Abyss

1. The first play through basically everything bad happened at once, the next time I played, nothing happened which I thought was nice so I could explore the ship a bit before everything bad happens.
2. Instead of random, maybe gradually increase difficulty
3. Pretty good. 
4. I liked the notification system, died right before resupply oxygen pretty epic.
5. I understood.
6. I like the run where things got gradually more difficult, pretty fun :)

7. Animations, and maybe pistol should be raytraced so instant hit might be more fun, Had a hard time picking up object sometimes. 

1. The experience was pretty good! I feel like the time between tasks is pretty good.

2. Maybe a 6? The game has a overwhelming feel but I know that is intentional given the game theme.

3. I think it would be interesting if enemies became more aggressive over time.

4. The event notification system is pretty good, Maybe making a icon for each event would help make the game feel faster paced? With the player beginning to associate the icon with the event happening.

5. Space Crystals were interesting, I think maybe finding a few stray ones around the ship might help the player get started while encouraging exploration.

6. The game is fun! I enjoy the aesthetics.

7. Nothing new aside from what was suggested in the other points.

-Alexis

1. A lot of running around but mostly because I was a little confused.

2. I would rate it a 5, because honestly the hardest part was figuring out where to stand so I could put out the fires. The enemies were very easy and it took me a while to figure out how to steer the ship, but I basically never did because to do so you need enough fuel, but fuel is only obtained from the enemies who drop space crystals, but a lot of the time the drop rates were bad and sometimes I wouldn't even get an enemy event until it was too late.

3. Enemies feel like they have too much health and they take a while to kill. I also think they should be faster because I never really had any sense of urgency trying to kill them, it was just tedious. 

4. I actually do like the alarm sounds and that they sound different for different events. However for the pop-up message I think it goes away too quickly sometimes and there's not enough time to read when I'm trying to do other tasks at the same time. 

5. I think the space crystals were a little confusing at first, but that was because my first play through I got like 3 fire events in a row and since you can only get the crystals from killing the aliens I didn't understand why I couldn't get fuel or steer the ship. I think there needs to be other ways to get fuel for it to stay interesting.

6. The game is very "ehh" to me. I think it is a little slow and I found myself mostly just walking in circles waiting for the next event and refueling oxygen. I also think there needs to be something more interesting in the center room, since that is the transition room to all the important areas. You visit it a lot but its basically just empty space with no real purpose, so I think there should be some kind of event or even just more decorations/ obstacles to make it feel a little nicer. I also think there needs to be more visuals indicating when days start and end, because the day counter doesn't really give that sense of tension that I want it to. 

I also think the player should be able to run and have more events at a time to make it feel more like multitasking instead of waiting around. In the first question I said it feels like running because I'm confused, but I want it to be running because I'm excited and focused on surviving. 

7. One thing I don't really get is the minimap in the corner, it's zoomed in so much that it doesn't really give a whole lot of information that I couldn't just gather from looking at the screen. Zoom it out a little or get rid of it completely.

1.) A bit frustrated at the randomness.

2.) I played twice, and both times got the "Cadet" rating, which, based on the description, I assume isn't good.  The issue is, I didn't feel like that was my fault.  The first time around, the game refused to give me the ship steering event, which it seems like you need to get in order to steer the ship.  I ended up sitting there, all events done, waiting for it to give me the ability to not die.  The second time it was generous with the ship steering events, but I ran out of fuel and only got one invasion, therefore being unable to steer the ship more.  I have no idea how you're supposed to get further than 5 days except hope for better RNG.  Therefore, I'd rate the game about a 3/10 on difficulty for the things I felt I had agency over, and a 10/10 on the things that I didn't.

3.) The enemies feel pretty week.  I think their health is good, because most invasions required almost all of my ammo to deal with, but they really don't do much to you.  Even taking bullets to the face it only took 1 or 2 health pickups to get back to full, something they basically always dropped.

4.) Unless I'm missing something about the game then yes, I felt like I was informed on what I had to do.

5.) It's a bit weird to pick up the space crystals from enemies since you need to have your body over the top of it.  When I first went to pick one up I expected it to be the feet that needed to overlap since you have a 3/4 perspective going on.  I also never got to 10 crystals, even though I completed every invasion event I got.

6.) I kinda hate to say it but I didn't really have that much fun.  It seems like the game you guys are going for is a hectic, juggle many things at once sort of game, but I felt like I was waiting for the next event more often than not.  The worst event was the "everything seems calm on the ship" event, since at least I got to do something during the other events.

7.) If I am missing something critical about how to succeed in the game, I'd try and make it more obvious to the player.  If not, I'd amp up the frequency of events.  I think the player should usually fail because they are overwhelmed, not because they were unable to steer the ship or gather fuel to do so.  When I fail, I want to feel like it's my fault, and that there's something I can do better.  If my perception of the game is that the only thing that could be better was my luck, then I don't really feel like I want to play it again.

