New Update + Steam Wishlist is Live!
Dear Patients
Thank you for participating in our ongoing trial of Side Effects. Your comments, feedback and videos have been invaluable to our research. We're grateful for your time, your curiosity, and your tolerance for discomfort.
New Update
As part of our continued efforts to improve the experience, we've released a new update featuring:
-
Improved AI – our subjects now exhibit more complex behaviors and decisions
Bug fixes
Two new instruments:
• Mouth Clamps
• Pliers
Steam Store Page and Wishlists
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3799100/Side_Effects/
We are preparing for a wider release of the full experience on Steam. If you’ve found value (or something stranger) in Side Effects, please consider wishlisting it. This small gesture helps us reach more test subjects.
Multiplayer Trials Ahead
The next phase of development includes plans for multiplayer.
Thank you again for your participation. We couldn’t run this experiment without you.
– The Side Effects Team
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Such a fun game, I can’t wait for the release! While playing I did come across a bug, when reaching the 5th round, the other test subject tried to force me to take a pill, but he would not decide which pill so the game basically froze. I’d also suggest for the solo game as well as the upcoming multiplayer to have a mode with no progression, just random sets of pills so it doesn’t become boring to play the same 1-5 rounds
this game is going to be great
This game is great it does give the vibes of buckshot roulette in a new very interesting way. A few days ago I posted my suggestions, but you're already working on it jaja, but check if you like something of what I said:
1.-You could add an endless mode where after you beat a test subject another after another comes next, and to give a buckshot roulette vibe you could ask if you want to continue or leave but in this way.
Assuming that you a re a drug addict, you could show a psychedelic pill as the continue and a boring color pill for the leave. For an extra, if you choose to continue, you could add a brief psychedelic effect to the screen showing how desperate you are for the feeling that the drug gives you for an instant.
2.-For the game mechanics, you could configure that the secuence of the pill is not always the same, and also that the type of pill not necessarily defines what the pill does, I mean, that not always the blue pills Regen 2 points of tolerance and that it can do other pills effects, and the same for the other pills.
3.-It could be great if you add a multiplayer mode for at least from 2 to 4 players.
4.- I know you said that the AI of the other test subject sometimes fail but you can improve it.
5.-for the picking up of the objects you could make random the amount of items you can pick up per round and not always only 2 objects.
6.-There are occasions when there are only killer pills, when this happens you could add heavy breathing and laughing expressions for the other test subject, and if the other test subject knows he is about to swallow a killer pill you could add fear to his expressions.
I know that maybe I ask much but I really liked the game and I got excited with all this ideas jaja, good job and congrats for the game
only feedback I have...is this font is atrocious...the game is great lol ok...i take it back...although the computer screen is cool, I personally liked the pill bottles, maybe an option for either for the full game would be cool!
haha yeah the font is really bad! We didn’t change it from the unity default font but we will.
We also liked the pill bottles but felt they lacked some rules communication but we want to bring them back maybe as an item or maybe a special round
yeah a monitor or pill bottle in the settings in the final game would be cool...
Great game, I really liked it. Just some feedback from an early player: mouth clamp is item that is very on-theme for the game, but it changes it into something more malicious and restrictive than its first version. Its an auto-harm whenever players isolate a death pill, can be a reversal with the last two pills, and it passively prevents opponents from eating green pills because of the risk of losing 4 resistance before recovery. It also purposefully injures the opponent rather than protect you which madecthis game conceptually unique from Shotgun Roulette and made it more appealing to me. Here is a fix idea that keeps the aesthetic but tempers the malice and restrictive play of the item: make the player use it on themselves, immediately taking a pill randomly or by opponents choice, in exchange for a benefit such as: taking the right to go second in future rounds, or skip current turn and next turn, or make future pills of the color fed to them or the next 3 pills not deplete any resistance, or prevent resistance from going below 1 for 3 turns. This gives players control over when to suffer the danger of mouth clamp.
Also a new hammer effect: destroy 1 item. This is stronger than its current effect andcplaces value on going first, instead of only being a disadvantage, which is going to become an issue later with multiplayer.
One more while Im here: giving 5 health instead of 4 would allow further stages played and decrease the cost of pliers, making it more appealing to use.
Thanks for reading, love this game.
thank you for this in-depth feedback! We have felt that the mouth clamp stood out from the other items and you have highlighted it as a change of intent compared to other items (damaging oneself vs damaging the other patient). We might play on this idea that the “company/testers” give the test subjects more malicious items the more you play or it could be a different trial (which has a pool of different items). But some of this might push it more to Buckshot Roulette. We have a lot to think about
I agree with the health change. Will change it to 5 and test it out
Thank you again for great feedback! And for playing
Thank you for your reply. I respect all those ideas. I personally like this game more than Buckshot Roulette under the premise that you are trapped with one other pitiful person and forced to do a sinister medical trial. You want to stay alive rather than hurt anyone, but by protecting yourself you're allowing the other guy to die. But I do see where you’re going with those other ideas and they are interesting.
(In the first version I built on this premise and used 4 hammers on death pills to purposely keep us both alive into round 5 as an easter egg. I would need to remove 7 death pills to have the smallest chance get to round 6.)
That is such a cool way of playing!!! Will keep this in mind. We will add some benefits to making it to later rounds (maybe some secrets) and you have to try work together to get there