WHY DO customers pixalate?

[Lord Yoshi]

Why are the customers pixelating and then disappearing?

[onsports]

I Don´t know but it makes me some kind of uncomfortable every time this happens. Liminal spacey, like the Character is crazy and there is no one!
I was looking if I missed the early acces info - no it´s not early access! I think about refund.

[Tiny Mushroom]

My best guesses:
- to ensure that you are able to freely move anywhere in the space without NPC's blocking you
- having NPC's just kind of fade in and out gives a sense of time passing
- it is way, way cheaper and faster to have NPC's act this way than to spend time animating and programming them to walk in and out of the building and for them to have a level of interactivity where you can reliably expect them to move out of the way when you need them to do so.

[Joe Coffee]

Admittedly it's a really bad theory of mine, but considering the opening shows the MC getting out of bed, it possibly suggests that he's still asleep and is dreaming the whole thing and that people popping in and out adds sense to how people suddenly arrive and then you can't find them later in a dream.

But the scheme is interesting, perhaps in this way People Pixelating probably helps with performance issues on PCs.

[WIREDGary]

Haha! I Love this head canon!

So back in our initial demo of the game there were no NPC's in the game whatsoever, and one of the biggest pieces of feedback we had was 'kinda feels a bit empty without anyone else there'

We decided at that point that NPC's needed to be in there, but as Tiny Mushroom suggests, such a small space where you are needing to interact with a lot of stuff would make having 'solid' NPC's a bit of a pain!

Trying to pick up trash and an npc is stood in front of it, or blocking off a washer? Or even worse - actively stopping you being able to play the arcade game you want? Oof.

At this point we decided to take the position of a couple of other games (JRPG's actually!) that allowed NPC's to exist in the game world as set dressing, but 'phased out' when the player approached them, allowing the world to feel a little more alive - without hindering you from actually navigating the space.

The pixilation is just a thematically appropriate effect for the fade :)

[Lord Yoshi]

Originally posted by WIREDGary:

Haha! I Love this head canon!

So back in our initial demo of the game there were no NPC's in the game whatsoever, and one of the biggest pieces of feedback we had was 'kinda feels a bit empty without anyone else there'

We decided at that point that NPC's needed to be in there, but as Tiny Mushroom suggests, such a small space where you are needing to interact with a lot of stuff would make having 'solid' NPC's a bit of a pain!

Trying to pick up trash and an npc is stood in front of it, or blocking off a washer? Or even worse - actively stopping you being able to play the arcade game you want? Oof.

At this point we decided to take the position of a couple of other games (JRPG's actually!) that allowed NPC's to exist in the game world as set dressing, but 'phased out' when the player approached them, allowing the world to feel a little more alive - without hindering you from actually navigating the space.

The pixilation is just a thematically appropriate effect for the fade :)

Thanks for answering. Couldnt you just make the NPC's appear solid and remove a collision box so you can just walk through them without them disappearing ? I have also noticed when they disappear , the NPC doesn't come back when you are not within their boundary any more. It is just my opinion but the effect of the NPC just evaporating into a pixelating state is almost nauseating.

[Joe Coffee]

^^ CyberVolt has a groove. I did want to go up and "inspect" the laundromat patrons on numerous occasions, but I'm glad they fade out so I can pick up trash they're on top of, or empty coin hoppers they're lounging near/playing games on.

[The A.W.G.]

Whatever the reason, it's creepy and unsettling and I really wish it wasn't like that. At least make them reappear when I get far again. Jesus. Who thought make people disappear was a good idea.

[Mieumieu]

Originally posted by The Jerker:

Admittedly it's a really bad theory of mine, but considering the opening shows the MC getting out of bed, it possibly suggests that he's still asleep and is dreaming the whole thing and that people popping in and out adds sense to how people suddenly arrive and then you can't find them later in a dream.

But the scheme is interesting, perhaps in this way People Pixelating probably helps with performance issues on PCs.

Nah, it's not about performance. You can be pretty close before they start to change.

They wanted the people around to remind us other people are there, that it's a working business, but have them be able to phase out of the way for us to do our thing. They just wanted to stay on theme and be a little unique, that's why they have them phase out in this manner.

[Thorstorm]

Originally posted by toadstool:

Originally posted by WIREDGary:

Haha! I Love this head canon!

So back in our initial demo of the game there were no NPC's in the game whatsoever, and one of the biggest pieces of feedback we had was 'kinda feels a bit empty without anyone else there'

We decided at that point that NPC's needed to be in there, but as Tiny Mushroom suggests, such a small space where you are needing to interact with a lot of stuff would make having 'solid' NPC's a bit of a pain!

Trying to pick up trash and an npc is stood in front of it, or blocking off a washer? Or even worse - actively stopping you being able to play the arcade game you want? Oof.

At this point we decided to take the position of a couple of other games (JRPG's actually!) that allowed NPC's to exist in the game world as set dressing, but 'phased out' when the player approached them, allowing the world to feel a little more alive - without hindering you from actually navigating the space.

The pixilation is just a thematically appropriate effect for the fade :)

Thanks for answering. Couldnt you just make the NPC's appear solid and remove a collision box so you can just walk through them without them disappearing ? I have also noticed when they disappear , the NPC doesn't come back when you are not within their boundary any more. It is just my opinion but the effect of the NPC just evaporating into a pixelating state is almost nauseating.

This.
It'd be much better to walk through them than having them disappear completely, I like the game so far but it's a dumb decision tbh.

[Buckshot]

Originally posted by toadstool:

Why are the customers pixelating and then disappearing?

I know right. Its a bit creepy and weird.

[Elkahe]

I walked up to an npc playing an arcade game after completing the tutorial and I thought he was absorbed into the game and it was gonna be some kind of secret plotline you could follow...

[TheWashableBomb]

jfc imagine being this sensitive. The NPCs disappearing is fine.