Note; While testing this prototype, the graphics were very choppy which probably made me experiment with risky jumps/rotations less than I normally would.
1) This mechanics made no sense to me until I actively spent about 10 minutes trying specific things to try to elucidate it. This was a combination of:
there being no green platforms at all (which made those instructions confusing)
the fact that the XYZ keys sometimes seemed to rotate the room on their own, whereas other times it just changed what QE would do
There was no clear indication of the currently active axis (I know there are lines, but in absence of things like a horizon, I thought these were lasers or something at first) Should probably have one of the XYZ keys in the corner light up when active
the asterisk on the platforms doesn't actually illustrate the 3rd dimension well, I thought it was suggesting three axes along a 2D plane
the minimalist graphics provide no sense of visual reference. It's occasionally hard to tell what direction things are moving (especially as the walls clip through platforms) and the first person perspective makes it occasionally hard to tell what's "up". I definitely tried jumping across the sky a couple times because I was actually looking at an upward angle when I thought I was looking down across a gap.
2) The concept I think has potential but the dynamics of it need to be considerably clarified graphically (both UI and environment) for it to work.
3) Once I figured out the mechanics, I felt I was able to understand the impact I'd have, but I had to operate mostly off a mental model of how I'd manipulated the space because visually it's hard to orient oneself once everything starts moving.
4) Only if I was mentally tracking it. If I lost concentration I was typically unable to reorient myself due to issues with perspective and everything mostly looking the same.
5) I had no real strategy because I spent most of my time just trying to deal with maintaining a mental representation of the space.
6) Not easily at all. It felt slow and cumbersome.
7) I don't think platforms are sticky when you land on them so having platforms not fly out from under you when you rotate would probably be more intuitive. Additionally, the room box should be larger than the sphere containing all game objects. Currently the cube is scaled to the game objects when its aligned, which means it clips through objects at the corner when rotating, which is additional visual noise that makes it hard to evaluate the space.
Overall I think there are some interesting mechanics in here, but it really needs an environment that's easier on the eyes and clearer to read.
Note; While testing this prototype, the graphics were very choppy which probably made me experiment with risky jumps/rotations less than I normally would.
1) This mechanics made no sense to me until I actively spent about 10 minutes trying specific things to try to elucidate it. This was a combination of:
Overall I think there are some interesting mechanics in here, but it really needs an environment that's easier on the eyes and clearer to read.