REALITY - CHAPTER 1 (Myst style adventure made with Unity free version)

Nearstar releases a Myst style adventure game at kongregate.com made with free stuff from the web and a few bits from the asset store.


http://www.kongregate.com/games/nearstar/reality-chapter-1

Check it out if you've got the time.

 

Quite a beautiful environment. I really enjoyed walking around the island, being surprised by the shadows of birds that were flying overhead, the noises of the insects. I'm a big fan of Myst and Myst-style games, but after walking around for 10 or 15 minutes, the only thing that I found that I could actually interact with was the bear who killed me. Went to the small stone house, the lighthouse, the ruins, the dock with the boats, the stone circle... but didn't immediately find anything to interact with. Super cool beginning though.

 

Thanks for your comment.
You can board the boats in the dock (that might reveal something).

 

Well, I had already been on the boats, saw a random message in one that meant nothing to me, and in the other saw something on the floor that I apparently couldn't pick up (I tried).

I went back at your suggestion, and read the message again, and it still meant nothing to me (had never even heard the word "creel", much less knew what it was, had to look it up). Never found a creel anyway, even after reading the message. I was finally able to pick up the crowbar on the floor, but it was very difficult. There was about half a millimeter high place on one small part of the crowbar where the hand lit up and let me take it. You definitely need to get that sorted out. Plus, even when I got the crowbar I never figured out anything to do with it, nor do I know how to use something from my inventory even if I did have an idea of what to do with it (there was nothing about using inventory items in the instructions).

I really enjoyed walking around in the world for a while, but there definitely needs to be something to do that is a bit more obvious. There need to be buildings you can go in, things to read, some kind of story thread to grab a hold of. Relying on someone to randomly stumble upon the fact that you can board the boats, and randomly happen to know what the word creel means, and randomly happen to find the creel (if there is one), and randomly find the miniscule point where you can pick up the crowbar, and randomly come across something that you can do with the crowbar.... is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. I spent a good 20 minutes on your island thus far and I have no idea what I'm doing there, no hint of the story whatsoever, and no idea what I was supposed to have done.

I really think there needs to be some element of the story in the opening (at least within 5 or 10 minutes of starting) to draw the player in and give them some motivation to try to figure some of this stuff out. Plus things need to be a bit more obvious. Puzzles in these types of games aren't always easy to figure out, but they are normally easy to find/recognize, at least. I wandered all over your island and besides a bear who killed me, a couple random boats, a wooden crate I couldn't open (even once I got the crowbar), and a door that wouldn't open, I had no hint of what puzzles I was supposed to be solving.

As I said, I really like the feel of the island, it looks good, I enjoyed walking around, wondering what is going on, what I'm doing there, etc, and that motivated me to stay with it for a good 15 minutes or so my first time in it, wandering all over the island exploring. In the end, though, there's only so far that my own curiosity will take me, and I feel like the game should have met me halfway, teasing me with a little bit of story, coaxing me to continue, but it didn't.

Give it a bit of story in the beginning, and give more things to do and figure out, and I think you'll have a great Chapter 1 to your game.

 

Thanks for your time and feedback.
Its early days for this project and the ray casting is a bit quirky.
If you do return to the island:
You might try the crowbar at the stone circle.
The bear can't swim.
Creel is the name for a lobster pot.
Thanks again for all the suggestions.

(Kongregate have upped the game size from 20MB to 50MB so we should be able to put more stuff in the island in future - 20MB was a bit tight!)
Yet again thanks for your input it really helps.