Haunted Island Game - Testing & Opinions

[Oryxo]

Weird, the game worked fine for me using firefox 30.0 & windows 7 so I'm not sure why so many people seem to be having issues.

As for the game, I've really enjoyed the story so far and I think the art looks great, but I'm really not a fan of most of the gameplay mechanics.

Actions to progress the story
I've always found pixel hunting annoying, especially when you know what the game wants you to do and can't find exactly HOW you need to do it. Unfortunately, this is something that happened way too often in this game. It kind of breaks immersion when you spend around 5 minutes, maybe even more, trying to find how to remove your own bikini...

Disc Minigame
I didn't really mind the disc minigame except for the fact that the transition between having to click the text bubble after reaching a certain point and then the minigame restarting instantly after you clicked it felt pretty awkward.

Sex Minigame
I feel like having some info on how the minigame actually works wouldn't hurt here because, unlike the disc minigame that was pretty straightforward, I'm still not totally sure how this one works. Even after playing through the game and getting a lot of hearts most of the time, there were still a few times where I only got 1 heart and I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with my timing. It's not a bad minigame but overall I felt like it took away from the scene, maybe it's because I wasn't exactly sure how the minigame worked, but I felt like I was spending more time focusing on timing my mouse movement then the actual action and art.

In the end, and maybe it's just a matter of preferences, I feel like a lot of the mechanics take away from the flow of the story because you're stuck trying to figure out exactly how the game wants you to execute the pretty obvious action you need to do to proceed or take away from the art because you're focusing more on the timing of a minigame and even more so if good performances are an actual requirement later on for parts of the story. I think that's also why I didn't mind the disc minigame as much because I think I found it's use less "intrusive". For example when it's used during the boat scene: I didn't mind having to time the discs while they are riding the boat because there's less action going on, there's just a few lines of text to read so the minigame is kind of like you were piloting the boat and someone was talking to you at the same time. Anyway, even if there's a lot of complaint in this post, I still really enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to see what happens next.

looking forward to the scene with Amy and that boy whose name currently escape me.

[arnii]

Weird, the game worked fine for me using firefox 30.0 & windows 7 so I'm not sure why so many people seem to be having issues.

As for the game, I've really enjoyed the story so far and I think the art looks great, but I'm really not a fan of most of the gameplay mechanics.

Actions to progress the story
I've always found pixel hunting annoying, especially when you know what the game wants you to do and can't find exactly HOW you need to do it. Unfortunately, this is something that happened way too often in this game. It kind of breaks immersion when you spend around 5 minutes, maybe even more, trying to find how to remove your own bikini...

I take your point, I'm working on a hint system that will basically tell you what to do once a certain time period is up. While this is intended as a immersive experience I do want to keep some gameplay elements so I will continue to try and get the balance right in this regard.

Disc Minigame
I didn't really mind the disc minigame except for the fact that the transition between having to click the text bubble after reaching a certain point and then the minigame restarting instantly after you clicked it felt pretty awkward.

Interestingly, if you want to get the best time bonus you can get a couple of sneaky hits in these transition periods. I may play around with the timeing here to see if I can make this less awkward.

Sex Minigame
I feel like having some info on how the minigame actually works wouldn't hurt here because, unlike the disc minigame that was pretty straightforward, I'm still not totally sure how this one works. Even after playing through the game and getting a lot of hearts most of the time, there were still a few times where I only got 1 heart and I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with my timing. It's not a bad minigame but overall I felt like it took away from the scene, maybe it's because I wasn't exactly sure how the minigame worked, but I felt like I was spending more time focusing on timing my mouse movement then the actual action and art.

Thanks for the feedback here, I think that perhaps the animate instructions are a little bit misleading - actually the game here is all about the downward movements and getting the time right (although it generally works if you loop as the instructions say). Undoubtedly the hardest part of this is the initial 'slow' phase and if you are not getting the maximum hearts every time then I think this game works in terms of providing a challenge. I may have a go at changing the instructions here, watch this space. I also take your point about detracting from the action. I think in future episodes I will try to include more automatic animation in these parts, although I think I will leave this as is.

In the end, and maybe it's just a matter of preferences, I feel like a lot of the mechanics take away from the flow of the story because you're stuck trying to figure out exactly how the game wants you to execute the pretty obvious action you need to do to proceed or take away from the art because you're focusing more on the timing of a minigame and even more so if good performances are an actual requirement later on for parts of the story. I think that's also why I didn't mind the disc minigame as much because I think I found it's use less "intrusive". For example when it's used during the boat scene: I didn't mind having to time the discs while they are riding the boat because there's less action going on, there's just a few lines of text to read so the minigame is kind of like you were piloting the boat and someone was talking to you at the same time. Anyway, even if there's a lot of complaint in this post, I still really enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to see what happens next.

looking forward to the scene with Amy and that boy whose name currently escape me.

