A really great first effort! Good work. I enjoyed this game bar a few niggles with the interface.
Things I liked:
1) The sequence where Crowley tries to escape, but his exit is barred by the chained up doors. This reminded me of the first Resident Evil game, and was a nice little touch that helped set the atmosphere for the game.
2) Something I enjoyed was the way that towards the end you could use the book, but have nothing happen. The first time round I was fully expecting the monster to disappear as soon as Crowley had stopped reading from the book. I was genuinely as surprised as he was that the monster kept on coming!
3) The two points above helped convey a nice sense of fear - Crowley isn't an unfeeling hero, he's genuinely scared of the monster, and that makes him a much more believable character. While there were a few times that this illusion was broken, they can be easily remedied (see below).
4) The scene where Crowley is chased into the freezer, then is told he has 2 minutes to escape was pretty nice. I think the simple addition of an onscreen countdown in the top corner of the screen would be great for this sequence, adding to the dramatic tension.
Areas for improvement
1) Just to reiterate a point people have already picked up on - issues such as having to click walk to do down ladders while having to click use to go upstairs. Being able to interact with Crowley is another problematic feature that you should be able to easily remedy.
2) Another point that has already been mentioned is that the text descriptions of some of the items are very generic. This was particularly apparent when Crowley was locked in the freezer. Clicking on the bodies in there gave a response something along the lines of "It's a dismembered corpse". This is a very casual response! A slightly more freaked out message would have helped to keep the sense of immersion going here.
3) I felt the death where Crowley looks into the mirror was a nice touch, but somewhat unexpected and unfair. To quote from an article on a Hardy Developer's Journal, "All dead-ends... should be adequately tipped." In adventure games, there is usually no good reason not to try clicking everything unless you are specifically warned not to, or it is blindingly obvious that it is not a good idea to do so. I don't remember being warned that looking into a mirror would be a bad idea. Some kind of note about not looking into mirrors could be inserted into the diaries Crowley finds everywhere to give players a warning about this.
4) The random creaking noises were a nice touch, but sometimes they occurred in unexpected places. They put me in mind of old floorboards creaking, so I was surprised to hear them both inside and outside the house. Perhaps this could be changed by having a simple boolean value for each room of the game to determine whether a random noise happens there or not? Perhaps indoor locations could have certain noises (creaking, dripping in the cellar, etc) while outdoor locations could have others (owls hooting, gusts of wind etc)
5) A few of the locations were a little too dark for me - for example, after going down the ladder I didn't notice the archway first time round, simply because it didn't show up for me because it was too dark. This could perhaps be fixed by using a slightly different colour pallet.
Thanks for making this game. It shows a lot of promise, as it would only require relatively minor tweaks to be made great. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
Spoiler
Things I liked:
1) The sequence where Crowley tries to escape, but his exit is barred by the chained up doors. This reminded me of the first Resident Evil game, and was a nice little touch that helped set the atmosphere for the game.
2) Something I enjoyed was the way that towards the end you could use the book, but have nothing happen. The first time round I was fully expecting the monster to disappear as soon as Crowley had stopped reading from the book. I was genuinely as surprised as he was that the monster kept on coming!
3) The two points above helped convey a nice sense of fear - Crowley isn't an unfeeling hero, he's genuinely scared of the monster, and that makes him a much more believable character. While there were a few times that this illusion was broken, they can be easily remedied (see below).
4) The scene where Crowley is chased into the freezer, then is told he has 2 minutes to escape was pretty nice. I think the simple addition of an onscreen countdown in the top corner of the screen would be great for this sequence, adding to the dramatic tension.
Areas for improvement
1) Just to reiterate a point people have already picked up on - issues such as having to click walk to do down ladders while having to click use to go upstairs. Being able to interact with Crowley is another problematic feature that you should be able to easily remedy.
2) Another point that has already been mentioned is that the text descriptions of some of the items are very generic. This was particularly apparent when Crowley was locked in the freezer. Clicking on the bodies in there gave a response something along the lines of "It's a dismembered corpse". This is a very casual response! A slightly more freaked out message would have helped to keep the sense of immersion going here.
3) I felt the death where Crowley looks into the mirror was a nice touch, but somewhat unexpected and unfair. To quote from an article on a Hardy Developer's Journal, "All dead-ends... should be adequately tipped." In adventure games, there is usually no good reason not to try clicking everything unless you are specifically warned not to, or it is blindingly obvious that it is not a good idea to do so. I don't remember being warned that looking into a mirror would be a bad idea. Some kind of note about not looking into mirrors could be inserted into the diaries Crowley finds everywhere to give players a warning about this.
4) The random creaking noises were a nice touch, but sometimes they occurred in unexpected places. They put me in mind of old floorboards creaking, so I was surprised to hear them both inside and outside the house. Perhaps this could be changed by having a simple boolean value for each room of the game to determine whether a random noise happens there or not? Perhaps indoor locations could have certain noises (creaking, dripping in the cellar, etc) while outdoor locations could have others (owls hooting, gusts of wind etc)
5) A few of the locations were a little too dark for me - for example, after going down the ladder I didn't notice the archway first time round, simply because it didn't show up for me because it was too dark. This could perhaps be fixed by using a slightly different colour pallet.
[close]
Thanks for making this game. It shows a lot of promise, as it would only require relatively minor tweaks to be made great. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!