. I understand that some games go for a 'stylized' look, but... Well, this one missed the mark. Cell shading isn't bad, nor is poly. Better lighting would've improved things. In the cutscene where Halen first enters the temple, everything is pretty dark. Afterward, the game was well-lit. Try to be more consistent. Final point here: lighting is a powerful tool, and it can be used to convey concepts to the player (yes, even shadows can be useful).
As for the animations, I know I said earlier that some of them felt pretty real. But the timing... Many of the animations in cutscenes seemed out-of-sync to the dialogue. Lagged behind. It took away some strength from the dialogue. Had the timing been a bit better, the visual humor present would've been stronger. Halen seemed to clip into the ground in some cutscenes, too. I'm guessing Mo Cap was used. Mo Cap is nice, but smoothing it out helps. In the end cutscene, Halen was super jittery (I'll record a clip if I can). Overall animations were a bit awkward, too. They didn't transition smoothly. The melee animation had no weight behind it and felt weak, even though I could tell it did ample damage to the enemies. I am glad the jumping and dashing were responsive, though. Being able to move so far and so fast felt incredible. That sense of power would benefit other aspects of the game.
My final gripe: the camerawork. In cutscenes, it was too still. In the sword-drawing cutscene, there's lots of emotion that isn't reflected with the camera. The static shot felt disconnected from Halen. Even a simple, loose pan shot to follow Halen after the initial shock would've helped the scene. For comedic effect, a static camera is useful (like when she's checking for security measures), but when the emotion kicks in, shake things up a bit. Outside of cutscenes, the camera occasionally clipped through the wall/floor, and I couldn't see where I was going (not good when your character moves as quickly as this one).
With all that said (I know it was a lot, sorry), I really enjoyed the game. My complaints are surface-deep and could be worked out; they didn't detract from the game much in the long run. I'm already in love with the characters and intrigued by the universe, and I can't wait to see them again (I see in a reply that this game's universe is slated for a comeback). Looking forward to future adventures with Halen and Sharp. Cheers!
~HSL
Oh, it's really not just your game. ^^; I'm finding more and more games that I can only barely run. Though you're right that optimization would help. I know the defeated NPCs are supposed to linger so they can give their one-liners, but perhaps clearing them after they're far enough away and out of sight would help. It does seem more laggy the more ragdoll entities there are.
Ahh, gone are the days when a 750ti can be called a 'good' graphics card... Had to use all medium graphics and a lower, windowed resolution.
I don't know if this game is supposed to be humorous through and through, but if it is, then I'd call it a success! As with the likely next few commenters, I came across this game due to a YouTuber. That said, I played through the game myself. This review is based on my experience.
The first thing I noticed was the controls. Having no Xbox controller of my own, I played with keyboard and mouse. The controls were very responsive and easy to learn. In the first ten minutes, I had a firm grasp on them. Two downsides I noticed were the Repartee and the camera. Outside of combat, I could not use Repartee to restore my health, even if I was at one health unit. Also outside of combat, I felt as though my mouse sensitivity was too low for the camera movement, and there was no in-game setting to adjust it.
The dialogue suits a funny game, making plenty of references to pop culture and meme culture. Talking 'dead' guards is a definite plus, and I wish more humorous games would do that. There wasn't a single 'dead' guard line that wasn't funny. Two downsides here, as well: the overall sound quality and the accents. Some physics objects were a bit too loud, and the voices didn't sound super crisp. The accents seem too extreme in some moments and too lax in other moments, making it clear that whoever voiced the lines isn't a native Spanish-speaker.
The combat felt nicely balanced to me. Each sword strike felt strong, lending to the camera shake, audio, and character reactions. Most of the combat moves felt fluid and responsive; not sluggish at all. Even when completely surrounded, I didn't feel trapped. I had options. Allowing only Capitans and the boss to replicate certain moves otherwise limited to the player made them seem more formidable than the guards. Increasing the strike frequency of the boss compared to other enemies made the boss fight incrementally harder, but not unfairly so. Once again, two downsides: the physics of smaller objects seems a bit out of whack and I wish the guards didn't intervene in the boss fight. Small objects like plates, baskets, and light tableware had a tendency to fly extremely far and fast, like they needed more weight to them. The guards intervening prevented me from focusing on the boss, and it felt like a bit of a cop-out.
Beautiful visuals, funny dialogue, a comprehensible (albeit small) story... Overall, a fun game to play. I'd love to see or even be part of your next production.
My computer is by no means 'a beast', but it's not as weak as others. I have a GTX 750ti, an i5 4690k (which is glitched into a higher clock speed than normal), and 16 GB of DDR3. If you don't understand any of that, it's fine. It isn't too relevant, I don't think.
I haven't posted this under the Bug Report sticky, because I don't consider it a glitch. It's more of a performance issue.
What I experience: After approximately ten minutes of gameplay, My frame rate (FPS) drops from a stable 90-92 to an unstable 65-30. I try to keep my nets clean, I don't build anything crazy (with only ten minutes to build, it wouldn't be possible to build something crazy), and I tend to only have two or three Water Purifiers, two or three Cooking Stations, and one Crop Plot. My frame rate seems to destabilize more around dusk and dawn, but drops occasionally happen between.
Is there anyone else experiencing something similar?
In the real world, water often takes a long while to cool down at night. I could explain the science behind it, but to keep my comment short, I'd still like to say I agree with your idea. The water would be cold enough to start hypothermia about two to four hours after the sun goes down (translated to game time, approximately 1 and 1/2 to 3 minutes after the sun goes down).
