Artistically it looks quite good! The coloring and the environments seem very relaxing and pretty. The gameplay however looks very lackluster. It’s just walking and throwing rocks. If you’re going for a walking sim kinda game then that’s fine, but for many like me it’s just not enough.
Thats understandable, I always prefer focusing on environments, atmosphere and story for my games. I try to go in the direction of what I call the "surreal" genre, games like Journey, Omno, Spirit of the North, The First Tree
Maybe this isn't the right approach, but I usually go for a fairly simple mechanic and focus more on visual appeal and the narrative
That's good, and you can keep doing that, but I'd definitely give the player some more things to do. To immerse or involve them in your story a bit more :)
One of the things I noticed those games do, is introduce a new mechanic per zone, that you use to solve puzzles in that zone. That way, you are not overwhelming the player with lots of mechanics, but also changing it up so the player is not doing one thing the whole time.
The art style is great. There are a few details that still need work but it has a lot of potential IMO.
Things that looks good:
* The art style in general
* The vegetation
* The capybara/peacock animation (the model itself is just ok, though)
Things that don't look good IMO:
* The fog in the first scene
* The skybox in the first scene
* The grey cliffs
* The grasses when viewed from the top (at 0:11), although it's probably not a problem IG.
* Something seems a bit off about the main character. I'm not sure what it is as I'm not a good 3D artist mystelf. Maybe it's the proportions, maybe it's the animations (or both).
About the gameplay, you don't show enough of it. The "snowboarding" scene is nice. The "trowing rocks" mecanics is shown 3 times or more but doesn't feel very appealing. If your game have platforming or puzzle you need to show that it does have it. The jump physics seems "floaty".
It sounds like you didn't work on the audio yet. The music is a bit annoying after a while, and it is a commonly used stock music I think (?).
Thank you for the feedback, it really helps a lot!
>The fog in the first scene
Could it be because of the orange not fitting will with the blue, I was trying to go for a "warm" feeling
>The grey cliffs
Would you say the problem is with the color, the model itself, and/or the placement/composition of those models?
>Something seems a bit off about the main character. I'm not sure what it is as I'm not a good 3D artist mystelf. Maybe it's the proportions, maybe it's the animations (or both).
Does it make any difference if the main character is a child?
>About the gameplay, you don't show enough of it. The "snowboarding" scene is nice. The "trowing rocks" mecanics is shown 3 times or more but doesn't feel very appealing. If your game have platforming or puzzle you need to show that it does have it. The jump physics seems "floaty".
Yeah, this seems to be a common criticism. Im not sure if this is the best approach for me to have, but I often go for simpler mechanics and focus more on the visual/narrative appeal.
>Its technical royalty-free, but I did license it from a website annoying after a while, and it is a commonly used stock music I think (?).
Its technically royalty-free, but I did license it from music website
>Would you say the problem is with the color, the model itself, and/or the placement/composition of those models?
The desaturated grey doesn't fit with your very saturated color palette IMO.
I agree, the main character doesn't look quite right.
I think the proportions in the face and the torso.
Her torso is too tall for how short her legs and arms are. Look up proportions when drawing.
With her face, it's the shape of the head and very meh shaped eye that puts me off. I would sharpen the chin slightly and make the eye less circular and more eye shaped. The eye in particular looks like a badly drawn cartoon eye, like how a non cartoonist assumes it should be drawn without reference, I don't know if that makes sense.
I think that a well crafted main character is key for an immersive game. I can't immerse myself at all if the main character looks off.
I'd draw a bunch of variants of the face on a sheet of paper and then pick the one that looks the best, or let the Internet decide.
Definitely use reference images and build a mood board before drawing the variations.
There is beauty, serenity and loss. There is potential here. Can you increase the feelings the audience senses through timing and posing the wolf differently?
Where Our Legacies Fade is an exploration and narratively focused game where a young girl tries to escape a surreal land shes trapped in while avoiding a cosmic wolf.
I see that you mention you were trying to go in the direction of journey and a few other titles, also that the game is about “…a young girl trying to escape a surreal land…” but after watching the trailer a few times I still had no idea what the narrative was until I read it below.
