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SAGE 2023 - Demo Anne Adventure

General Information

classic platformer in 2D style with hand-drawn graphics.
in the alpha version, there are only three short locations and one enemy.

full-fledged video inserts are planned in future versions.

download link pre-alpha and alpha1:
https://gamejolt.com/games/anne_adventure/806358

Latest reviews

Very rough, seems like most of the time went into making the animations and graphics, which I feel still need more work, more such as more in-between for the main character (Anne? Dunno, the game nor the showcase page told me her name). Sure, this is an alpha, but I'm gonna rate it as I see it.

My first gripe comes from the fullscreen - automatic fullscreen for a game with no screen size settings isn't good, please make it windowed or atleast add an option for it. A button for Settings being in the menu but not being clickable was a bit ehh too, I'd say just remove or otherwise disable for-now pointless elements such as that, or add atleast sooomething in there, such as the screen size option already mentioned, and maybe some volume sliders.

Speaking of volume and sounds... well, not much to say about. The jump sound was the first one I heard, however even that was seemingly bugged, as I could make a triple jump sound happen, but the character not actually triple jumping - apart the sprite changing for a frame or two that is. It was also weirdly high pitched and almost whimsical sounding concidering how reeelatively realistic and almost grim the graphics were, the damage sound on the other hand I feel worked fine.

The camera needs work, doing the only platforming challenge the game offered was difficult due to the logs(?) not being properly visible as/while you jump, I'd say try to make it so that the camera stays relatively low to the ground when jumping so that you can actually see where you're aiming, ooor just remove the platforming challenges, with the camera so close to the player they don't work super well anyway. If you dooo want to keep the camera close concider any other actions but platforming, maybe using items or simplified combat or some sort of a skill that removes obstacles or otherwise makes the area safe, there's certainly options if you wanna keep things slowpaced and up-close. One option certainly is keeping the camera always locked vertically, especially if the stages will be flat like they are here.

A few other small things I'd like to see are smoother screen/area transitions, a better intro cinematic (I must've seen it 10 times and I still have no idea what I'm looking at, some robot guy falling down?), a death screen, aaand I reeaally recommend naming your .rar files and folders your game's name, makes it much more convenient to download and drop into a folder especially when said folder shares the names with a bunch of other SAGE games, I'm gonna forget what "Aalpha1" is supposed to be.

And yeah, obviously there's not much gameplay here and the thing is beaten in 1 minute or less. Certainly took much longer writing this review. Still, this cooould turn into something neat, curious to see more once this is more than just a very rough WIP.
I really enjoyed the design, it's simple but it looks great. I look forward to seeing what the future holds both for this project and your work as a developer!
K
KSE Productions
thanks for the feedback

Comments

Got here because I really like the illustration on the front, showingtwo cute Mobians in background that says mysterious adventure. The profile did lack high concepts such as who they are or their mission.

I launch the game. Main menu is bare, just a title with few buttons. Setting didn't work. I pressed play and was given a very short cutscene that I have barely understood. Something floated by you in the forest. And already the game starts.

There is no music, just ambient forest sound. A view was limited, focused on the pink hedgehog. And the forest lacked that abstract cheer of Sonic. Mission unclear, enemy unclear. Where is the male hedgehog? What is the adventure? Why are we suddenly in the forest?

I jumped across spikes and broken bridge. Game got easier afterwards weirdly, as I walked over normal bridge. Only for scene to get dark, jumping to stage 2. I dropped down a hill and met a weird floating enemy, who passed by me. Next I came across a sign, pointing up. Did it mean a jump? I walked forward and ended up dropping into a hidden pit, falling for a while, feeling like I am getting into a heart of the forest.

Did it perhaps mean that Anne was lost? Are we rescuing the male hedgehog? It's possible to jump across the pit and end the game early. But we need to explore. I walked forward and ended up in Stage 3. The screen grew impossibly dark. There were only red silhouettes of the trees seen in background, the character passing by them. We are deep down and something must be waiting us. I walked on, anticipating. I am getting tense. And... suddenly I am pounced back into a blank title screen. Anne Adventure.

There was nothing more. I looked at pages but found no new info. Empty jolt site. Two videos with strange focus, one of them focused on death frame that wasn't present in alpha 1. Just these.

.......

Ahahaha, ok. I am not trying to bully you, you have accidentally gave me an unintended actual creepypasta-like experience that I had to share. I actually was really tensed up by the end of it, I did started to think it may be arg.

Anyway, the idea is rather cute and it does have unusual mood to it. I think it will be interesting how you will handle your game next, you are sure learning. I like how setting feels, with Mobians in forest and ambience. There is still a lot of work to do, of course. Can't really say anything certain since it seems you are very new to this and still learning game engine. Try to make a small game and have fun doing it. I do wonder what the story will be.

I did however feel bothered that my old laptop was maxing out CPU single core and GPU to 100% for this 2D simple game. I guess it's Unreal Engine 4 just doing it. I would have preferred a more light-weight engine for a simple 2D game, something like Godot Engine on OpenGL mode. But if you are here to learn UE4 for later projects or already feel comfortable with it, I guess you should stick to it anyway.

The later stages also may be too dark for more normal gameplay. Each monitor device shows things a bit different, so making everything heavily dark is not usually desirable.

Still really like the illustration too and protagonist animation feel.
 
For an unfinished alpha, the amount of work you've put into this is already really impressive. Deciding to draw all the assets is a commitment and for what it is, it looks really nice. It's not the most polished looking thing ever yes, but it's a considerable effort nevertheless. The running animation while only a couple frames, convey a sense of dimension with how Anne's head moves left and right. I like how the trees look with the shading added onto them.

One thing I would like to add is that I think the spikes should be painted a different color. The brown color they have currently blend in with the ground too easily which made them hard to see. I didn't even realize the first set of them existed until I took damage from them. If they were supposed to be deliberately hard to tell then mission accomplished but unless the point was to trick the player, I would recommend making hazards easy to visually process.

Other issues I have with this have been said by other people:
-non-functional settings button
-unclear opening cutscene

But otherwise, this is a good start. Well done :)
 

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