A Message from Me to You — Committed to Improving

[Karajohnnies]

Hi everyone,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the launch of the game. Seeing so many of you jump in and explore this world I’ve poured so much love and hard work into truly means everything to me.

At the same time, I want to be honest: I know some of you are encountering bugs and technical issues, and I completely understand how frustrating and disappointing that can be — and I’m truly sorry for that. Please know that I hear you, I care deeply, and I’m already working hard to address these problems as quickly as possible. Many of these issues were likely overlooked, and I fully recognize that this is something we need to improve.

This project has been a true labor of love and passion — I’ve been working full-time, day and night, to bring it to life. And while the launch hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped, I want to make one thing very clear: I’m here, and I will keep working on this project, improving it, and supporting it for as long as it takes.

To everyone who’s been patient, supportive, or offered constructive feedback — thank you. Your kindness and understanding give me the strength and motivation to keep pushing forward and make this the best experience it can be.

We’ll keep you updated as patches and improvements roll out. I’m here, I’m listening, and I’m determined to make this a game you can truly enjoy.

[Issie721]

Originally posted by Karajohnnies:

Hi everyone,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the launch of the game. Seeing so many of you jump in and explore this world I’ve poured so much love and hard work into truly means everything to me.

At the same time, I want to be honest: I know some of you are encountering bugs and technical issues, and I completely understand how frustrating and disappointing that can be — and I’m truly sorry for that. Please know that I hear you, I care deeply, and I’m already working hard to address these problems as quickly as possible. Many of these issues were likely overlooked, and I fully recognize that this is something we need to improve.

This project has been a true labor of love and passion — I’ve been working full-time, day and night, to bring it to life. And while the launch hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped, I want to make one thing very clear: I’m here, and I will keep working on this project, improving it, and supporting it for as long as it takes.

To everyone who’s been patient, supportive, or offered constructive feedback — thank you. Your kindness and understanding give me the strength and motivation to keep pushing forward and make this the best experience it can be.

We’ll keep you updated as patches and improvements roll out. I’m here, I’m listening, and I’m determined to make this a game you can truly enjoy.

I am confused how in the heck you released this game after spending so much time on it, without knowing all the issues it has? Dont you think that it would show common sense to release it in demo/test mode and then EA with a message that bugs and clunky controls etc were present. No, instead you made it seem that you were taking so much time and not releasing a demo to polish the game. That was a huge mistake. Because now..you got a RARE mostly negative review score. You also put the game up for early purchase without letting players know of all the issues. It shows clearly that something is wrong and a that is deceptive. Offering a game for early purchase, not putting it up for rigorous testing and demo, and then releasing it with a price tag reflecting a game that is spectacular and well made. Its way over priced for the quality of the game. In fact...nearly every game on Steam in this genre, that has done very well, and has very positive reviews....is priced far lower than your game. So that is another problem. Players TRULY believed that the game was going to be released in fully playable condition. With all the issues addressed ages ago when the developer's put out a one time, brief demo. This is based on making players wait a long time to play the game, and telling us that you wanted to get the game to an excellent state of play.

So again...that opens the door for suspicion, where we now start to think: "Maybe the developers were hiding the fact the game is filled with bugs, bad controls, and has other issues they do not want players to see till it is time to put a price on the game." Developers usually demo or test a game like this one, publicly.....for some time. This is in a transparent and honest attempt to work with the community. Taking suggestions, bug reports, timely bug fixes, and many other things that made games of this type (like Stardew Valley) work so well. If you had nothing to hide or wanted to be transparent, the devs would have done all this, instead of keeping the development of Pixelshire under wraps. Now, you have opened yourself to angry players, neg reviews, and refunds. One intelligent comment by a player asked why after five months the same issues were present. That is because you didnt have unbiased, constant testing by multiple players of all types. With enough people helping out these things would have been found instead of glossed over. I suggest that before you get further down the negative reviews ladder, you drop the price of the game by half or more, and put up a demo. This will definitely be a sign towards good faith and honesty on the dev's part. It would also serve as some sort of apology for your major mistake. Reason being, players will see all the neg reviews and in no way want to play the game right now. By being able to play the demo they will feel better about it, and this also prevents them from owning the game out right and leaving a negative review. I know players dont like when I mention this because it calls them out on a loophole that is used....but even if they refund a game they can still leave a review.

What I said above about reviews and refunding is all apart of a larger scheme used to get free games by players that I find deplorable. If someone buys your game either because they truly want to play it OR they are wanting to cause issues for your team, they will buy it, spend 5 minutes playing it then refund it. They will then leave a negative review...but that isnt the end of it. They then are able to keep the game and still play it, despite it being removed from their Steam platform library; because the full file still stays forever on their pc's hard drive. So what if they realize there have been several updates on the game since they refunded it? Well, they just buy it again, refund again and the updated game is there now in their pc.

