Fragments

1. Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not? 
   1. It was okay. I enjoyed exploring, however finding the fragments felt arbitrary (just run around and punch of AoE things and it will show up)
2. Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear? 
   1. I wasnt really sure what i was supposed to do. I understand I was supposed to get a fragment, then return to the hub, and then a doll or something would show up on the wall and maybe something changed elsewhere?  
3. Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy? 
   1. It wasnt too hard, but the gameplay was a bit stale, especially in the city. I just had to run around breaking cars. That felt pretty arbitrary. I did like the cars would appear in the hub and i gained an AoE attack
4.  How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?) 
   1. Maybe 20 minutes?
5. Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go? 
   1. I did. It was bizarre
6. Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so? 
   1. It got interesting after i got the AoE and figured out I could run up vertical walls. It was unfortunate that i got the AoE attack after doing the level with the cars. It would have felt more impactful to get it then go blow up a bunch of cars.

Overall: This may be the only game i completed (but i wasn't sure if i did.) Since there wasn’t really any danger I could just explore. But with no danger or pressure i didn't really have to “get good” (i am also not sure if improvement is something you can achieve in this game).

I think there is some real cool potential with the narrative of exploring your mind and unlocking fragments of memories and changing your perspective on events (almost like a memory metroidvania type game).

Great job on expanding the open world aspect! It is hard to overhaul a game and scrap previous areas but I think you guys are getting closer to your vision of a more story-driven game. Like others mentioned, it is a little confusing to grasp the intention or pregression, but it does sort of play into the dream-like atmosphere (of a God, no less).

The hub definitely feels cleaner with a greater sense of purpose, especially when you find a fragment with a teleportation slab waiting for you to take the player back to the hub area. It would be nice if we could teleport or even fast-travel to certain places in the two areas available to us since they are relatively large areas to explore. As someone mentioned, a minimap would help in getting our bearing of what we have explored and the general layout of the area (might be hard with the foggy bridge if you want the fog to appear in the minimap, but parts of it could gradually get "unfogged" as the player explores those areas). 

I did not get the chance to play much of the game, but from what I gathered so far, I got a better sense of progression from the foggy bridge than the destroyed cityscape. Given that the player is locked to the paths provided by the branching paths of the bridge (though, the player could always jump off and roam freely), it is a bit easer to fully explore since we have a set of linear paths to traverse than a fully open area. Someone did mention you were softlocked if you got out of the bridge for some reason, but one of the paths provided a ramp back onto the bridge so the level was designed with the possibility of falling of the bridge, so exploration does have its perks.

As with the previous playtest, the colliders are a little weird to navigate through (especially with the "bumps" on the bridge) and some objects don't have colliders or interfere with the camera and restrict visibility. It's not a huge issue but movement does get a little boring to deal with, especially with how slow the player moves relative to the scale of the world. This is apparent when exploring the destroyed cityscape with the player having nothing to do but hold the movement keys until a destination is reached. So, it be nice if the player moved faster (like with a walk or run state if a slower walking pace is kept).

The assets and how they are shown in-game looks pretty good, especially with the damaged cars and the backdrop of the leaning buildings. Honestly, I thought for a moment we could have the player driving one of the cars (cool idea and would speed up traveling) but it was interesting we could destroy the cars with just a few punches. Speaking of destroying objects, the attack animation looks better and the animation that plays after an object is destroyed is a nice touch. 

Overall, the exploration of the game is nice but the movement and colliders do work against it. It would also help if there was some guidance given to the player on what we should be looking for when traversing an area. I know you guys said to look for objects that don't necessarily fit with the theme of a given area, but that alone probably isn't enough to give a sense of direction, especially when the areas get bigger. Maybe some indicators along the way or side quests or goals to keep the player engaged while they explore or progress towards finding a fragment. For now, we aren't rewarded with anything when finding a fragment and it would be nice if it unlocked something in the hub or in the yard outside the house or even a simple memory/event via text.

1. Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?
   1. I enjoyed the game! It was graphically very nice and I really like the concept that this game has! It was a bit slow but I didn't mind, it has a very relaxing atmosphere to it. I did find issues of clipping through areas I dont think I should be able to, the boundaries didn't seem to be working at parts, such as me getting trapped underneath the bridge at one point
2. Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?
   1. I did wish there was a bit more sense of direction to help in the Collapse city segment but I knew my objective easily and what I was searching for 
3. Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?
   1. I did find the fragment in the bridge level but not in the city level only because I was lost a bit on which building I should be searching in since they were all the same. 
4.  How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)
   1. It took me about 5-10ish minutes to find it in the level that I did find the fragment! 
5. Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?
   1. I did not interact with the baby because I didn't know if that was suppose to be the statue dude in the central hub. 
6. Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?
   1. The central hub was very cool, I like that there's small things we could interact with like the random, but very comedic, outhouse! 

Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?

It was decently fun. I think it lacks stuff to do a little but I think the diverse environments are fun.

Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?

I knew what I was supposed to do but I think you need some subtle signposts to lead the player in the direction you want them to go (even if its not the shortest path to the objective).

Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?

I only found one and it took me a while. I wouldn't call it hard but I would call it slow. I think that you should place them in an obvious place but just make it hard to get there. It would be nice to know where I want to go and then have the challenge of figuring out how. 

 How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)

I wasn't timing but it was a while that I played for. I think that the interesting environments are the strongest point of this game. 

Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?

Didn't see a baby. I'm very curious to know what this is about. I honestly respect games that don't force the player to see all the content.

Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?

If I am correctly understanding what the hub is - yes a little. I didn't find it particularly enthralling

Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?

I enjoy the premise greatly, but think some more is needed to hit that mark. Some aren't necessarily the fault of the developers either, its just a very difficult genre to fill out (Death Stranding is a game that I think of, which was a ridiculously expensive and time consuming endeavor. Even then the game wasn't for a lot of people)

Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?

Areas felt very different, but didn't seem to be connected in a reasonable, thematic way in my eyes. Also some UI and control of the character didn't feel very deeply explained. Punching didn't feel very natural.

Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?

Yes I was. It wasn't very difficult

How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)

I didn't really keep a timer but around 15 minutes maybe?

Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?

Baby? :(

Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?

I didn't explore the hub much, but I'll say that I do think the hub idea is a big improvement!

1. Not really, sorry, the game doesn't seem to have much of a direction or underlying mechanic to it apart from being a strange and short walking sim.

2. The squares that tell you what to do are a bit hard to see in the hub, and feel out of place.

3. Yes, it was easy, albeit unfulfilling, as it's just the player stumbling into them rather than having coming from a skillful accomplishment.

4. About 5-10 minutes for getting the two fragments themselves.

5. Yes, and the tele-maze is incredibly tedious, since you can't see the associated number of a spot without going over to it and redoing the whole cycle all over again.

6. Like the levels, the hub is pretty sparse and doesn't have much to offer.

- The first note can only be closed with Enter, despite that key not being used anywhere else.

- Why E to punch and F to interact? Why not LMB for punching and E for interaction?

- Mouse sensitivity is incredibly high.

- Collisions are very strange, with it being far to easy to get stuck on the sides of objects. This is likely due to walls having a ton of friction with the player. Maybe try using a CharacterController instead of a Rigidbody.

- Why the outhouse? *Why?*

- The outline shader is incredibly buggy, flickering in and out rapidly and being visible through walls, other objects, the player, etc.

- The pause menu doesn't actually pause the game or stop non-UI inputs.

- You can jump over the fences in the fog level, softlocking yourself.

- The fog doesn't render correctly on the skybox.

1.Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not.

The game was a little on the slower side. I am empathetic to the fact that setting up AI and enemy's can be difficult in a large world. I was hoping for a little more action because the graphic's were cool. Hopefully some interaction with enemies comes in the future.

