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Studio System : Guardian Angel (demo)

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Studio System : Guardian Angel is a fixed-camera horror game where YOU control the camera and use it as a weapon AND tool! This demo contains a story that's unique from the main game (so it's less of a demo and more of a small side game), and was originally made for the 2023 Summer Steam Next Fest (tm). Will you be able to guide Becky out of the underground movie theater and save her friends? Doing so requires working with the camera and Becky herself! Make sure to be on the lookout for the final game in the coming months.


If you do not like tank controls, you can disable them in the options.


The full game is here! (coming soon)


Controls

WASD - movement

LMouse - interact / attack

RMouse (hold) - Enable camera mode, let go of the button to exit this mode

Q key - picks up an object, move the mouse to drag it around (exclusive to camera mode)

Z key - opens up the inventory. to heal yourself, click on the health pellets!

E key - tapping this twice makes you quick turn. (only when using tank controls)

LShift (hold) - sprint, let go of the key to stop sprinting


Survival Tips

  • shooting enemies in the head with the camera deals more damage than through any other body part!
  • to heal yourself, click on the health pellets icon in your inventory!
  • you don't have to kill every enemy, sometimes it's best to let them roam free. however, you will be scored on how many enemies you killed, the amount of items you have, the difficulty you played on, and how fast you were.

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Instant wishlist!

My only criticisms boil down to the controls, having the attack button and the interaction button being the same can put you in awkward situations pretty fast leaving you vulnerable for enemy attacks. The other problem that I found is that sprinting doesn't give you enough feedback, I wasn't even sure I was sprinting until I re-read the description to double check if it was a mechanic!
One last thing is that the melee combat doesn't feel very good, I understand that it's meant as a last resource kind of thing but even in games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill the melee combat feels good enough to be a viable option. I suggest I wider arc to the swing since this game does not have auto-aim to snap to the enemy.

Overall, amazing experience with great atmosphere, keen to see where the full game is going to head!

This was a really unique experience! I'm not especially good at games, so I can't say much about the controls on tank turning/without, but I can appreciate the aesthetic that they contribute to.

The sound and visual design is really impeccable. I love the ambient music, combat remains unnerving even when you're repeating a level to remedy an accidental death because of the impact sounds, and it just looks amazing.

My only criticism with the camera angles (and this is probably due to my skill level) is that in either control scheme, it's really hard to judge where I'm really attacking, especially when the camera is far away. Sometimes it's easy to run around and get in hits, other times I'm so focused on figuring out where "front" is that I just end up dying. Pressing E twice might be a nice feature if my grasp on space were better.

I've been following this game for a long time, and I really can't wait to see the full thing!

Didn't expect this game to pop up on Newgrounds! Kinda had interest in this game on Steam, so I'll give the demo a shot when I find the time.

I really enjoyed this game, the controls are interesting but they provide a good experience

I've played this during the steam demofest. Couldn't yap my mouth them because you can't review demos, but I can yap right now:

Gameplay is basically that of classic Resident Evil, but with all the polish that modern gaming sensibilities can afford us (if you play with tank controls anyway). I can't even pinpoint what it is, but modern indie games that employ tank controls usually make it feel better than the tank control games of old, and this one is no different.
Other than movement, you can attack enemies with your baseball bat, and interact with enviromental objects, all standard fare for this type of game.

The twist on the formula comes from the camera itself being some sort of meta entity in the game world, which makes for some interesting puzzles, and raises some questions. The camera (in a way you, the person playing the game) is a form of deus ex machina interacting directly with the game world, the so called guardian angel. What that means is that you're controlling the main player character, and also behaving yourself as some omnipotent force independent from the player character that is tasked with helping her advance, solve puzzles, and even attacking enemies provided you have the special ammo for it.

Plot is pretty basic for the demo, but as I say in any piece of art, the execution is what matters. This one gets the job done, it introduces you to the setting, the mechanics, and the characters and doesn't waste your time. Not to go into too much detail, but Becky is lost in this derelict theater, and wants to find her friends. Not that she would have a choice in the matter anyhow, since each area she enters requires 2 people in order to leave. Unfortunatelly, there's monsters roaming about this spooky place, and you have to help her as her guardian angel. Ending is a cliffhanger, as is expected of a demo, an effective one I'd say since it caught me offguard. But alas, I won't spoil it.

Graphics are pretty good, I would compare them to a PS2-era game. But what I really wanna gush about as far as visuals go is the atmosphere, which is a 10 from me. As someone who loves horror and melancholy in art, and who feels it somehow becomes 100x more relatable when it's mixed with the cute anime aesthetics, a game like this will naturally grab my attention. The characters are all relatable and endearing in their own moe way, meaning you'll want to make sure they're safe. In contrast to that, the world they're in is unforgiving and opressive, surreal mazes populated with abstract monsters and architecture that makes little sense for our feeble human brain.

If you're like me and you love games like Yume Nikke, Milk Outside a Bag of Milk, Ib or anything in that general aesthetic ball park, definitelly keep an eye on this one.

Credits & Info

Views
694
Faves:
26
Votes
92
Score
3.51 / 5.00

Uploaded
Mar 2, 2024
10:16 PM EST
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