All feedback thread

[Andza]

If you've played a version of our game or just seen the steam page and have any feedback, please do share it here.

It can be anything - both what you liked and any criticism is super welcome here.

To make it easier to structure your feedback, you can try answering the following questions:

1. If I could change 3 things about the game, these would be these...

2. The best I felt in the game when I was doing...

3. The worst I felt in the game when I was doing...

4. I lost interest in the game when I reached...

Or just share any thoughts on the game.

[Vinilla]

Should be pretty obvious but spoilers for the demo ahead! Play it yourself first before reading my feedback :)

Starting to write this up just as I finished playing through all of the content in the demo. And to start, wow! I really like this so far!! I was promised a similar feeling of deduction to Return of the Obra Dinn and it was definitely delivered! I am very excited to see the full game so I can learn more about the Cloudsley family and the mystery surrounding the idol.

Now to dive into some feedback, following the questions you gave:
1) This is a rather minor nitpick to start off with, but it was the one clue that really confused me during my playthrough. I had some slight trouble understanding the wording at the beginning of Peter Battley’s portion of the will, which I would fix by adding in commas like so: "My dear late sister, your mother, shared your financial..." Without the commas, I was confused about who exactly it was addressed to, initially thinking it was to the sister, and then Sebastian's mother. Perhaps it was just a problem with me and not the game itself, but perhaps it would be helpful for other players ^^;

This next point isn’t a huge concern to me because I assume this would be changed in the final game: how abruptly the game throws you into things. It wouldn’t have to be much, perhaps just a line of dialogue on a blank screen where the player character thinking to themselves “I’ve got to piece together the story of this idol” (of course change this to suit the exact story you’re trying to tell), or something similar to what Return of the Obra Dinn does, where you’re given a letter/in-universe flyer that explains your task a little bit. It’s great to get straight into the gameplay, don’t get me wrong, but it is a bit jarring to start up the game to be immediately faced with a blank map and then BAM! someone being thrown off a cliff.

This is an even tinier nitpick than the first one but I thought I’d throw it in anyways: the audio cue that plays once you’ve correctly filled in one block of blanks is startlingly loud, much louder than the music and other audio effects. I’d suggest turning it down just a little bit so people aren’t scared by getting things right ;D

2) I felt the best playing this game was after gathering up all the clues and I was left to figure out how they all fit together. The way they are given is excellent, the answer usually doesn’t make itself painfully obvious while you’re still just looking at the scene. But it also isn’t obscure enough that I didn’t feel like I was left lost and completely stumped on what to do. Perfect difficulty for me. I think in particular I enjoyed the death of James Pear the most, as it was the one where I found the subtle presentation of information to be the best, such as having to take note of the initials carved into the knives of the Pear twins, and that Mrs. Cubert’s knowledge of non-Western culture was influenced by her time in the colonies. I feel like it’s a good sign whenever a deduction game makes you start taking down notes and this scenario got me to do just that! I loved it :)

3) The worst part of my playthrough was trying to figure out why Willard Wright’s death happened, as some details confused me. First, why is it called Chapter 2 if it occurs after the death of James Pear, which is Chapter 3? Second, is it intentional that Ash Blair looks the same as David Gorran? Is it the same person under a different alias, or just a reused character design? Third, I think I missed why exactly Blair wanted revenge on Wright? Was it for bad luck in a game of cards? Because if so, Blair and Wright never played against each other, according to the score tab on the table, so I don’t see why Blair would want to target him specifically. If he *is* supposed to be Gorran with an alias, is it related to James Pear’s death? Why would some random servant for Edmund want revenge for that, if that is what was intended? Sorry, I just couldn’t figure out the reasoning for it, which in turn gave me some difficulty in actually pinning the murder on Blair (I had figured out all other pieces of info in this scenario just fine though).

EDIT: I've played through the demo a second time and see now that Gorran and Blair are indeed one and the same (as seen by the tobacco on Gorran). So I suppose then it wasn't revenge at all, he was actually more intent on finding the idol, which he finds 'interesting'.