2.Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?

For me, everything was unclear. Didnt quite know which way to start first or what I was for the most part looking for.

3.Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?

I could not find them. I walked around the broken building area for quite some time. Came across a mechanic shop but did not find a fragment there. Maybe a mini map to help the player locate something if it is close in proximity.

4.How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)

I played for about 25 - 30 mins couldn't find the fragments.

5.Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?

The only interaction I had was with the statue dude.

6.Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?

I am not sure if I was able to get there.

Questions: 

Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?

To be brutally honest, no I didn’t enjoy it much. It still needs a lot of work. I would suggest focusing on one area and its needed fragments before going on to the next area. The areas could be smaller like the size of a large backyard so you can decorate it more extensively. You can do three areas with a 0/5 fragments as UI with the areas being a small cave, a short street with some alleyways, and the bridge location. Leave the fragments on the bridge area, make it so the player can’t fall off the bridge, and make the bridge wider because it’s difficult to walk through.

Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?

I knew that the main objective was to find the fragments, but the problem was that I didn’t know what the fragments looked like. At first, I thought the fragments were those glowy orbs but it turned out those were just the destroyed object visual/animation. I think a given fragment at the beginning would be nice just so I could know what the fragments look like. 

Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?

Were there only two fragments in the whole game? If so, then yes I found them eventually. However, I was confused and didn’t know if I had collected them all. Finding the fragments was easy but took a while longer than I would have liked because the game isn’t very engaging. 

 How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)

I’m not sure, I didn’t check the time it took. It took longer the first run, but then when I tried it again I found the fragments really quickly.

Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?

What baby? I didn’t find a baby. I went inside the carwash (which I probably wasn’t supposed to do), found the dog, and fell off the map multiple times but I didn’t find a baby.

Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?

I’m not sure what location you’re referring to when you say the hub. I did explore all the locations and found it very confusing. I found the fragment next to the dog but then when I first found it I thought I had gone off the map and needed to restart the game. It was confusing differentiating between intentional map clip-throughs and me just falling off the walkable map area. I did fall off the bridge and had to restart after wandering around trying to get back up and falling off the map. 

Keep working hard, and best of luck!

1. Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?

I liked the graphics, they reminded me of some AAA games. Although, the gameplay, I will say, could've used some more mechanics and more content. There is definitely much potential for this game. 

1. Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear?

I really didn't know where I was going, and where I could go. There were areas where I thought I was alright, but then realized that I jumped off the map or reached an area I wasn't supposed to be in. Also, if you jump off the map, you don't die and respawn; you just, as it looked to me, fall but still get to move around. 

1. Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy?

I couldn't find any fragments. The first thing I went to was that outhouse, but then nothing. I feel like most of my time was spent just walking around, looking at things, and not really doing much.

1. How long did it take you to complete the game? (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?)

I think I kept going to places that ended up me being off the map. So I was only able to play for 10 minutes. 

1. Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go?

A baby?? I didn't even know there was a baby. All I know is that there is nothing outside the main spawn. There is an abandoned garage city, and the other one is the bridge, which, by the way, was a pain to traverse because my character kept getting stuck on the rails. 

1. Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so?

I'm not sure what you mean by hub, but the locations I mentioned before are the only places I discovered. 

1. I thought the game was neat.  Exploration dense games aren't really my bag but I liked just how different the two maps were.  The environments felt distinct as did navigating them.

2. The objective felt unclear.  Like I understand the idea is your supposed to find fragments but it wasn't clear where fragments would be found.  I found the one in the fog area by finding my way through the maze but I never found the one in the skyscraper map.  I tried smashing a bunch of cars and I ran around as much of the map as I could find.  I will however shout out that for the fog map I really liked when the setting changed as you got close to the end, it was really encouraging and exciting realizing I'd found the right track.

3/4. I think I spent 3 minutes or so running around the fog maze, I lucked into finding the correct path pretty early on.  I then took maybe 15 minutes to run around the skyscraper map, but after I'd smashed everything I could find and checked out every building I sort of was at a loss for how to progress.

