Feedback from the IGF judges
The IGF judges have sent their comments on my game, Little Zombie Susie. They are right. I spent more time on graphics and programming than on the gameplay and the level.
So from now on I want more time on gameplay and play testing, fresh ideas, design documents and so on.
Here are the comments as I received them.
wow… I can’t say I was expecting this. Fantastic opening intro with the ‘kids’ drawings. Very powerful!!!! It is very immersive.
Unfortunately the 3D world is poor, level design & use of lighting (both for Art + guide the player) are poor, and I think it would have desrved a better visual environment (it could have been isometric). I think interactions need to be facilitated in this type of games.
The introduction to this game was terrific and set a great vibe. Unfortunately the game itself didn’t really follow through on this.
Visual art rated low mostly because of the level design - I found it extremely difficult to navigate the level, and points of interest were not at all clear. Would also have been nice to see the two important states of my family reflected on their bodies rather than via meters on screen (although the meters are also necessary).
Audio was not used to indicate the positions of interesting things, either - humans came up and attacked and I had no idea they were there until they were hitting me, and I had very little awareness of where my family members were.
The opening sequence is great, but the game loses steam after that. After the intro, I was expecting something sillier and more playful. Cow-slapping is fun and all, but it only goes so far. If the game harnessed more of the puckishness on display in the intro, it would be more appealing.