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My feedback

Started by xelanoimis, July 11, 2010, 05:25:51 AM

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xelanoimis

Hi there,
I've just finished the first episode so here is some hopefully useful feedback from me too.

First of all, the game was entertaining and motivating enough to make me wanna play more and find more about the story and the mysterious evil wizard. The story looks interesting enough. Cutscenes are pretty good and cinematic. So are the dialog scenes and their framing. The dialog lines are nice, though sometimes they sound a bit childish (not serious enough for the situation or for my personal taste) - still they fit well in the classic KQ style.

There aren't much puzzles in this first episode. But that's OK since I prefer a game focused on the story and since this is the first episode it probably prepares the background for the rest.

Now what I'd like improved:

1. The most annoying thing for me was Graham's walking animation. The players sees it all the time and this animation is really bad. Sorry to tell you this, but this should definitely be fixed not only for the next episodes but for this first one too. The rest of the animations are acceptable. I noticed some wrists getting torn (squeezed) from the skinning when palm turns up. I appreciate how the character's eyes look in the right way during dialogs and not stay fixed in their sockets (a common mistake in many games).

2. The dialog texts (fonts) are too small making it difficult for some people to read them during dialog choices. I played at 1024x768 on a 22'' monitor. They were readable for me, but some other people would find them difficult.

3. There's no pathfinding, or it doesn't work very well. Graham gets stuck into blocking objects and slowly slide out of collision instead of walking around them. I suppose this is a technical issue left out of the engine because of time or resource limits. Might be late now, but if you want help with it, I have implemented such an algorithm (suitable for 3D adventure games) using nav-meshes and I can give you necessary advice/code (all you need is to construct a low poly mesh for each scene to tell where the player can walk). Let me know.

4. It was somehow annoying that the right mouse button is used for cycle mouse actions and for skipping dialogs. Sometimes I was missing speech because I wanted to walk away after inspecting an object (and pressed right button to change cursor into walk action). Not sure if there's a better way to avoid this since both features are needed and should be easy accessible. Maybe an option in the menu to use 3rd button for skipping speech.

The rest are just simple thoughts and impressions:

5. Some silly "can't do the obvious" issues. I'm referring to the fallen tree blocking the way. Why would Graham try to lift the tree instead of simply climb over it or walk around it. I suppose all adventures are full of these issues so they are generally accepted. Still... Also the sailor at the docks was quite uncooperative, even in front of a bag full of golden coins. I mean that should be enough for him to buy few more ships, but instead he was eager to return in 2 days and sit there at the docks with no clients :) And being a business man he should have known how the money look and recognize Gram without him showing the golden piece, or the dialog should support the case better.

6. In the beginning I missed Graham's room and wondered around the palace for a while. I did try the doors in that hallway, but probably I had to look at the door first, before trying to use it.

7. It was great to see the next episode video after finishing this one. Though for some reason the page wasn't accessible for me right away. Luckly I bookmarked it and it worked fine after I restarted my computer (other pages were working fine). Not sure if it's a general issue.

Thanks for doing a great work and we all wait for the rest of the episodes!
Alex


B'rrr

Quote from: xelanoimis on July 11, 2010, 05:25:51 AM
And being a business man he should have known how the money look and recognize Gram without him showing the golden piece, or the dialog should support the case better.

The coin was a new coin though (the old ones had the image of King Edward on them) and was from another kingdom, so that might explain why.
~Mary Jane supporter~
~Legend~

xelanoimis

One more thing about the registration requirement before downloading.
I'm not sure if it's still on and I saw that the previous thread about it was locked.

The registration requirement to download something should not offend someone who's interested. Still it's been proven that some people simple refuse to register and prefer not to download, especially if they don't really know what is it about. So, because of this developers shouldn't be offended when someone complains about this practice. They should consider what is more important for them: getting a larger exposure or getting quality members/email lists.

I mention this because someone on another forum where I spoke about the game complained about not being able to download it: "Do you have to register with the fan club to download the game?  I think I might have gotten lost trying to find the download."

As a rule when you want to sell a game, or in this case widely expose it, when you hear this kind of comments you do have a problem. Not to mention all the people who doesn't bother to mention it at all.

Koko

Downloading the game now :) Thanks for the game, cannot wait and good luck with everything!  :)