Hey this is fun! Very good idea. By the way, when I read the tutorial I couldn't find a way to move back to the start screen... Did I miss something?
Reviews for "Hell's On Hold"
OblivionCreator responds:
There's an 'X' in the top right - It looked obvious to me when making it but looking back I think it blends in a little
A good concept! I’d recommend changing the text speed: it goes slow and the player needs to re-read and navigate through menus so it’s a little painful. Maybe a second click loads the text instantly? Unless you’re going for a true tech support sim where it’s meant to be painful.
Hah, this was quite a cute and challenging job sim you got here! Love the stylish presentation you got here with cute touches like the brochure tutorial and such (though the colors can be a bit too loud and hide elements at times), and the gameplay was quite addictive and fun to puzzle out! It certainly was a bit confusing and intimidating at first to figure out where to start with the client and how to figure out where they went wrong when it could be anything, but surprisingly I was able to make it through somehow!
It's nice and I probably shouldn't expect more considering its a game jam game, but I had such fun that I couldn't help but be a bit letdown at the low amount of dialogue variations and the lack of any sort of concrete end goal or sense of progression and escalation, as it did make it quite repetitive and made me eventually leave bored. There were also some clunky aspects like how there was no way to fast-forward text. But hey, for a game jam game, I think it did what it had to do: provided a nice concept that I'd love to see a more fleshed-out version of!
OblivionCreator responds:
Thanks for the feedback! To be honest, a lot of the issues with it getting boring over time were kind of known by our team shortly before release, but there wasn't much time to fix things, especially as I was working alone (on the coding side) on the final day trying to piece everything together.
Honestly the reception has been incredible so far and everyone on the team is definitely considering a full release with actually fleshed out dialogue/characters - (Though I'll make no promises on anything!) - At the very least I'd like to get a version released that matches the original vision we had for the game.
Full disclosure: I am a friend of the development team for this game.
Hell's On Hold is a very good game, though it's definitely still rough around the edges in places. More or less, I echo the sentiment of the other detailed review- it does what it needs to do for a jam game, but is a bit bare-bones and gets boring after a while. I look forward to a full release (and would be willing to help if needed, given I'm friends with the devs lol).
The art's great, the gameplay is a super fun deduction puzzle that I found myself really getting into, and the music is excellent- clearly echoing the famous Opus No. 1 hold music from so many places. You guys did a very good job!
I love the idea but I for the life of me cannot get it to be full screen and it really affects the gameplay. There is also not a clear way to get rid of notes taken so they just pile up. The dialogue can get repetitive aswell but overall I adore the game for the concept and design. If it were a full fledged game I could see myself getting lost in it.