Hey Jakumie, sorry for the slow comment but we loved your video! Thanks a ton for playing Captive Audience :D We'd love for you to give it another go in a month when it should have a lot more features etc!
First of all congratulations on your original game concept. This 'prisoners in sadistic game show' theme has been done in movies a few times, but not games, to my knowledge, so kudos for being first.
One thing I really like about the way you have done this is that you treat each episode of the program as a different mini-game, which keeps things fresh. The controls and the means of executing the different tasks is mostly pretty intuitive, although I don't understand the purpose of the email one (either within the program or within the game's narrative).
You have put a lot of emphasis on the voice acting here, and it really pays off. In fact, it is the very convincing performances of the voice actors that really makes the experience emotionally compelling.
Even though many players will probably see it coming, I really like the way the twist was executed. It felt like a homage to the Bioshock 'would you kindly?' scene.
There are some limitations with this game I probably don't need to point out, and which were probably due to its prototype nature (lack of real guards, spartan studio environment etc), but here's a few that might be less obvious:
1) In the cake-making episode, you put a mixing bowl in the oven (which is strange enough) but you take out a tray.
2) The password entry on the laptop has a big problem if you enter anything other than the correct password . Specifically, entering any word with the letter 'e' (the most common letter in the english language!) causes you to exit and stand up again.
3) Without giving away any spoilers to other potential players, having the same voice actor play two different roles gives away the twist much, much too early. (Maybe at least disguise one of them a bit)
4) What's more, having one of those two characters try to disuade the protagonist from attempting to escape, or suggesting that they're being tricked, doesn't make sense, in light of what is eventually revealed.
5) The language the presenter uses in addressing the protagonist and the audience is inconsistent, in terms of attempting to disguise the true nature of the program one minute and being open about it the next. (eg. Reference to 'disposing' of a contestant they previously alluded to merely 'sending home')
6) When the protagonist must make his 'big decision' the things he must decide between aren't labelled, so you don't really know what decision you're making.
7) At a few points in the studio corridoors, it is possible to walk through the walls (either that or into some kind of closet) and you can't see your way back to the lit area.
But apart from all that, I thought this was a great idea that was generally well executed. I encourage you to see it through.
First of all thanks for playing our game! Really glad to hear you enjoyed it, and you raise a lot of good points in your comments. Some of the narrative blips are mostly down to condensing a long period of time into the small segment people see. Similarly the voice acting actors performing multiple parts was due to time limitations etc on the original project, though we still think it works nicely :D
Just to clear one thing up, with the choice on day 4 you can actually turn the photos over to see the names of the characters and inform your choice!
Again thanks for playing though, really glad you enjoyed the experience and we'll take your feedback into consideration as we continue development!
I guess I'm gonna do this game the first review. ... Oh GOD the feels. Great job on that. Might wanna work abit on object collision (I.e the cake scene) but beyond that, the story was great. Even though I accidentally skipped a scene, it didn't detract from the story at all. Keep it up and I wanna see where you take this now.
Thanks for taking the time to play our game, I'm really glad to hear you liked the story and the game in general :D also for making such an awesome video about it. I'll share it on our Twitter!
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plz create a dx 10 version thanks
An interesting experience. The story is very original. We enjoyed it very much.
Here is a video we made while playing:
Keep up the good work!!!Cool game idea. I had some graphic problems, but i think it was on my end.
why not claimable?
Claimable? I'm new to Itch so honestly have no idea what that is / how to do it haha
Really fun and interesting game!!!
Hey Jakumie, sorry for the slow comment but we loved your video! Thanks a ton for playing Captive Audience :D We'd love for you to give it another go in a month when it should have a lot more features etc!
Dear devs,
First of all congratulations on your original game concept. This 'prisoners in sadistic game show' theme has been done in movies a few times, but not games, to my knowledge, so kudos for being first.
One thing I really like about the way you have done this is that you treat each episode of the program as a different mini-game, which keeps things fresh. The controls and the means of executing the different tasks is mostly pretty intuitive, although I don't understand the purpose of the email one (either within the program or within the game's narrative).
You have put a lot of emphasis on the voice acting here, and it really pays off. In fact, it is the very convincing performances of the voice actors that really makes the experience emotionally compelling.
Even though many players will probably see it coming, I really like the way the twist was executed. It felt like a homage to the Bioshock 'would you kindly?' scene.
There are some limitations with this game I probably don't need to point out, and which were probably due to its prototype nature (lack of real guards, spartan studio environment etc), but here's a few that might be less obvious:
1) In the cake-making episode, you put a mixing bowl in the oven (which is strange enough) but you take out a tray.
2) The password entry on the laptop has a big problem if you enter anything other than the correct password . Specifically, entering any word with the letter 'e' (the most common letter in the english language!) causes you to exit and stand up again.
3) Without giving away any spoilers to other potential players, having the same voice actor play two different roles gives away the twist much, much too early. (Maybe at least disguise one of them a bit)
4) What's more, having one of those two characters try to disuade the protagonist from attempting to escape, or suggesting that they're being tricked, doesn't make sense, in light of what is eventually revealed.
5) The language the presenter uses in addressing the protagonist and the audience is inconsistent, in terms of attempting to disguise the true nature of the program one minute and being open about it the next. (eg. Reference to 'disposing' of a contestant they previously alluded to merely 'sending home')
6) When the protagonist must make his 'big decision' the things he must decide between aren't labelled, so you don't really know what decision you're making.
7) At a few points in the studio corridoors, it is possible to walk through the walls (either that or into some kind of closet) and you can't see your way back to the lit area.
But apart from all that, I thought this was a great idea that was generally well executed. I encourage you to see it through.
Hi electricshrock.
First of all thanks for playing our game! Really glad to hear you enjoyed it, and you raise a lot of good points in your comments. Some of the narrative blips are mostly down to condensing a long period of time into the small segment people see. Similarly the voice acting actors performing multiple parts was due to time limitations etc on the original project, though we still think it works nicely :D
Just to clear one thing up, with the choice on day 4 you can actually turn the photos over to see the names of the characters and inform your choice!
Again thanks for playing though, really glad you enjoyed the experience and we'll take your feedback into consideration as we continue development!
I guess I'm gonna do this game the first review. ... Oh GOD the feels. Great job on that. Might wanna work abit on object collision (I.e the cake scene) but beyond that, the story was great. Even though I accidentally skipped a scene, it didn't detract from the story at all. Keep it up and I wanna see where you take this now.
Hey Levont,
Thanks for taking the time to play our game, I'm really glad to hear you liked the story and the game in general :D also for making such an awesome video about it. I'll share it on our Twitter!