4) I’m pleased to report that this demo held my attention the entire time I was playing! There was always something to do, whether that be click around for the fill-in-the-blank pieces of evidence, inspect the scene itself for evidence that must be inferred, or filling in the blanks with what you’ve figured out. And scenarios stick with you after completing them, as you’re left with the bigger, more important questions of how it relates to the overall story. I like that things aren’t told out *too* explicitly for you after solving a death: you’re allowed to make sense of it yourself like you must do in Return of the Obra Dinn. Though I do have to ask how this is going to scale up for a complete game. How long is it going to be? Will the map for it be the same as in the demo, but larger and with more icons to click on? Don’t feel obligated to answer these questions, I was just wondering that a bit.

Alright, I think that covers just about everything! I hope this feedback will prove useful to you. Good luck on developing this game further, I cannot wait for it to be complete, so I can learn what’s going on with this strange idol and the people who want it!! :)

[ernests.klavins]

Thanks, for detailed feedback. Chapter numbers are legacy thing (originally level with burning man was away able only after "Little Mermaid" was finished. For scale we are planing at least six levels (as complex as Mermaid and Departure of stranger). We will think about framing the story properly as we will develop story. This demo is for testing mechanics and getting know if people are interested in game like this.
Yes Blair was fake name for Goran. Revenge inscription was his attempt to frame escaped convict for murder

[Fusha]

I really liked the demo actually

I was a bit concerned during the first two scenes since they were much too simple and boring and could easily be solved through brute force, but the last two scenes were pleasantly complex. Still, I feel like the first scene in the final product gotta do more to draw the player in. There's gotta be some sort of explanation, reason or motive in the narrative for why the player can view these scenes and piece together what happened. Other than that well done good job I approve (six complex scenes feels like too little though but that all depends on the game's price I suppose)

Annoyances:
I agree with the samster poster up above that the «My dear late sister your mother» phrase is confusing, commas aren't gonna help, just rephrase the entire sentence, it's gotta go.
I also don't like how there's no explanation about what the musician's watch was doing in the dandelion room. And if it's -not- the musician's watch, that implies that we just grabbed a random name starting with «M» and got lucky, which would be even more annoying.
Also the letter on James' knife looks more like an I than a J to my eye but I guess it's 'cause it was scorched so that's not too big of a deal

Glitches:
I somehow managed to make the cursor disappear during my first playthrough but can't reproduce

High priority major urgent issues:
The golden idol on the Steam store page banner and Discord icon looks too much like a buttplug

[Atom47]

Posting under husband's account, and obviously spoilers ahead!

The Golden Idol game follows the same vein as Return of the Obra Dinn, a game I also loved playing (and let’s face it, one I’m currently obsessed with). I’m the type of person to love solving mysteries, but due to not being raised on video games, I don’t have the hand eye coordination/fine motor skills most do at this point in my life.


So when my good friend linked this in the group discord server, I played as soon as I could!


Listing what I loved about it first: the references to Return of the Obra Dinn! Monkey Paw Island? The Obra Dinn, and a mermaid with a spear hanging on the ceiling? Along with the inn being called Little *Mermaid*? Pocketwatch belonging to a guy named Evans? Yes, oh my god gold(en statue)! I’d love more references, but that’s just me personally!


Chapter 1, Passing of a Rural Gentleman, was a nice intro into Sebastian’s day to day, and set him up well. Tied in to chapter 3 well, though I don’t know how it’s all supposed to wrap into each other. I guess I will find out when the game is released!


Chapter 2 was done excellently, with Ash trying to frame Robert well. I loved the detail that he couldn’t read, so if you can’t read, you can’t write! I’m not sure why Maurice Evans’ watch was in Willard’s room, nor do I know how this ties into the overall feel of the game; again, I will have to find out why when the game was released! The poker scores being set up so that Williard’s murder coinciding with the second round was an excellent use of deduction, as was the flower rooms.


