Hi Yash,
Well done on completing this section of the course and publishing your game!
Feedback, as requested
I like the font you have chosen for the text in your game, even more so I like the use of colour throughout your text, the red to highlight specific parts and the light blue for the instructions. I didn’t notice it at first as I was focusing on the text but the background image is also a nice addition, especially because it’s subtle, you can see it but it doesn’t detract from being able to read the text.
Requiring the player to hold a key down to view information is an interesting concept and does enable you to provide an effective modal style window, this would be an ideal input for perhaps glancing at a map, checking a compass, but where you have a lot of text that the player has to read I, personally, don’t find it so comfortable to have to hold the key down.
The character info is a good addition and again I like how you have used different colours in the text to separate the characters.
On the instructions page you indicate to the player that they are required to hold down U for gear and I for items. G for gear might have made a little more sense, assuming that this key isn’t bound for another purpose in your game. The player will think “gear” and then instinctively go for the G key (some assumptions being made in my statement their based on the languages people speak and the alphabet they use clearly).
As I read the instructions I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to use a specific piece of gear or an item, after the verbose instructions on the keys etc this felt like it was going to be the way the game would progress, however I assumed that this was perhaps because it helps to reduce the number of conditions that would be required in your code and this made sense. It also demonstrated that you had given a lot of thought to the items and gear that the characters had to tie in with the various routes through your game - and I like that - I like that you took the time to do that.
By the time I read the Mission Briefing I started to feel that I had seen the "Codename : " phrase a few too many times, it was duplicated on the main scene but I rolled with that, it loses its effectiveness if used too often in my opinion. Again, I liked the use of colour and I thought the addition of the map was really good - I did wonder again why this was bound to L, I assumed because of “location details” but I think “map” would be the phrase a player may more commonly associate with, and thus M perhaps as a keybinding.
On that note, as you are introducing a lot of keys in your game for the player to consider, a feature you may consider adding would be Configuration, why not list all of the bindings to the player, gives the defaults but then allow the player to change them, that way for annoying players like me, I could have G for Gear and M for Map
If you did introduce that you would probably want to also consider the idea of a Pause menu, e.g. I can press a button which brings up a menu of items (Restart, Options, Quit perhaps), via one of these I could then change the keybindings during the game.
I like that you have continued the theme with the coloured text and kept the association with the characters when there is dialogue.
As the story progressed I started to notice the background images more and more, this didn’t detract from the story but I noticed the art style, is this your own work? It’s very good.
The little rhyme regarding zombies was quite funny, I’m assuming this is some of the humour you mentioned above, it was nice to see the text had changed from the previous visit to the same state.
I like the narrative in your game and you present a well thought out and thorough version of the Text 101 project in which you have added a good variety of additional features.
I was a little disappointed that, after introducing the map with the L I was not able to access this at any point during the game. That felt like a feature you were introducing, like viewing the player’s inventory, that I would be able access as I played, sadly that wasn’t the case.
To summarise, I really like what you have created here, you’ve created a unique version of the Text 101 game and introduced a nice set of features. Some could be extended a little further which could improve your game even more.
If I could wave a magic wand and get a couple of features, just for me, they would probably be;
- changing the keys which are mapped to actions (U, I to perhaps G and I etc) - consider these as core inputs in your game and then change the letters of the choices where necessary for each state of the game
- lose the 1 and 2 for viewing gear and items in favour of holding down I (inventory) to see both gear and items at the same time
- enable the player to view the map (M) at any point during the game, this could help with choices
I note that your game was created following the original Text 101 section of the Unity 2D course, you have, I’m sure moved on since then, but you may want to consider running through the new version of Text 101. Rick demonstrates the use of scriptable objects and the concept of states of the story, this may be something which could help reduce the code/story mix which I’m assuming you have (based on the original course), and with that separation you will invariably find it a lot easier to extend the game.
I hope the above is of use and thanks for sharing your game and letting us play it