Re: Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise
I picked this up yesterday and played through it and it is a really nice concept demo game for bigger things to come. You've definitely demonstrated that you can put together a great team of voice actors and even write entertaining dialogue. I highly recommend for those who can spare 4 bucks, to do so, so the team is motivated to put togehter a longer game.
At the credits I was actually very impressed by just how many different voice actors there were. My favorite were the detective and the scientist guy at the beginning!
The sound design and immersion is very rich. I love how there are all these mini encounters with various characters and dialogues and various other things, like even just knocking aside a bottle on the ground. This little game really reminds me of the beginning part of Half Life 2, Bioshock Infinite, and Dishonored. So if you were going for that, then you've done a pretty good job
as to the combat system. yeah I wished there was some feedback that I am beating them up, since right now it just sounds like I am dodging stuff and suddenly at the end they are beat up. One thing that might be a bug is that if I dodge in the wrong direction I don't immediatly fail, but when I press the right one, I immediatly pass. so essentially when I hear the start of needing to doge I can just press both keys in quick succession and am guaranteed to dodge. at the very least I would want that if I press the wrong key, that I immediatly fail.
also just to provide a differing opinion. I actually don't really want an open world combat system, cause in every audiogame I tried it so far, I was just super confused. the main game I am thinking of right now is survive the wild, but that game has other major usability problems that could have been designed better, so maybe you guys could pull it off. but honestly I am just fine with a combat system where I dont need to manage my movement like in a blind legend.
in terms of navigation. It took me quite a while to find the two objectives, but not so long that I got frustrated enough to quit. probably the main problem was having hard time figuring out when I was walking up to a wall and how to turn away from it. this was particularly a problem when through the enhanced sound device I could hear where the objective was, but going straight for it I would reach a wall and then need to figure out how to walk around it.
I have some ideas with audio how this could be improved.
In real life when a wall or large object like a car isin my way I can feel it coming up even without sight, because the presence of a large sound blocker has a major effect on the overall acoustics. so for example when I am looking to cross a small road with no crosswalk, I can find an empty space where there isn't a car parked without having to tap the road with my cane, but instead by walking down the sidewalk and listening when the space "opens up". I also used this sensation to feel when the end of the swimming pool was coming up since nearing it the acoustics made me feel like the space is closing up around me. I even managed to miss this and smack my face into the pool wall only a few times
I think it probably has to do with reverb, so it might be worth experimenting with modulating reverb as the character walks up to a wall. even this might be too subtle as it is in real life as well. so maybe instead you culd start playing some sort of white noise as the character approaches a wall and ramp it up as they reach it. this modulation would be useful if it was binaural as well, so then when I start turning around when facing a wall I can know if I am not just walking into another wall because it is a corner and also I could track the wall and purposefully walk beside it as a guiding landmark as I do in real life.
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