Project: Xenomouse

now this is pod (mouse) racing (escaping)!

In-depth feedback 

(Since I enjoy breaking down mechanics and trying to figure out where the improvements could be, and felt like putting in some extra playtime)

Overall:

Great use of a maze game, allowing for a very repayable loop with easily trackable progression. Surprisingly completed for a early submission, I congratulate your team members for doing their part quite impressively.

Initial intro:

Strong, setting a higher quality level right away with correct atmospheric music, complete with volume slider letting you know to enable PC sound

The cheese icon subtly indicates this game should be fun

The design of the mouse is cool and gives me an early 2000s vibe with something like an i-dog

Menu:

Since the main menu is already similar to the growth scene it could be nice to combine the two with a transition of the camera and fade into audio

The buttons having a wait period after clicking is slightly aggerating, but would feel more purposeful if the buttons were visually shown to not be accessible during the wait period. Since they are interacted with often it'd be nice if they had more focus on polish.

Text on the left showing stats is hard to read, should at least be bold

Particles when petting would be nice polish

The buttons make the animal seem more mechanical like you have control over it, but it leaves me feeling like the options should be more interactive, maybe by showing the device controlling it. If it's more sentient maybe interact with a pellet dispenser, have the cheese stacked up in a dish where you can drag them over, show a hand icon where you can pet, and have a 3D button with some glow that has dance taped over it.

Alternatively, using buttons with 3D object icons like the Dreamcast main menu would be fitting (worth the google search)

The science log should use a constant size and be on a scroll. Arrows could easily look nicer stretched taller, colored white, button BG hidden.

The options on what to level up only really left me choosing one the whole time, which was speed.

Main level:

Showing 3D rotating models on the screen for collecting cheeses would be more fun than numbers.

It'd be funny if the cheese models were partially the matching color but also resembled some small piece of an actual cheese, like a chunk of blue cheese.

I found myself wondering if moving towards the mouse might be more fun, which can also easily be replicated by a mobile joystick. Input system integration would quickly get this project available for other platforms.

The bushes look nice and add well to the PS era look well

Would be cool if the cat-dog thing was able to flatten bushes, the outside wall could be made out of a different material. I also liked the extra particles when they did walk though them. I also liked that they slowed down in them.

The audio for the cat-dogs walking through bushes was really smart to include as you can tell their position and it makes the NPCs feel more reactive making sounds around the environment.

I only for a moment cared about the cat-dogs as an obstacle as I just ignored them after the first few times, though their pathing and how often they came across me seemed well done.

The tail moving more dynamically would be a nice layer of frosting

Ending:

The ending was very abrupt, triggering before I even saw the exit

It was hard to tell if there would be an ending, but the notes gave a sense of progression.

I found myself wondering if there could be some kind of Portal moment with a gap in the bushes to escape, and some beautiful landscape to escape to with the scientist friend.

The camera could pan to first person where you think you have the option to escape, but then your heart still gives out since you need the upgrade to survive outside the maze.

I think it would make sense to allow you to return to the mouse training after the current win. Couldn't finishing reading through the logs.

It would be cool if there was another objective to collect all cheeses in one run.

The story:

The cat-dogs were never mentioned

Babs should maintain memory through generations as a plot point

The people checking the logs joke felt dragged out a bit

The characters described seemed funny and I still overall like the story told, while I also think the gameplay reason (in this case saving the world by training this mouse)  should be further expanded upon.

I've found ChatGPT can help come up with nice ideas for story when you tell it what your game is about, can also help write or improve upon story pretty fast by coming up with some alternate ideas to compare against.