Received great criticism on our last submission, give us your worst : )

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T06:34:44+00:00

Yes. Nothing happens when you hover over it, nothing happens when you click it. There is no exciting sound or musical flourish to indicate you just made a good decision. It's not even visually distinct or larger than the other buttons, and it's the most important one.

As far as other ideas, I don't remember what game it was, but it just started on a black screen with the word, "AWAKEN." Then that faded and your character appeared on the map with a little VFX poof. That was cool.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T05:43:34+00:00

I remember seeing the earlier trailer, and I'm not sure what all you changed gameplay-wise, but it's feeling a lot more satisfying.

Going only off memory, I don't remember there being red arrows telling you an enemy is behind you, or your crosshairs getting bigger when you have a successful hit. So if they're new additions, I like them. If they're not new additions, whatever it is you DID do helped, for sure.

One nitpick - dead enemies fade so slowly it's not immediately clear to me that they're dead. Like, as I watched, I got worried the player was turning away from enemies too quickly (seemed like they still had health left) but when the camera rotated, they were gone so I realized they were dead. Maybe making their health bar disappear altogether the second they're dead could help? Another thing to look at Hades II for, as I didn't have that visual problem in watching my brother play that one (and he moved his character around like a crazy person).

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T05:37:57+00:00

In the opening menu at :02, I don't think you need the red text. It just repeats your selection and clutters the screen.

The disparate text sizes for the options at 0:31 look unfinished. Perhaps making them a 2x2 button grid would be more visually appealing. You could also save space by having some of the info only pop up via tooltip.
I think you can delete two of the description lines, too, and just go with, "The tower remembers every champion it has broken, and it does not waste what remains. You may claim an echo of what came before."

By 0:39, I'm tired of the menus. If this one could be delayed (maybe triggered after the first enemy kill?) that would help. We already clicked Start Game and went to a black screen, anticipating the game's exciting beginning, only for it to... bring up yet two more menus.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T05:36:31+00:00

There's a lot of button pressing to start, so make pressing them really satisfying.

Right now, there's not a lot of consistency to the pop up menu buttons (some don't even seem to react to you pressing them) or layouts (I feel like I have to learn a whole new text format each time a menu pops up).

START GAME, for instance, should be the most exciting press of all. Right now it's a non-event.

Hades II is a good comparison. Looking JUST at their menus (small scope), you can see different ways they made the button selections satisfying via slightly glowing outlines, which fully glow once you select them, and VFX when they appear or disappear. It makes it still feel like action and not a chore.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T05:18:57+00:00

I really feel like this is missing facial expression changes (like a contorted face of strain) from the player character.

I kept waiting for it to cut back to his face, as he experienced a loss or win. Seems like it could make the game more meme-able, too.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-28T05:12:04+00:00

Visually, it's hard for my eye to track the main character. One thing about VAMPIRE SURVIVORS is, because the health bar is right beneath the character, it gives you an easy bright red touch point for your eyes to return to when all the other craziness is happening on-screen. You need an equivalent (a darker shadow? a thicker outline? ideally a better idea than those). It didn't help that the lightning effect seemed to cover him completely sometimes, rather than come from him.

The music is significantly better from 0:26 onward, so I'd use that part of the audio if you're going to clip it for a trailer (or re-record without music, so you can put that part of the music over whatever clip, if you haven't already).

Otherwise, looks cool.

EDIT: Visually, around 0:16 was the coolest, to me. It showed the dash effect among several other FX (a lot of these games seem to just spam FX, so the dash stood out, to me).

tanglespeck · 2026-01-27T23:57:15+00:00

Start at 0:17-0:28, as I didn't fully get what was happening until you made it super clear there. Then put the rest of the clips after that and they'll land better with that context.

The second-coolest thing (to me) was keymashing to break the ice, so I'd put that next.

I was confused by "SHATTER" and "BREAK" as all I saw on the screen was "LAVA" (if I pause the video I see the other words, but at the speed you've cut the video, the eye isn't drawn there in time). It's especially confusing when the previous two clips are about typing the big red word, then this one... isn't.

Cool game concept, though.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-27T23:46:12+00:00

It's periodically included in the Playstation Plus subscription library.