My point here is, through a demo and full transparency of a game's issues, OR to find out what issues are hiding....you don't get more disgruntled people. Some of those people being ones who already have a loophole/scam in place to use against developers they want an excuse to target.

To all the haters out there....feel free to add clown awards etc to my comment...its been the thing to do lately for those hiding from Steam's harassment bans going around. I quite like it though....I have half a million points now due to those who drink the Issie721 Haterade. <3

[AZCards]

Originally posted by Karajohnnies:

Hi everyone,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the launch of the game. Seeing so many of you jump in and explore this world I’ve poured so much love and hard work into truly means everything to me.

At the same time, I want to be honest: I know some of you are encountering bugs and technical issues, and I completely understand how frustrating and disappointing that can be — and I’m truly sorry for that. Please know that I hear you, I care deeply, and I’m already working hard to address these problems as quickly as possible. Many of these issues were likely overlooked, and I fully recognize that this is something we need to improve.

This project has been a true labor of love and passion — I’ve been working full-time, day and night, to bring it to life. And while the launch hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped, I want to make one thing very clear: I’m here, and I will keep working on this project, improving it, and supporting it for as long as it takes.

To everyone who’s been patient, supportive, or offered constructive feedback — thank you. Your kindness and understanding give me the strength and motivation to keep pushing forward and make this the best experience it can be.

We’ll keep you updated as patches and improvements roll out. I’m here, I’m listening, and I’m determined to make this a game you can truly enjoy.

I dont see how the dev team did not see any of these issues. The demo that was provided like a year ago had the same exact reception. So much left to be desired and not at all polished. It's just a disappointment. I figured that with the extra delay, you knew that it needed it.

[Karajohnnies]

Originally posted by Issie721:

Originally posted by Karajohnnies:

Hi everyone,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the launch of the game. Seeing so many of you jump in and explore this world I’ve poured so much love and hard work into truly means everything to me.

At the same time, I want to be honest: I know some of you are encountering bugs and technical issues, and I completely understand how frustrating and disappointing that can be — and I’m truly sorry for that. Please know that I hear you, I care deeply, and I’m already working hard to address these problems as quickly as possible. Many of these issues were likely overlooked, and I fully recognize that this is something we need to improve.

This project has been a true labor of love and passion — I’ve been working full-time, day and night, to bring it to life. And while the launch hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped, I want to make one thing very clear: I’m here, and I will keep working on this project, improving it, and supporting it for as long as it takes.

To everyone who’s been patient, supportive, or offered constructive feedback — thank you. Your kindness and understanding give me the strength and motivation to keep pushing forward and make this the best experience it can be.

We’ll keep you updated as patches and improvements roll out. I’m here, I’m listening, and I’m determined to make this a game you can truly enjoy.

I am confused how in the heck you released this game after spending so much time on it, without knowing all the issues it has? Dont you think that it would show common sense to release it in demo/test mode and then EA with a message that bugs and clunky controls etc were present. No, instead you made it seem that you were taking so much time and not releasing a demo to polish the game. That was a huge mistake. Because now..you got a RARE mostly negative review score. You also put the game up for early purchase without letting players know of all the issues. It shows clearly that something is wrong and a that is deceptive. Offering a game for early purchase, not putting it up for rigorous testing and demo, and then releasing it with a price tag reflecting a game that is spectacular and well made. Its way over priced for the quality of the game. In fact...nearly every game on Steam in this genre, that has done very well, and has very positive reviews....is priced far lower than your game. So that is another problem. Players TRULY believed that the game was going to be released in fully playable condition. With all the issues addressed ages ago when the developer's put out a one time, brief demo. This is based on making players wait a long time to play the game, and telling us that you wanted to get the game to an excellent state of play.

So again...that opens the door for suspicion, where we now start to think: "Maybe the developers were hiding the fact the game is filled with bugs, bad controls, and has other issues they do not want players to see till it is time to put a price on the game." Developers usually demo or test a game like this one, publicly.....for some time. This is in a transparent and honest attempt to work with the community. Taking suggestions, bug reports, timely bug fixes, and many other things that made games of this type (like Stardew Valley) work so well. If you had nothing to hide or wanted to be transparent, the devs would have done all this, instead of keeping the development of Pixelshire under wraps. Now, you have opened yourself to angry players, neg reviews, and refunds. One intelligent comment by a player asked why after five months the same issues were present. That is because you didnt have unbiased, constant testing by multiple players of all types. With enough people helping out these things would have been found instead of glossed over. I suggest that before you get further down the negative reviews ladder, you drop the price of the game by half or more, and put up a demo. This will definitely be a sign towards good faith and honesty on the dev's part. It would also serve as some sort of apology for your major mistake. Reason being, players will see all the neg reviews and in no way want to play the game right now. By being able to play the demo they will feel better about it, and this also prevents them from owning the game out right and leaving a negative review. I know players dont like when I mention this because it calls them out on a loophole that is used....but even if they refund a game they can still leave a review.

