Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship

[selmiak]

finally I came around and played it and really liked it so I recorded a longplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc0g5Z8TVT4

[eri0o]

I just played the game and I liked it too, the graphics are awesome

The end came too soon though.

Just about the first puzzle, I will report my experience below. (just for the sake of feedback)

Spoiler

At first I was confused because I didn't found the photo, because I didn't understood that the previous captain was not the person we meet right at the start of the game, I tried to just look to open the toolbox since it's description said it was easy to open, but it didn't and took me a while to figure I should use the swiss army knife to open it...

So once the helmet got filled with blue, I was like, oh-oh, the previous owner is not the purple dude. So I kept looking in the ship for a description by pixel hunting, and then accidentally placed the battery on the sink, and then found the ingredient of the slug, did the glue, but tried to actually pick the glue with the swiss army knife, and then found the book, and then found the picture, and then assembled the thing and solved the puzzle.

[close]

[lorenzo]

selmiak: thanks for the video! It's so cool to see other people playing the game!

eri0o: thank you for the nice words on the graphics, and for the feedback!

Spoiler

Although I'm sorry that your experience with the game was confusing.
Other people have accidentally solved some puzzles before looking at the photograph, I definitely need to put a check for that in an update. This should also make clearer who the previous captain was.
Thanks again for the feedback, it's pretty useful!

[close]

[Sigh Man Vanz]

Hiya, I recently played "Clotilde Soffriti" and really enjoyed it! I'm just an adventure game fan, not a seasoned AGS dev, so take my feedback for what it's worth.

I really love the art style -- I haven't seen many adventure games with this clean comic-book aesthetic, it's very endearing and makes your game stand out. I can also tell that you have a good grasp of the technical fundamentals of making these games -- the cutscenes were smooth and I didn't encounter any glitches or bugs. And you've got a handle on probably the most difficult aspect of adventure game design, which is to design puzzles that are logical without being too obvious or obscure. I wasn't stumped for a particularly long time, but I did need to use a bit of creative thinking at times; much more engaging than the typical "use this object on that object" approach! Overall, the whole game flowed nicely in both a technical and gameplay sense in a way that not every demo does.

My main piece of constructive criticism, if you're going to continue with this series (and the title of your game implies that Clotilde will appear in future episodes) would be to give Clotilde a more distinct personality and background, especially if you're thinking about making her a recurring character (which I hope you do -- space comedies are a dime a dozen in the adventure game world, and your game stands out for having a female protagonist in such a setting). I found myself wondering who exactly Clotilde was, how she ended up in this situation, and how she feels about the people around her and the events transpiring. The main character trait I gleaned was that she seems to have a somewhat dry sense of humor and an unflappable disposition, but perhaps that was just a result of her dialogs being relatively underwritten? I would suggest having her add more unique observations about the world around her when using the "look" button, including a few tidbits about her past. There was a snarky sense of humor to the game, but honestly I think it could have been effective if it were even snarkier. The strength of your game is the art style and your unique protagonist -- really lean into it and make her stand out even more!

Anyway great job, I look forward to playing your next game   The whole thing has charm and is definitely on the right path, and I think if you sharpen your vision of the main character and her world just a bit, you might really have something special.

[lorenzo]

Hi Sigh Man Vanz!
Thank you very much for your kind words and your feedback, which is very useful!

I'm really happy you enjoyed the game!
I agree that the characters aren't really that well developed! I tried to inject some personality in Clotilde's responses when looking at things and using inventory objects on them -- but maybe they weren't enough. I'll try to write more unique responses in the future (luckily, I enjoy writing them!)

I have already started working on a sequel and it'll have more characters (at least, that's my intention), so I should have more occasions to flesh out Clotilde's personality through dialogue. The game should be a bit longer too, so maybe that will help too.

Thanks again, I'll keep your observations in mind while building the next game!