1. How do you feel about the length of each in-game day? 

I think the days feel pretty good. There was a bit of idle time when I finished a task though.

2. Is the amount of time you get before your oxygen runs out a good amount? 

I think it should be a bit more aggressive. Maybe like 1/3 or even 1/2 depleted every day? Right now it feels like its about 1/4.

3. How intuitive are the controls and the events? 

Controls are fine however I ran out of bullets and wasn't able to kill the enemies past day 2.

4. What do you think about the enemies (how they play, their health, the damage they deal)? 

I think they should either hit harder or faster. I got hit a couple of times and was almost full HP.

5. What do you think about the item drop rate from enemies dying? 

I didn't notice any items dropping from enemies.

6. What do you think needs to be improved to make the game more intuitive and fun to play?

I think to make it more fun/challenging you could incorporate mini games like among us to finish your tasks. Just walking up and pressing a button on the objective isn't very fulfilling.

7. What would you rate the difficulty of the game as (between 1-10) and why?

2, there isn't much challenge besides initially getting familiar with the game. Once you realize that you cant pick up ammo and that you need to refill oxygen everyone in a while, there isn't much of a real challenge.

1. The length of the day felt fine to me. Not too short, not too long. 

2. The amount of time before oxygen running out felt fine, gave me plenty of time to do things but I did need to occasionally refill it. 

3. The events were a bit confusing to me- I didn't know what the sound was at first and I wasn't sure when I could fly the ship. Also, if you just avoid the rooms with enemies/fire does it actually penalize you? 

4. The enemies felt pretty easy to me. They could have slightly higher health maybe.

5. Drop rate felt fine.

6. I would make the event warning smaller, since it took up like half the screen and never went away. Having it disappear between events would also be nice. Also more info on how/when to steer the ship. 

7. I would rate this like a 5. Lots of things going on to pay attention to so there's a bit of a learning curve but not too bad. 

This is really good!

The day length and oxygen timing is good, I like that oxygen can be replenished from enemies as well.

The controls and enemies are also really well done, I think it would be cool to have the enemies become more difficult as time passes.

I think having the dialogue box disappear after finishing a task would be really nice, it staying makes it seem like a task is not complete.

I'd rate the current difficulty at 5

-Alexis Rivera

Hey Guys!

I like the look and feel of the game so far but felt a little lost in the beginning. I was easily able to get to the cockpit as I feel is intended but after I hit E to steer the ship the first time nothing really occurred. I kept hitting E but nothing happened. It also kept the message on the bottom that said to steer the ship which im not sure is supposed to stay. I ran around a bit and let the oxygen meter run down and I think the timing on that is good. The enemies were pretty easy to kill and didnt post much of a threat. Other controls during the game didnt trigger in game events as well. When hitting E to pick up sometime it worked and other times it seemed to freeze up. When killing enemies every single one dropped an item and that seems like to much to me. I think the item drop rate needs to be less. In order to make the game more intuitive and fun to play it needs to have a faster pace. Right now everything is very slow allowing the player to wander around. By picking up the pace by lets say spawning more enemies or changing the oxygen depletion rate or charge amount you can make the game a little more fun to play. I rate the difficulty overall a 3/4 out of 10 because there isnt a specifically challenging aspect of the game yet. I think it just needs to speed up a little more. The art is super super cool though and I love the transitions. 

I like this game so far. It does have room for minor improvements though. I think the length of each day is fine. I find I'm completing tasks well before the next day with a few exceptions. I think there should be less oxygen supply so that you have to refill your oxygen more often. This might make the game slightly more dynamic. Some controls are a bit clunky to me. For extinguishing fires for example, I consistently had trouble putting them out because I wasn't sure where I needed to stand or how exactly I needed to interact with the fires to extinguish them. I know the button was 'E' but do I need to tap the button, or hold the button? The same goes for picking up items and some events. Some events like steering the ship are a bit, and I felt it should take a little longer or be a bit more dynamic. Like pressing different panels or buttons to dodge debris or something which is indicated by red or green lights next to the panels. Definitely something to play around with. As for the enemies, they seem fair. They should shoot a bit more often because I find I'm only have to dodge a shot or two before I take them all out. Maybe give the player's weapon a longer cooldown between shots. Also make it so that the aliens don't spawn when the player is in the room. I found that when I was in the oxygen room, I could take out the aliens as they spawned and they didn't have time to do anything. I can't wait to see what they look like when they are done. Unless giant alien TicTacs are what you're going for, then spot on. The drop rate seems fine. I would say make the interaction button something you can press with the thumb, like Spacebar. This might make it easier to move around and do tasks.