Thanks, your comments were really useful. I would say that I do want this to be both an immersive narrative experience as well as a challenging game - perhaps this is not possible, but nonetheless I will keep trying to get that balance right.

p.s. I think a few people are waiting to see what happens with Amy

[fleet]

Another possibility is to change the mouse cursor shape when it is within the hotspot(s), to help people find them.

So maybe from an arrow (when not within a hot spot), to a closed hand (to indicate you should grab something when within the first hot shot) to an open hand (to indicate you should release something when within second hot spot)

I totally agree with the above.

[karrek]

I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to more. My biggest complaint is that in its current state it ends rather abruptly, before I was, ahem, "ready"...

[Cochise]

Well, I'm also on the latest Firefox and the game freezes at certain times, or when using tab too frequently.

Guess I'll just wait till more stuff gets resolved. Good try.

[arnii]

I've added hints. When there is a pixel search the solution will appear when you press the 'H' key.

Regarding Firefox, it is working although there are some specific issues that I think are resource related (too many sprites on screen maybe) that cause it to hang for a few seconds. It works very well on chrome.

Anyone who manages to finish the game, can you let me know what kind of scores you are getting - thanks.

[me3]

Game's off to a good start. Yes there's some problems and browser related issues, but tbh that's something that should be expected. Browsers got very different levels of support when it comes to css3, html5 and related javascript functions. Things that's been supported for a long time in one browser isn't supported yet in another, and opposite.

There's some "design aspect" i'd like to point out.
First off is the hint system, while it's annoying to hunt for relatively small hotspots and "guess" what could be interacted with, there's also the aspect of destroying the game.
With the hints you've added now you fall dangerously close to the last part, and tbh it's getting a bit to the border of making players feel stupid and being given way too much help.
As suggestion on doing "hints" i'd say you should rather highlight the area (starting area in case of dragging actions) with something slightly covert, like some kind of smaller version of the sparking you have for some of the hotspot acts. That way the users that can't find the area gets a small hint as to where they should be trying, but they still have a bit to figure out. And it wont make the game way too simple for everyone.

Second thing might be less doable. You seem to be loading alot/everything at the start, while that might be simple for you it might not be the best option for usability and support.
Some might have problems with too much being loaded at once, it also slows down play start, if possible it might be worth loading scenes as needed, maybe preload them as players get closer to the end.
This might be related to why some have problems and others don't, they could be ending up suffering memory issues etc, as too much "useless" data is taking up memory, which should instead be available for rendering than prestoring data they don't need for a while.

[fleet]

On the hints, I'd recommend adding a hint button, so that only those who want the hint can get press the button and then see the hint. I do NOT recommend 'progressive' hint buttons. I played one game that did that and hated it.

Regarding gameplay this time through, the hints worked, up to the naked man 'click and drag'. The hint did not appear there, and I clicked all over him, but was unable to get him to move.

Encountering bugs in places where I previously played without encountering bugs is extremely frustrating.

[redle]

Sex Minigame
I feel like having some info on how the minigame actually works wouldn't hurt here because, unlike the disc minigame that was pretty straightforward, I'm still not totally sure how this one works. Even after playing through the game and getting a lot of hearts most of the time, there were still a few times where I only got 1 heart and I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with my timing. It's not a bad minigame but overall I felt like it took away from the scene, maybe it's because I wasn't exactly sure how the minigame worked, but I felt like I was spending more time focusing on timing my mouse movement then the actual action and art.

Thanks for the feedback here, I think that perhaps the animate instructions are a little bit misleading - actually the game here is all about the downward movements and getting the time right (although it generally works if you loop as the instructions say). Undoubtedly the hardest part of this is the initial 'slow' phase and if you are not getting the maximum hearts every time then I think this game works in terms of providing a challenge. I may have a go at changing the instructions here, watch this space. I also take your point about detracting from the action. I think in future episodes I will try to include more automatic animation in these parts, although I think I will leave this as is.

Interesting... Yeah, that mini game didn't give me any clue that speed of controls was a factor at all. Also never was positive if I needed to be moving directly over the graphic or simply in the general oval shape anywhere on screen, nor how much narrowness of the movement was a factor.