5. If you're talking about the statue yes?  otherwise no.

6. I explored it a bit.  I was a little sad that despite saying that the fragments would change stuff the hub area which felt like the perfect place to add changes didn't seem different. Not sure if I did it wrong or was looking in the wrong area.

Hi, this game has improved in concept The idea is there but the execution needs improvement. Your art assets are good but the actual game is lacking. I liked the big differentiation between the visuals of each level, but finding the fragments means something different in each level0 The abilities gave nothing to the player. Learning the AOE attack was useless since no other level needed it, and even the level that could have used it didn't need it any more. The AOE was nicer than the basic attack because of whatever weird hitbox/double hit things are going on with the basic attack. The climb ability only works on those blocks in your memory so the player didn't even gain anything they just travel to the teleport maze differently. I was confused why there was no fragment after the teleport maze, but I'm assuming there just isn't another level. There was no clear end to the game. 

I played for ~1hr, it was not enjoyable. My first encounter with the game was opening it, getting greeted with your letter and then quitting the game because I found the exit menu before the enter key. I further wanted to quit after the first thing I interacted with was the outhouse. I only played that long because I wanted to see everything your game had and to experiment with some mechanics, otherwise I would have quit after within 5 minutes. The fragments were easy to get as it was mostly just walking to where ever the fragment was. This game needs more planning and execution. This game feels very random and distasteful. The player jump and movement still feels really bad. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed but a short list would be :add your own colliders, add invisible walls, add kill-planes if you're going to let the player walk off the edge, and make the player movement feel good, especially since that's the mechanic the player is always using.

Did you enjoy playing the game? Why or why not?

I enjoyed some of the view but not the gameplay since the colliders aren't optimized but I do like the idea of collecting fragments as a god who has to recollect his memories.

Did you find any parts of the game confusing or unclear? 

It wasn't that confusing but starting the game I didn't know I had to press Enter so I just pressed random buttons until it exited to the room with the bed.

Were you able to find the two fragments? Was it hard or easy? 

I don't think I was able to find the two fragments.

 How long did it take you to complete the game?  (How long did it take you to get the two fragments possible?) 

Couldn't finish it since the Fragments were hard to find.But I do like the aspect of finding it by punching things like cars or moss.

Did you interact with the baby multiple times? How did that go? 

I couldn't find the baby.

Did you explore the hub? Was it interesting to do so? 

I explored the bathroom... Lol It was pretty funny sound effect. 

What are things that you wished you could do/wanted to do but couldn't or was unable to? 

I was actually unable to complete the level, because I couldn't figure out which pole I was supposed to roll something onto or how to do so. I wish that I could've completed it, because I like the story elements you're building into the game. I think this is one of the only games in this submission with a linear storyline, so I'm excited to see where that goes. I think that it could be a strong point of the game, because I do have a curiosity about what kind of heavenly or hellish memories a god could have, and I want to learn more about your take on it!

What would you add to the game to make it more fun or interactive?

I think that searching for puzzle pieces gets a bit exhausting after awhile, and so I think it would be cool to maybe have additional obstacles, or enemies, that the player has to deal with as well. I think adding in constraints such as maybe a time limit, waves of enemies, or a set amount of health could be ways to make the gameplay feel a bit more dynamic and mechanically enthralling. I think being able to have enemies to either avoid or fight would make the game feel more exciting, and it would be cool to see ways in which the god's memories come into conflict with him.

 Do you feel that there were enough elements to the game that keeps it interesting? 

I think that the game is in a very early stage, and so at this point I think there is enough in the game to get me excited about the lore and future development of it. I think that the idea of exploring a god's memories is fun and unique, and I think this has the ability to captivate players into continuing through the storyline. I hope that the future level development is crafted from the story itself, even letting it guide the future gameplay mechanics, ie. what does a god encounter in their memories, how do they fight it, etc... In short, the lore is fascinating and I'd like more of it!