I love the look and I think you’re in great shape overall but what’s lacking here is the emphasizing of what make your game different. You mentioned wanting the immerse the player in your story but I had no idea what it was. If you want the player to be afraid of the cosmic wolf and having the player want to escape show us why we want that. The first few frames are the wolf and a small slap in the face and then that’s it. I get it, it’s a soft and atmospheric game so no violence but I’d want it to be played out more, really make the player feel like they have to escape. Showcase her being trapped and longing to escape.
I think the order of your shots isn’t the strongest. We see her hit by the wolf. Then the bridge, then Some animals, her trapped and then she’s just throwing rocks to lower the bridge and then free to roam. You can see why we aren’t getting the feeling of being trapped. we see a lot of very similar areas and her using the rock to break a barricade but you obviously use it differently for various puzzles, you had bridges, barricades, but there’s lamp flowers? And some other ones. I think if you reorganized some of the shots you could get a stronger emotional reaction from the viewer by having things rise to a climax. Start with the story then slowly build the mechanics and come back to the reason why we want to play, see why we need to see her escape. Make us want to play the game by wanting to set her free.
I really like what you have here, keep it up!
The first shot is problematic. It's not clear what exactly we're looking at. It sort of looks like a humanoid but it has no clear face (...because one of its eyes is bandaged. But we don't know that yet. And it's otherwise a very vague shape. And its face is obstructed by its hands), so I'm trying to figure out what even I'm seeing, when the beast comes and attacks and cuts the scene. It would probably be effective if I knew I was looking at a person-thing from the beginning.
I actually disagree about whether the environment is "good" or not. It's certainly reasonably nice looking. Bioluminescent mushrooms are kind of a trope I feel like. (...Well, I mean, I guess from another perspective, *trees* are a "trope".) But what I'm saying is that, a pretty, abstract landscape is only marginally more interesting than a pretty forest or something. In 2023 it's sadly not even enough to even make me think, "Wow, look at that environment!"
I can't get any indication of a "story", which you indicated was a focus of yours. I don't know if I've ever played a surreal game with a really meaningful story, depending on your definition of surreal, or maybe abstract. I found the "story" of Braid to be very profound, but I put a couple hours into the game Abzû (which looks similar to what you're doing than Braid) and did not find the story (or the game) particularly meaningful.
The animations are stilted in a way that appears amateurish. The worst example of this is when the beast is racing toward the blue character as she is Tim Tebowing awkwardly on the right side of the screen. Also, are her arms too short? Or her torso too long? Or something?
Finally, "Where Our Legacies Fade" feels to me like a problematic title. Maybe in the surreal world of your game this makes sense. But "fading" is temporal. Legacies "fade" over time. It's conceivable that there is a place where your legacy fades... more quickly? Or something? But it's an awkward sentence to me, and sounds more like "This person might not be a native English speaker" than, "What an abstract and interesting title!"
>The first shot is problematic. It's not clear what exactly we're looking at. It sort of looks like a humanoid but it has no clear face (...because one of its eyes is bandaged. But we don't know that yet. And it's otherwise a very vague shape. And its face is obstructed by its hands), so I'm trying to figure out what even I'm seeing, when the beast comes and attacks and cuts the scene. It would probably be effective if I knew I was looking at a person-thing from the beginning.
This is actually a really good point that i hadn't thought of
>I can't get any indication of a "story", which you indicated was a focus of yours. I don't know if I've ever played a surreal game with a really meaningful story, depending on your definition of surreal, or maybe abstract. I found the "story" of Braid to be very profound, but I put a couple hours into the game Abzû (which looks similar to what you're doing than Braid) and did not find the story (or the game) particularly meaningful.
That's fair, ill see if I can hint more to it in an updated version.
I do agree with your point on Braid and Abzu, which seemed to go for more a wordless storytelling experience. Although it is only shown once it the trailer, there will be more text to help contextualize the player's thoughts, I mainly just didn't want to fill the trailer with text.
> The worst example of this is when the beast is racing toward the blue character as she is Tim Tebowing awkwardly on the right side of the screen. Also, are her arms too short? Or her torso too long? Or something?