I'd rate this game's difficult a 3 out of 10. That's not a bad thing, because I don't think you're going for anything particularly difficult. I always have a foreboding sense of doom because I know I can't do anything to stop the inevitable destruction of the ship. So you definitely hit the mark with the theme.

1. I thought the length of each in-game day was perfect. It made it very stressful and made me feel like I had to keep moving to stay alive.
2. The amount of time before your oxygen runs out was good. I think if it was any longer it would feel like a chore and if it was any shorter it would feel unfair.
3. The controls were intuitive, it was a little hard at first to tell where I was shooting. I got a little confused with the events. I didn't understand at first the sound that was playing every so often was the events happening. I also didn't understand that I needed different items to interact with the fire and so forth. It also wasn't very clear when I could steer the ship. Maybe having a cooldown or something above it would be helpful. Also, I experienced a bug with the fire event. It spawned outside of the ship and there really wasn't anything I could do about it. It felt like I could also ignore the fire since I didn't take damage or feel like it affected my surroundings
4. Honestly, the enemies were kind of easy for me. They didn't really feel like a threat.
5. The drop rate was kind of low. I only got maybe one drop I think in my four or so encounters with them.
6. I thought the game was fairly intuitive. Some things that might help would be the rest of the character animations, as well as a more clear idea of where my gun was pointing? It also might help to have like an empty slot or a prompt to tell the player that they need a specific item to do something. But I thought it felt really good and fun!
7. On a scale of 1-10 for difficulty, I would say it was a 6ish. It felt mostly stressful to me with how much was going on and how fast the time moved.

Overall, I think it was pretty fun. Some things need some tweaking but nothing felt game-breaking. I like the different events, but I would try and give them some weight so it feels important to complete them sooner rather than later. But regardless, it's pretty fun, and I can't wait for the finished product!

1. The length of the days felt pretty good overall considering the current number of activities to do. I made it to day 6.

2. I think the oxygen supply is good. It's not a huge issue most of the time, but if you don't pay attention it can become a huge problem.

3. The controls are pretty intuitive. A quick note: your instructions say you shoot with right click but it's actually left click. My biggest problem with the controls was just finding the right way to activate them. For the steering, I could do it once, but it was hard to tell whether I should be able to do it again or how long I would have to wait between steering (side note, I love the graphic that plays when you steer). Also with the fire extinguisher, I had trouble knowing how close I had to be to the fire to be able to use it. I think having a spray animation or something will make that pretty easy to figure out though.

4. The enemies are a good difficulty if the goal is to make them a distraction rather than a challenge. Having to shoot enemies took about the same time and concern it would take to deal with the other problems. If they're meant to be more intimidating, then I'd say you could up their damage a bit.

5. The item drop rate feels good. It's a nice boost after an attack, though sometimes I end up with more health than I need. 

6. I think adding more animations and sprites will clear up some of the confusion as to when things can be done. My biggest concern would be indicating when you are or aren't allowed to do a certain action in some way (see question 3). Overall the game already feels good, it's just a matter of making it clear what you're doing.

7.  I'd say the difficulty was around a 7. I only made it to day 6, and I think with some practice I could make it much farther. But the constraints of the different emergencies you have to handle keep you moving, and I think it'll definitely keep you from just playing forever.

1. How do you feel about the length of each in-game day? 

The days feel fine assuming more and more things occur each day. At the current moment I always had plenty of time to do things and just sat around in the middle for the last 20% of the day.

2. Is the amount of time you get before your oxygen runs out a good amount? 

No. I believe it drains a bit to slowly. A potential idea may be to implement a sprint that takes more oxygen.

3. How intuitive are the controls and the events? 

Simple and easy to follow so acceptable. Once I read the how to play it was simple.

4. What do you think about the enemies (how they play, their health, the damage they deal)? 

Both the enemy and the player's projectiles seem too slow. I never once had a problem with them and I would just spam gunshots at them from range.

5. What do you think about the item drop rate from enemies dying? 

They worked but I never seemed to need them. It came down to never really using much of the resources so I could just walk to the normal spots for refills

6. What do you think needs to be improved to make the game more intuitive and fun to play? 

Faster projectiles and more varied enemies .

7. What would you rate the difficulty of the game as (between 1-10) and why?

I would rate it a 2 as the enemies are more a inconvenience than a threat and the resources were used so slowly I had no issue refilling.

1. How do you feel about the length of each in-game day? 

I feel like the in-game day length was a bit long after playing it a second time.  I get that it acts as a timer till collision but it didn't seem real intuitive.  Maybe just having a straight countdown without day/night cycles would give a stronger sense of urgency to complete the tasks.  I guess a day/night cycle doesn't make as much sense to me being that you're in space.

2. Is the amount of time you get before your oxygen runs out a good amount? 

Like the day and night cycle, I feel like the oxygen depletion was a little slow.  When I first started it seemed like I was concerned that I would run out of oxygen  but once I got the hang of it, I didn't have any issues running out.  I found it a little difficult to use the O2 refill in the O2 room.  It seemed like I had to be in just the right position to activate the refill.  Maybe increasing the detection range would help with that.

