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Mateusz-Skutnik

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lame

stop saying that everyone who dislikes your 'works' is gay.
start doing something good instead.

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Hello, my name is Mateusz Skutnik and I am the creator of Submachine.
First of all, let me address the elephant in the room:

I know this game is influenced by Submachine, the more I played, the clearer the influences seemed, however:

I LIKE THIS GAME, there's nothing wrong with it and it in no way infringes my work.

I admire the quality of drawings and ambient atmosphere of this game. Good job, Igor. I see that you know what you're doing concerning color and lighting. I see what you did there. Nicely done.

Having said that - I have few things I'd like to point out that could improve the next chapter. There are some mistakes that I made as well in the past, you don't have to follow my suit here, you can learn from my mistakes.

1. you can't make active areas too tiny. For example - the hatch in the mine - you could have put a zoom there, so the opening action could be done on a magnified picture. Same goes for smaller objects as screws to unscrew etc. You also don't have to stick to the idea that active area of the element is bounded by the outline of the graphics of the item. It can bigger, noone will critisise you for it, and it will make game more casual.

2. while in the color cube - I got lost quickly. I totally forgot where I came from and once I started messing with colors, my exit route was completely lost on me. Here's how I handle the "exit through walking abckwards into the front of the monitor" problem. Have a light outline of the door on the floor, as if alight was shining through it from behing the door frame. Take a look at the first cube (of the same construction ;)) in my subamchine universe - where you start the game. You also go FORWARD through the door, but you immediately see a reflection on the floor. That's the best I came up with, but it's better than nothing.

3. Don't do color-based puzzles. I learned that the hard way in Submachine 3. Color blind people will not be able to get through the game. Same goes for puzzles based on sound - you'll be alienating deaf people. You have to be as inclusive as possible, and people will respect you for it.

4. If you have a game that's based on CLICKING - don't introduce a new mechanic in the form of CLICK AND DRAG in the middle of it, out of nowhere. Once again, that was a mistake on my part while making Submachine: 32 chambers. Since then I removed that. In your game it's the train cart doors that need to be clicked and dragged. I really got stuck on that part.

These are main, gameplay related things that might use some polishing. Below - minor thingies that could be better.

1. First location: I appreciate that after having to click on every step of the ladder to make it functional, on second screen the ladder could be clicked just once to fully reveal itself, however - then all sound effects from each step are overlapping and thus - too loud. You could have triggered this "ladder step sound" once and it would be fine. Maybe you were going for the realism, since they all move at once, they all should make a sound, but that's not the best way to do it. Just one effect would do fine here.

2. Basically, timed puzzles are a sin in a pnc game, people prefer to roam freely around, without having to nervously click through locations in order to solve a puzzle. Believe me - I know, my 10 Gnomes games get that comment every single time - asking me to remove ingame timer. While we're at it, this puzzle was not only timed, but also "guess what to do" - there's no clue whatsoever that would suggest you need to be quick. So - double no no.

3. Cart ride in train tunnel - there is a graphical error on first screen - the wires dont extend till left border, they're cut few pixels short.This error is also in other screens, if you look closely. You have to be more precise. Also - this cart ride should be suggested once, then skippable (see Daymare Town 4 for reference).

That's all. Once again - good job, congrats. Looking forward to the second one.

Mateusz Skutnik

krutovig responds:

Wow, it's a big and usefull review. Very surprisely.

I'm big fan of your games, Thanks a lot.

Some of your remarks I already understood - kong and newgrounds very good place for that.

nice n' simple

this game has a nice idea in it. There are tons of games that lack any idea. Good for you.

http://www.patreon.com/mateuszskutnik

Mateusz Skutnik @Mateusz-Skutnik

Male

developer

Gdansk, PL

Joined on 1/31/06

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