I have a game I’ve worked on called Faery Sitter for Seed Comp.
It’s a very short game. It’s about a birthday party at a Chuck-E-Cheese knockoff where you gain the ability to steal the names of things and swap them with others.
Right now, it’s in a minimally playable state, with some content just added in last minute and not a lot of edge cases getting covered and (most likely) a lot of bugs.
I’m looking for one or two people to do a quick run-through (maybe with a walkthrough?) and give some big overarching feedback (so not bug testing or grammar checking yet). Based on that feedback, I can make some changes and come back for more thorough testing later on before the seedcomp deadline.
This is very short, one of the smallest non-Speed-IF games I’ve ever made (about 5000 words of code) and can be completed in 20 moves, but is at least mildly ‘puzzly’.
Thanks for both of you! I have a 50/50 chance of possibly just abandoning it, as it’s a pretty small project and won’t ever be very much, but I’d like to see it through for the people who made the seeds in the first place. So I’ll keep working and get back to you!
I’ve received some feedback since my last post and made numerous improvements. This is still a very small game and now has a hint system, so it should be completable in a pretty short time. The main thing I could use now is more advice on interactions people would like to see; I’ve added several based on the name-swapping properties but could use someone walking through and saying ‘hmm, I expected something funnier to happen there’.
Thanks! I think the deadline for Seedcomp is in about 10 days. If possible, I’d love to do this round and then maybe one more, but it’s getting close to the deadline. I’m feeling much better about the game, mostly due to @Ally’s recent feedback, but I’d like to make it more worth the time of those who play it, even if it’s small.
Thanks for everyone who’s helped! (sorry if the thread looks weird, I promise I’m DMing people and not just leaving them unread).
I’ve basically run out of development time on this game, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out.
I could use help on two more things:
One is the name. I originally conceived the game as you babysitting for an obvious changeling, but now it’s about wandering a fairy-themed pizza parlor trying to expose your changeling brother, so you’re not actually baby sitting. So ‘Faery Sitter’ isn’t really accurate. I’ve thought about changing it to ‘The Wrong Baby’ or just ‘Wrong Baby’, but it’s generally a comedy, so I don’t think that comes across.
What name sounds better to you for a faery-based baby comedy? Besides ‘Faery Sitter’ and ‘Wrong Baby’ I could also go with ‘Faery Swapped’ or ‘Expose the Changeling’.
Second, I could use one more person who hasn’t previously tested to try out both the game itself and some of the visual features I just added with Bisquixe which may or may not be annoying (thankfully I talked myself out of adding a bell chime any time someone opens the door with the volume based on how far away from the door you are). My past testers have been incredibly helpful, but everyone has their own idiosyncrasies when playing and I’d like to try to get ahead of any possible bugs in gameplay from, say, a person who closes every door they open or someone who likes to lick every object. (if any past testers want to see the visual features, let me know and I’ll send you the link) After that, I’ll stop writing and submit.
“Wrong Baby” feels a little too direct. “Faery: Swapped” is really appropriate, given that the entire gimmick of the game is about swapping names of items.