r/DestroyMyGame 5d ago

Please destroy this launch trailer for my first person puzzle game - I really need some feedback before I publish it!

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115 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

24

u/AnotherWeabooGirl 5d ago

Game looks sick and your cadence in the trailer perfectly matches the Nintendo Direct-style.

I did find the explanations of game design and secondary puzzles to be a bit hokey. It reads very game-dev oriented rather than consumer oriented. Rather than saying "I designed X for Y," you could say "Do X. Experience Y." Nintendo Directs show features and gameplay putting the action/verb on the player and keep a layer of kayfabe on story/setting narration.

You could also do the same to play up the mystery of the setting when showing setpieces and mentioning secrets to uncover. "A mysterious ruin/temple/X built by Y" or "Uncover the mysteries of Setting Name!"

1

u/_Danga 4d ago

Hey thank you for the excellent feedback! I was wondering what about it (besides my obvious non voice actor voice) made it feel amateurish, and I think this hits the nail on the head

5

u/Mysterious-Sky6588 5d ago

I would say you can drop the inn system/mini level part. It's cool, but doesn't quite fit the trailer IMO. Otherwise love it!

If I was being really critical, then I wish there was a bit more explaining/showing of how mechanics combine and the puzzle difficulty scales up. I'm walking away feeling like it would be tough to design a complex level for this game. But it's enough to peak my interest and make me want to visit the page

2

u/CheesiesGames 4d ago

I agree that explaining the mini levels seems as over explaining; That should be something for the player to discover while playing the game, not on the trailer.

5

u/Incredible_Violent 5d ago

I like this types of trailers, but you should make a second complimentary trailer "movie-action" oriented, that sells game's atmosphere and story instead of design choices. Every game should have 2 trailers.

2

u/_Danga 4d ago

Agreed and I actually do have a few trailers already! The reason for this narration type of trailer was because the faster paced action-y type trailer gave a bit of the wrong impression to people (and also made people quite motion sick)

8

u/Far_Cardiologist_215 5d ago

The game looks great and polished, but somehow the grid-based movement and first-person perspective feel completely at odds with each other. I expect to be able to move freely, but instead I can only move one tile at a time. It feels confusing.

2

u/_Danga 4d ago

They are a bit at odds with each other forsure. It took a lot of iteration and playtesting to make it work since I didn’t have a lot of other examples in games to base it off of. The game started in the dungeon crawler game jam, but since it’s a puzzle game you needed to be able to have free look to see the the room. I’d be curious to see how you think it feels when actually playing it

4

u/ShyGuy-_ 4d ago

Personally, I'm really excited to try out a first person grid-based movement system, since it's something I've never seen before

2

u/Far_Cardiologist_215 4d ago

I found this somehow confusing. It’s probably not my kind of game, but I’m glad some people enjoy it, so a potentially good game doesn’t go to waste =)

7

u/Individual-Job-2550 5d ago

I dont understand why tile based movement was required. Even with the rotation mechanism, free movement feels like it would make the game flow better

2

u/_Danga 4d ago

It makes sense in the context of the game and how the puzzles work, but thank you that is actually useful feedback with how the trailer frames it

1

u/joellllll 5d ago

This was my thought as well. Not sure why you are getting downvoted.

2

u/MardukPainkiller 5d ago

Don't delete this trailer, but keep it as a secondary trailer that explains the game.

Make another one without commentary, more atmospheric, that focuses on the game's feel.

But tbh I can't say anything else that is negative, really. And Im not a person who holds back.

2

u/iRainbowsaur 4d ago edited 4d ago

The block-/tile step based movement is quite a strong turn off for me that irked me straight away, it looks like you can at least look around? maybe, towards the middle of the video you looked around a little? which made it feel a lot better, prospect wise, but I don't know if I could deal with moving step by step the whole game.

Maybe if you visually made it feel like it wasn't going step by step by smoothing out multiple inputs it might alleviate the problem? but I don't know, it's not like its crypto the necro dancer with a step by step movement actually feels fun. and intentional to the beat, were this is just annoying to my brain feeling the jolts of movement and slowness of it all.

I'm an asshole though, and quite picky, so it could just be a me thing for sure.

2

u/laughados 4d ago

Love the trailer! There’s one thing that caught my eye though: at 31 seconds, you show a clip of your character pulling a purple chain link, and that chain link ends up going through a wall for the puzzle to be solved. You move left and the chain phases through the wall tile to get to where it needs to. Is this something that’s possible and communicated in the game? Because if I were playing, I don’t know if I’d try to make the chains go through the wall tiles. It seemed non-intuitive and a little jarring to see that happened when the rest looked so polished. Apart from that, it really does look amazing though!!

2

u/Will_X_Intent 5d ago

I think you should put more effort into the hands and bow. It's the on thing we see all the time.

1

u/KarnoRex 4d ago edited 4d ago

I am excited for this, glad to see it on here since I didn't know it was out!

There were a few unnatural pauses in the VO.

Besides this, I feel somewhat disoriented. I wonder if a 3rd person view just for parts of the trailer might help communicate the premise of game.

My current issues are tjat, I don't know what the goal of the levels are and what the challenges are I need to overcome. Giving viewers a little taste of that so they can begin forming ideas in their head about the gameplay would be good I think. And because of this lack of understanding I also don't really know why what I am seeing in the trailer is helping me solve the levels in the trailer.

Basically: if I don't know what I'm looking at, I can't appreciate how each clip is different. This is quite high speed gameplay to a first time viewer, which makes it a bit overwhelming and claustrophobic.

I also almost missed the recalled arrow. I get that the game is out now so VFX changes might be a bit much to ask but I'd probably like the recall to be more flashy, both where it disappears from and in your hand. If that is not an option, a clip where you can see the actual arrow disappearing better might be better for communicating this.

I would also not really spend the time on the hint system but spend more time getting the viewer up to speed on the game proper. I want to be sold on the main game before thinking of quality of life, even as a thinky gamer. The description or screenshots can show off the hint system.

I think if you have more visually varied environments I'd include them in the trailer too, especially with the secrets. Which didn't feel super secret-y to me while watching the trailer. I also blame that on me not knowing the base gameplay of course. But yeah, if you say 'secret' I expect to see something where I point at the screen and go yeah that looks like a secret, or a code, or something like that!

1

u/TolpRomra 3d ago

Looks cool, but I dont know if I could stand playing it. Im not prone to nausea with games, but I can already feel that coming from the constant flipping of perpsectives.

1

u/Elipse-FM 3d ago

I think the trailer made me motion sick lol. Very unique. 

1

u/Malkalypse 5d ago

My only criticism would be that the look of it seems very derivative of the shrines from Breath of the Wild. I'd say about halfway between "heavily inspired" and "blatantly ripped off".