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Spenny

[Dev Log] Shadow and Colossus: Back in Action

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Loved it as a mood piece, especially the bit in the car with the music. The writing felt maybe a tad bit cliche but I think that might be intentional and does work well with the audio-visual side of things. As per your Blendo inspiration, it felt more like reference and riffing because of the stylish and dreamlike atmosphere.

 

Solid stuff. Would love to see if you develop the story more, even if it takes a long time to put each piece together (which I'm guessing it might!)

 

Thank you for the kind words. I think for me, as a not good writer, writing to a cliche is easier than trying to right something of my own and still have it still be as effective.

 

I found the dialogue engaging, I didn't spot whether or not the choices affected the dialogue but I did wonder about it. There was one point where I was wondering what I should be doing because the pause in interaction/visual change felt a teensy bit too long (and this is pretty minor really, it just caused me to look around and click stuff 2/3 times when there was nothing to do), just after having picked up the gun. There was a slight shadow of this just before the phone rang as well, but I think that pause was actually pretty great because the phone came as a pleasant surprise just at the right point.

 

Yeah, the pause at the end there is probably a little too long. I'm glad to hear the pause before the phone call worked for you. Pacing is an interesting component of game design, especially when you hand control over to the player. You can get through the apartment pretty quick, but I hope the player will be interested in taking it slow and drinking it in.

 

Great preview, and I really dig the art style, I've never seen such a papercraft-esque thing being done. Looking forward to more!

 

I agree whole-heartedly with Clyde.

 

You did a good job!

 

Thanks for the trying my game out and letting me know you liked it. I'm definitely keen on keeping the project going knowing it had impact on people.  :)

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Sweet. My own interpretation of the art style, the story and the mood/music was that we were seeing this guy's life through his note book - a sort of Secret Life of Walter Mitty for a down-and-out bagman in an eighties neo-noir. The style is immediately distinctive and it would allow you a great deal of latitude in how you treat your topic. The split between the unreliable narrator VISUALS and the presumably trustworthy audio/text would be really nice.

 

The only thing I could ask for is perhaps larger interaction hotspots and perhaps fewer overt instructions.

 

Additionally, gratz on working in Kelo. In truth, he's always there. And he always will be (cheesy horror sting).

 

 --Rev 

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Two little bugs/issues: first time I played through, I think the microwave bugged out and wouldn't finish cooking? Not sure. Also you can see through the hood of the car to the wheels.

 

Anyway, love the art style, though I agree with earlier posters that it's purpose feels a little nebulous right now. I like your idea of evoking the "mental state that brings on the bored doodles", but I think it would benefit from a more clear connection between the character and the style. That said I think the tone and art work well together and I enjoyed my time with the game.

 

All right now two specific mechanical questions...

 

Did you write the dialog system yourself or did you use a tool for it?

In the car scene, does the car move or does the environment move? I keep hearing people say it's easier to do the latter, but in all my stuff I tend to model things closer to reality (ie cars moves and environments spawn ahead) and I'm curious what you picked (and why).

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Dialogue system is coded myself, it's not very well made.

 

Car scene, the environment moves, the ground just shakes randomly and the trees move down a track and get sent to the start when they reach the end.

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Now that I think back to the start of the game, I did notice that the hotspots were a little small.

The only thing I could ask for is perhaps larger interaction hotspots and perhaps fewer overt instructions.
 

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