Avoid The Dark : Your somewhat typical ppt maze game

After the community of PPC's devastatingly spectacular reaction of my first game, I have finally returned with a prototype of my new game based on the generic maze game that plagued the ppt-game-creator community. As johnr said a while back, "They were all maze games, but each had a different approach."

This game's concept was pre-conceived as early as 2018, it was much more unforgivingly difficult than this prototype and was littered with unnecessary contents (which of course, I had a good laugh playing them with some of my IRL friends). Which is why I was reluctant on sharing them here in my first time joining the forum, but I think I'm finally ready to present it to everyone.

Is it a good enough concept? Would the effort be worth it to delve deeper and expand upon this concept? I still have some tricks up my sleeve I hadn't yet shown in this concept, but as it currently stands, I think it already previews the kind of game I wanted to create nicely.

Your critiques are appreciated, what you like, or dislike about the game. Thanks.

Download link

Of course, I always bury my own thread with my response to other's thread. Sorry but bump, oof.

Just played it and it works pretty well!

I liked the spinning arrows acting as bridges. They added movement and interest and a way to up the level of difficulty by having more of them. I thought at first that they were revolving too fast, but they were ok to cross when I got the timing right as they slowed toward the end of their spin.

There was the option on slide 5 to go up or straight across the first spinning bridge. I went straight across at first and got stuck, so I had to go back.

I'd like to see how this progresses. One thing I find with maze games is that if they are too difficult I just give up and don't go back. I'm probably not alone with this, so maybe something for you to think about if you are going to add the things that you have up your sleeve at the moment.

Keep up the good work!

P.S. I've just bumped up your Reputation score for sharing your games and thoughts.

Love it!
I appreciate the effort you have put into the graphics and timing of events; I find your maze challenging yet admissible. Had to reduce substantially my mouse sensitivity!
Sorry for coming in so late - I don't visit PPC as often as I would like to.
Still have to try out your earlier game you mention.
I tried it before but wasn't sure if I was playing it right.
Couldn't get past stage 2...

2 months ago, my hdd died. I lost an entire year of progress for this project, along with personal pictures, videos, and snippets of texts that are dear to me, well, some of them...
...
Guess I'll start over, lol.

Found some backup from last year, continued work from there. I actually managed to map out 5 new levels with 2 new mechanics, might upload them soon after this if I can tidy them up properly in record time, else I'd procrastinate on them like... uh... usual.

Have a screenshot of one of the new level I worked on back in 2022, part-time game-developing cycle is very messy lol.

Stag.pptx by Hypela (itch.io)

I can't believe I actually wrap this to a playable state, insane.

Anyways, let me know what you think. 7 levels I think.

Cool and smooth. 

I got to the screen where it says "end of the line".
What I like is that the game has a moderate difficulty level not to turn me off. Additionally, the screens made me stop to figure things out for some kind of strategy. If that didn't work I'd take shortcuts, when needed, by quickly moving the cursor over an arrow when it was either starting to spin or coming to a stop; it's possible with some practice!  
Your "slow down" text on one of the screens made me laugh since I knew I was dead slow! Unless it wasn't intended as humour - only encouragement for much quicker players   (except -hopefully- johnr ). Nonetheless, I love humour.

-----
What I struggled with was how to reposition my cursor when killed and restarting on previous screen [on top the text, above the yellow circle, quickly, wait, then click]. Of course.

Looking forward for more screens to try out!

Thanks for trying Jarek!

There's a lot of work put into everything I worked on here, but the spinning arrow seems to be transforming into a staple mechanic of the game, simply by appearing a lot and invoking small nuisances for players in every levels, or screens, as you describe it.

The "slow down" text works both ways! I think... I want to build a narrative where someone or something actually builds the presentation while players were clearing them out, and the only thing I could think of to communicate that is by showing players how the levels they're playing are increasingly seem unfinished and unorganized compared to the first 5 slides.

The dissonance between a supposedly existing narrative and the reality of how the players acted is funny though, 90% sure I'm keeping that part in the final game lol.

Was the struggle you encountered is due to low sensitivity that you need to set up to actually play it? Maybe providing an actual game over screen is necessary hmm...

Also, I was retesting some stuff while reading your feedback and found out you can phase through the laser gates a.la. mibo's Toss style. It's not how you're supposed to play the game, but I think I'll let people do them since it takes bravery and skills to actually charge through the maws of death.

Also new game idea, inverted maze games where players need to stay out of something as opposed to the usual trope of staying inside something. This way, people won't need to adjust their mouse sensitivity settings.

Maybe I can twist the premise of my maze game like that later on. Well, I can do whatever I want anyways, but people need to be able to enjoy it. So back to my cave I go!