Topic: Heed

[Ali]

I just realised that I forgot to post in this thread after playing Heed, what a dreadful oversight!

I enjoyed the game, the tone and atmosphere were very well realised. I loved the music, which had a charming music box feel and an off-kilter quality which reminded me of Tom Waits.

I didn't mind the simplicity of the puzzles, the measured pace or the shortness of the game. However I do think that the narrative and puzzles could perhaps have had greater impact if they had worked together more. The game felt like a series of stepping stones along a story, which was very pleasant. On the other hand, it could have been more effective if I had been learning things at each stage of the game, which I had to make sense of in order to complete the story.

You've created yet another charming world which I was drawn into by the graphics and sound. If the puzzles had helped draw me in to a greater extent, the story would have been all the more memorable. The unexpected...

Spoiler: ShowHide

...point where the character turns into a fly...

...felt like the beginning of that, but it wasn't exploited quite as much as it could have been.

I hope you appreciate that this criticism is in the context of me having enjoyed the game a great deal!

[ThreeOhFour]

Virtualpsycho: Thank you for your kind comments, and I am most pleased to hear you enjoyed it

Ali: And my thanks to you sir! I built the game room by room, and released each room as it was completed for people to play on my blog, so that they could follow the story chapter by chapter as it was being built - as a sort of experiment in writing and design for the game - which is possibly why it feels like a series of stepping stones.

I agree that it would have been nice if I could tie those puzzles to the story, and looking back I can see ways that I could have done this better (the puzzle with the three statues would probably have lent itself very well to this sort of thing), however at the time I was really quite stumped as to how on earth I was going to make puzzles with a main character that couldn't pick things up or talk or even step on a pressure plate (it seemed like such a good idea until I started trying to build the puzzles). Nevertheless, I appreciate your suggestions and agree with them, and I am most glad to hear you found the game satisfying!