I give this one a recommendation for the sound design ALONE, even if the game is lacking a bit in content and the goal is a GRIND to achieve. I hope this one will get expanded (and bugfixed) post-jam, I am looking forward for an update.
Gameplay
The gameplay is basically ... survive, I guess? You run in a seemingly endless expanse of metal rooms, except it's not rooms, it's walls in a chaotic pattern. This game must have been directly inspired by SCP stories from the Internet, I guess it's not a coincidence that the letters "SSP" are similar to "SCP". :-)
You constantly run throughout the rooms, hoping to find something new and punch to destroy objects like drawers, storage boxes. Most of the "rooms" look alike, but they are not identical, it's chaos. Normally I would find such things boring fast, but the ambience REALLY carries the game. I found two rare special structures: The engines with coal stacks inside, and a filter system. Apart from that, it's boxes, computers, drawers and some random electronics.
The game tells you very little about what happens, you have to figure (most) things on your own, but this adds to the mystery. You get hungry fast, but there are plenty of food boxes, but you still need to restock constantly, so you need to explore further. I think the game still needs to add a few more special structures to be not monotonous, however, the endless repeating halls still have something spooky ...
There are 3 manuals to find, which explain different tasks you might do: Repair computers, repair an O2 filter and refuel the ... engines? However, it seems some that two of the things the manuals explain aren't actually possible to do in the game yet. :( I did manage to repair a computer tho.
There are "Incase of Emergency tasks" but this looks more like a ripped achievement system than actual game goals. This looks WIP. It would be nice if you could actually do repairs to trigger some secret event and whatnot. These game goals feel kinda like a grind. The coal task is definitely the biggest grind.
The only enemy are spiders, but they are really fast and hard to kill. But if you know how to avoid (or kill) them, they should pose no threat.
Sounds / Ambience
This submission has by far the best audio ambience and sound design of this year's game jam. A really eerie and dark soundtrack / ambience, and it also doesn't feel repetitive even after a long time of play. Also, the node sound effects are great, with great attention to detail. Different sounds make different sounds, and it's all heavy metal. There's also an echo effect which makes sense in this environment. Play with headphones! Sound design is an often completely overlooked part of games, so I really like to hear something like this in Minetest. Good job!
The graphics look simple yet pretty nice. The game is dark and you better never ever lose your flashlight. Thankfully, the game has a (small) chance to give you another flashlight in one of the many boxes, but it's still PAIN.
Stability / Performance
The game is mostly stable, but a bit buggy. The spider egg tasks don't register, so I guess that means the game is currently unwinnable, and I remember getting unknown items sometimes, but overall it's playable. There is a HUGE number of console warnings. But for a game jam the bugs are still on an acceptable level, since it's not really about the game goals, I guess (I hope these are just dummy goals, to be replaced later). I had no performance issues.
The game goals technically can be exploited by placing the same thing over and over again to increase the counter. I can also technically nerd-pole to the top walls, but this is not really useful, as the walls are short and nerd-poling in this game is actually pretty expensive, other than in Minetest Game.
Thank you for the nice and indepth review!
The tasks will hopefully soon be updated, they are currently highly incomplete.
Once again, thanks for the review and intrest in the game!
Overall rating
I give this one a recommendation for the sound design ALONE, even if the game is lacking a bit in content and the goal is a GRIND to achieve. I hope this one will get expanded (and bugfixed) post-jam, I am looking forward for an update.
Gameplay
The gameplay is basically ... survive, I guess? You run in a seemingly endless expanse of metal rooms, except it's not rooms, it's walls in a chaotic pattern. This game must have been directly inspired by SCP stories from the Internet, I guess it's not a coincidence that the letters "SSP" are similar to "SCP". :-) You constantly run throughout the rooms, hoping to find something new and punch to destroy objects like drawers, storage boxes. Most of the "rooms" look alike, but they are not identical, it's chaos. Normally I would find such things boring fast, but the ambience REALLY carries the game. I found two rare special structures: The engines with coal stacks inside, and a filter system. Apart from that, it's boxes, computers, drawers and some random electronics.
The game tells you very little about what happens, you have to figure (most) things on your own, but this adds to the mystery. You get hungry fast, but there are plenty of food boxes, but you still need to restock constantly, so you need to explore further. I think the game still needs to add a few more special structures to be not monotonous, however, the endless repeating halls still have something spooky ...
(text continues in comments)
Gameplay (cont'd.)
There are 3 manuals to find, which explain different tasks you might do: Repair computers, repair an O2 filter and refuel the ... engines? However, it seems some that two of the things the manuals explain aren't actually possible to do in the game yet. :( I did manage to repair a computer tho.
There are "Incase of Emergency tasks" but this looks more like a ripped achievement system than actual game goals. This looks WIP. It would be nice if you could actually do repairs to trigger some secret event and whatnot. These game goals feel kinda like a grind. The coal task is definitely the biggest grind.
The only enemy are spiders, but they are really fast and hard to kill. But if you know how to avoid (or kill) them, they should pose no threat.
Sounds / Ambience
This submission has by far the best audio ambience and sound design of this year's game jam. A really eerie and dark soundtrack / ambience, and it also doesn't feel repetitive even after a long time of play. Also, the node sound effects are great, with great attention to detail. Different sounds make different sounds, and it's all heavy metal. There's also an echo effect which makes sense in this environment. Play with headphones! Sound design is an often completely overlooked part of games, so I really like to hear something like this in Minetest. Good job!
(text continues in next comment)
Graphics
The graphics look simple yet pretty nice. The game is dark and you better never ever lose your flashlight. Thankfully, the game has a (small) chance to give you another flashlight in one of the many boxes, but it's still PAIN.
Stability / Performance
The game is mostly stable, but a bit buggy. The spider egg tasks don't register, so I guess that means the game is currently unwinnable, and I remember getting unknown items sometimes, but overall it's playable. There is a HUGE number of console warnings. But for a game jam the bugs are still on an acceptable level, since it's not really about the game goals, I guess (I hope these are just dummy goals, to be replaced later). I had no performance issues.
The game goals technically can be exploited by placing the same thing over and over again to increase the counter. I can also technically nerd-pole to the top walls, but this is not really useful, as the walls are short and nerd-poling in this game is actually pretty expensive, other than in Minetest Game.
Thank you for the nice and indepth review! The tasks will hopefully soon be updated, they are currently highly incomplete. Once again, thanks for the review and intrest in the game!
God bless, -StarNinjas