Mysticism Pageant - The Divine is Hidden Behind the No[DONE]

[NiallM]

Potential Spoilers. Play the game first!

Interesting. I played it a few times; the last time, I think I "won" in that I did get the game into a state I hadn't seen before, though I accomplished this primarily via randomly bonking on the keypad. I never did discover any input pattern that the game consistently responded to.

Wow. I'm seriously impressed if you managed to see the end screen without figuring out the rituals first. I wouldn't have thought that would even be possible.

[BitPuffin]

It's done!

Damn! You're fast! I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow!

[mcc]

Spoilers?

I like this, a lot, I am not sure I am going to be able to have the attention span to actually beat it though. Most inputs I attempted had no apparent effect.

I got it to do something by moving the mouse repeatedly and very quickly to the right. Then, that stopped having any effect.

It would be nice if the game gave some kind of hint which kinds of inputs influence things (i.e. is the mouse being listened to, is the keyboard being listened to).

[ham and brie]

I did 3 rituals and understood why they worked.

However, even though I got what to do, to be honest I felt like I would have preferred some kind of more relaxing, meditative game mechanic to go with the visuals and audio (which I really liked). This feels like rather unjustified criticism, because the mechanic works, fits the theme and has an interesting meta aspect... Trying to understand now where it's coming from, I suppose it's because the game itself invites the player to guess at how it might work, so perhaps I formed an expectation which was then disappointed?

[NiallM]

However, even though I got what to do, to be honest I felt like I would have preferred some kind of more relaxing, meditative game mechanic to go with the visuals and audio (which I really liked). This feels like rather unjustified criticism, because the mechanic works, fits the theme and has an interesting meta aspect... Trying to understand now where it's coming from, I suppose it's because the game itself invites the player to guess at how it might work, so perhaps I formed an expectation which was then disappointed?

Yeah, I think I agree with this. The method of interaction is kind of disconnected from the general aesthetic of the game, and probably makes it a little unsatisfying. It's not the first game like this I've made, but it feels like I'm still figuring out how to involve the player properly.

I really like the idea of presenting the player with a series of disconnected, overlaid images (and sounds) and fitting a game around that. Without resorting to maps or movement that is, or any kind of 2d or 3d space (it seems to me pretty much every game ever made involves or is about movement, or the spatial relation of objects to each other - I want to make a game which is all image and no (player) movement). I just haven't figured out how to involve the player in that in a meaningful way yet.

[Darien]

I want to make a game which is all image and no (player) movement). I just haven't figured out how to involve the player in that in a meaningful way yet.

Honestly, I think you're on the right track. The main thing I think should be tweaked about your current mechanic to get it to where it should be is the speed; as it stands, the rituals need to be performed relatively quickly, and that draws attention away from the experience of the game and focuses it on the input peripherals. If the decay were reduced (eliminated?), it would allow the player to focus on discovering and appreciating the rituals and their effect on the environment rather than on performing them quickly and accurately.

That said, the positive feedback mechanism works well; when you've successfully performed a ritual, the success is quite clear. The main issue I have with the interface is that it's not clear right at first what's going on -- before I'd successfully performed a ritual, I wasn't even entirely sure the game was interactive at all. It's not clear to me how to address that without adversely impacting the game environment, though.

[Pierrec]

I've just won the game, and performed the three rituals. I found the first and second ones by myself, but I had to look at your hints to find the last one. It looks pretty much like labyrinth, but with more sens. I really felt the mysticism so I think it's a success.

One small problem though, I've got a french keyboard, so the A and the Q are inverted. It took me a while to understand this and to manage to perform the ritual involving the A key. That's not a bigdeal, we, french players, are used to this kind of problem, but, in this game I think it's a bad thing because I had to thing outside the game, outside the ritual thing and concentrate on a hardware problem. It kind of brakes the immersion and the possible mystic experience in my opinions.

But I loved this game.

[NiallM]

One small problem though, I've got a french keyboard, so the A and the Q are inverted. It took me a while to understand this and to manage to perform the ritual involving the A key. That's not a bigdeal, we, french players, are used to this kind of problem, but, in this game I think it's a bad thing because I had to thing outside the game, outside the ritual thing and concentrate on a hardware problem. It kind of brakes the immersion and the possible mystic experience in my opinions.

Oh, sorry about that. It's a problem with the underlying base code I use for all my games, which I really need to re-write.

[agj]

Pretty late, but I've played and finished this. It was good. The relation between the rituals and the keyboard felt weak; the mouse feels better, more natural than the keyboard, something so abstracted and detached like keys representing letters, strings of letters representing sounds, sounds representing meaning... If something like this was played with a microphone, it would be a gorgeous experience. But as it is, I can say you did do something that arouses thought.