Was the camera working fine for you? Is the sensitivity too low or too high?

The camera I thought worked very well, it didn't make me dizzy or disoriented. I think that it handled well with the character movement, not too slow or too fast.

Is there anything in the playtest that made you frustrated?

The ability to punch was a bit frustrating for a couple of reasons, one being that the punch did not feel satisfying through its animated representation, and the second being that I'm not used to using "E" as a button to punch. I think that having the punch button as Mouse Button 1 may be a bit more intuitive, as long as that button isn't going to be used for anything else. I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't complete the level, and I feel that this may have been because the instructions for which pole and how to get something onto it were a bit vague.

What would you add if you were working on this game?

I would develop the story out before beginning the rest of the level design. I would get a fleshed out idea of the narrative story arc that needs to be achieved by the completion of the game at the end of the semester, and then build mechanics and the 3D level from that. In this way, I think it may feel like the game would more organically evolve from the story itself, instead of them growing independently of one another. I would get to the core of what a god would be struggling with in his memories, and then I would figure out a gameplay mechanic that would abstract that conflict, ie. things like fighting demons, rescuing people, or smiting. As for the level itself, it would grow out of the needs of the story itself, rather than being a generic level that the story is dropped into. These are just food for thought, not neccessarily something that is essential, but I think it may yield some fun results in terms of growing the game out of the story. I think that your project is coming along great, and I think it's a very unique idea. I look forward to playing more of your game as it's developed further!

First off, I want to say that I am a pretty big fan of the game you develped so far. The idea of a God being stuck in one's own mind is certainly a unique and interesting idea, and out of all the games, I personally think this game does a really good job of interweaving the narrative into the gameplay and drive the player to collect the fragments. It would be nice to see what kind of "memories" will be shown to be player and as for now, it seems to just be an objective to gate progress. This actually reminds me of more action-based RPGs -- Kingdom Hearts comes to mind with exploring "dream" worlds, especially with the fragments and the area after the tutorial.

It would be great to see how the hub idea gets expanded. A list of the various location, maybe fast travel to areas already visited, and an indicator of how many fragments were collected at each area (assuming you don't have to collect all of them to move on) would be a nice way for the player to keep track of what they found so far. Also, since you guys already have some sort of inventory system, it might not be that hard to extend it to other collectables (maybe with powerups or temporary buffs/boosts when the combat system gets fully implemented). They could also help with the "memories" aspect as certain items can unlock a certain memory or act as keys to unlock hidden areas or even one big (final) area when multiple items are collected from various levels.

However, there are certainly some slight annoyances when it comes to implementation. As someone mentioned, the terrain collisions with the player can range from a pain to get unstuck to completely interrupting the experience (especially in the after-tutorial area) since the main character would not be able to free themselves (jump does not work and visually, it doesn't even look like they are stuck in anything since there was just open space). Though, I did not encounter jittery camera issues and the camera control was fine for the most part (the close zoom-ups sometimes do feel odd).  

The barrel puzzle...was quite a hassle. There was a tin bottle and a barrel, and only the barrel seemed to matter. There were times when the barrel would roll down the slope, and it was weird to roll the barrel back up. First, the player had too little mass (or everything had too much) so rolling would actually cause the player to roll up the barrel sometimes. Second, the collision wall to prevent progression got in the way of getting the player on the other side of the barrel to push it up the slope since the barrel would be against the collision wall. This was another confusing part of the tutorial since I initially did not know why the collision wall was there in the first place. The tutorial prompts were nice and helped to hint on what we needed to do to proceed, but being limited to just small squares on the ground as triggers could have been frustrating if I didn't notice it early on.