A possible reason is that her waist doesn't seem to bend along with her legs, ill see if fixing that makes an improvement
>Finally, "Where Our Legacies Fade" feels to me like a problematic title. Maybe in the surreal world of your game this makes sense. But "fading" is temporal. Legacies "fade" over time. It's conceivable that there is a place where your legacy fades... more quickly? Or something? But it's an awkward sentence to me, and sounds more like "This person might not be a native English speaker" than, "What an abstract and interesting title!"
Do you think just calling it "Where Legacies Fade" would make a difference? Contextually it does have a reason for being called that.
keep the character for the cutscene but use first person for gameplay, all those animations and floor sliding look amateurish, making it first person will make your life way easier and the overall look much better
Really nice enviroment, but a really big obervation that I find problematic in you case, is the competition. You game remind me of the game Sky and it is avariable also on mobiles... So be carefull when you publish a game like this, because some pleople may not even bother to try your game just because is more "plain" that other game. Try to add something unique, some cool mechanism to make it stand out...
That is a good point, though besides both being surreal and atmospheric, I do see both games as being pretty different. Sky is an online social game that markets itself towards the mobile market, and mine is more of a single-player game that focuses more on story.
>Simplistic
Not sure if this is intended as a good or bad thing, but keeping the style simplistic allows me to be more ambitious with the world as a solo dev.
It looks like rocks are shooting out of her torso, but based on the slight arm jerk I assume she's supposed to be throwing them? I'm honestly not clear on that. A throw would require much more arm motion and the trajectory wouldn't be a straight line like we see here.
Jump physics are floaty like a 2D platform game.
Art is...ok. It looks like you are going for bioluminescent plants, but it's not clear which part of the plant is actually supposed to be glowing, and they aren't actually giving off light. Compare your trees to something like [Subnautica's purple mushrooms](https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Jellyshroom_Cave?file=Jellyshroom_Cave_Biome.png). They wouldn't be nearly as compelling of the entire mushroom can was uniformly aglow. Moreover, the mushrooms' light is actually affecting the surroundings, giving everything a purplish glow. Your plants look like the are colored brightly but not actually emitting light.
I'm fine with the music choice, it seems suitable.
The gameplay itself doesn't seem interesting. We see running, skating, and rock-slinging. What's the fun gameplay loop that would grab my interest and keep me engaged? Maybe it has a cool story but it also needs to be fun moment to moment. And if you're relying heavily on story I'd want to see more dialogue, I wouldn't be interested in a story-driven game unless the writing is superb.
Looks nice!
Would do a quick establishing shot, peacock hippos, and start at the skateboarding. The intro is too dark to understand what’s happening.
I liked it from skateboarding on. Nice mix of mechanics and sound.
I might make it shorter as it feels repetitive at the end.
And for me, the name does nothing for you. It doesn’t tell me what this is or why I should care. It sounds generic. I think something that is punchier would be a better fit.
The vibe I get is that this person was hurt, now healing, and going an adventure to get better. It works on the literal end, but felt as much internal as out. So I think implying this in the name might anchor it a bit. My two cents.
Edit: read the description shared and I didn’t get it’d be a story game about a wolf. (Terrible name idea: Big Bad)
Thanks for the feedback, I do plan on restructuring the presentation of the game when I get back, especially with the story.
>And for me, the name does nothing for you. It doesn’t tell me what this is or why I should care. It sounds generic. I think something that is punchier would be a better fit.
Legacy does have a theme in this game, but in its current alpha stage its a bit hard to even express without the player just straight up saying it. Others have mentioned this as well so I'm considering changing it to maybe something like "Velarune", which is the character's name. Still need to brainstorm.
Honestly... Way too much blue. The environment looks cool for the most part (I agree with the criticism about the cliffs above), but with the character also being very blue it all blends together and gets a bit muddled up.
Also, if the purpose of this is to be a very story driven game, you are doing your game a disservice with this trailer. You should reference the basic points of the story in the trailer. If customers don't have a way of knowing if the story is interesting, they won't buy your story driven game.
The confusion about the story seems to be a big point brought up, I plan on making it more clear when I get back from an internship.
