Man, I tried this out today just for that dumb screenshot of Not Markiplier getting jumpscared giving me a chuckle, but this feels rough. VERY rough.
To explain, the instructions don't make it clear what you can and can't do (so far) in-game. For example, using the little piggy stress thing you can stall the temperature gauge (which is just basically the equivalent of power in this game, except when it isn't). HOWEVER, using it too much can cause it to... break, I guess? Meaning you don't have any other source of stalling for the doors when the animatronics suddenly hump on the windows. Why change a totally functional mechanic that worked in FNAF and change it with a quirky one?
Or how about this: the game adamantly also warns the player of checking the vent. Now, what do you do with it? Well, you can look at it. That's it. As far as I know, there is no way to interact with it other than just...stare at it, and also for the occasional check of the current hour. I tried clicking on it, pressing some keys and my mouse buttons, but nothing.
And how about that AI huh? The different animatronics that made the series so unique with its strategizing and gimmicks? Nah, none of that here. Just pretty faces with pretty bodies. As far as I know, I feel like all 3 of them behave the same: break some things, teleport to place to place, occasionally pop in near your cubicle, rinse and repeat.
Oh yeah, that's also another element of the game: fixing things. This just basically boils down to "click item in background, do a basic minigame a 4 year old could do, done." Nothing special either. What's more insulting is that the game expects you to know what those elements in the backgrounds are and that you need to fix them. At first I thought they were just that: background elements. That was until I accidentally clicked on them and showed me that simple minigame to fix them. Who would have thunk? The little light in your cubicle is your only tell-tale sign that you have to fix something, however, so it's not like you have to check every room 3 times to see which room the broken thing is in.
My biggest gripe with the game, as far as you can tell, is the lack of communication for the basic rules and mechanics. Letting the player alone to their skills is one thing, but confusing them with glitchy scenarios and obfuscating objectives is another thing. A simple "instructions" page does not suffice. The only reason I managed to pass the first night (or the "zeroeth" night as the game displayed) was due to a bug that somehow was in my favor: by suddenly restarting the temperature gauge mid-game and allowing me to use the doors again when I needed them. At this point, I was thinking it was intentional by the dev(s) to give a helping hand to those struggling I guess.
Guess I'll play the waiting game for more polish. then. That's really the word here: polish. If they released a game this early into development but made many more fixes and polish, I wouldn't be so hard on it. This also cannot be a "proof of concept" since this has been done to death thanks to many fan games of the same playstyle that also borrow from the source material, and I shouldn't forgive it just because tiddies :/
I can tell that yes, this is a very, VERY early version of the game. But what if they abandon it? What if it doesn't succeed to the devs' expectations? I don't want this to fail, and this game has good potential (like everything), it's just that I wish it had more to offer from the get-go. So again, it's back to the waiting game.
The only positive note I can leave is that I love the characters here. Definitely looks like they took inspiration from those genderbent FNAF animatronics made by cally3d and made something original with them.
To explain, the instructions don't make it clear what you can and can't do (so far) in-game. For example, using the little piggy stress thing you can stall the temperature gauge (which is just basically the equivalent of power in this game, except when it isn't). HOWEVER, using it too much can cause it to... break, I guess? Meaning you don't have any other source of stalling for the doors when the animatronics suddenly hump on the windows. Why change a totally functional mechanic that worked in FNAF and change it with a quirky one?
Or how about this: the game adamantly also warns the player of checking the vent. Now, what do you do with it? Well, you can look at it. That's it. As far as I know, there is no way to interact with it other than just...stare at it, and also for the occasional check of the current hour. I tried clicking on it, pressing some keys and my mouse buttons, but nothing.
And how about that AI huh? The different animatronics that made the series so unique with its strategizing and gimmicks? Nah, none of that here. Just pretty faces with pretty bodies. As far as I know, I feel like all 3 of them behave the same: break some things, teleport to place to place, occasionally pop in near your cubicle, rinse and repeat.
Oh yeah, that's also another element of the game: fixing things. This just basically boils down to "click item in background, do a basic minigame a 4 year old could do, done." Nothing special either. What's more insulting is that the game expects you to know what those elements in the backgrounds are and that you need to fix them. At first I thought they were just that: background elements. That was until I accidentally clicked on them and showed me that simple minigame to fix them. Who would have thunk? The little light in your cubicle is your only tell-tale sign that you have to fix something, however, so it's not like you have to check every room 3 times to see which room the broken thing is in.
My biggest gripe with the game, as far as you can tell, is the lack of communication for the basic rules and mechanics. Letting the player alone to their skills is one thing, but confusing them with glitchy scenarios and obfuscating objectives is another thing. A simple "instructions" page does not suffice. The only reason I managed to pass the first night (or the "zeroeth" night as the game displayed) was due to a bug that somehow was in my favor: by suddenly restarting the temperature gauge mid-game and allowing me to use the doors again when I needed them. At this point, I was thinking it was intentional by the dev(s) to give a helping hand to those struggling I guess.
Guess I'll play the waiting game for more polish. then. That's really the word here: polish. If they released a game this early into development but made many more fixes and polish, I wouldn't be so hard on it. This also cannot be a "proof of concept" since this has been done to death thanks to many fan games of the same playstyle that also borrow from the source material, and I shouldn't forgive it just because tiddies :/
I can tell that yes, this is a very, VERY early version of the game. But what if they abandon it? What if it doesn't succeed to the devs' expectations? I don't want this to fail, and this game has good potential (like everything), it's just that I wish it had more to offer from the get-go. So again, it's back to the waiting game.
The only positive note I can leave is that I love the characters here. Definitely looks like they took inspiration from those genderbent FNAF animatronics made by cally3d and made something original with them.