In chapter 3, The Dramatic Departure of an Outsider, I loved that the date was September 7th, which is my birthday! You had absolutely zero way of knowing this, and so I mention that this made me happy that this coincidence happened! I know, soon to be 31 year old woman being giddy at her birthday being in a game, shows my mental state, right? XD


This particular chapter was the best one yet, as it requires A TON of looking around and use of player deduction skills. The deducing the characters from the will, their belongings, and family tree was brilliant, same with the Pear twins’ drawing, and so far was my favorite chapter! I also loved that the date was 1789, so if you know American/British/Indian history, you’d know that when Sebastian mentioned ‘colonies’....America was no longer a colony by this time, so the one that fit with Hindi script and culture was...India! Don’t change a thing with this chapter, unless it’s to make it better, because everything about this was brilliant! I love family drama when I’m not the one involved!


Now for the improvement section: right off the bat, I had trouble with the Breach of Contract/Horn of Thumb murder. The eye was right on Bay of Shadows, but that answer was wrong. So I brute forced it, which normally wouldn’t be bad, but in a game of deduction, I have a suggestion: weather patterns on the intro map. It’s storming at the Horn, but if you’re going to keep the eye on Bay of Shadows, maybe have a weather pattern map so that players have to pay attention to the weather, and think “Well the eye is on Bay of Shadows, but the weather there is sunny. Only place it’s storming is Horn of Thumb, so let’s try that” and have to use their deduction. You had used this mechanic of a sort to deduce Blackfield with the river in the Passing of a Rural Gentleman chapter, which I thought was an excellent use of the player having to use their observation skills!


After chapter 1 opens up, I immediately went to chapter 3, which was out of order. If the order doesn’t matter, then that’s fine, keep it as is, but if you intend to have the players go in order, I would personally keep chapter 3 locked, or steer the player towards chapter 2 somehow, such as Sebastian mentioning “going into town” in his notes, along with something tantalizing to the player so that they think “Oh, well I simply MUST go into town to find out what happened! Oh hohoho! (insert gentlewoman’s laugh for comedic effect here)”


Speaking of going into town, chapter 2 happening before chapter 3 (chapter 3 takes place on 7 Sep, versus chapter 2 taking place 10 Sep) is a little odd, unless you want chapter 2 to be a flashback/memory?


Based on dates alone, Edward Cloudsley stole the idol from the doctor, which legally the idol belonged to, and passed it down to his kid. So why did he kill the doctor?


Why did David/Ash kill Willard? What was the revenge? Earlier chapters gave really no inkling for revenge, so was that just to frame Robert, throw off the cops so David/Ash could steal the idol? In chapter 3 (the flashback?) you used the same character as the coachman, so was the coachman Ash in disguise due to the tobacco he was carrying? Was David the pseudonym or was Ash the pseudonym? Was he sick of being a servant? What was the purpose of the ruby rings? How does this all tie in? So many questions that I’ll have to wait for the game’s release!


Overall, excellent start. You set up the story well, so please keep this momentum up! I’m excited for the release, and can’t wait to deduce more! I do love mysteries!

[Rob_aDubDub]

I found out about the game on a group discord server and played through the demo a couple days ago. I wanted to write some feedback as I enjoyed playing the game and although it is mainly praise, I hope you find it useful!

Firstly, I love the game's concept as a whole. The over-arching mystery behind the idol is intriguing and certainly engaging. I'm definitely eager to learn more about the Cloudsleys and those affected by the idol. Even though it's only the demo, we get so many clues about the story already through small details (such as the letter in Willard's room talking about the "order" and the "everwatching owl") and I found it fun to theorise about what might happen next in the game or about the origins of the idol. I agree that the beginning is somewhat abrupt as you're thrown into the action, and perhaps something like a quick introduction as to how or why the main character is involved in this mystery would be ideal (although I understand the main character's identity may be part of the mystery). Also, it is somewhat confusing that chapter two takes places after chapter three chronologically but the possibility of the game being presented to the player in a non-linear fashion is exciting and could make it unique in comparison to other games.

