Dungeon Nightmares first person horror game

Thank you for letting me beta test this game, I had fun doing it.
The game is pretty easy to understand, at first I was like "hey what should a do" but then after a few seconds it became pretty clear, just run away as quick as possible. It took me 9.09 to get out, not too sure if its good or not. The game was actually pretty scary in a way as yes I have to admit it, I turned the volume down a bit after hearing the first scream ^^ The map helped me a lot, maybe too much, but I actually think that I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did without it as it would make the game too difficult. I think you should add a few more things in those rooms, they are a bit too empty but thats only my point of view, candles are not too rare and easy to find (found 9), but making the rooms slightly brighter without the candles could make the game more playable, because a often wished I could see a bit more.
Overall I enjoyed it very much and found no bugs. What will you add in the future to make this game even better?

 

So you can actually die in this game? Well for a first game, I must say this is good, really good, well done! Yes the game is scary, because of the different sounds and because its dark, very dark and it feels very oppressive. Yes I agree, more enemies won't make the game better, adding more things to make the rooms less empty is actually more important, maybe tables, lights (not too bright), closed windows, beds, mirrors (broken mirrors as it would be too troublesome to make a proper mirror with its reflect), and others stuffs. The gameplay is very smooth, I had no problems running around, the timer (kind of timer) to open doors is pretty clever, and the automatic pick up object is good.

 

Yep, I got it. I'll be testing it in about an hour when I get off work.

 

So I will admit, I didn't escape. I instead decided to cancel out of the game to see if there was any kind of save feature. As you know there's not, but that's cool this game doesn't really need one.

So my thoughts so far... (I'm totally gonna keep playing this and end up giving LOTS and LOTS of feedback, this is just my initial response.) The biggest issue I have with this game is speed. Not how fast the game runs, how fast the characters run. In my mind it needs to be more frantic. I kinda felt like I was running through molasses. Whenever I got hit I was actually surprised I got hit because of how slow the monster and I were going. I would say double the speed of my character, the monster, and how fast you open doors. Think of when you're in a haunted house, when the guy with the chainsaw comes after you, you run like hell throwing open doors or whatever other obstacle there may be. One possibilty (to cut down on players literally just running through the game) is to make a run button. You'll want a stamina bar that it activates as well, then players are hesitant to use it to speed up their game because they never know when they'll need it against monsters.

Another improvement would be to work on the girl that keeps popping up. I found a note that mentioned Mary so I'm going to assume she's Mary and will refer to her as such. All Mary ever does, from what I saw, was stand there. Flesh her out a little bit. Add Mary doing more things. Like make one of the possible visions of someone brutally stabbing and killing her. That way it doesn't seem so repetitive when she shows up.

This last bit is just kinda something I came up with on my own that I thought would be neat. Add a panic bar at the top. Make the panic bar affect things. Like say the longer you run from a monster, the more it fills up, and as it fills up your chance to fumble on a door increases. Think about in horror movies when a character is running from a monster they sometimes fumble with a doorknob because they are in such a hurry and they're PANICKED. Now obviously this isn't something that's a must, but it adds some more meat to the game.

Anyways I really enjoy it so far, I will definitely continue to play it, but it can use improvement. Feel free to let me know what you think about what I've had to say, and keep up the good work mate. Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go play this really cool new game called Dungeon Nightmares.

 

I found a little bug where if I looked down far enough, the world would flip upside down and the controls would be inverted. Other than that, no problems and definitely an amazing horror game.

 

Thanks for adding me to the Testflight group! I played this a few times last night, and I have a few observations and a suggestion that you might or might not like:

Observations: Those skeletons are creepy as hell.

Spoiler

The fact that you have to turn toward them to stop them from attacking you is genius, because you know that they are going to be right there on you when you turn toward them, but it's still startling and unsettling. Nice work!

I only played two games so far, but the exit was in the exact same place both times. Was that just a coincedence? I know that will be a mute point when you get fully random dungeons (please make this at least somewhat of a priority, as it will GREATLY extend replay value), but I was just curious about it.

