[Project] Critter is here!

farsicon

Hey everyone!

So, after a couple of long months and several iterations, I have finally managed to deliver the prototype that I wanted to submit 2 comps ago. \0/

Presenting Critter, a game where one or more players can control different tentacles of the same organism to solve physics puzzles. The game is up on paxador.itch.io/critter, along with instructions, etc.

Please note that the use of controllers is preferred, and the game is being developed with consoles in mind - keyboard control is purely for testing purposes.


(not a trailer)

Thanks for trying it out!

As usual, any feedback and/or suggestions would be awesome, especially if anyone is able to play with multiple xbox 360/ xbox one controllers :)

critic

Wonderful concept, presentation is good, music is good, mood is good.

However, the controls on the keyboard are horrific, to the point of it being unplayable. I would seriously consider a complete redesign of the controls, if you want to release this on the PC. With controls like this you are hitting a very specific and somewhat limited market, this is a controller/console setup at its core. I would suggest you make this a one player only on keyboard and streamline it so it's playable as that. For instance, you could use the mouse for tentacle aiming, control and WASD keys for controlling the character, you could even add multiple tentacle control selection for a single player by using the mouse wheel or 1-4 keys. With that you have a very solid PC setup.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, I mean no insult. This could be a really good PC single player game if the controls are sorted, that way you will be hitting a much broader target audience.

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@Critic: You are absolutely right - the keyboard controls are clunky at best, but the game is actually aimed at consoles and people that have controllers (I should have mentioned that) - I have only included keyboard for testing of the prototype. I'll give the mouse idea a bit of a go when I have time - you may have a good point there, but I think switching between tentacles will be quite cumbersome though. Thanks a mil - good feedback :)

Elyaradine

I think that's a great-looking mechanic! :) It kind of reminds me of multiplayer Octodad (which, maybe, informs a lot of what's to follow).

If you do pursue this, I think pushing the fumble-core kind of angle would be popular amongst Youtubers, although I think it'd also need stronger theming that's less abstract and more relatable. (e.g. less "I hit the key icon" and more "WHY DID YOU KNOCK THE KEY OUT OF MY HAND LOL"; less "I moved the row of blocks" and more "Now this is how you do interior decoration!")

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@Elyaradine, I actually stumbled across octodad while doing some research, but decided to go into a slightly more precision oriented direction - there are design elements like running out of air, and a leaderboard that is time based, that counters goofing around quite a bit - but it has the side effect that players tend to get upset with each other when things go wrong. Making fumbles part of the mechanics can probably change that and make it more fun to play, but at the cost of the tension and rewards from good teamwork that I was aiming for.

I'm going to put a lot of thought into your suggestion and see what I can come up with - I especially like the key idea, and should have thought of that one since I already have cubes and orbs that works like that - I think you are absolutely right about making things less abstract, and I should be using the physics more to get better gameplay out of it.

As for your last comment - can you please elaborate on the interior decoration statement? It sounds like you have something interesting in mind, but I can't make the connection.

Thanks for the great feedback!

Dipso

Very cool idea :)

Looks good and sleek.
The movement has a nice squishy feel :)

Watching the critter move around gave me the sense that it was trying to escape from some kind of maze prison. But also that it's not friendly and it’s escape will be bad for humanity :P
.

Elyaradine

farsicon said:

As for your last comment - can you please elaborate on the interior decoration statement? It sounds like you have something interesting in mind, but I can't make the connection.

Lauren Beukes at the A MAZE jhb festival gave a great opening speech where one of her points was that when you create, these things don't exist independently of the reader: the reader (player) consumes what you make, but brings along with them all of their experiences and their connotations. (In academia this was explored by Roland Barthes, in case you want to read up on it.) When you create an abstract blank slate (both in character, and in environment), there are few compelling connections the player can instantly make with what you've made -- which is fine if this is designed (I think this is the case in the abstract art in Thomas Was Alone), but I think that very often this is a product of its being merely easier, rather than its being the best direction for a game.

So if you're moving blocks around a level, maybe it's mechanically interesting in terms of players needing to cooperate their movements. But if you theme it nicely (although my example may not be great), the experience changes from moving some blocks around a screen, into moving furniture around an apartment. Making the "wrong" action that might set you back moves from "you moved it wrong" into "well that's a really unproductive place to put a television", making taking the less direct way to reach the goal an enjoyable experience itself. They may end up moving further and further away from the mechanical goal (touch this block), but it doesn't matter because they might be having fun just stuffing around with furniture physics because "DUDE, the couch is better on the television anyway, because this is way better feng shui!" (They'd be carrying with them all of the (shitty) misinterpretations of feng shui that went on in the early 00s, and the hilariously impractical layouts that western [or only South African? I'm not sure] media joked about.)

There are definitely abstractly-themed games that are great (Super Hexagon!), but I think it's worth considering whether that's actually the right direction, and not to discount how incredibly powerful it is to have a theme/visuals that allow people to role play.

farsicon

@Dipso, thanks man

@Elyaradine, I hear what you're saying. I have not settled on theme/art yet, and of it's just me working on the game it will probably remain abstract as I simply don't have the skills (or time to level up) to make it better - the same goes for sounds. Perhaps if the game garners some interest I will invest in outsourcing this to someone who can :)

Elyaradine

Yeah, I understand.

I don't want to belabour the point, but I do want to clear something up: I do think it's worth thinking about this as a game designer, even early on -- the value here isn't so much in having gorgeous or expensive art or audio (there's potential value there too, but it's a different conversation) so much as creating more opportunities for play and role play (which I think is much more of a design decision than necessarily an artistic one in this case).

If we take a local example like System Crash, @garethf seemed to know early on that he cared about the cyberpunk theming. The result, I'd argue, is that there were mechanical things that entered the game (e.g. "hacking" deck archetypes) that interact well with the theme, so that both strengthen each other. It didn't matter as much what the card art looked like (definitely not as a prototype imo), but I think it did matter that he knew he was trying to create part of a hacking fantasy (stay hidden/defended while covertly chipping away at the objective!) and tailored the mechanics toward that. I think board games are the masters of doing this theming thing in their early stages.

So the theme isn't purely about aesthetics, or staying abstract because of lack of resources. I think you can have abstract looking art while you explore ideas, but I do think it's super useful to think about what these represent (if indeed this ends up being a good direction). If you tell me this block is a TV, I'll treat it differently to if you tell me it's a dormant atomic bomb, and if you've thought about which it is, you can design interesting interactions based on that.

You have a critter. Why would he want a key, or to reach an exit block? Could there be a stronger theme for tying the concepts together? Monster prison break? Exploring a shipwreck? Needing to fix a space ship in zero gravity? And once you've found it, this could spawn loads of new mechanical ideas that enrich the fantasy, hopefully then ideas that are more interesting than "fetch key unlock door" (or at least make it feel less tropy).

Anyway, I don't want to pressure you to do anything. XD I just think it's worth keeping this stuff in mind, because I think it's super super powerful, and I wanted to have made a case for it.

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@Elyaradine, you are absolutely right about the motivations of the Critter and a narrative component - I see now that is what you meant with theme. I did put some thought into it while doing the prototype, and may still explore it if interest in the current build justifies further development. It has also led me to a different game which I will probably start on next that will have similar puzzle and local team play, but with more depth and a bit more "theme/storyline" oriented - My brain just couldn't think of anything that didn't involve lots of art and production work.

For now Critter will probably just remain a multi-player puzzle game with a weird input scheme :P

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@Elyaradine, and just to clarify - I really appreciate the detailed inputs! Those are exactly what Critter needs to be awesome :)