Downfall (2009) - now FREE

Igor Hardy · Tue 19/05/2009 23:40:39

Played the demo thanks to anian. Intriguing, but I think it would hook more people up if it was longer, or at least had some sort of revelation at the end. Overall, the atmosphere and visuals remind me a lot of the Darkseed series (which I like quite a bit).

Grim · Thu 21/05/2009 11:04:01

I've just had a very interesting experience- my friend came over and played Downfall all through to the end with me sitting next to him. That of course took several hours during which he kept asking me not to help him with the puzzles, and at times of course I couldn't resist. The reason I'm telling you this, is because for me, as a developer ( I suppose I can call myself that now) it was a fantastic experience to watch someone who's never really played classic adventure games, like most of us here did, get into grips not only with a new genre but also fully understand what I was trying to achieve... He laughed at times ( the sound of bell in reception seemed like a funniest thing in the world to him and he couldn't resist to use it every time he passed that screen), but he also continuously thought about what he's supposed to do next.
You make a game, and things that seem obvious to you might not be so clear for the players if you didn't include enough hints in the dialogues or items description. And funnily enough the puzzles I thought people would struggle with, turned out to be the easiest for him, while he got stuck on the basic puzzles a bit....
I think it's his positive reaction and immersion in the game that was priceless. Maybe it's 'cos he's a friend? Or maybe the game's not so bad, if he sat there for hours enjoying it and then requested a Downfall poster for his wall?... That, ot the other, he made it easier for me to imagine what it's like to play Downfall, seeing it for the first time in your life. You kinda lose that sort of perspective after you've spent months and months working on the game and you know every little thing about it.
Then, about half-way through the game, I realized how very personal it is. It's a metaphore to my life and my relationship, and all the things that happened to me in those 5 last years. They're of course camouflaged under this gory nightmarish surface of storyline and graphics, but can be perceived as something completely different if you forget for a while about the whole horror background...

At least to me, it's a not a game about cutting people with chainsaws, but about anorexia, break-ups, temptation and trying to help someone but causing more damage instead.

Takyon · Fri 22/05/2009 20:08:45

Interesting, glad you got some good feedback man. How come you didn't use voice acting? I think that would have added massively to the whole feel of the game.

AbetheCop · Fri 22/05/2009 23:54:01

i am going to buy this, but before i buy, may i ask how long it roughly lasts and can you die in the game like old adventure games where it seems really random, and does the game have multiples paths or a linear structure but with multiple endings

sorry for the questions am buying this anyway, just wanted to know

Grim · Sat 23/05/2009 00:54:04

Quote from: AbetheCop on Fri 22/05/2009 23:54:01
i am going to buy this, but before i buy, may i ask how long it roughly lasts and can you die in the game like old adventure games where it seems really random, and does the game have multiples paths or a linear structure but with multiple endings

It takes me 3-4 hours to finish the game myself, and that's skipping most dialogues and not examining anything, just following the quickest path to the end of the game. Yes, you can die in the game, but there is a limited number of times you can go back to the last checkpoint when it happens. There is one place in the game where you die forever, though...
The multiple paths... I would say so. Yes. Play it yourself and you'll know what I mean- it's not that obvious, but sometimes actions you've taken early in the game can affect what happens in the finale.

GarageGothic · Sat 23/05/2009 02:07:06

I'm planning to buy this as soon as I have time to play it, hopefully some of the reported bugs will also be fixed by then. I played the demo (and loved it!) and was wondering if there's any way to turn off the Save/Load/Quit icons as I think their constant presence detracts from the beautiful artwork?

Grim · Sat 23/05/2009 03:39:16

I am going to fix those bugs very soon, but I've been so swamped with work I can hardly find time to do anything... Also a professor of English literature is correcting the script for me as we speak, so there will be no more typos in the version 1.3. I promise to send free updated version to everyone who had bought version 1.2, so you won't miss out on anything.

On the sales front things aren't looking too well. Not tragic either, but still not a lot of people heard about Downfall....I need to get more media attention somehow.

bebpo · Sat 23/05/2009 05:00:46

I just finished playing the game over the last 2-3 days and overall I really enjoyed it.

Things I liked in order of enjoyment:
-The humor. The writing was seriously funny in a way that not many good adventure games are these days. The main characters witty remarks were great and the post-plot twist 2nd half was really funny. As much as I enjoy the horror aspect, I think I'd be even happier playing a sequel that was a lighter comedy with this quality of humor writing. Some of the stuff was seriously old school Lucasarts worthy funny lines.

-The art design. Wonderful. Really enjoyed all the varied styles for setpieces. The backgrounds were fantastic and the character art was good. Animation could've been a little better, but was ok enough. I felt the game was a bit 'too' grotesque though, even as a horror fan. But that's just my personal taste.

-Item puzzles. Generally good and I'm always a fan of games with lots of items and places to use them. I did get stuck a few times and had to resort to the walkthrough, but the game still took me a good 5+ hours. In terms of difficulty I'd say for me this was a little harder than your average adventure game but not extremely hard.

-Music: Was fairly nice.

-Flashbacks/dream sequences: Thought they worked well and would've liked even more of them.