I can definitely see how Return of the Obra Dinn may have inspired this game. The player is able to make their own deductions without the game basically spoonfeeding obvious information. Clues are subtle but not impossible to pick up on and there is a good use of misdirection and red herrings, such as the E.C. initials on both the bag and the handkerchief, both being in two different men's possession at the time of death. During my playthrough, they were both candidates to be Edmund Cloudsley until I recognised one of the men as Ash Blair from the previous chapter and was able to correctly identify Edmund. Another good use of misdirection (although I wasn't sure if it was intentionally misleading or whether I was just being dumb) was during Sebastian's death; I had been playing under the assumption that the scene was showing the exact moment of death (like in the introduction chapter or the third chapter) so I had assumed he must have fallen off the ladder and hit his head. However, after realising that was wrong, I reviewed the information I had about the hunting attire he was wearing and the horse running around wildly with its saddle still on and realised that I was being shown the body after the death had already occurred. The mysteries are certainly satisfying to solve and give the player a sense of accomplishment rather than frustration in my opinion.

The game mechanics are very interesting. The bank of keywords reminds me of a similar kind of mechanic in Do Not Feed The Monkeys and I like that you are able to rearrange the words how you please; it certainly made it easier to keep track of which names matched with each other and it was definitely useful during the Little Mermaid chapter as I could put the weapon next to the corresponding suspect. I also like the counter for the keywords as well as I often find I go looking non-existent clues when I unknowingly have all the information I need in front of me. Another mechanic I like is the ability to play with or without the hotspots. I personally played without them for the most part however I did turn them back on when I found I was missing some clues from the third chapter. I like how the hotspot changed depending on if the player had already looked at a piece of evidence or not as it helped me find the torn up will I had somehow glossed over during my investigation.

Most of my issues with the game have already been discussed in previous feedback and on Discord as well so I'm afraid I don't have much else to add in that regard. I'm also happy to report that I had no bugs or glitches during my play-through.

I am very excited for this game and I eagerly await the full release!

[ernests.klavins]

Thank You for feedback

Maurice lost watch in the cards game. You can look at scores and sea he lost all games he played. Besides his word bubble contains some text: "I will never gamble with something so dear to me". Ash/David did not plan to kill anyone. He was caught in the act of stealing and stabbed WW in fight. Edward Cludsley killed doctor out of fear that doctor can stab him in his sleap. Chapter numbering is legacy thing we will get rid of it

[TreAsterischi]

A small premise: English is not my first language... sorry,
I will do my best to make myself understood... ^^"

1) I love this demo! The game is very intriguing and I really hope this is just a prologue: I want more! XD
Every murder is more difficult, with more clues, more characters, more rooms to explore...
a crescendo that I hope will continue for many chapters ... or maybe new stories ^_-
We can solve the Case of the Golden Idol, but the core concept is awesome and you can create a lot of sequel/dlc/new stories in this style! :D
Pls don't stop! XD

2) Art and Musics are amazing: a link beetween Monkey Island and Return of the Obra Dinn... 2 games that I loved in past years :3
Scenarios are full of tiny details and easter egg that I really appreciated like the decoration in the tavern with the "fake fossil maremade" typical of 19th century (I'm from Modena, we have one of this "specimen" in our city museum :D)

3) I'm sure I have miss some clues due technical problem with the language (My fault, not yours ^^"), I was very confused about the letter "My dear late sister your mother shared your financial..." and I don't understand why Murice's watch pocket is in the victim's room in the last scenario...
I'm sure those are all issues due to my bad English XD

tldr: I really like this game! I will buy it and I hope this is only the appetizer for a great saga :D
Good luck and good job!

[Andza]

Originally posted by TreAsterischi:

A small premise: English is not my first language... sorry,
I will do my best to make myself understood... ^^"

1) I love this demo! The game is very intriguing and I really hope this is just a prologue: I want more! XD
Every murder is more difficult, with more clues, more characters, more rooms to explore...
a crescendo that I hope will continue for many chapters ... or maybe new stories ^_-
We can solve the Case of the Golden Idol, but the core concept is awesome and you can create a lot of sequel/dlc/new stories in this style! :D
Pls don't stop! XD

2) Art and Musics are amazing: a link beetween Monkey Island and Return of the Obra Dinn... 2 games that I loved in past years :3
Scenarios are full of tiny details and easter egg that I really appreciated like the decoration in the tavern with the "fake fossil maremade" typical of 19th century (I'm from Modena, we have one of this "specimen" in our city museum :D)

3) I'm sure I have miss some clues due technical problem with the language (My fault, not yours ^^"), I was very confused about the letter "My dear late sister your mother shared your financial..." and I don't understand why Murice's watch pocket is in the victim's room in the last scenario...
I'm sure those are all issues due to my bad English XD

tldr: I really like this game! I will buy it and I hope this is only the appetizer for a great saga :D
Good luck and good job!