Suggestion: I know you don't want combat in this game, but what if each type of enemy had a vulnerability to a certain item (that was randomized each game) and you could find all the different items inside the chests or on the tables? And you could make it so that you had to get dangerously close to an enemy to use an item on it, so you would have to gamble if you were using the right one or not. Then maybe there could be notes you could also find that gave clues (maybe someone stating an item that didn't work on a given enemy). Successful use of an item wouldn't kill it outright, but just incapacitate it long enough to give you a little bit of extra time to get away from it.

And using an item, success or fail, could use it up so that you can't use that item again. And if there was only one of each item in the dungeon, that would make using it a huge gamble, unless you found enough clues to narrow down what doesn't work on that enemy. You could even make figuring out what is effective on which enemy a secondary objective of the game.

One more suggestion, that you could probably add to the current version without much problem. At the end, when you are told how much gold and such you got when you escaped, can you put how much total was available of each item to find in the level, so we can tell how good we did? Or is it always the same amount?

 

So I've done a few more playthroughs and I've come up with a few more suggestions and one possible graphical bug.

First I'll discuss the graphics issue. I only noticed it in one room so allow me to attempt describing its location. When looking at the map there is a room all the way in the bottom left corner. If you move up slightly and to the left there is a vertical rectangle room. That's the room it's in. While standing at the top of that room looking in, and while having a candle on, I noticed some really weird scratchy black shadows on the side of the stack of barrels. It's not really anything major, but part of being a beta tester is reporting such things. Do what you wish with that info.

Another issue I've begun to notice is that the game doesn't seem to have a whole lot of reason to be replayed at this point. I mean its a good game, but it's a lot the same every time. I know you're looking into randomizing the dungeons, but I'm just talking about its current form. I have however come up with a solution to this aside from dungeon randomization.

While going through the dungeon I found a note that said "death is just the beginning" and it gave me an idea. What if when you died you descended deeper into the dungeon. Basically the concept would be that every time you died #the nightmare incarnations would drag you deeper and deeper into your own nightmares. On top of that, each level of the dungeon could become more and more difficult. E.g. 2 is more difficult than 1, 3 is more difficult than 2, etc. finally, you could make a final dungeon, lets say level 10 just for the sake of this example/discussion. So each level would become scarier and scarier, both the textures on the wall, the monsters, everything. Like adding piles of bones and whatnot. However level 10 could be engulfed in fire, you know like hell, and there could be an ultimate monster that roams that level. I envision that monster being something similar to the Balrog from Lord of the Rings.#I just really liked this whole concept. It adds difficulty of the game (something I feel is greatly needed as I've never died) and it can lengthen the game.

I'm honestly not 100% sure what direction you're trying to go with this game so I apologize if I'm just throwing out lengthy suggestions you've got no interest in. I just get ideas when I play games and while beta testing I have a better chance of someone listening than after the app is put on the App Store.

Just like last time I'd love your feedback on my suggestions. Also just out of curiosity, when do you think we might get an updated beta version?

 

I applied, I love horror games (;

 

I've followed the forums on touch arcade for awhile now but never registered, but I figured since you were nice enough to allow me to beta test your game. I should sign up and give you feed back.

One thing I would suggest is I noticed myself quite a few times standing and waiting for my candle to go out so I could light another. I thought maybe you could add an option to click the candle to blow it out then click again to light another.

Also with the combat thing mentioned earlier maybe if you first light a candle the enemy disappears or something along those lines. Idk just a thought.

But I did enjoy it so far I played it on my iPhone 4 but I also have an iPad 3 I imagine it would run smoother on the latter but it still played well and made me jump a couple times which is rare for a mobile game. So good job so far!

 

So what kind of pay scale are you looking at for this game? I'm guessing you won't be having any IAP but how much will you charge for this game?

Also I think someone mentioned using candles to make enemies vanish, I just wanna say I really like this idea.

Finally I have to say you've done a really good job on the scare factor of this game. I would love for you to make a survival horror game. People have been wanting something along the lines of Silent Hill for a long time and you could do it. Anyways it's just a thought. I'm sure you're not even considering what you're gonna do next at this point, but at some point you'll have to so I wanted to get this thought in your head before you do.

 

I played the new build it is awesome. Good job man.

I wanted to mention I love the way you have the trail on the map that tracks your movements.

I'm gonna play it some more. if I think of any more suggestions ill post them.