Hypothermia itself should also make the player a bit hungrier for a while even after they get out. Perhaps a 3 to 4 minute hunger debuff? The torches and other fire-utilizing items would help the debuff go away faster.
I did some looking around online, and it turns out there's lots of different types of whetstones. Some appear to be more durable than others. (Whetstones are used to sharpen blades.)
The throwing spear idea has been talked about a few times. Personally, I'd consider the throwing spear to be slightly dangerous to yourself. You might get yanked off your raft by the shark. Though if it does more damage, there might be a decent payoff.
Whenever diving is implemented, I wonder if sea life (i.e. fish, crabs, lobsters, oysters) could be gathered by hand with enough player skill. (Not meaning an in-game level system, but actual tactics players can use from the beginning of the game.) I'm also wondering if sea shells or other resources could be gathered for purely cosmetic purposes (i.e. dyes and decorative strings). Fins to improve swimming speed would be very beneficial.
Since the shark would obviously be a problem while diving, it should probably require one of those submersible shark cages on a player-operated winch. The shark would attack the cage much like the raft, and after a while, the cage takes too much damage and breaks open.
Until diving is implemented, though, I'm with lots of other players: beds would be great in the next update. I'm aware it'll be awhile, though. Good luck to the devs as they finish up their college classes.
The colors are a bit white-washed during the day, but that can be attributed to the day/night cycle. A few tweaks to the world lighting would fix it. If you ask me, the water is gorgeous. A bit dark for my taste, but it's supposed to be that way. When night rolls around, the shark is even harder to spot. The game is a bit more difficult because of it. Creating lanterns is a must.
I totally agree with the extra seafood and the negative side effects to eating raw meat and drinking salt water. I'd personally say that eating too much raw meat or drinking too much salt water would make you vomit (gross, but fairly realistic). Also, it's worth noting that drinking salty beverages will make you thirsty again quicker (hence one of the reasons you have to purify the sea water (there are other reasons like fish poop and bacteria and other gross stuff, but whatever)).
As for the day/night cycle, it looks like it's on the way!
I dunno about the difficulty. I'm doing all right. Sure, it took a bit of learning, but even on my first play through, I didn't die of starvation or dehydration. It's a mad dash for resources right off the bat, yeah, but after the first ten minutes, it's really only about expanding your raft more and making yourself more comfortable. It takes some getting used to, but I don't think it's all that bad. Get everything you can early on, and craft what you need as soon as you have the resources (water purifier first, can second, fishing rod third, cooking station fourth).
The main problem with a 'motor' is some form of electricity to make it. I suppose if magnets were added and scrap could be refined into copper wires, it would be possible, but logically, it would take ages to make a motor powerful enough to move a raft the theoretical size it is in the game. Even a small one or two square raft wouldn't work. Wood may be light (especially certain types of palm wood), but wood that isn't smooth will create lots of resistance. You'd hardly be able to move at all, let alone fight any strong currents. (I've taken physics classes in high school.) The most logical thought would be sails or the ability to make a single, massive, stationary raft (base) and a few small rafts to take on trips away from the main raft.
Oh, hi! I was thinking of a character model with some rag shorts and maybe a worn shirt (if too many people complain about a six-pack, that is). If some simple walking animations could be added, (edit: I scrolled down a bit further, so I see now that you've added walking animations) I know how to use bones and weight paint. Texturing might be a little tough, but I have an idea for some slight bruises (to make it seem like the character has been battered), and a head of hair. As I've said, though, I'm not great at modeling a face, so I'd need help with that.
XD 'tic-tac'. My thought exactly. :P I personally wouldn't mind helping with providing a player model. Granted, faces are my weak point, but I'm not so bad at the other proportions. If Dεмøη would like help with the model, I'd be glad to help. (Though I think I'd need to talk with Raft first to ensure a full player model isn't already in the works.)
True, the night has to have something bad about it.
As for the game engine, this game utilizes Unity (as it states in the opening credits). I have UE4 installed, so I could try to figure out how to add a day/night cycle with that as an experiment, but as far as I know, most programs have confusing or complex ways to implement such cycles. I've never used Unity, though, so I'm not too familiar with its capabilities.
This is a completely out-of-the-box idea (because hardly anyone else will use it), but I would enjoy a return-to-center cursor mechanic in the game. As of right now, you have a completely different cursor mechanic, so it's impossible to play this game with a graphics tablet right now. It would have very little impact on the gameplay of other non-tablet players, so it shouldn't bother too many people. The only potential problems I can see would be with controller support, though you could try implementing something to detect the presence of a controller and switch to a more controller-friendly cursor mechanic.
The only reason I suggest this is because I'm more accustomed to playing FPS games with a graphics tablet (sounds weird, I know). If I could play this with a tablet, it would be more comfortable for me. (If you don't know what I mean by 'graphics tablet' try searching for 'Wacom Tablet' or 'Huion Tablet' to see what I mean.)
The palm trees already grow in a tree crop plot. Perhaps there could be fruit trees? Oranges, apples, lemons... (I should note that citrus fruits are logical on the ocean, as vitamin C is needed to prevent scurvy. Yes, scurvy is a real disease and not just an insult thrown at low-ranking sailors.) Tropical fruits would be the main reason to have more trees. Other than that, I can't think of much else. Maybe some trees produce a sticky resin for water-proofing things? Resin could be useful for making boats.