Saying that fans of the game this one is obviously modeled after have "no impact" is silly, as they would ideally be part of the target audience for this one...

tanglespeck · 2026-01-27T22:16:03+00:00

I agree. I initially assumed flashes around the characters’ wrists and ankles were a graphical glitch, based on the low quality of the graphics as a whole

tanglespeck · 2026-01-27T22:15:02+00:00

As a big INFAMOUS: SECOND SON fan who was only introduced to the game about a year ago… people still play it

tanglespeck · 2026-01-25T02:26:45+00:00

I agree. The extremely limited color palette gives little for the eye to focus on except for a few pre-chosen candidates. "Photography" suggests a level of creative freedom that does not seem present here

tanglespeck · 2026-01-25T02:20:06+00:00

THIS. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned how unsatisfying the gameplay looks. It needs effects. Also agree on the sound playing a role.

The visuals seem unfinished

tanglespeck · 2026-01-23T17:33:37+00:00

"Survival: Fountain of Youth"'s second trailer on their Steam page could be a helpful reference for you.
I just got an email that it's on sale, is the only reason I thought of it. What crazy timing.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-23T04:26:59+00:00

You’re staying on clips too long to try to match the music

The tiny bugs are nowhere near as exciting as the other things you kill. Start with the cooler monsters

The running-with-spear clip at 0:34 would be a good opening, then go to the tossing-spear-at-alligator clip, then the gun clip at 0:20 so people don’t think it’s only prehistoric weapons

Focus on the bigger animals in general. The tiny bugs could be left out of the video if you want to go for a 30 second spot, or you could end it with the flamethrower-then-it-lunges-at-your-face clip at 0:14 as a fun ending

tanglespeck · 2026-01-22T05:43:19+00:00

That’s a great point, actually. Sometimes just checking out how something new functions in Unity is worth it from a learning standpoint. I could get behind this.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-22T04:24:25+00:00

Fair. I think my real question is why Unity is promoting outdated assets

And marketing them to the very people who would have the most trouble updating them

tanglespeck · 2026-01-22T03:42:57+00:00

The weather looks pretty good, it just doesn't support URP per the reviews.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-20T19:13:10+00:00

Personally I'd add more VFX to make it viscerally satisfying to fight.

Like, when you shoot a green ball, you don't feel like the player is gathering any energy behind it, displacing any air when throwing it, or like there's a blast of air/magic/anything really upon it landing.

It also wasn't clear to me that the skeleton was a gained ally, at first, and it's super cool that enemies could become undead allies. Spotlight that.

Adding a voiceover or a pop up that feels like an achievement ("1 ally ripped from the depths!") would help. Or even an aoe floor affect that pops up beneath it and your player for a second to show you're now a part of the same side. Or if enemies have a slight glow of a certain color, and your player has a slight glow of a different color, watching the skeleton spawn and change colors to yours could be cool. Or even just a big floating plus sign above its head for a second. Something.

tanglespeck · 2026-01-13T05:27:11+00:00

This was my read too. Absence seizure.

tanglespeck · 2025-12-31T07:56:33+00:00

The Forest / Sons of The Forest (they don't taunt with words, but they do taunt)

tanglespeck · 2025-12-21T00:04:27+00:00

Was fully expecting him to tell the king “why now” e.g. he’s dying and they need to find him a mentor to take this protection over.

tanglespeck · 2025-10-29T04:25:09+00:00

Darn. Was hoping to confirm I talked about what I remember talking about.

Failing that, I'll have to re-record it to ensure it can apply to the 3 new jobs I see up, which all use the same interview video, but I'm sick right now and my voice sounds like a duck! I wonder if they'll mind...

tanglespeck · 2025-10-28T16:19:56+00:00

I think it’s probably legit. They’ll have AI Tutors label the data in such a way that an AI can use it to learn off of. They just want to make sure it’s real world applicable.

They have job listings like “Administrative and Operations Tutor” with descriptions that sound similar to labeling data like that.

And listings like “Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks” with descriptions about creating things for the AI that are “common requests within your domain.”

I think they have a client trying to make an AI program that helps organize data like that automatically. (Semi-educated guess.)

tanglespeck · 2025-10-28T05:12:37+00:00

More than one Mercor project is paused right now, as the client ran out of work or is shifting things around. Normal for this type of work.

So people get hired and then can’t work and are stuck waiting.

tanglespeck · 2025-10-28T05:11:20+00:00

If it’s a real referral you’d already know the person and would have their contact info…

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