It's a bit like "Little Nightmares" but with a home brew quality, essentially a puzzle/platformer with the edge grabbing, box pushing, and some sinister undertones. The controls were not as clunky as I expected, although there are some specific areas in the game with tricky jumps and some annoying edge detection, perhaps if you go back and just make those lines a little cleaner, it would not be too bad, make sure things are not getting in a way when you trying to jump.
Only took me around 30 minutes to finish, so there is not a ton to say about the game, although I liked the overall thematic elements, instead of going for the generic boogeyman, the real horror is growing up, and experiencing the things that come with it, like anxiety with your face covered in acne, or having changes in your body as you mature. The level design and details were not too bad actually, aside from some annoying detection that is, I liked that you combined the environment with how the character feels in the moment (reminds me of Alice games), like that acne themed level. It didn't have many stages to experience in the first place, but the stages that were there usually had some interesting moments, that TV effect and the sound design on it was a nice touch, so if you make a bigger project, I would keep that aesthetic going, combing a cozy look with the psychological tension.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) I liked the overall theme for the story, that horror of growing up instead of having a real monster, the art panels and the detail in the environment were okay for a free game, and aside from some polish issues, the game didn't look that bad. A few levels also had some interesting aesthetic going for them, like the acne level with weird sound design that added that psychological tension to the game.
(+) The gameplay and the puzzles were okay, obviously there are some issues with the edges, but if you clean it up, I liked the flow of the gameplay and navigation.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
[u] Some issues with the environment [/u] - specifically in that acne stage, there are holes in the blood where you can fall under the death hit box. Also in the same level the jump and respawn points were a bit tricky sometimes, for example if it puts a respawn behind the chair on the island, making it hard to backtrack. Sometimes it was unclear exactly where you could grab the walls, and I would often miss mid-air jumps because of it.
[u] Grain effect [/u] - if possible maybe add the option to disable it in the settings, I know many horror games love that thing, but 99% of the time it makes the game look worse, especially if you already going for surreal level design that looks fine without it, I would recommend to focus more on colors and just surreal aesthetic of the levels, darkness and filters are cheap tricks and they generally don't make the horror games look better.
Another small thing that might help, even if you make a small project, just adding some collection content and achievements will make the game feel more complete, maybe picking up like 10 buttons or something, and you can have more fun with the level design to complement that.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
It's a nice entry point if you just testing where you at as a developer, I liked the ideas, just make it a little bigger, more polished, and I think a similar game can be worth a purchase, there are many games like it that do well. I didn't have any issues with the narrative or the vibes, if anything I thought the psychological effects were nicely done, just make sure you clean up that environment and make the grabs more intuitive, it felt clunky with many of the jumps and respawns. Maybe it would help if you watched someone play it so you can see where people are having an issue.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
