As for age rating, it contains few instances of mild language (only like 3 times), smoking, gambling, drinking alcohol (but not the effects of it), and also some innuendos. Really nothing that would not be found in movies of or during this time period that this game takes place in (which is the 1930s). Oh, and its worth mentioning theres an instance of blood, but theres an option to disable it and make it confetti instead (which is arguably better).

I did encounter one softlock however
(SPOILER WARNING).
At the part where Don tells you to step back after sticking the magnet to the roulette machine for the final time, my character stepped back, and nothing. The game of roulette never started and I had to reset.
(END OF SPOILER)
It took me about 10 minutes to get back to the place where I was, so it wasnt so bad. But, if you are going to play be careful of that.

I would give this beta demo a solid 8.5/10

Things I disliked:
The goal of the game is a little confusing at first. For example it took me a minute to realize it was chess and had chess controls, but I guess thats on me for not reading that well. And unless someone knows chess pretty well, its pretty difficult to understand how to get checkmate. The art is a little boring to look at sometimes, and the UI is inconsistent. The game can also be pretty slow.

Bugs:
I was able to enter a level before pressing the play button on the main menu. This led to the game getting very confused. Also if you repeatedly press the x button (in the top right corner) the game will softlock. In addition, pressing UI elements in the wrong order will also do this.

Suggestions:
Make it more obvious what the goal of the game is, and maybe have a little tutorial. Make the UI art more consistent, and also just fix the UI. Allow for quick resets (one button press instead of two). Add an option to disable animations.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/storyteller/images/screenshot

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1869220/DYMENSION_PrologueScary_Horror_Survival_Shooter/

Spooky Dungeon was my favorite part. Discovering that Creature, and eventually conquering it. My heart was beating fast on the first encounter!

Virtually no frustrations. My only concern overall is being able to accidentally leave a room before you pick up a reward. I would not mind having to Press ‘Use’ Input (E) to carry into the next stage.

I think the Mob Stage difficulty is rather laxed ~ I like that there are paths to have Elite enemies that drop a relic. However, I think this path can be more of a challenge. If there were 3 or 5 or 7 buffed enemies that I had to kill for 1 Drop, I would pick that path every time just for the added engagement. That being said, occasionally having a buffed enemy spawn inside any other stage would also be fun.

Input Control and Movement, Combat feel overall is simply amazing. Satisfying and Impactful on high level.

Though your Menus and Roguelike systems are unique, they were easy to understand. Great work. I would not mind a separate menu sheet that shows all the build’s Stats and their improvement on the base character stats. (maybe that is implemented and I missed it)

Looking forward to testing more!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a Full Video of the playtest.
[UNLISTED: only you can see it with the link]
Any bugs found are marked in the description with timestamps linked to the moments in question.
https://youtu.be/CmBI0S6a7mg

thanks!

No, it’s a proper open Beta. Pre-order’s got to play a few days early, but the open Beta is free for all.

Discord : https://discord.gg/xPChFW67ME
Twitter : https://twitter.com/Hopelan58877092
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HopeLandGame
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOyabM3SrM

Thank you
the team at Sim4K

But one major problem I currently see is that least in comparison to other reverse horror games and what makes then work is knowing your scaring the crap out of your targets. Maybe it’s just because of the first level and the monster was literally just made. But I think it genuinely hurts the game if we actually don’t see fear from the victims in some way to really sell your character is a monster.

And due to the slight power fantasy of reverse horror games. I hope the main character picks up new abilities that can put into physiological horror for her victims so they can act in certain ways so they can help solve the puzzle as well.

I hope this criticism will prove useful.

There is so much to praise about this, holy cow. I’m not even dead yet, that’s how alive I feel playing this.

The world is immersive while yet alien. Too many games- almost every one I’ve yet played that takes place on an “alien” world- still makes it much too human-like and recognizable, while still presenting themselves as hard-sci-fi – in the form of TMI culture details – and visuals, resulting in just an awkward and nauseating cyberpunk experience with humanoids and human-like technology that are supposed to not be human. Looking at you, Freedom Planet and Mass Effect.

By contrast, Black Resin’s world is truly alien, by visuals and by presentation, with no spoken English; only a light touch of written English for the sake of control grasping; and the technology -individual items as well as the collective technological environment, largely looks like it has followed a different path of development from human technology.

It is otherwordly, and yet not self-assumingly so; I admit this next part I still don’t know all the reasons for: The fantasy element in this science fantasy game seems worldly and tame enough for the material/sci-fi stuff to make sense, even be and feel essential, yet just high enough to allow suspension of disbelief both for the similarities to our own world as we know it, and for the logic used in the game’s own fictional universe – both the gameplay aspects such as enemy AI, and the architecture of the factory being so conveniently in place for the Black Resin to make her way through.

Admit I, there’s so much else to say. For now, this is what I want to say, while I can still remember it through my excitement.

I am very eager to see how Black Resin advances. Please consider getting back in touch with the developers in the near future.