New trailer(s) + launch date announcement

[Matthijs D.]

Tomorrow we will let the rest of the world know when we will officially launch Unexplored: Wednesday 22 February.

We will start reaching out to the press and publish a couple of trailers, press releases and distribute pre- and review copies.

Head over to the store page to watch one of the new trailers.

The community right here (you), in this forum, is amazing. No negativity, but helping each other out and providing us with a mountain of useful feedback. I thought communities like this one were a thing of the past. How fortunate we are to be proven wrong.

Well, to finish, here's a little trailer-dash-interview which we will start distributing tomorrow. That weird guy you see flapping his hands and using big words, well, that's JD (Unexplored's Creator)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR A FANTASTIC EARLY ACCESS AND A 100% POSITIVE REVIEW SCORE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29svRNb-9Nc

[Misery]

I'm curious, are you guys planning on updating/changing the store page description and such as well? The current one is... short and vague, at best.

[Matthijs D.]

Hi Misery,
Yes, we most definitely are. That will happen today. Check out the store page tomorrow and let us know what you think.

[Misery]

Now that I'm back on a computer that isnt made of crazy, I went and had a look at it.

I dunno, honestly it still sounds off to me. The issue, at least to my perception, is that the game's description on the page almost sounds like it's describing the basic ideas of roguelikes as a whole. If I were reading this myself, and I'd never heard of the game or really seen anything of it, I'd be wondering: "What does this game do that makes it stand out? What unique thing does it bring to the table? Yeah, it's got dragons, it's got vendors, stealth... but so do so many other roguelikes." It hints at some stuff like the dungeon generation and whatnot, but what I mean is that in an overall sense, it kinda sounds like that. I dont know that it would have grabbed me via that bit, if I were basing my decisions off of things learned through that page.

This though coming from someone familiar with the genre as a whole. I've no idea what someone NOT familiar with the genre might get out of it.

And I sure am not an expert when it comes to how to format and explain things on Steam's store pages, but yeah, that's the feeling I personally get from it. Maybe it's just me, I dunno.

[jd]

Thanks for your feedback Misery,
We always like to point to the quality of level generator, melee combat (which I think is kinda rare in realtime roguelites), stealth (also quite rare I believe) and the generation of puzzles.
But what do you feel makes the game stand out?

[Misery]

Hmmmm... the biggest things about it for me are:

1. The dungeon generation itself

2. It uses a ton of traditional roguelike concepts, but in non-annoying ways (like identification, and secrets that actually make sense). And in real-time, most real-time roguelikes arent even remotely traditional in any of the concepts they are using. The fact that the game FEELS like a traditional one while still being real-time is a pretty major thing as far as I see it. I cant think of another game that really pulls that off. Also it does it without getting obscure and weird.

3. The combat is pretty fun, yeah. Lots going on there particularly once things like potions and staves or whatever are thrown into the mix. Feels more tactical than the usual "shoot everything" sort.

4. Being able to pause the game and deal with your inventory, use items, and examine things, without actually leaving the game screen, that's a big one. Keeps the game from feeling like you need crazy twitch reflexes or however they phrase it these days. You can pause in alot of real-time games, sure, but in most cases you cant USE that for anything (particularly since pausing in most games switches to a whole different screen). In this you can even switch out your equipment on the spot if it seems like a good idea. It all really opens up alot of options for tactical play.

5. The nature of the puzzles and such. Usually procedural puzzles, well... they dont end well. At least not in my experience. But in this, they feel like the sorts that the old Zelda games used to use, way back when. Which werent really so much "puzzles" as a form of unlocking secrets, so to speak. That same satisfaction from that is here overall. Wheras other games might do things like hit the player with logic puzzles, which dont really work procedurally very well. The fact that many of the puzzles are optional things (player isnt pressured into thinking they MUST do every one of them) also works out well.

6. The hub floors. Ended up being a great feature. The fact that there are optional areas with powerful items that you dont HAVE to go to is... actually I cant think of another game that does something like this, as real-time games go. And even among turn-based games that's not really done this way. Granted the current problem is still that lack of clues as to what each branch of floors contains, but that's something for later. As a whole, it's a really good system.

7. The huge variety of enemies. Not just bosses, but monsters and traps and all sorts of stuff. I've been constantly impressed by this. Even after so much time with the game there's still plenty I havent even seen yet.

8. And of course the whole "lock and key" concept thing, however you want to put that.


Of course, I would have no bloody clue as to the best ways to point out any of that on the store page. Normally I like to offer suggestions, but that's a bit out of my realm. The game does so very much that really does make it NOT generic, but I dont know how best to not make the description SOUND that way. Writing up those store pages always sounds difficult.

[Matthijs D.]

Hi Misery,

That is actually a very good description.
I may lift some quotes from your post for the shop page, under the header of:
Player(s) about Unexplored (or something like that).
Thank you very much for taking the time and effort for doing this.