Overall, I think there's a lot of potential and building up the idea of collecting fragments and doing something with them (like unlock memories, perhaps as journal entries or something) instead of just an objective would certainly convey the story a bit better. The controls are certainly wonky at times, but I do believe this game can turn into something truly great -- just continue what you have currently, and it should work out in the end. The textures and environment (at least with the cave and lighting) look awesome and the playable character has a cool design with the side blades (why punch when you can just slash stuff with them), but jokes aside, it would be nice to see if the enemies have a similar design with accented colors that almost glow, contrasted with the darker tones that gives an almost deep underwater feel. Oh, and maybe extend the punch animation length (and apply it to a greater effect area) and add some animation to the jump.

1. What are things that you wished you could do/wanted to do but couldn't or was unable to? 
   N/A. I didn't have any thoughts that bore needing any specific mechanics. I was curious about how the fight system will be, but I'll be able to try it in future playtests.
2. What would you add to the game to make it more fun or interactive?
   I personally enjoyed the puzzles in the tutorial as a form of interaction. Even if they're lighthearted, I still felt invested enough to see it through. I don't think it's intended but seeing commentary/riddles like the barrel would be interesting insight into what kind of person we are.
3.  Do you feel that there were enough elements to the game that keeps it interesting? 
   So far I believe so, but I would need to see more of the elements for the game and how they play out together. I'm curious about whether the enemies will drop fragments or are a mechanism to block the objective. I think this can contribute to this intrigue.
4. Was the camera working fine for you? Is the sensitivity too low or too high?
   I think the camera sensitivity was too high. I would slightly turn and end up making a 180. The camera also clipped in a few places, notably at the end of the tutorial tunnel; this concern isn't daunting unless there will be more maps that have small spaces.
5. Is there anything in the playtest that made you frustrated?
   At the very most, I was mildly inconvenienced at the camera sensitivity, but otherwise I think the game has an interesting direction. I enjoy exploration aspects of games, so I found the tutorial light and enjoyable overall.
6. What would you add if you were working on this game?
   Definitely add more puzzles, I think there is a great idea that is being developed and I can see it being an interesting central part to the story. I also think the idea of it being moderately open but still linear is a good approach. I don't think there's anything philosophical about the map being purely open-space. I think it would be intuitive for the maps to appear very linear at the beginning, but as memory regains it can become more open-spaced to explore with regained powers. In general, I'm very curious to see how this game develops!

Hello,

I had a lot of trouble with this game. There were a lot of thing going wrong. A lot of it has to do with the movement of the player and free asset colliders.  The camera jittered quite a bit, probably because the script controlling it was not set under LateUpdate(). The camera positioning and aiming a quite good otherwise. The clipping into objects with the camera was pretty annoying, and may be fixed by transitioning to a first person view whenever a raycast from the camera to the player fails. On the other hand the jump mechanic felt really bad, and inconsistent. I would recommend making your own simpler colliders for the materials to allow for smoother gameplay. A bunch of these colliders made simply walk really painful. The high detail colliders and inconsistent jump made the first level unplayable.

In the tutorial there were quite a few things I found uncomfortable. First thing that stood out for me was that the punch action had the character preform a "ready" animation. Additionally, the punch hitbox felt poorly placed, almost as if it was at his feet. When playing the tutorial, the fact that not every crate or barrel broke was very confusing and frustrating as the hitbox for punching is already frustrating.  The barrel puzzle is a silly mechanic built that wastes the player's time, and completely deviates from your game's objectives.

I think it would be wise to head back to the greybox where you guys had a nice simple level with consistant movement and enemies existed. It made a lot of sense and allowed for a lot of openness compared to the current one dimensional gameplay. A player cannot get a sense of being a "God" when every little thing interrupts gameplay or forces them down a pixel perfect path. 

As the god aspect with endless options appeared to be one of your objectives, I think making your world more open could help a lot. Allowing the player chose to follow the intended path instead of forcing them gives a player the freedom of a god. I think enemies that can be blocked by one of the player's abilities such as spawning a dirt wall. There are a lot of options you can pursue. Good Luck.