Thank you for the feedback
, really appreciate it!
First things first, about the inventory.
We spent a fair amount of time trying to figure what could be both "elegant" (for a lack of better word) and efficient (understand "that would not make the player want to destroy the whole world if he is stuck and that damn interface is just freaking irritating !").
Out of a lot of possibilities, the right click "interface coin" felt the better choice, as it remind us of the right click on every OS (computer wise, at least). And would therefore be something that would be easily understood as game mechanic for a large portion of users (I realize that only a handful of people are going to play that demo, but still ... ).
The problem of how to deal with the inventory was the following :
If we implemented a real inventory, we would have want to have the ability to "right click" every items, which means that it could not be "inside" the interface coin.
We looked for several games that used the verb coin mechanic. Two of them stood out.
Gemini rue and Leisure suit Larry : love for sail (you know someone is real about video games when he uses a leisure suit game as a reference :p )
Geminie rue went for a "everything is on one plane" kind of approach.
The interface was minimalist and the whole interface coin held the actions and the inventory. the amount of item a character had at any given time was very limited (which kept the moon logic rater pretty low on this game) and at no point there were inventory puzzle. All the items were to be used on a scene object.
To be fair I only noticed it when doing the research for our game.
On my first playtrought a few years ago, it did not hit me on any way.
The fact that the game has other kind of interface and gizmos (a radio, a whole gunfight mechanic etc ...) and the fact that the story was enticing enough for me to overlook the puzzle mechanics was enough.
Leisure suit is on the opposite side of the spectrum. You have your interface coin and an inventory button on the screen. You can use the interface coin on every item in the inventory screen.
You had a "combine" button on the interface coin that would then right the whole list of item you had on another "right click window"... but in plain text ...
after looking for alternatives, we decided that, for the demo, and its whole 3 inventory objects, we would add no "real" inventory, Gemini rue style. Since we had not inventory puzzle of any sort, It would limit the amount of work it would meant for me.
For the real game, what we have in mind is using a system similar the leisure suits but in a less ... A LOT LESS ... cumbersome way.
It will be part of the "mechanical arm" interface that we are working on, to give it a special feel.
One thing we tried to do is to make the interface feel like it is part of the universe. And we are working on doing the same with the inventory.
On the graphic pixely matter :
Pixel Art is a very loose term indeed. And as you said, in it core, it is really taking big squary dots of the same size and making something gorgeous out of it, just like they did in the old days.
Basically wen we use it, we think more "pixel inspired / pixelised oriented art thingy ?".
So yeah ... We use Pixel art for a lack of a better word I guess (thought I'm pretty sure "Pixelised oriented art thingy" coud catch on ... as an acronym maybe ? POAT ? "My game is made in POAT style" ..."I'm a POAT artist"... Does this sound catchy to you ?... we'll see ).
But remember, what you got on this game is both recent and very ...VERY old work. When our artist was just discovering pixel art. She posted some more recent stuff on the website if you are interested.
Anyhow ... Long post ! damn !
Hope it answers the questions !
Thank you again SOOOO much for playing that damn demo. And thank you even more for the feedback!
Cesar
Edit : Of course she answered before me ... I knew that ... We are a well coordinated team !