Andrew Notes 10/7/25:

Target for Vertical Slice: most polished 3 minutes of level 1

• chunk of it where the action is good
• drop right into the middle of level one

General Notes while playing:

• camera is improved but FOV is not right
• FOV is making people dizzy
• wrapping due to the FOV
• speed of camera is good
• camera should pull away when the player starts moving
• character stays in the bottom
• confused on controls
• There should be a point to the rhythm
• take away jump, because there is no platforming.
• need to know what the upgrades do in the shop
  • Add text descriptions or an option to click on an upgrade, see what it does. Should have this in both shop and upgrade selection.
• left trigger aim? Should be. Right bumper feels strange if possession is on trigger.
• took a sec for the animations to come back when leaving possession
• a lot better since last time, see where this is going
• think button a could be something more of a dodge rather than a jump
• possession as counter needs to be a bit bigger of a counter: More reward for it being a counter (could be just that the full thing isn't in yet, hold off on panicking on this.)
• possession could only done as counter in possession mode: Building up the possession mechanic, then you have to counter to jump to new enemy while in possession mode?
• if witch gets hit at all could just die, no health, 2 or 3 hits possibly, reinforces the idea of the witch being fragile
• interactions need to teach, and then probably going to die, that's good they learn from it, restart from a checkpoint, learn from it, giving the witch a health bar makes them seem more powerful especially since it is bigger than the enemy's health bar, knowing you can only take a couple hits makes them feel more vulnerable.
  • Could use a screen effect to show damage for witch instead of a health bar. We're currently reworking the UI to see if that does a better trick without canning our already created assets and plans, and without having to make something new.
• feel like possession is y since layout of the ability icons (being reworked)
• witches possession should be a sphere, a completely different thing, orthogonal
• should be something in the break up rooms
• need to get the animations showing the guys being hit
• ideally this game wouldn't have the mini health bars for enemies.
• input from the mouse is making the upgrade choices look weird
• hold a to run instead of jump, no jump
• the gates are a good idea
• likes the maze
• got trapped out of the gate when going up the stairs
• make the second level feel different than the first level
• make sure upgrades are meaningful and distinct from each other
• god of war ragnarok, roguelike mode
• give environment artists level design, game is about atmosphere
• colliders are colliding which are not doing good
• getting around as the goblin is easier since he is shorter
• spacing and who I am looking at is important in combat
• take a look at the camera systems
• lighting, floor is to shiny, need ambient light, everything is too black dark, think about the color script of each level, give some light shining in (moon light?)

when doing an action

• little more of a leap when doing the windup
• camera should go into the side view when hitting an enemy
• getting around as the goblin is easier since he is shorter

put a distance limit on

For vertical slice:

second half of level one randomly assginbed upgrade see how batman does hit animations and do that, probably interupt fix FOV cut jump Switch the scaling of enemy health bar and witch health bar, lower witch health redo health bars later