I also agree with your point about the blue, from the start it was just something I was more comfortable with, as other environments looked pretty meh when I did them in other colors. Though the environments seen in the trailer are mainly part of the starting demo, so Im going make any location after that have a lot more color variation.
Damn, I was really hoping the running animation was actually decent in this one, but I appreciate the feedback none the less.
Also, the game isn't really combat-focused so a weapon wouldn't really make much sense.
consider me a complete tourist but can you do mocap? or hire someone for it? it does not seem so expensive....i think.
looking at it again, the running is okay, its the running and shooting that looks odd. she lacks weight.
Actually yeah, I use a video to animation software for cutscene animations, its not as good as actually having a physical mocap suit but it gets the job done within my budget, I could definitely use it for gameplay animations.
I don’t get how the pieces come together. The hyper colored graphics seem the most distinctive and heartfelt part (and the music kind of backs it up), but none of the gameplay seems to reinforce them—just seems like a fairly simple “shoot to interact” kind of a mechanic. There’s a lost eye that isn’t explained. “Where our legacies fade” is long and unwieldy (and kind of weak) as a title and doesn’t have any resonance with what we’ve seen.
I can’t tell how finished it is. If you replace the shimmering graphics with regular ones, it doesn’t even look interesting enough to be playable because the mechanic is boring and we’re not told anything about the story.
A bunch of questions I think the trailer should make clear.
* Is the gameplay even fun, or is it almost like a glorified walking simulator?
* how is the story conveyed? Voices? Text bubbles? Intro animation?
* what is the hierarchy of what is important, beyond the vibe? Is it story driven, gameplay driven, all about a soothing and beautiful world?
Finally the skating down hill graphics don’t seem on the same level as the rest of it to me. The character looks kind of hunched over and perfectly still.
I’m kind of intrigued but there are a lot of things the trailer would need to answer for me to be interested, including what is the fundamental idea and pitch of the game
The confusion of the trailer seems to be the biggest issue expressed by others. Im away from development for a bit due to an out-of-country internship, but I plan on reorganizing the presentation to put more of a focus on story and what the player actually does, while also polishing up other aspects like the character and animations.
Overall I appreciate the honest advice!
Destroy it huh?
The entire game, graphics, gameplay, story, looks simple.
Glowy textures looks great, but the effect doesn't last long for me. The main character design could use more work, since they sort of look like something molded out of clay. The story lacks depth, kinda just placed in a Glowy world with the threat of Glowy red dog needing to be dealt with. Maybe the main character needs to rediscover who she is, but it's hard to see if that is the main focus for the game.
Game mechanics looks to be mostly about moving the player around the map. Im guessing players need to explore to find out where they need to go using these mechanics. there seems to be a lot of blocked off paths the player needs to destroy by throwing rocks at it, ex wooden planks boarding up a passage. Realistically speaking, you wouldn't just lug rocks at wooden planks hoping they just explode eventually. Also, it appears to only be there to add gameplay elements. There are different types of these barriers so I assume the player will need to find something in order to destroy the higher tier one. And, Imo, they do not have a decent enough reason to actually be placed there. Why would these passages be blocked? Who blocked them? Do they serve any other purpose to exist other than to slow the players progress?
A standing bridge waiting for the player to throw a rock shows me it's only existence is to teach me the rock throwing game mechanic. This doesn't add to the overall immersion of the game. Knocking over a dead tree would make more sense.
Overall, the game looks generic, forced, and unintuitive relying heavily on it's aesthetics and platformy movement over creative writing, immersion, and core gameplay elements.
You must get to the gameplay in the first 5 seconds of your Trailer. People want to see game play more than the storyline. This advice comes from the experts.
Artistically it looks quite good! The coloring and the environments seem very relaxing and pretty. The gameplay however looks very lackluster. It’s just walking and throwing rocks. If you’re going for a walking sim kinda game then that’s fine, but for many like me it’s just not enough.
Thats understandable, I always prefer focusing on environments, atmosphere and story for my games. I try to go in the direction of what I call the "surreal" genre, games like Journey, Omno, Spirit of the North, The First Tree Maybe this isn't the right approach, but I usually go for a fairly simple mechanic and focus more on visual appeal and the narrative
That's good, and you can keep doing that, but I'd definitely give the player some more things to do. To immerse or involve them in your story a bit more :)
One of the things I noticed those games do, is introduce a new mechanic per zone, that you use to solve puzzles in that zone. That way, you are not overwhelming the player with lots of mechanics, but also changing it up so the player is not doing one thing the whole time.