Things I didn't enjoy as much:
-As I said before I thought the gore was a little too extreme and grotesque.

-This is a personal thing, but honestly multiple paths that affect the finale really turn me off. I don't have a ton of time in my life and I'd rather play two games and enjoy two stories than replay one game twice. So I really prefer to get all the tale in one playthrough and it does leave this lingering feeling of incompleteness having finished it because I wonder what happens if you make other choices and yet I really don't have the time to replay the game even from a midway save where the choices are.

-Bugs: Only ran into a few. Most annoying was not being able to select any of the items in the item bar. I got one crash to the desktop, and the area of selection on an item was sometimes a little iffy.

Overall though I felt it was very much worth $10 and a nice adventure game I'm glad I played. Like I said, the writing was great and I thought the 2nd half was hilarious and very much improved the game until the humor kind of dropped away at the last 20%. The story was a little confusing in the end and I'm not 100% sure what everything meant, but I get the general gist and enjoyed it and will recommend it to others.

Hope you get some solid sales with this!

Grim · Sat 23/05/2009 05:30:59

Thank you for your interesting feedback!

A bit of humour in the horror story is essential!:)

You mentioned 3 different endings have put you off- if you were so curious to see them all you should've saved your game when they were presented to you:) That way you could see them all. Well, not really. There's actually 5 different endings and 2 different epilogues, but you would've seen 3 at least.

By the way, which one did you choose?

bebpo · Sat 23/05/2009 06:06:45

Yeah, I actually did that.

So I saw 3. What put me off a little were the ones beyond those three affected by earlier choices that I wouldn't get to see.

I chose the red color, no to temptation, didn't confront the doctor (not sure if that mattered) after talking to the receptionist, and choose arms up. Then I tried the other two endings. I liked that the facegun ending gave more dialogue and information to understanding the plot.

Grim · Sun 24/05/2009 04:28:03

I was wondering if anyone noticed hidden references to some other horror games in Downfall?... Doesn't Black Widow Film Studio ring any bells? The guard house, and how you enter it? The locker? The Waxworks? They all come from quite old games that many of the younger players might have never played... But I'm sure someone did. They used to be the favourite games of my childhood, and they scared the hell out of me....

One reference was purely accidental, though. Hotel in the game is called Quiet Haven. Someone pointed out on a forum somewhere that there is a hotel in Silent Hill called Silent Heaven. I instantly remembered then, but I never meant it to be that sort of wordplay...

xenogia · Sun 24/05/2009 05:00:26

All I noticed was the Porcupine Tree sample reference, which leads me to think are you allowed to use that sample. When you turn on the blender, if I am correct thats taken from a song called Open Car.

Grim · Sun 24/05/2009 05:08:19

Shush, Xenogia:) It's just a few seconds sample, and it's been altered a bit. I'm surprised people listen to PT in Australia. Damn good band though.

Dualnames · Sun 24/05/2009 15:10:15

I knew the game was cool, but for a reason it didn't felt (back then) so good to buy. Seeing the teaser however, I saw parts of the game, I wasn't aware they existed. I'm planning to buy this the next days for it looks really good man.

Just thought of sharing my thoughts.

Chrille · Sun 24/05/2009 17:07:45

Quote from: Grim Reaper on Sun 24/05/2009 04:28:03
I was wondering if anyone noticed hidden references to some other horror games in Downfall?... Doesn't Black Widow Film Studio ring any bells? The guard house, and how you enter it? The locker? The Waxworks? They all come from quite old games that many of the younger players might have never played... But I'm sure someone did. They used to be the favourite games of my childhood, and they scared the hell out of me....

Hah, I did think of Horrorsoft's Waxworks when I played the game but I always do when I hear the word. I didn't realise it was a reference. Waxworks and Elvira 1 are among my favourite horror games.

I think I'll get the game when the next update is out!

xenogia · Mon 25/05/2009 02:02:36

Quote from: Grim Reaper on Sun 24/05/2009 05:08:19
Shush, Xenogia:) It's just a few seconds sample, and it's been altered a bit. I'm surprised people listen to PT in Australia. Damn good band though.

I've seen em live and have all their albums.. lmao.. including the 5.1 albums

.. anyway a bit off topic

Cryxo · Mon 25/05/2009 07:42:08

Just bought Downfall to play on a camping trip.
I'll give feedback in a few days or so

I am really looking forward to play this.
From playing the demo, it's definitely worth my Â£6.95

Takyon · Mon 25/05/2009 19:29:21

I want to buy it but I can't justify paying for it when it doesn't have voice acting. I'll probably buy it when 1.3 comes out though.

Frodo · Mon 25/05/2009 23:14:38

Quote from: J. Man on Mon 25/05/2009 19:29:21
I want to buy it but I can't justify paying for it when it doesn't have voice acting. I'll probably buy it when 1.3 comes out though.

The question is... at $11.49, can you justify NOT buying it?

Grim · Tue 26/05/2009 12:39:52

Any of you know what could be causing the inventory bar problem? I'm working on the update and I'd really like to fix that for version 1.3. Clicking on the arrow makes inv items interactive again... But after loading the saved game the inv bar is unresponsive. Any ideas?