You did really good at setting a creepy ambience. Two glitches though: One if you go into inventory while walking and then exit, you teleport several paces. Two when I go into the room with the skeleton (which at first looks like a pale white man or a slenderman esqe figure which you might assume is an enemy) the sound effect plays over and over again till you leave the room, this is very unnerving, and I don't mean in a good way (even though it's meant to be creepy), playing once until I reenter the room is fine but when it plays over and over like that, I kinda feel like it's tormenting me, I guess instead of losing it's effect when it plays once, it becomes uncomfortable because it's already a creepy atmosphere.
Reviews for "Boreal"
I like the atmosphere.
I have to go with the crowd here and complain about the walking speed (I noticed food (?) on the shelf in the first room? maybe give the option to move a bit quicker after the guy eats something?).
I also had some gripes with using a gun as the first inventory item.. I mean, it's so obvious and than I use it to solve puzzles? that kind of didn't really work for me conceptually... also, I ran out of bullets first playthrough trying to shoot through the snow column.. had to restart. quite annoying.
having limited ammunition when using the gun as a weapon and dying is one thing. but If the gun is a tool used for puzzles (this is another reason I'm not overly fond of this idea), once you're out of bullets.. you're just stuck... maybe offer a refill from the boxes, one clip at a time? If you run out of bullets, one can go back and get a new clip.
Frankly, I'd much rather it simply not be gun, but a different tool, but that's up to you.
Good luck, hope to see more soon.
Alx101 responds:
Interesting points, I'll take them into consideration. Most likely I'll just try to clarify a bit of how the gun can be used (through better introduction and such), and then add in checkpoints so you can easily go back if you run out of bullets, or something along those lines. I wasn't exactly sure what I drew at the bottom of the shelf, I was thinking of making a small bag or box or something similar, but when you mention it, it does look like a potato or loaf of bread! Thanks for your review!
I am very eager to see where this game goes. The music and the art work together to form a really awesome atmosphere of unease as you get deeper into the building. I kept expecting something to hop out at me, and I genuinely loved that (I normally dislike the horror genre, especially on here, so huge props for that!). Whereas most people have complained about the movement speed, I personally think it works really well. It adds to that element of "oh god let me just get out of this area before something shows up". Unfortunately, the lag problem does shatter the immersion, and at one point I had to keep myself occupied with something else while I waited for it to unfreeze. I see you've mentioned the dynamic lighting in a previous reply, and that seems to be where my lag issue was in particular. When the lights went up, my frames and general game performance shot way down. Probably mostly due to my own computer's horrid RAM, but definitely something to keep in mind to make this playable across crappier systems. You seem eager to work out the kinks though, so I will definitely be keeping an eye on this for updates and improvements. Great work so far, I hope to see more of it soon!
Alx101 responds:
Awesome, glad you liked it! Yes the dynamic lights are definitely the biggest bottleneck. I had no lag what-so-ever on the systems I tested it on, but I also do not have any lower-end systems, so optimisations are something I'll be focusing on in that aspect. Also since some people had problems with particles too I'll most likely add in a few graphics options so you can tweak it to work optimally for your system. Thanks for your review!
Interesting stuff, I like the idea and the style. Of course, I'll wait the final product before actually judging it.
I have a couple of gripes: first, the character moves way too slow. Second, the already mentioned lag (it happens way too often if the lights are on).
Finally, I'd like to have some remarks by the protagonist if I try to interact with an object that requires certain puzzles to be solved to work. Probably too much to ask for a simple demo, but I think it would be better that way.
Alx101 responds:
Great! Notes taken!
I kinda liked the premise, and it looked like maybe it would go somewhere neat in the future.
My only complaint is that, for a graphically simple seeming game, this ran really slow on my computer. Seemed like there was a lag or missing frames in his movement, especially after picking up the gun. I can't remember this happening before, so thought there might be some game process grabbing all the resources.
Alx101 responds:
I think there's a mix of things causing the lag actually. Firstly I've pinpointed the jagged motion of the camera (something I will be fixing) to the WebGL build, since the plugin (though depreciated) and the standalone ran smoothly without any problems. Then there's the dynamic lighting which I'm working on optimising as I am writing this. Thanks for your review!