Once a Stray

I played the game and got to the end of the second level. Here's my take on it so far.

The bad

• The movement is very floaty, its nearly impossible to land a jump correctly
• The attacking feels like it was a last minute mechanic. There is no locking onto enemies, attacks need to be perfectly angled to deal damage. There is barely any feedback both visually or audio that damage was dealt, only a meter that goes down.
• The design for the power meter is flawed a bit, here's why. Attacks are dealt in a purple color, the same color as your meter. It is easy to infer that this is a mana meter rather than a power meter. Perhaps have orbs that spawn on a successful rat kill that the player picks up and fills the meter, to better indicate its ability.
• Level design could use more work in drawing the player's eyes to certain places, if I hadn't attended the RTM play through, I don't think I'd have as easy of a time finding where I need to go.
• There is no sense of reality in the sense that objects and entities just disappear when they no longer have a use.
• Enemies sometimes would just hit you then never deal damage again until you move.
• Enemies once within range would just bump into you then spiral into circles and just bounce around you.
• The enemies are boring, it gets repetitive very quickly until more ranged enemies are introduced.
• You can't see much of the world or enemies, if you don't pay attention the rats are easily simply black pieces of hair coming at you.
• Sometimes the quick-time-event UI dialogue would stay visible with a very low opacity.

The good

• The art is well done on a couple of places, particularly the rats and the cat, although lacking some finer details such as better shading for blood and skin.
• It was cool to interact with the environment and being able to destroy certain objects.
• The story line following the player was interesting to hear.
• Lighting was not an issue, I was able to visibility see everything during my playthrough.
• Controls were responsive, if I pressed a button and I was able to use that ability, that ability was used.
• There is promise, this is a decently built prototype for a possibly bigger game idea. It gives you an idea of what you want to build and how the game will work, and its developed to the point where you can see where you went wrong in the prototype and how to make it more fun for the end user experience.

In all, the game could definitely use some work, but if presented as a prototype for a bigger game, this would work greatly. I hope to see what each of you as a team develop in the future.