10 seconds of Hell – A short Post-Mortem

The intention :

The goal was to put the player in a still, peaceful environnment and to make him both scared and fascinated by ‘danger waves’ of 10 sec which would come at him at random time intervals.

Go to the game’ s page : http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=11703

What went well :

I think the oppressive/troubled feeling I wanted to convey is really present into the game (for some people at least). The shader effect (a greyscale effect adapted to materials) plus the music have managed to set a special mood and dynamic.

Things I would do different :

Although gameplay is indeed scary and oppressive, it seems players don’t enjoy to play it at all. I really should have put the ‘fun’ factor much higher in my priorities. Although the hardcore difficulty is required for the gamefeel, I should have ensured that the ennemies were fully visible and understandable before they hit. I should also have explained more precisely the goal of the game because a lot of people were lost.

On the other hand, I should have spent more time integrating the music system, because it’s completely broken in the final version…. It works in Unity but the webPlayer screws it all :(

Anyway it was a great experience once again, I learnt things and enjoyed myself, and then played a hundred great games… see you next time :)