3. How intuitive are the controls and the events? 

The controls seem good.  The one thing I did notice was that in the instructions it says right click shoots but right click didn't do anything for me but left click did shoot.  I think using 'E' to use the fire extinguisher was a little odd but that may just be preference.  I think I would prefer to use the mouse to use the extinguisher. 

As for the events, they seem good as well but I found that the events didn't progress any further once I hit day 5.  I killed all enemies and put out all fires except for one on the top of the map I couldn't get to.  Then the event just stayed on the "interact with controls" event.  I would just keep going in and steering the ship and the days to collision would increase but no other events would come up.  At that point I stopped playing since there wasn't anything else to do.

4. What do you think about the enemies (how they play, their health, the damage they deal)? 

I felt that the enemies were way to easy.  I didn't have any difficulty completely avoiding there attacks and it was easy to just shoot them down quickly.

5. What do you think about the item drop rate from enemies dying? 

I like the item drop from the enemies it fits well.  I think if they are dropping O2 refills than that might lend better to increasing O2 depletion.  

6. What do you think needs to be improved to make the game more intuitive and fun to play? 

Along with some of the things listed above the main thing I think would improve the game would be to difficulty.  It seems easy to avoid enemies and run back and forth to complete the tasks.  Maybe there's some issues with the fire initiation since the first time I played it seemed to spawn and grow quickly.  The second time I played the fire spawned on top of the wall and I couldn't put it out but it never grew either.  Maybe being able to fire the extinguisher could add a better visual element to its use rather than just pressing 'E' when close to the fire.  

7. What would you rate the difficulty of the game as (between 1-10) and why?

I think that I would rate the difficulty at 2 just because the enemies seem way to easy to fight.  This may be just because what happened during my gameplay.  Maybe I ran into something that sparked an error.  Nothing really happened after day 4 or 5 and all I had to do was just keep steering the ship away.  Maybe if I played further along, difficulty scales up but I just didn't get there I guess.

1. How do you feel about the length of each in-game day? 

I think the length of each day is good, although I found it difficult to tell the purpose of the day counter besides a counter to doom.

2. Is the amount of time you get before your oxygen runs out a good amount? 

I think the oxygen time is fine based on how its refilled.  It did confuse me that when I went to the oxygen room I couldn't refill my oxygen all the way (only slightly more than half).  The amount it filled up felt alright, but maybe if the whole bar is being used it would be better to have it go down faster.

3. How intuitive are the controls and the events? 

I think the controls are intuitive enough.  The things you do in the events are pretty self explanatory (I did have trouble finding the fire extinguisher the first time I got a fire event, but there wasn't much to search).  I think the thing that's difficult for me is understanding the impact of ignoring the events.  It seems like there's a "doom" clock in the top left corner and most of what I do doesn't affect it.

I also had an issue where a fire spawned right at the trigger to go through the door.  Whenever I tried to put it out, I got teleported to the main room before I could.

4. What do you think about the enemies (how they play, their health, the damage they deal)? 

Enemies felt pretty weak to me.  The only time I took damage it didn't feel like a lot.  I'd keep the enemy health the same (since you have to deal with them with limited ammo), and make them more threatening somehow.  Faster, more damage, ranged, etc.

5. What do you think about the item drop rate from enemies dying? 

I actually kind of didn't like the items dropping from enemies and personally would have not included it.  I think it would increase the frantic aspect of the game if, after a fight, I had to choose to go a medbay room or the oxygen room to refill my bars.

6. What do you think needs to be improved to make the game more intuitive and fun to play? 

I feel like I lacked a sense of agency while playing your game.  Part of that was that usually I had enough time to do everything I was told to do, with only a couple of events per day.  I'd actually try and increase the number of things happening at one time.  The text box system at the bottom wouldn't be able to accommodate this, of course, but perhaps a list on the side could be helpful.  I'd also like to see what the impact of ignoring an event is.  If I know what the impact is, I have the agency to prioritize fixing one event over another.  So I guess that's it.  If the game is MORE frantic rather than less, and I have to choose to save the things that are valuable to me I think I'd be more invested in the game.

7. What would you rate the difficulty of the game as (between 1-10) and why?

I'd give it like a 3, although take that number with a grain of salt.  I felt like I handled everything the game threw at me (except the rogue fire that could not be put out), but I could be totally wrong.  I was focused mainly on the event system, and did whatever the pink box at the bottom told me to do.  Occasionally I'd have to take a detour for oxygen or ammo but for the most part it actually wasn't that stressful.  If I was missing an aspect of the game because it wasn't showing up in that box, then I could be totally wrong about difficulty.