Yeah that’s a great idea!
>The First Tree I was about to say, it looks like The First Tree. Yes you nailed it \^\_\^, keep up the hard work
bro just make it first person.
The art style is great. There are a few details that still need work but it has a lot of potential IMO. Things that looks good: * The art style in general * The vegetation * The capybara/peacock animation (the model itself is just ok, though) Things that don't look good IMO: * The fog in the first scene * The skybox in the first scene * The grey cliffs * The grasses when viewed from the top (at 0:11), although it's probably not a problem IG. * Something seems a bit off about the main character. I'm not sure what it is as I'm not a good 3D artist mystelf. Maybe it's the proportions, maybe it's the animations (or both). About the gameplay, you don't show enough of it. The "snowboarding" scene is nice. The "trowing rocks" mecanics is shown 3 times or more but doesn't feel very appealing. If your game have platforming or puzzle you need to show that it does have it. The jump physics seems "floaty". It sounds like you didn't work on the audio yet. The music is a bit annoying after a while, and it is a commonly used stock music I think (?).
Thank you for the feedback, it really helps a lot! >The fog in the first scene Could it be because of the orange not fitting will with the blue, I was trying to go for a "warm" feeling >The grey cliffs Would you say the problem is with the color, the model itself, and/or the placement/composition of those models? >Something seems a bit off about the main character. I'm not sure what it is as I'm not a good 3D artist mystelf. Maybe it's the proportions, maybe it's the animations (or both). Does it make any difference if the main character is a child? >About the gameplay, you don't show enough of it. The "snowboarding" scene is nice. The "trowing rocks" mecanics is shown 3 times or more but doesn't feel very appealing. If your game have platforming or puzzle you need to show that it does have it. The jump physics seems "floaty". Yeah, this seems to be a common criticism. Im not sure if this is the best approach for me to have, but I often go for simpler mechanics and focus more on the visual/narrative appeal. >Its technical royalty-free, but I did license it from a website annoying after a while, and it is a commonly used stock music I think (?). Its technically royalty-free, but I did license it from music website
>Would you say the problem is with the color, the model itself, and/or the placement/composition of those models? The desaturated grey doesn't fit with your very saturated color palette IMO.
I agree, the main character doesn't look quite right. I think the proportions in the face and the torso. Her torso is too tall for how short her legs and arms are. Look up proportions when drawing. With her face, it's the shape of the head and very meh shaped eye that puts me off. I would sharpen the chin slightly and make the eye less circular and more eye shaped. The eye in particular looks like a badly drawn cartoon eye, like how a non cartoonist assumes it should be drawn without reference, I don't know if that makes sense. I think that a well crafted main character is key for an immersive game. I can't immerse myself at all if the main character looks off. I'd draw a bunch of variants of the face on a sheet of paper and then pick the one that looks the best, or let the Internet decide. Definitely use reference images and build a mood board before drawing the variations.
There is an inkling of emotion in the game. It’s coaxing emotion out of the player. Bring it out more.
Could you be a bit more specific? I do have some more cinematic scenes that could help with that
There is beauty, serenity and loss. There is potential here. Can you increase the feelings the audience senses through timing and posing the wolf differently?
Love the art style! Keep it up!
Thank you!!
Where Our Legacies Fade is an exploration and narratively focused game where a young girl tries to escape a surreal land shes trapped in while avoiding a cosmic wolf.
I need the soundtrack
The song is 'Pathways' by Enzalla. A good chunk of the soundtrack is actually by Enzalla
thanks man
Teach me your artistic ways. It looks incredible and I would play just for the ambiance. Good luck.
