Greetings IndieDB patrons and prowlers,
It has been a couple of weeks since Sp.A.I was unleashed into the world [-wide web] and we at //No Comment are amazingly pleased with the response.
We've enjoyed everything since: the praise, the criticism, an occasional whinge about any of the bugs that inevitably escaped our boot, and even a few pastries, made lovingly by adoring fans, delivered to our doorstep. They were prepared in amateur style but the idea was nice and we promise to eat them once they clear various tests.
Now, to the point...
As most people who visited Sp.A.I's residence here at IndieDB would know, we are a bunch of graduating Uni students at QUT in Australia, and Sp.A.I was our final year project. For some of us in //No Comment, it was only the first or second game we've worked on in our academic career. For others, it was one of many such projects. Regardless, Sp.A.I was the best learning experience we could have hoped for in such a hectic academic year and we really do thank all of its partakers for their attention and feedback. It is invigorating to see something we have created be downloaded, played, and loved/hated by real human beings in the real world. The artificial intelligence we developed to play and unconditionally love the game truly pales in comparison.
So, the main point of this news article is to humbly request more feedback, from anyone who has downloaded Sp.A.I and either successfully or unsuccessfully launched the executable. If you haven't downloaded it but have observed from afar like so many love-struck teenage boys before you, tell us what you think about what you've seen through those slightly greasy binoculars.
For us, Sp.A.I, as well as a project we poured a great deal of effort into, was a learning experience and we're not through with learning just yet. While the response has been amazing, and we love everyone who gave it any attention at all, we believe we can learn much more from our audience.
So, please - leave us some comments to chew on. Uni students are always hungry for more - partially because fees are absurdly high and we just can't afford food, but also because we know there is always more to learn!
Points to consider:
Do you like the visual aesthetic?
Do you like the aural aesthetic?
Do you like the puzzles? Which ones?
What about the controls?
The enemies?
What confused you?
What was well-presented and clear?
What do you just not like?
What aspects of Sp.A.I make you want to/have successfully induced vomiting?
What would you like to see in the future?
Is Sp.A.I a project you feel deserves to see further development?
All feedback is welcome, from the harshest criticism to the most ego-inflating praise.
Thanking you kindly on behalf of the entire team of //No Comment,
Skylark.
Hmmm... questions. I liked the visual aesthetic but I thought that some sections (especially the block puzzle section) needed to be re-done so you can see what's going on properly. The colour scheme made it difficult to tell where the lasers were going. Also, I think overall, some parts of the worlds were slightly too busy to the point where it's distracting. I really liked the block puzzle and the platform puzzle but I don't think the "dodge the laser" puzzle is worth keeping in. I reckon you should either get rid of it or replace it. The way AIVA floated made it pretty difficult to judge distances and stuff during the platformer levels... I reckon she should just walk. A few important points (you actually need to walk through the block puzzle wall after you solve it etc) were left out of the tutorial level but aside from that it was pretty awesome and clear. Outside of gameplay, graphics settings, control settings, and save options need to be implemented. I'd be very happy to see the game continued. I really enjoyed playing it and it definitely kept me interested. Nice work overall! =D
Further development, the project has soo much scope to evolve. I urgeu guys to sit back and just plan things for about a month and then get on track, this can be a big commercial success if done rightly.
-Do you like the visual aesthetic?
10/10 hellyeah!
-Do you like the aural aesthetic?
10/10 hellyeah!
-Do you like the puzzles? Which ones?
the multiple stuff with laser beams mirroring with triggers that more comlicated
-What about the controls?
okayish
-The enemies?
the "cameralike" bots that flying around could be something more hostileish lookout ( some sort of red twisted-spiderstars sort of anti-body dunno )
-What confused you?
nothing in a negative way ( the tutorial part is quite well made! )
-What was well-presented and clear?
tutorial :D
-What do you just not like?
so far i liked evry part of the game
-What aspects of Sp.A.I make you want to/have successfully induced vomiting?
??
-What would you like to see in the future?
some sort of "endless ending" so players could be just hanging around in the endless digital word | or a way to be hanging around and able to choose the next quest by going in a area for a gate to enter
-Is Sp.A.I a project you feel deserves to see further development?
its not a question! hellyeah!
oh i just had a brainstorm about the "What would you like to see in the future?" question so i just write down a few things as a addition to my prev comment..
i'd like to see some sort of equipment in the game. like a hack program as we are, we could "write\" addons for our self as a defence-reaction to the enviroment, like:
-temporary shield thats protect us from any form of dmg
-some sort of weapon as a secondary fire thats disables the target for a sort period of time
-cloack device that makes us invisible for a sort time of period
-upgrades of speed? or addon that makes us faster for a sort time of period
-traps addon like we could create a copy of ourself that makes actions of its own so we can operate while the defense-system is busy with the fake copy?
-creating this addons on ourself would require the tiype of code combination as a input. we could retrive that codes during the quest as a revard or a as an information we could get by infiltrating the actual quest mainframe
and so on :D i go a few ideas, i'll write more if needed or got something in my mind..