Thanks for checking out the game TresAsterichi!
You are right, the text was confusing in some places and we've tightened that up.

Also if you want to ask questions and find out things that you might have missed out, feel free to join our discord server, where people discuss what they've found and what seemed unclear to them:
https://discord.gg/r6HDRMRqR8

[Shazbut01]

No time to write feedback right now, but just wanted to say I really enjoyed the demo. On a number of occasions, I was very close to starting a topic saying that my demo was broken because I obviously had the correct answers but the game was lying to me.

[Edmond Honda]

The demo is really good! One of the few games I've played that actually delivers on the detective premise and forces you to think. There were several moments during the demo where I suddenly had an epiphany about a case and had to switch a bunch of details around. I especially liked how the cases connected together. The presentation is also charming. Definitely interested in the full release.

I don't have any major complaints. The UI is pretty good. The fact that terms/names are listed in the order that you obtain them (by default) can get a bit confusing, but that's also part of the gameplay. Automating things too much could trivialize the challenge, so there's a good argument that it should stay as is. However if the later cases get more complicated and the player starts to get flooded with words, it might be a good idea to have a better way to organize them. The colorization and manual sorting is nice, but maybe the player should be able to make groups, perhaps with custom-named labels? Or something similar. But I don't know what the full game will look like, so if that suggestion doesn't fit you can ignore it.

[Ericus1]

Note: I played this in a browser (Firefox), not from the Steam Demo.

I also ran into the "disappearing cursor" glitch. No idea what caused it, but while the cursor was invisible I could still interact with things if I could guess the position. Eventually, it just showed as stuck in the upper left corner and the game bugged out. Had to refresh the browser window, then everything was fine again.

Wanted to echo the "Return to the Obra Dinn" sentiment. Gave me very similar puzzles vibes in terms of the kinds of logic and thinking needed to find and connect clues to solve the scene, with that same "Eureka!" feeling when you figure something out. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised and found the demo to be quite fun. No major criticisms, and very curious to see where it will go from here.

[iarspider]

Loved the demo. Yes, I too noticed the Obra Dinn similarities, but I hated RtOD, I hope this one will not be as boring. Comments on the chapters (the numbering refers to play order, not the odd numbering):

1st chapter: As others noticed, the location of the events is hard to deduce, pure guesswork
2nd chapter: Good as it is, nothing to change
3rd chapter: Would also say "good as it is"
4th chapter: More hints are needed to guess who is who. The bar tab was a great hint, btw.

Overall: maybe some way to track where we got a word? E.g., ctrl+click on a word to show the source of it?
Or am I the only one with short memory for game details? :)

[Ericus1]

Just to point out, you can directly figure out your issue with chapter one if you just observe the background details of the scene; it very explicitly matches to only a single option.

You don't need to guess in chapter four either, it just involves tying more separate, sometimes subtle clues together than the previous chapters. Which I thought was appropriate for scaling up difficulty.

I agree that an in-game notepad or clue storing technique would be handy. In RotOD, one way this was done was through the ability to flag people with increasingly specific tags (topman, gunner, etc.) and something like that could be useful here if/as the difficulty curve increases.

[Exdeath]

Would be nice to have an easier way to close the pop-up windows, like right-click, a keyboard key, or click a non-interactive space within the pop-up.

[Andza]

Originally posted by Jungle Evil:

Would be nice to have an easier way to close the pop-up windows, like right-click, a keyboard key, or click a non-interactive space within the pop-up.

This isn't highlighter in anyway, but pressing SPACE will open / close thinking panel (ESC will also close it).