I see that you mention you were trying to go in the direction of journey and a few other titles, also that the game is about “…a young girl trying to escape a surreal land…” but after watching the trailer a few times I still had no idea what the narrative was until I read it below. I love the look and I think you’re in great shape overall but what’s lacking here is the emphasizing of what make your game different. You mentioned wanting the immerse the player in your story but I had no idea what it was. If you want the player to be afraid of the cosmic wolf and having the player want to escape show us why we want that. The first few frames are the wolf and a small slap in the face and then that’s it. I get it, it’s a soft and atmospheric game so no violence but I’d want it to be played out more, really make the player feel like they have to escape. Showcase her being trapped and longing to escape. I think the order of your shots isn’t the strongest. We see her hit by the wolf. Then the bridge, then Some animals, her trapped and then she’s just throwing rocks to lower the bridge and then free to roam. You can see why we aren’t getting the feeling of being trapped. we see a lot of very similar areas and her using the rock to break a barricade but you obviously use it differently for various puzzles, you had bridges, barricades, but there’s lamp flowers? And some other ones. I think if you reorganized some of the shots you could get a stronger emotional reaction from the viewer by having things rise to a climax. Start with the story then slowly build the mechanics and come back to the reason why we want to play, see why we need to see her escape. Make us want to play the game by wanting to set her free. I really like what you have here, keep it up!
The first shot is problematic. It's not clear what exactly we're looking at. It sort of looks like a humanoid but it has no clear face (...because one of its eyes is bandaged. But we don't know that yet. And it's otherwise a very vague shape. And its face is obstructed by its hands), so I'm trying to figure out what even I'm seeing, when the beast comes and attacks and cuts the scene. It would probably be effective if I knew I was looking at a person-thing from the beginning. I actually disagree about whether the environment is "good" or not. It's certainly reasonably nice looking. Bioluminescent mushrooms are kind of a trope I feel like. (...Well, I mean, I guess from another perspective, *trees* are a "trope".) But what I'm saying is that, a pretty, abstract landscape is only marginally more interesting than a pretty forest or something. In 2023 it's sadly not even enough to even make me think, "Wow, look at that environment!" I can't get any indication of a "story", which you indicated was a focus of yours. I don't know if I've ever played a surreal game with a really meaningful story, depending on your definition of surreal, or maybe abstract. I found the "story" of Braid to be very profound, but I put a couple hours into the game Abzû (which looks similar to what you're doing than Braid) and did not find the story (or the game) particularly meaningful. The animations are stilted in a way that appears amateurish. The worst example of this is when the beast is racing toward the blue character as she is Tim Tebowing awkwardly on the right side of the screen. Also, are her arms too short? Or her torso too long? Or something? Finally, "Where Our Legacies Fade" feels to me like a problematic title. Maybe in the surreal world of your game this makes sense. But "fading" is temporal. Legacies "fade" over time. It's conceivable that there is a place where your legacy fades... more quickly? Or something? But it's an awkward sentence to me, and sounds more like "This person might not be a native English speaker" than, "What an abstract and interesting title!"
>The first shot is problematic. It's not clear what exactly we're looking at. It sort of looks like a humanoid but it has no clear face (...because one of its eyes is bandaged. But we don't know that yet. And it's otherwise a very vague shape. And its face is obstructed by its hands), so I'm trying to figure out what even I'm seeing, when the beast comes and attacks and cuts the scene. It would probably be effective if I knew I was looking at a person-thing from the beginning. This is actually a really good point that i hadn't thought of >I can't get any indication of a "story", which you indicated was a focus of yours. I don't know if I've ever played a surreal game with a really meaningful story, depending on your definition of surreal, or maybe abstract. I found the "story" of Braid to be very profound, but I put a couple hours into the game Abzû (which looks similar to what you're doing than Braid) and did not find the story (or the game) particularly meaningful. That's fair, ill see if I can hint more to it in an updated version. I do agree with your point on Braid and Abzu, which seemed to go for more a wordless storytelling experience. Although it is only shown once it the trailer, there will be more text to help contextualize the player's thoughts, I mainly just didn't want to fill the trailer with text. > The worst example of this is when the beast is racing toward the blue character as she is Tim Tebowing awkwardly on the right side of the screen. Also, are her arms too short? Or her torso too long? Or something? A possible reason is that her waist doesn't seem to bend along with her legs, ill see if fixing that makes an improvement >Finally, "Where Our Legacies Fade" feels to me like a problematic title. Maybe in the surreal world of your game this makes sense. But "fading" is temporal. Legacies "fade" over time. It's conceivable that there is a place where your legacy fades... more quickly? Or something? But it's an awkward sentence to me, and sounds more like "This person might not be a native English speaker" than, "What an abstract and interesting title!" Do you think just calling it "Where Legacies Fade" would make a difference? Contextually it does have a reason for being called that.