What I said above about reviews and refunding is all apart of a larger scheme used to get free games by players that I find deplorable. If someone buys your game either because they truly want to play it OR they are wanting to cause issues for your team, they will buy it, spend 5 minutes playing it then refund it. They will then leave a negative review...but that isnt the end of it. They then are able to keep the game and still play it, despite it being removed from their Steam platform library; because the full file still stays forever on their pc's hard drive. So what if they realize there have been several updates on the game since they refunded it? Well, they just buy it again, refund again and the updated game is there now in their pc.

My point here is, through a demo and full transparency of a game's issues, OR to find out what issues are hiding....you don't get more disgruntled people. Some of those people being ones who already have a loophole/scam in place to use against developers they want an excuse to target.

To all the haters out there....feel free to add clown awards etc to my comment...its been the thing to do lately for those hiding from Steam's harassment bans going around. I quite like it though....I have half a million points now due to those who drink the Issie721 Haterade. <3

Nobody is hating anyone.Do not provoke conflict.

To the subject...Unfortunately I am not alone in this project and i don't make all the decisions. I don't decide when the game will go out neither if it is in a good state or not to go out.

Thats for the publisher and QA.

Probably some of the bugs got overlooked. I don't know what to say more to that.I was a bit shocked to be honest.

We just need to improve.

[Karajohnnies]

Originally posted by AZCards:

Originally posted by Karajohnnies:

Hi everyone,

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the launch of the game. Seeing so many of you jump in and explore this world I’ve poured so much love and hard work into truly means everything to me.

At the same time, I want to be honest: I know some of you are encountering bugs and technical issues, and I completely understand how frustrating and disappointing that can be — and I’m truly sorry for that. Please know that I hear you, I care deeply, and I’m already working hard to address these problems as quickly as possible. Many of these issues were likely overlooked, and I fully recognize that this is something we need to improve.

This project has been a true labor of love and passion — I’ve been working full-time, day and night, to bring it to life. And while the launch hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped, I want to make one thing very clear: I’m here, and I will keep working on this project, improving it, and supporting it for as long as it takes.

To everyone who’s been patient, supportive, or offered constructive feedback — thank you. Your kindness and understanding give me the strength and motivation to keep pushing forward and make this the best experience it can be.

We’ll keep you updated as patches and improvements roll out. I’m here, I’m listening, and I’m determined to make this a game you can truly enjoy.

I dont see how the dev team did not see any of these issues. The demo that was provided like a year ago had the same exact reception. So much left to be desired and not at all polished. It's just a disappointment. I figured that with the extra delay, you knew that it needed it.

After the demo and the feedback we reworked a lot of things.
The story,the Ui, the controls etc.
For the most part the game got reworked in many aspects.

There was a lot of work involved in the game to also adapt community suggestions and improvements.

As for the bugs situation its what i described to the above comment.

[AZCards]

Originally posted by Karajohnnies:

Originally posted by AZCards:

I dont see how the dev team did not see any of these issues. The demo that was provided like a year ago had the same exact reception. So much left to be desired and not at all polished. It's just a disappointment. I figured that with the extra delay, you knew that it needed it.

After the demo and the feedback we reworked a lot of things.
The story,the Ui, the controls etc.
For the most part the game got reworked in many aspects.

There was a lot of work involved in the game to also adapt community suggestions and improvements.

As for the bugs situation its what i described to the above comment.

I would argue that the bugs were more than overlooked. To have these type of ratings on a newly released game is very rare. Good luck to it all. Merge was not a good option for you. They've had a track record, that's for sure.

[TiME_BLiND]

First of all I appreciate your post about the state of the game and people's dissatisfaction with it. I really hope you plan to keep us updated about the honest state of the game and the improvements that will be made in the future, then I may give it another shot when it is in a better state. The game does have potential after these issues are ironed out, and it also needs a rework of how you use items and tools, maybe using a toolbar like stardew valley has would make gameplay a lot less bizarre and frustrating to players in my opinion. I would also say that the price is too high for what it is, especially at this stage. Here's hoping this game gets its issues dealt with in the future, and it can reach its potential.

[Adam__86]

For mostly negative in the first hours suggest much more than ' Many of these issues were likely overlooked' and more everything was ignored since you have a unplayable game, not buggy, literally unplayable so the data doesn't add up