Re: Anthophobia
Just finished playing it, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.
The good:
- Animations are great
- Sound is good.
- You finished it!
Here are some tips as well as some gripes with the game:
F4 should not close the game. That's what usually goes fullscreen..
Game needs a more obvious pause button (I didn't realize there was one until I beat it), Enter would work. Or, make it so ESC brings up a pause menu instead of exiting. My first time playing, I pressed ESC to change options and I lost a bunch of progress.
The game needs mid-section save-points where you can save at any time. A gallery after you beat the game is fine, but I want to experience H-animations during the game. I can't look at animations if I know I'll lose a ton of progress, and there are a lot of sections were going around getting keys again isn't really fun.
Don't place walls you have to break down for no reason. They aren't fun to break down, and they take too long to break down.
Parts with the spore monsters feel like blind luck half the time. You can essentially get stun-locked because the spores hit you immediately after escaping something. Sections with more than one felt very obnoxious, and half the time it makes more sense to just run through, which makes you feel like you cheesed the game.
Generators should have a message when you click on them with no gas "Looks like a generator. If I had some gas, I could get it up and running" etc. Otherwise first time players will wonder what it is or why they can't click on it.
There are a lot of mid-game areas that have so many monsters that it's pointless to fight them, and you just end up running past everything. Maybe it's intentional but it feels cheesy when you do it.
The last boss shouldn't have an attack that you have to move right to avoid. Most players probably notice or experience that the boss insta kills you if you touch him, so creating a situation where the player has to go against the rules you established doesn't really work, in my opinion. Not unless there's visual indication that something has changed (such as his hands disappearing).
The second boss could do with more visual indication that he's getting hurt by the mines. Or better yet, visual indication that everything else is NOT hurting him (*tink!*). It's also strange that nothing changes about him when you finish shooting his bottom half, and nothing really indicates why, or where you should shoot next. (such as something opening on his head.)
I played on easy mode and the game was too hard. Mostly because of the lack of checkpoints, and the sheer number of enemies that you run past sometimes. I think you should have a mode for people who are in it for the H-content.
Some of the sections where there are no enemies and you just run to the right feel too long. I ended up using Cheat engine to speed up the game during these parts because I just wanted to hurry and get to the next part. I understand when there's stuff to see, but otherwise...nah.
The enemies with the tongues can pull you through closed gates.
You could show what key is required to open a door when you try to open it.
With all the great animation, why are the melee swings and hit-sparks not all animated?
I didn't like how certain H-stages animations had no climaxes. Done for economic reasons but I still wish they were there. (in some cases I'd prefer a climax to an extra pose)
I had no major problem with the voices, but other people might. Generally a good idea to include voice volume.
Last Boss is a huge difficulty spike. Later boxes drop so late that you barely have time to get them. Stone from the ground doesn't have enough indication that it's gonna happen. I tried to cheat at this part, because I didn't want to play it a third time after my second loss. I failed at cheating, though, so I beat it on like my fourth try.
To be honest the CGs...weren't very good. The reason it's so jarring is because some of the animation is on a whole other level. It feels like two completely different artists. Granted, I feel like a lot of pixel artists probably have the problem of disproportionate skill. I doubt my CGs are on the level of my pixel art either. However it's still something you'll have to work on.
Anyway, that's about all I can think of at the moment. Congratulations on the release. I hope you make tons of money, and I look forward to whatever you do next.