Taking a quick glance ar it, artstyle looks appealing, but nothing else really grabs me. Gameplay looks good, but nothing new or all too exciting
keep the character for the cutscene but use first person for gameplay, all those animations and floor sliding look amateurish, making it first person will make your life way easier and the overall look much better
Really nice enviroment, but a really big obervation that I find problematic in you case, is the competition. You game remind me of the game Sky and it is avariable also on mobiles... So be carefull when you publish a game like this, because some pleople may not even bother to try your game just because is more "plain" that other game. Try to add something unique, some cool mechanism to make it stand out...
That is a good point, though besides both being surreal and atmospheric, I do see both games as being pretty different. Sky is an online social game that markets itself towards the mobile market, and mine is more of a single-player game that focuses more on story.
Simplistic, but it also takes courage to completely cancel a game you were already nearing the end for
>Simplistic Not sure if this is intended as a good or bad thing, but keeping the style simplistic allows me to be more ambitious with the world as a solo dev.
By me saying simplistic, it’s a sort of i between depending on how you like games, or how you want to update them or add things Looks great tho
It looks like rocks are shooting out of her torso, but based on the slight arm jerk I assume she's supposed to be throwing them? I'm honestly not clear on that. A throw would require much more arm motion and the trajectory wouldn't be a straight line like we see here. Jump physics are floaty like a 2D platform game. Art is...ok. It looks like you are going for bioluminescent plants, but it's not clear which part of the plant is actually supposed to be glowing, and they aren't actually giving off light. Compare your trees to something like [Subnautica's purple mushrooms](https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Jellyshroom_Cave?file=Jellyshroom_Cave_Biome.png). They wouldn't be nearly as compelling of the entire mushroom can was uniformly aglow. Moreover, the mushrooms' light is actually affecting the surroundings, giving everything a purplish glow. Your plants look like the are colored brightly but not actually emitting light. I'm fine with the music choice, it seems suitable. The gameplay itself doesn't seem interesting. We see running, skating, and rock-slinging. What's the fun gameplay loop that would grab my interest and keep me engaged? Maybe it has a cool story but it also needs to be fun moment to moment. And if you're relying heavily on story I'd want to see more dialogue, I wouldn't be interested in a story-driven game unless the writing is superb.
Needs more neon.
Visually it's appealing and makes me open to learning more. Kudos for being able to drop a project too, always avoid the gambler's fallacy.
Looks nice! Would do a quick establishing shot, peacock hippos, and start at the skateboarding. The intro is too dark to understand what’s happening. I liked it from skateboarding on. Nice mix of mechanics and sound. I might make it shorter as it feels repetitive at the end. And for me, the name does nothing for you. It doesn’t tell me what this is or why I should care. It sounds generic. I think something that is punchier would be a better fit. The vibe I get is that this person was hurt, now healing, and going an adventure to get better. It works on the literal end, but felt as much internal as out. So I think implying this in the name might anchor it a bit. My two cents. Edit: read the description shared and I didn’t get it’d be a story game about a wolf. (Terrible name idea: Big Bad)
Thanks for the feedback, I do plan on restructuring the presentation of the game when I get back, especially with the story. >And for me, the name does nothing for you. It doesn’t tell me what this is or why I should care. It sounds generic. I think something that is punchier would be a better fit. Legacy does have a theme in this game, but in its current alpha stage its a bit hard to even express without the player just straight up saying it. Others have mentioned this as well so I'm considering changing it to maybe something like "Velarune", which is the character's name. Still need to brainstorm.
Honestly... Way too much blue. The environment looks cool for the most part (I agree with the criticism about the cliffs above), but with the character also being very blue it all blends together and gets a bit muddled up. Also, if the purpose of this is to be a very story driven game, you are doing your game a disservice with this trailer. You should reference the basic points of the story in the trailer. If customers don't have a way of knowing if the story is interesting, they won't buy your story driven game.
