[Released] Buried Treasure

[fabian]

Enjoyed this as well and I agree with @FartSatchel about the music and a Life is Strange vibe, very nice! Good that you have controller support, because the mouse kept going off the game view when I looked around, which is kind of annoying when you have multiple monitors. I think you'd need to lock and hide the cursor during normal gameplay to fix this. But controller worked just fine and for me it is a better way to play a relaxing experience like this anyway!

 

I didn't expect that ending but 

Spoiler

thanks, mom, for the PS2!

 

Good work! 

[SharedControl]

Hey, this is super cool!

I really liked the visuals and the treasure hunting gameplay. It feels super polished for the 2 weeks!

But i think i'm super dumb, because i couldn't find 5/10 and had to rage quit, someone please help!

[Teljoor]

I enjoyed this game! The combination of the bird sounds and the music really created a calm atmosphere. I agree with some others that the depth of field effect was a bit too intense. One UI decision I liked was being able to keep the latest clue up while walking.

[Nappi]

I like the minimalistic visuals a lot and the ending was extremely good.

 

I disabled the blur. I think it could be used to enhance the visuals somehow, but right now, it is a bit too much.

[RubixsQube]

Hello! I played your game, and it was super fun. I streamed it on Twitch, which you can watch here:

 

(It's important that you understand that I was in a Silly Mood, which is why I did a lot of silly rhyming songs later into the game.)

 

 

[atte]

The island is nicely varied but not too confusing. The mood is very pleasant and calm, I particularly like the light and low saturation green of the grass.

Hand drawn sketches depicting locations from the low-poly environment creates a fun and interesting contrast: Two very different kinds of abstractions meeting each other.

I felt that the target locations were actually pretty generous in size. After it looked like I had found one I usually got it after a one or two tries.

 

If you would be interested in working more on this, I'd love to have some more traversal options like jumping off cliffs and climbing (that would be quite a lot of extra work though).

+ Yeah, the treasure in the end was a fantastic surprise.

 

[pdotjpg]

Thanks for playing and giving feedback, everyone!

 

Didn't think the depth of field would be such a widespread complaint - really valuable to know! There's a temptation to go overboard with the post-processing effects. I think what happened here was that I lacked confidence in the look of the game and overcompensated with the DoF to make the graphics "fancier".

 

I'm glad people dig the ending - the narrative stuff was added to the game in literally the last couple of hours of development. Had no idea what to do on that front and I'm glad that my goofy solution seems to have worked. It's also encouraging that people are able to get to the ending. I was worried the game might be too difficult/boring/annoying.

 

@FartSatchel: Good point about the downhill movement goofiness. My character controller is really basic, it's a shame I wasn't able to polish that a bit more. With my limited coding skills, any incrimental improvements there would have taken an exponentially longer amount of time, I imagine. Glad you dig the layout! And thanks for the Wind Waker and Life is Strange comparisons - I'll take them!

 

@fabian: Thanks for pointing out the dual monitor issue! I don't have that sort of setup myself and hadn't considered that. Will definitely keep it in mind from now on. Glad you were able to play it with a controller.

 

@SharedControl: The people who have reached out to me about getting stuck have all done so on 5/10. In fact, I was worried about that one during development already. So you're probably not super dumb and I've just made that one a bit too obscure, or haven't introduced the line of reasoning used in that one well enough.

 

@RubixsQube: Thanks for the video, so useful to see someone play the game and voice their thoughts. No worries about the silly mood or the singing - catchy tunes! I echo your frustration about 7/10. I didn't realize what a misstep that was. Your response to the ending put a smile on my face

 

@atte: Your suggestion about the traversal options now makes me want to go all-out Breath of the Wild. I'm glad that you also dug the island layout. This idea of two abstractions colliding is really interesting! I hadn't thought of it that way, but I'll be mulling over that idea quite a bit now, I think. Thanks for that!

 

A big thank you to those I haven't responded to directly as well! I don't have much of a response to your comments, but I really appreciate them.

[pdotjpg]

Oh, and @RubixsQube, kudos on your pronunciation of my last name. You butchered it quite a bit less than most people do, let alone most native English speakers.