A game by @snapman-gt (@snapman_i_am on twitter) for Ludum Dare 41. A combination of a Walking Sim (firewatch, tacoma, ethan carter) and a Walking Simulator (as popularized by Bennet Foddy's QWOP, GIRP, CLOP, and Getting Over It). Collect the journal pages to uncover a dark and foreboding story. And maybe try not to fall.
EDIT: Adding this because nobody seems to understand the in-game sign: Look at your feet to not trip
You just gotta look where you're going. You only trip over stuff you can't see. In Watcher's Steps, you gotta... watch yer steps. (If you look at the floor you won't fall over, but it's more realistic than just that. It simulates tripping over your own legs from changing direction too fast, slipping from stopping too quickly, tripping over stuff you can't see behind you, losing your footing from falling too far to catch yourself, and even dizziness).
This game makes me feel conflicted. The ambience is great; the storyline is intriguing and I like the general weird/unknownness of the setting. The voice acting, sound, and look and feel also fit very neatly together. However, the game is not very playable. You have to walk very long distances and even then sometimes when you keep looking at your feet you fall randomly. Also when those turrets turn up it becomes even harder, especially since there's not a run button (or I missed it, possibly).
I really want to like this game because it's so intriguing and mysterious, but on the other hand I also think that a mechanic that basically forces you to look at the floor all the time is not very much fun. Maybe if there had been a few spots with rocks/puddles of water where you had to be careful, or that you only had to be careful if you ran really fast? At least then it could be sort of a choice to take the risk. Now I kind of felt like I was randomly punished, which is a shame because I really wanted to know how the story ended and what is on top of the tower!
Next time if you make the game a bit more approachable I think you'll have a very, very solid game!
@bobismijnnaam The tripping is not random. You trip from changing you speed too quickly (high velocity delta). You can do that by turning too fast, pressing an opposite direction too fast, or moving up or down too fast (stepping on stones, falling). You can negate the effect by looking down, but you don't have to look straight down. All this is countered by some things you can't block (falling a very long distance, or tripping while walking backwards). My hope was that these rules would be discoverable, but apparently they were not.
@snapman-gt If you explain them like that it sounds very logical and I guess I could properly finish the game, but that wouldn't change the speed at which I would play the game (which is really slow currently). I want to emphasize that I really liked the game a lot more than I do most other games (propably also because I'm a sucker for walking sims), but the mechanic as it is now is kind of anti-fun which is not great for the overall experience.
@bobismijnnaam Well, it is inspired by Getting Over It, so frustration was definitely a goal. This whole "incompatible genres" thing really made this LD weird, you know? (Also, regarding speed, you move faster when you're looking up)
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The aesthetics are pretty darn good! I would really play a normal (I mean, a standard adventure game :smiley:) in this world.
I really want to like this game because it's so intriguing and mysterious, but on the other hand I also think that a mechanic that basically forces you to look at the floor all the time is not very much fun. Maybe if there had been a few spots with rocks/puddles of water where you had to be careful, or that you only had to be careful if you ran really fast? At least then it could be sort of a choice to take the risk. Now I kind of felt like I was randomly punished, which is a shame because I really wanted to know how the story ended and what is on top of the tower!
Next time if you make the game a bit more approachable I think you'll have a very, very solid game!