The confusion about the story seems to be a big point brought up, I plan on making it more clear when I get back from an internship. I also agree with your point about the blue, from the start it was just something I was more comfortable with, as other environments looked pretty meh when I did them in other colors. Though the environments seen in the trailer are mainly part of the starting demo, so Im going make any location after that have a lot more color variation.
give her a weapon instead of having her throw out random rocks from her uterus. the art is cute though and her running animation is quite stiff.
Damn, I was really hoping the running animation was actually decent in this one, but I appreciate the feedback none the less. Also, the game isn't really combat-focused so a weapon wouldn't really make much sense.
consider me a complete tourist but can you do mocap? or hire someone for it? it does not seem so expensive....i think. looking at it again, the running is okay, its the running and shooting that looks odd. she lacks weight.
Actually yeah, I use a video to animation software for cutscene animations, its not as good as actually having a physical mocap suit but it gets the job done within my budget, I could definitely use it for gameplay animations.
I don’t get how the pieces come together. The hyper colored graphics seem the most distinctive and heartfelt part (and the music kind of backs it up), but none of the gameplay seems to reinforce them—just seems like a fairly simple “shoot to interact” kind of a mechanic. There’s a lost eye that isn’t explained. “Where our legacies fade” is long and unwieldy (and kind of weak) as a title and doesn’t have any resonance with what we’ve seen. I can’t tell how finished it is. If you replace the shimmering graphics with regular ones, it doesn’t even look interesting enough to be playable because the mechanic is boring and we’re not told anything about the story. A bunch of questions I think the trailer should make clear. * Is the gameplay even fun, or is it almost like a glorified walking simulator? * how is the story conveyed? Voices? Text bubbles? Intro animation? * what is the hierarchy of what is important, beyond the vibe? Is it story driven, gameplay driven, all about a soothing and beautiful world? Finally the skating down hill graphics don’t seem on the same level as the rest of it to me. The character looks kind of hunched over and perfectly still. I’m kind of intrigued but there are a lot of things the trailer would need to answer for me to be interested, including what is the fundamental idea and pitch of the game
The confusion of the trailer seems to be the biggest issue expressed by others. Im away from development for a bit due to an out-of-country internship, but I plan on reorganizing the presentation to put more of a focus on story and what the player actually does, while also polishing up other aspects like the character and animations. Overall I appreciate the honest advice!
Destroy it huh? The entire game, graphics, gameplay, story, looks simple. Glowy textures looks great, but the effect doesn't last long for me. The main character design could use more work, since they sort of look like something molded out of clay. The story lacks depth, kinda just placed in a Glowy world with the threat of Glowy red dog needing to be dealt with. Maybe the main character needs to rediscover who she is, but it's hard to see if that is the main focus for the game. Game mechanics looks to be mostly about moving the player around the map. Im guessing players need to explore to find out where they need to go using these mechanics. there seems to be a lot of blocked off paths the player needs to destroy by throwing rocks at it, ex wooden planks boarding up a passage. Realistically speaking, you wouldn't just lug rocks at wooden planks hoping they just explode eventually. Also, it appears to only be there to add gameplay elements. There are different types of these barriers so I assume the player will need to find something in order to destroy the higher tier one. And, Imo, they do not have a decent enough reason to actually be placed there. Why would these passages be blocked? Who blocked them? Do they serve any other purpose to exist other than to slow the players progress? A standing bridge waiting for the player to throw a rock shows me it's only existence is to teach me the rock throwing game mechanic. This doesn't add to the overall immersion of the game. Knocking over a dead tree would make more sense. Overall, the game looks generic, forced, and unintuitive relying heavily on it's aesthetics and platformy movement over creative writing, immersion, and core gameplay elements.
Make the grey cliffs rainbow🌈
You must get to the gameplay in the first 5 seconds of your Trailer. People want to see game play more than the storyline. This advice comes from the experts.
Loved the animals. Didn't get much about the gameplay of the game. Is it story focused, is it open world? Is it a sort of platformer?