The Hunt - looking for feedback

Seriously, no one has anything to say? Is this THE gamedev site of the web or is there another one I don't know about? I got more feedback from people on some small, local sites than here. Are you you guys really that high up in the sky you can't look upon little me or what?

Personally, I've found that this site is best for answering specific questions about programming or design rather than getting generic feedback on projects.

For a first project it seems like something you should be quite happy with. I have a feeling that it has come close to your original vision and seeing a vision to completion like this is an accomplishment. Hide and seek is a fun game and works nicely as a the central mechanic you have going here.

Needing to read the instructions slowed down my understanding of the game. I was kinda hoping to just dive right in and be able to figure out what was going on. The instructions are there, it's just they're not the first thing I go looking for. It took awhile for me to understand that the vampire can only take one victim only during the night and the hunter can only investigate one person only during the day.

One thing I may as well point out is that it's a two player one keyboard game. Personally, the time and setup that I have for playing games doesn't lend well to getting a second person around the keyboard. Two solutions to this include making a single player mode and perhaps some kind of networked mode. Making a networked game is probably more advanced than you're ready for if this is your first game. A single player mode it seems to me would work best with the player being the hunter and trying to identify the vampire. Coming up with an AI for the vampire that keeps him reasonably hidden would also be difficult but attempting to learn how to implement some basic enemy AI could add life to future projects.

One general game play flaw that I noticed though is that the players need to keep moving to remain hidden. All the NPCs on the screen move very frequently. If I'm a player I'm likely to spend some time looking around trying to figure out where I want to move to or to try and figure out where my opponent is. In that time I'm probably not moving or otherwise giving away my position by moving differently than the NPCs. If my opponent is sitting right next to me, he could also be watching the keys I'm pressing to maintain a holding pattern and look for a character moving in that manner. One solution for this might simply be to move the NPCs less frequently and not all at the same time.

I'm afraid that the game would be too easy if you didn't have to move all the time. A hunter for example could focus 100% on searching for the vampire, but if he has to move all the time then he needs to divide his attention to not seem suspicious. If you put 100% of your attention into looking for vampire you will notice him quite easily.

I understand what you're saying and it is one way to provide challenge and balance to the game. However, IMO, I think it's going to lead more to players being frustrated at having to divide their attention. It's like trying to play Hide and Seek while at the same time playing Hot Potato. The way to find out for sure, of course, would be to try the game on a bunch of people that haven't played before, tell them nothing about any strategy for playing, watch them play and see what the result is.

If you want to keep it a two player game, I recommend trying out a few experiments on NPC movement to see how it effects your game play. It appears you're currently moving the NPCs randomly every turn through a loop. I wonder how the NPC behavior would look if you set it so that he has a 1 in 6 (or whatever) chance of being allowed to move at all? Or what if the NPC has a similar chance of moving in the same direction as he did last time? Is it still just as easy then to pick out the human players? Maybe it'd be an improvement maybe not, I don't know.

If you're happy with the way the game is, that's cool. I'm just assuming that by posting here you're looking for a bit of a critique and suggestions for improvements.

Thank you for your feedback, I was looking exactly for that:D