The Loop [thriller/puzzle]

[Greeny]

It seems multiple people were having the issue, so I uploaded a mirror.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mfy6z9a5vu1pc5s

Apologies!

[Naomi]

wah, Greeny~ I'm so happy to see it's done!

The ending is disturbing...<.< The player character with the clown makeup <.<

also felt good to read this hahaha XD ohgod...

I really enjoyed it the first time I played, and I'm sure it only got better!
ok, I'm gonna play it again! (though last time I played, I couldn't even get out of the first loo HAHAHA but I'm going for the easiest difficulty this time ''>__>)

[Amy]

Took a few hours with a download manager. >.>;;

Thoughts:
- Augh why are there so many choices just to make a cup of coffee do they affect anything
- Augh I knew I shouldn't have read that
- Augh a vortex what
- Augh why did I pick the highest difficulty
- Augh timed choices
- Augh more timed choices
- Augh how many times have I died now
- Augh I tried to save the game but it crashed
- Augh I give up for now but I know I'll try again later

...OK, a bit more seriously...
A lot of the narration is fun to read. Some of it seems unnecessarily detailed, though.
I'll return with more feedback if I survive...

[Gasai Yuno]

I tried to save but it crashed.
;~;
Just when I was about to see if I was going to die or not...

[RunicV]

;_; I'm too scared damnit. I can't stand this, I'm chickening out and waiting for a walkthrough. Played on Easy mode, by the way.

Alright, things to point out about your game:
-love the title music
-overall choice of music is good
-sound effects and lack of music also helps in building the mood
-love the atl and word movements in the beginning
-backgrounds and GUI are good, simple, fitting for your game
-dramatic music is good, helps set atmosphere
-freaky ass clown is freaky, so good job in scaring us

I really like the writing and how you can do lots of random stuff. The only error I have so far is the part where

after I find get hit in the face with a baseball bat by the freaky ass clown, when he's coming for me, I tried to save. And then cue an error page with Ren'Py stuff. And I wanted to see what would happen damnit.

The problem with this game is that if you save too many slots, you get confused about all of them, because if you can't solve the first loop, it looks all the same. So it gets confusing on which slot happened at which point. Perhaps you could let the player label their slots?

That aside, this is a really good game. I'm quite interested to find out why the writer is stuck in this loop, and why the clown is being a jerkass. Your writing is really nice, it flows neatly and doesn't interfere with the story. I quite enjoy it.

So congratulations once more on your first game release. I'm now going to crawl in a corner and wait for the walkthrough to be out. I'm so tempted to play but I'm scared QAQ Good job on scaring me, the effects with the clown and

making him pop up everywhere was a nice touch.

[cuttlefish]

Wanted to give others a chance before I posted~

Congratulations on the release! I had a fun time playing through all the puzzles.

I especially liked the apartment room riddles and rooftop encounters.
Not to say the train part wasn't nifty, but I could get past it without much difficulty... mostly.

The atmosphere and music is set very well, but after having played it so much "I'm not even scared anymore" ;)

Except the rooftop showdown. That always gets me.

@Amy, Gasai Yuno, RunicV
It sounds like everyone is trying to save during timed scenes.
I would suggest saving before you reach that part, and then you should have no trouble. Error-wise :)

[frederic09]

Thanks for the feedback!

But it's too bad, that i have to delete the persistant data, it's annoying to be stuck in the infinite loop during the 1st "test".

I'm not sure what you mean by this - are you perhaps referring to room 409?
It's possibly a bug that we thought we fixed during testing - I'll have to take an extra look at it.

yes, that's the room. I failed doing a choice and the timer was gone to 0.
So it restarted from the beginning (14th February, 2:44, in the bed) and when i was back into the room 409, after the 4th (or 5th line?) i got "again" the event saying that i failed. And it's restarting, and restarting and restarting. So annoying.

So i had to delete the persistant data, with all the trophies i got

[cuttlefish]

yes, that's the room. I failed doing a choice and the timer was gone to 0.
So it restarted from the beginning (14th February, 2:44, in the bed) and when i was back into the room 409, after the 4th (or 5th line?) i got "again" the event saying that i failed. And it's restarting, and restarting and restarting. So annoying.

So i had to delete the persistant data, with all the trophies i got :(

If loading from the save automatically makes you fail the puzzle again, see if quitting and relaunching the game fixes things.

It's too bad about the trophies :(
I think you can get them back easy enough since you've gotten so far. Good luck!

[frederic09]

yes, that's the room. I failed doing a choice and the timer was gone to 0.
So it restarted from the beginning (14th February, 2:44, in the bed) and when i was back into the room 409, after the 4th (or 5th line?) i got "again" the event saying that i failed. And it's restarting, and restarting and restarting. So annoying.

So i had to delete the persistant data, with all the trophies i got

If loading from the save automatically makes you fail the puzzle again, see if quitting and relaunching the game fixes things.

It's too bad about the trophies
I think you can get them back easy enough since you've gotten so far. Good luck!

It was a nice idea. But i tried all this stuff.

I've tried reloading the save, and redoing "all" the game from the start with my latest save, and with a new game (crazy mode) - there were no change.

And when i deleted the persistant data, i was able to redo the room 409 from my last save.

[Greeny]

I'm awfully sorry, I had another look at the code and I really don't think this is something I can fix...

[Gasai Yuno]

Hehe,I keep dying ^^'''
Will there be a walkthrough for this?

[Greeny]

Rather than a walkthrough, I think I may later release an Official Hint Guide on my website.

Oh, by the way, out of curiosity is everyone finding the super secret hidden Trophy Room? Because it's totally a secret, yo. And super hidden.

[Sheridan]

I played until I got an ending. I'll go back and see what there is to do other than die =)

The atmosphere building reminded me of Pandora's Box, which I enjoyed a lot. The little minutiae of choices work well to create immersion here. However, I think the length of The Loop makes the atmosphere less effective as the game goes on; I found myself getting frustrated at the puzzles before I had quite figured out what I was trying to accomplish. Posting an Official Hint Guide would definitely help with that.

The writing is quite good, although there was one bit:

when the clown shows up -- I forget the exact line, but it was something like "my face was as white as a sheet in that moment." Because that line felt awkwardly phrased, and because it appeared before the clown's image was actually shown, I think it lessened the impact of the clown's appearance.

Overall I enjoyed it!

[KioTrio]

This game is... Amazing, it managed to use my worst nightmare, clowns, like seriously, this didn't help me get over my fear!

I thought the music was fitting, the clown, was something...
And somehow I acquired a cheat code. Typing random numbers is how I win
I didn't post it, because I didn't find it while playing the game story.

At first I thought, I shouldn't have picked demented,
And then later, I shouldn't have picked crazy, this is scary!
Then I still failed in insane.

I noticed the choices did effect something, but in the long run, I still wonder, do they? Should I have not put that sugar in my coffee!?

Anyway, congratulations on releasing such a hard game!

[RunicV]

Oh, by the way, out of curiosity is everyone finding the super secret hidden Trophy Room? Because it's totally a secret, yo. And super hidden.

I found it. Your pictures were a huge hint already. That and it was the best possible place to stick it in. But I shan't say it in this thread. XD