brendonsmall

[RELEASED] The Convergence Compulsion

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5 hours ago, Henke said:

Are you gonna keep working on it and adding art and levels? This has potential!

 

Yes, I really want to tighten up the gameplay, fix the bugs, and expand the puzzles and enemy types and play test it some more. Assuming it keeps going in a good direction, some nice art and stuff and a real release are in the cards.

 

3 hours ago, FartSatchel said:

I'm really hoping you did the voice acting!

 

I didn't do the voices, it was a combination of Speakonia and contributed VO files from Jon Coughlin 

 

3 hours ago, FartSatchel said:

I would click the throw noise device button and sometimes it wouldn't throw, I'm not sure if that's a bug. And I felt the 3 devices could have their button inputs merged, like left click to interact, hold left to aim sound device, and right click to bring out sir hackalot. Did get stuck on the bullet proof glass level though.

 

Yes, there is a weird input bug where clicking (and other buttons) don't work sometimes. Basically I smashed together two input managers and that was one of the side effects.

 

The last level was probably too sharp an upturn on the difficulty curve. I wanted to introduce bullet proof glass vs. regular glass, but it was too many things new in one level I think. My wife also got stuck on this level.

 

 

Thanks for playing, you two :) I appreciate your feedback!

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Well done, that was a fun wee set of challenges. I really like the distraction device. Points of criticism might be the crouching wobble/speed wasn't my favourite and itd be nice if I could press the exit button no matter what I have equipped. Great job though !

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That was fun, I also think there's a game worth to be made here! I like that the levels are so short, though I wish there would've been more of them. I guess when you continue working on this you will discover infinite situations with these and more mechanics that could be interesting to play through :) 

I agree with the criticism about the tool selection via 3 different keys. I think this could be done simpler (I don't know, maybe a radial menu would work?). 

 

Spoiler

I managed to play through the game and see the lovely ending, but I don't think I solved the last room properly. Not sure if it is by design, but you can throw infinite noise distraction devices currently and use them as sort of a ramp to overcome the walls. If this isn't intended I'd think about some sort of cooldown or limitation for these tools.

On the other hand, this is perfectly fine emergent gameplay!

Untitled-1.thumb.png.3ce1bf4b3ce0d036f2046341db351fbe.png

 

 

 

Good work! Looking forward to seeing more of this! :tup:

 

 

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Just finished this. I agree with others that the tool selection is a bit difficult. I think cycling through them with a single button might work better? There are good building blocks for a game here, but with just these initial levels it is difficult to tell if it would be a good extended experience. I think that would mainly depend on the design of the puzzles.

It is very clear what the tools do and what they can be used on in the levels. The on-screen tutorial and button input hints also made the game easy to play.

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"Look over here!" haha!

Great stuff!

Really enjoyed the puzzles on the game, i wish it was a bit longer.

Props for putting a tutorial in, but i feel that the controls could be easier to use, maybe if you could just touch the exit with the character model instead of selecting 1 and then clicking?

I don't know, but i really enjoyed!

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Just finished the game! I started it a few days ago and got stuck on a room, but I cleared it today. Great stuff. Would be keen to see an expanded version of this.

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The controls feel really natural and the gameplay mechanics are pretty fun. 

 

Rings may not be the best way to visualize throwing arc when viewed from the first person perspective. That is a very minor complaint, though.

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I played your very fun game! And, against all odds, I completed it. You can watch me play the game here:

 

 

 

I have a feeling that on a few of the puzzles I Look Like An Idiot Who Has Ignored The Obvious Route. OH WELL.

 

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I'll echo others in saying that tool selection is needlessly finnicky. Other than that, great work! Very impressive for 2 weeks. I really appreciate the little bits of personality you've snuck in here already despite graybox/protoype visuals - the funny writing and audio cues, the ending. Solid set of base mechanics for a Portal style puzzler. Really looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

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@infamous space turtle  @fabian  @Teljoor  @SharedControl  @eRonin  @Nappi  @RubixsQube  @pdotjpg  Thanks everyone for playing and for giving your feedback. I really appreciate seeing and hearing other people giving this a try! <3

 

It's really fun to see how other people approach the puzzles in ways I never thought of. Fabian, that "infinite noise maker ramp" solution is hilarious and great. Certainly not intended, but fun to see as a happy accident anyway.

 

Duly noted about the player controls and tool switching. Those are certainly areas I need to debug and tighten up. I also noticed through RubixQube's video that I left the UI and tool switching coupled, so if you press a number to select a tool, it doesn't actually get selected until after the menu hides! Whoops. :) Also want to make turrets be able to shoot other turrets or lasers, too. Maybe only certain kinds or something, so as to not make the puzzles too easy sometimes. 

 

Definitely some kind of easier switching that reads more easily, some more readable "throw arc rings" and dropping the need to have "hand" selected to actuate the exit button are on the short list. I also toyed with the idea of making some exits more complex to use. Like you have to insert a disk and enter a password or something for some late-game more difficult puzzles. Will need to play test those ideas though. When I get those fixes in I'll post an update either here or in the game dev forums in case anyone wants to play future versions. 

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I forgot to mention this before, but I think it would be good if the arc of the noise maker trajectory has its origin point from the lower right hand side of the screen (or maybe lower left hand side). That way you can actually see the trajectory, instead of the dots just overlapping in front of you.

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7 hours ago, eRonin said:

I forgot to mention this before, but I think it would be good if the arc of the noise maker trajectory has its origin point from the lower right hand side of the screen (or maybe lower left hand side). That way you can actually see the trajectory, instead of the dots just overlapping in front of you.

 

This is a good idea! I also want to add a "low toss" or "slide" throw type so it's easier to be precise at close distances. Sort of like the grenade roll in HL2 or something like that.

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