Outside - Stray Cat

My thoughts;                        02/09/2019

This is a charming little 3D platformer demo game set in a noir city environment that feels charming, aesthetically pleasing and well thought-out.  The backgrounds and levels themselves are wonderfully detailed, although the better-looking half of the game is towards the ending. The character itself; the cat seen in the promotional shots, has plenty of great animations, and moves well through the world. They went as far as to include an idling animation, and that didn't go unnoticed. 

The gameplay itself is where improvement wouldn't go amiss. The movement controls feel less like that of precise feline nature, and more like a cat on bricks of ice that might make that jump as long as you're close enough to the edge of that platform and you have a small running start first. Once you get the hang of it, the game rewards you with a rich environment of detail and atmosphere.

The light mechanics in which you must avoid the streetlamps is inventive, and I would have liked to have seen more of it, perhaps some moving lights that interacted a little more with the environment around them. The animations are fantastic. More on those in a minute.

Criticisms; 

Gameplay: While the idea of moving objects around to use to help you through the level is excellent, unfortunately it could have done with a more robust physics model. The objects are light, slippery, and bounce on contact sometimes. I have a hunch that the bouncing is to do with the character hit-box in conjunction with the weight or lack their of. 

Animations: I'd have loved to see in-between animations however for a more point-to-point look instead of a slightly choppy switch between different running modes. The animations in-game while very nice as they are; seem limited to movement speed, which is a shame. I think in order to appreciate them fully, more variety would have helped this. 

Music: Kevin Macleod. Understandable choice for legal reasons, but not too immersive. If in the possibility we see Outside 2, I'd love to see some music developed for the game, or signed on by an artist. 

Artistic Style: The style is wonderful. I want more. There are a few areas in the game in which large black backgrounds are visible and I wish I had something to look at in those areas. There was a single time in the game in which a sign went past the camera in the foreground. I enjoyed that sign. Frankly a few vines and water drips wouldn't go unnoticed in the underground section. 

A more complex addition to this section would be the scene in which a train crosses the river, and a city is seen in the background. I wish I could see that city far into the distance to put into scale the environment I was traveling in. Right now, the scene is missing some detail in that area, and makes that part of the game look like a nativity set from school. Although the water was a very nice touch. I liked that. 

Final Regards to watchers:

I am excited to see what this group of artists make next and I hope you are too. What they made here reminds me very much of a cross between a custom map from Little Big Planet and Limbo. The art style is interesting, although needs refining with more detail in areas. The controls are slightly dodgy as of right now, but frankly it's nowhere near as bad as it could be.  

7/10