In the end, and maybe it's just a matter of preferences, I feel like a lot of the mechanics take away from the flow of the story because you're stuck trying to figure out exactly how the game wants you to execute the pretty obvious action you need to do to proceed or take away from the art because you're focusing more on the timing of a minigame and even more so if good performances are an actual requirement later on for parts of the story. I think that's also why I didn't mind the disc minigame as much because I think I found it's use less "intrusive". For example when it's used during the boat scene: I didn't mind having to time the discs while they are riding the boat because there's less action going on, there's just a few lines of text to read so the minigame is kind of like you were piloting the boat and someone was talking to you at the same time. Anyway, even if there's a lot of complaint in this post, I still really enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to see what happens next.

Thanks, your comments were really useful. I would say that I do want this to be both an immersive narrative experience as well as a challenging game - perhaps this is not possible, but nonetheless I will keep trying to get that balance right.

This cuts right to the heart of the point I'd tried to make in an earlier comment. Mini-games are much better when moved away from the sex scenes instead of into them. We've seen the boat. Okay, good enough. Now we have 5 minutes of crossing the lake? I'm good with playing a game during that time to accomplish the task and not watching the boat continue it's way across the water (still would be nice if the mechanism changed so that I couldn't accidentally click away text bubbles before I can read them).

Not saying mini-games are an absolute no during the sex scenes, but those should enhance the scene or not exist. Outside of those scenes they can exist simply to make the game a game without any big problems.

[Delru]

the game bugged when i used the hint for the knife draw, maybe a blocked animation? (chrome, win7)
good game otherwise

the info about timing for animated scenes helps a lot to understand the "heart" behavior)

[arnii]

Added some improvements to the HGame instructions, hopefully it is clearer what you have to do.

[arnii]

On the hints, I'd recommend adding a hint button, so that only those who want the hint can get press the button and then see the hint. I do NOT recommend 'progressive' hint buttons. I played one game that did that and hated it.

Regarding gameplay this time through, the hints worked, up to the naked man 'click and drag'. The hint did not appear there, and I clicked all over him, but was unable to get him to move.

Encountering bugs in places where I previously played without encountering bugs is extremely frustrating.

Hints now work using the 'H' key. Other bugs should be fixed now too.

[arnii]

Game's off to a good start. Yes there's some problems and browser related issues, but tbh that's something that should be expected. Browsers got very different levels of support when it comes to css3, html5 and related javascript functions. Things that's been supported for a long time in one browser isn't supported yet in another, and opposite.

There's some "design aspect" i'd like to point out.
First off is the hint system, while it's annoying to hunt for relatively small hotspots and "guess" what could be interacted with, there's also the aspect of destroying the game.
With the hints you've added now you fall dangerously close to the last part, and tbh it's getting a bit to the border of making players feel stupid and being given way too much help.
As suggestion on doing "hints" i'd say you should rather highlight the area (starting area in case of dragging actions) with something slightly covert, like some kind of smaller version of the sparking you have for some of the hotspot acts. That way the users that can't find the area gets a small hint as to where they should be trying, but they still have a bit to figure out. And it wont make the game way too simple for everyone.

Second thing might be less doable. You seem to be loading alot/everything at the start, while that might be simple for you it might not be the best option for usability and support.
Some might have problems with too much being loaded at once, it also slows down play start, if possible it might be worth loading scenes as needed, maybe preload them as players get closer to the end.
This might be related to why some have problems and others don't, they could be ending up suffering memory issues etc, as too much "useless" data is taking up memory, which should instead be available for rendering than prestoring data they don't need for a while.

Thanks for the useful suggestions, i'm going to work on streamlining the resources tomorrow - although I think I will keep all the asset loading at the beginning. The specific issue I am having with firefox is when there is an emitter object which produces a load of short-lives sprites - this is when the game hangs when I am testing it in chrome. I have reduced the number of sprites created which helps, but overall chrome performs much better all around.

[arnii]

I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to more. My biggest complaint is that in its current state it ends rather abruptly, before I was, ahem, "ready"...

Guess you will just have to wait until episode 2.

[fleet]

On the hints, I'd recommend adding a hint button, so that only those who want the hint can get press the button and then see the hint. I do NOT recommend 'progressive' hint buttons. I played one game that did that and hated it.

Regarding gameplay this time through, the hints worked, up to the naked man 'click and drag'. The hint did not appear there, and I clicked all over him, but was unable to get him to move.

Encountering bugs in places where I previously played without encountering bugs is extremely frustrating.

Hints now work using the 'H' key. Other bugs should be fixed now too.

Thank you very much. I'll play it again tomorrow.