(Self Made) Exploring Evil Doors 1
- ceejwrites
- Jan 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 5
NOTICE: This is likely going to be perceived as self-roasting, but I promise, I'm his/my biggest fan.
Evil Doors 1 was the first game I made alone at the start of my master's degree; the objective was to make a game mixing different genres, so I chose to explore the FPS and puzzle genres. NOTE: This will be lengthy, as I will be picking it apart extensively. If you feel like I'm overly criticizing the developer, kindly remember that it's me, and I tend to criticize my art more than others.
TITLE: Evil Doors 1.
VERSION: 1.0
GENRE: Puzzle,Topdown Shooter, RPG, Horror
GAMEPLAY VIDEO:
NARRATIVE:
There isn't any! We are dropped into an office setting with the goal of surviving by killing zombies and unlocking doors. I found this part somewhat annoying; if I'm going to fight for my life, at least give me a premise. I do not like games without narrative (but he was a noob back then, and it was his first game). This game having no narrative doesn't absolve it from criticism for more subtle versions of "ludonarrative" dissonance, as that—to me—can exist without a narrative. All parts of a game is telling a story, from props to lighting, design, worldbuilding, and setting. If the elements do not feel cohesive, there it is; there's the dissonance.
GAMEPLAY
The core loop of evil doors is pretty simple. Solve the puzzles before time runs out while making sure to survive the spawning zombies.
LUDONARRATIVE DISSONANCE:
As earlier mentioned, I found some things missing in the gameplay.
There's a world outside; why does it feel like we're floating? Yeah, He had just started his journey as a dev, but c'mon.
2. The UI for the victory screen looks like it belongs in a match-3 game; why is it so calming and sweet? It doesn't fit into the aesthetic of a survival game in any way.
I could genuinely keep going, but I'm not his biggest hater, let's stop there.
DIFFICULTY:
The game, from its core loop, gets easier as one progresses with the protagonist having to deal with lesser amounts of zombies once a puzzle is done, but it strangely maintained its sense of urgency, and after playing repeatedly, it dawned on me how the cooldown timer is solely responsible for this sense of urgency; while the two doors are active, the character has more time, and after solving the first puzzle, it's elapsed enough to keep you engaged in its completion before the timer hits zero.
Not too difficult, but maintaining a sense of urgency that counters the opposing ease that's provided by solving a puzzle.
PROGRESSION:
There wasn't any progression in the game, as it was a vertical slice with one playable level. If the game had a second level and something to juxtapose with, more would be said in this area, but alas, the noob Dev didn't do it. In the level, though, progression mirrors difficulty as previously explained, getting easier but retaining its sense of urgency.
BALANCING:
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