Hellevator [Demo]

im guessing its the protagonist who did it, idk why i think that tho

I enjoyed the demo a lot! Is this still being continued?

The concept of this game is wonderful in my opinion. And I did enjoy the execution, as well. There are some things that I do feel could improve, however: primarily one of the characters (and some of the writing). If I'm honest, it's Anita who ruined a teeny bit of the experience of this game for me. I didn't think she was funny in any way. I feel that she's based on stereotypes and while making her obnoxious was clearly your intention, she just feels so incredibly, incredibly bland. Of course, what small part of the game I played through only makes up a fraction of the finished product, so I can only hope that things change up a little for her. 

Besides that, I have to say, for the one character with a dark(er) skintone to be dressed the most revealing (like, near nude revealing, especially in contrast to the meek, almost prudish, milk-white female protagonist)... it's not a surprise at this point for WOC to be portrayed as promiscuous, but still. While it is something you probably did not think about, and while it is probably not your intention to offend anyone, I would suggest reading up on the fetishization of women and men of color in games. 

Moving on from my least favorite character, the writing, to be clear, was not bad. At all. I did enjoy the narrator (especially the overworked one's) comments, I thought he was relatable and in short, one of the funniest bits of the game. However, the at one point overdone references to a quest and the characters being members of a party annoyed me to no extent. 

In short, Hellevator I would say has great potential. Great potential. It has its strong sides, its weaker ones (as does every game). I do have to praiseJack! He's a demonic child whom I love for some reason, but then again I do tend to root for the weird (if not somewhat evil) characters. As such, I like Mary, too, because she is most definitely a cultist. (Not even her last name, Goodman, can convince me she isn't.) I am (perhaps a little impatiently) looking forward to any updates to come for this game. I'm curious as to how the story will continue and how the characters will develop (if they do so). 

That being said, please stay healthy and safe, and finally, thank you for making this demo (aaaaand for making Jack... pls don't let him die)!

Thank you for the demo! I played through it several times during a livestream. The game mechanics intrigue me, I really enjoyed the voice acting (it was really great hearing Chintarmanya and Mike in this!), and I had fun playing this.

I made a VOD recording of my playthrough: Twitch

Thank you for making this demo!

I couldn't get through this game. Normally I'm all about cheesey pseudo-horror games like this, but there were a couple of issues here that really turned me off to this.

Firstly, the UI is... not great. The art style of the characters and the environments doesn't match the strange elevator button style of the menu. It seems to use far more assets when hand-drawing it would not only look neater, but would also prevent that sort of disconnect that comes from seeing it next to a completely different art style. There's also no reason for the buttons to take up the entire start menu. It forces the user to look around the screen for no reason, when the buttons could be shoved off to the side and the majority of the screen could be dedicated to showing off the characters before you get to meet them. The wheel choice selector was also not incredible, and seemed very out of place from the rest of the game. It certainly looked interesting on its own, but tonaly it didn't seem to fit the game.

Second, the constant interruptions from the Narrator were cute at first, but by the time that the narrator began to talk about high-fantasy and Arthurian legend the gag had gotten old and was doing more to detract from the atmosphere than anything else. In completely honesty here, I kind of cringed when I heard it. It seemed a lot like the "lol so random" humor that can be extremely detrimental to games like these, rather than the narrator being caught up in a sweeping sense of romanticism - which is what I think you were aiming for with those comments. This was an issue outside of the narrator as well, with the characters seemingly more focused on making quips back and forth to eachother rather than having actual conversations or working to find a way out of the broken elevator. The constant interruptions aren't the only issue with the narrator though. Having his VA cut in and out is a great way to break a player's focus on the story. I thought my game was bugging out at first and took a full five minutes closing and restarting the game attempting to get the VA back before I realized that it was an intentional thing. And just as a side note here, it's not cute to brag about how you overworked and underpaid a voice actor. It doesn't make you seem relatable, or like you understand the struggle of the people you hired - it makes you seem like you don't care about them. I know this probably isn't the case, and like most people creating a publishing games you're likely very thankful for the vocal talent, but its just something to be wary of in the future. 

Finally, there are a lot of sound-design choices that don't make much sense. Why does so much of the voice work switch from being full lines to just grunts or catchphrases? Some of the voice work doesn't even match up with the words on the screen. Why is it that a scene that takes minutes to get through is layered on top of a sound effect that loops every few seconds? Being able to pinpoint where the track loops makes the action feel longer than it actually is, and can make gameplay a chore rather than a treat. Why does the elevator muzak continue so loudly even after the characters and the narrator have mentioned that it's bad and annoying? If you know the music is annoying, don't force your players to sit through it. Put it low into the background, or better yet have it cut out with the flickering lights - replace the "That's what mommy calls daddy" thing with a short line about the music finally going away. Not only does that give you a chance to build atmosphere and to really begin to dig into the horror aspect of the game early on, but it also means that your players don't have to grow annoyed and bored with the game as they sit there having to listen to the music in order to progress the story. 

Overall, you have all the bones of a decent game. There's a good base of voice work, a clear direction for the plot, and unique characters who all have their own sense of charm to them. You just need to take time to really put some polish into your work - from cleaning up the dialogue so it doesnt feel like a game of quiplash, to getting the rest of your narration voiced. But because of the issue I've mentioned above, I couldn't get past Anita making fun of Hugh for flirting. The game itself was annoying, rather than just the characters. 

Please don't be too disheartened by my criticism though. With some more work you should be able to take this game and make it something genuinely enjoyable. You just need to take the time to iron out all the wrinkles. Good luck. 

Man, such a wacky cast of characters! I enjoyed their interactions plenty and please, for anyone reading, replay and see what the other choices do! Every part of the game, be it, writing, art, coding, voice acting, music, ect. made the characters and the story much more alive. I'm looking forward how you will develop this further, as you got me to love characters who are the worst.... In the best and entertaining way possible.