The first 500 people to use my link https://skl.sh/wishbonegames04251 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare! -I will do one pushup for each wishlist vermin gets

suggestion- you should add some bit of a struggle with reload animations, like shaking while reloading the shotgun, to add some sort of depth into the character and show fear

I love the I think unintentional detail of the player character holding his finger on the trigger, it seems like he is on edge, and unprofessional, I love it.

WHEN THE WORLD NEEDED HIM MOST HE RETURNED

Idea: Radiated Rain A temporary weather condition where the rain irradiates everything while it’s falling and for a short time after until things dry. Your Geiger counter always has a signal, making it harder to navigate. The sound of the rain drowns out other noises, making you more vulnerable to animal attacks. Lightning can strike (though never directly hitting the player), drawing animals to the impact point—either giving you a chance to slip away or putting you in a dangerous spot surrounded by wildlife. This kind of weather could also open the door to other unique environmental effects in the future.

The rabbit is heart shattering and made me sad, keep it up!

quick suggestion: you should make the items glow with a green radiation looking outline, instead of a prompt to pick up. This will keep UI elements to a minimum and look really cool!

I would recommend a running mechanic that would help you escape monsters. However instead of draining a stamina meter it drains your radiation (which does not replenish). This would make creature encounters more horrifying because every time you encountered one you’d be 1 step closer to potentially getting killed & it would also make the Wendigo 10x more terrifying because it would only spawn when you’re at your most vulnerable.

20:26 “ and these predators will touch you regardless of your age “ 💀

I got a good Idea for the bear trap, if you step in it you should drag it around until you take it off. This would slow the character and make noise attracting the animals

i won't lie, the wobbly trees at 6:28 gave me such an intense feeling of uncanny valley and i absolutely loved it! It would be kind of sick if you incorporated it as a random event OR as a "hallucination" your character gets from injecting radiation (granted i dont know if radiation poisoning makes you hallucinate, but it does cause fever so close enough?? lmao). It is also a passive obstacle, if you think about it - makes you think if you really want to use the syringe at this exact moment, disorienting yourself in the process (which would obviously suck if you're getting stalked or chased), or wait until you are safe-ish enough to do it Welcome back btw <3

6:28 If you are interested in adding multiple "biomes" to the forest to make things a bit more memorable, that would look so great. The slightly wavering "trees" with some kind of unique animal would be so creepy. It would also make sense that the forest itself is getting mutated by radiation.

Remember the most important rule of horror games, the player's imagination is always going to be way scarier than any monster you can create (obscure the monster in darkness, don't let player see much of it at a time, always make them feel like they don't know what it is).

I think if you're looking for a possible change to the inventory system. (because I know you want to minimize using UI) consider giving the player a backpack where whenever they open their inventory. They do an animation where they crouch down and have to look inside it, sort of like Metro Exodus but with some obvious changes. This will make the player feel unsafe just for checking their inventory because they can't see around them. Maybe with that you could also add an animation whenever your character grabs an item and they put it into the backpack. This just slows down gameplay and can stress the player out if they're looting a corpse for example and want to rush. And with a backpack, an additional system you could add might involve spores more. Where if you pass by too many mushrooms or spore areas, they'll start to grow in your backpack and you need to remove them with a minigame or something or else they grow on you or damage you or destroy some items. I'm so excited for Vermin! Thank you if you read this, Wishbone!

A really good thing to add would be Seemingly dangerous monsters that are just there for atmosphere. Lets say something like the "Hide-Behind". Like you're traversing the woods, hear a stick break and when you turn you see a giant face peeking around a tree. It stares at you and then either runs away or does something to make you flinch, not a jumpscare or loud sound, but a errant twitch that makes you think its gonna attack you to make you either look away or run. You could even have some harmless entities that make the geiger counter spike to trick the player into thinking there's a dangerous mutant nearby or vice versa, when they have that knowledge make them slip up by thinking a dangerous mutant nearby is just a decoy and get caught lacking.

0:13 my glorious king starts talking

idea for the houses if a creature sees you enter one, you have to shut the door and play a minigame where you try to keep the door closed against it

You speaking on emergent gameplay had me reflecting on my Stalker 2 playthrough. It was missing something 1 had & your game could use more of & thats predator/prey behavior like dragging caught prey through grass/brush. Sneaking around, seeing a hideous herbivore bolt away from me, which triggers a predator that snaps on them and kills them and drags them to the eating grounds. I think that would add a LOT to your game as you hear the bushes move, you dont know if something is stalking towards you to attack, creeping around you to keep an eye, or totally oblivious to you as they drag/hunt other prey. It also fits with your previous commentary+work with the wild dogs howling in pain when you shoot & dont kill them! I can NOT wait to see more & watch the game grow!!!

I know you aren't going to see this like ever, but you could use the effect you got for the pixels at 14:20, super contrasting black and white, every time you take damage. Instead of making you blind with blood stains, taking damage could make you see your surrounding a lot better for that second. But it's mainly because the effect looks much cooler than throwing a red paint bucket on the players screen.

Honestly this game looks really good and I'm so excited to see what it looks like when it's finished!