Intro is pretty boring....

[Gadzooks]

but once you get beyond that its fun and interesting. Curious to see how it progresses after.

But that intro... Seriously? Forcing players to go speak to every npc in town? That shouldnt be a requirement before the core gameplay even starts. It should be up to players to explore on their own.

Also, once "uncovered" the map should give a bit more details to those locations like "Quick Mart" or "School". The map has a lot of info, but most of it is pretty useless to the player.

[No More Robots]

Heyo! Completely understand, but for context, it takes you around 5 minutes to talk to everyone, and then it becomes *incredibly* useful to know all the faces -- believe us :) We set this up from plenty of testing of the game. So just trust us on this, it's worth having in there

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Heyo! Completely understand, but for context, it takes you around 5 minutes to talk to everyone, and then it becomes *incredibly* useful to know all the faces -- believe us :) We set this up from plenty of testing of the game. So just trust us on this, it's worth having in there

I guess thats my point.

Hardly anyone is going to memorize 27 or whatever small pixel faces from running around during that 5-10 minutes initially. Scientifically its been proven that people best memorize things in small groups (of 3 to 5). You are having people run around and quickly see a MUCH larger number of NPCs all at once,

Thats why my comment about adding more details to the map is important. The faces alone arent enough.

[No More Robots]

Like we say -- it onlys take 5 minutes, so realistically it's not a huge issue. But hey, we'll see if we're right :)

[Dylan]

I must admit it was at that point i logged off, I dont want to run about speaking to 27 odd NPC's let me explore on my own.
I'll wait until go live day and give it a serious go but yet, perhaps not having to talk to all those people and instead find a better use of my time :)

[malylobuz1]

I have started the demo and I haven't liked it either. I don't feel I remembered much about those NPCs, I just wanted to do it as fast as possible to see the actual gameplay. But of course there is always some people who will like it and some who don't.
I really love to see the developer replying to posts here and giving info that the thing has been thought through and is still looked at with attention!

[pudz]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Like we say -- it onlys take 5 minutes, so realistically it's not a huge issue. But hey, we'll see if we're right :)

i actually was okay with it ! maybe something you could add in the future is rather an event or something where they all greet you at once or something? the dog kept glitching when it was tracking someone through a wall XD

[TheCheeseMaster]

The intro can feel quite long when it comes to finding all of the NPCs, but it serves a couple of purposes: It let's you familiarise yourself with the town/area and it adds each NPC to your map after they've introduced themselves to you. I know to some it will be boring, especially if you don't really engage with the locals in these types of games, but you will need to find and know them to do more quests and find more spirits, which means it's kind of an important first step!

[Gadzooks]

I just feel that it would be better done in smaller segments, rather than all at once.

[Himulaya]

Second this. Everything feels so slow, and you can't skip the animations. The bus ride for example. Yeah, it's just 20-30 seconds, but when you just want to get playing, it's pretty annoying. Especially considering you don't even know if you actually like the game yet.

[Himulaya]

Ok, it's been 25 minutes (according to Steam) since I started playing the game, and I still have more people to introduce myself to. It's not just the mission to walk around town and introduce everyone, it's the whole thing from the moment you launch the game until you actually start playing the game, and it's way too long and boring.

Also, I don't remember even a single name or person that I've met in the game, except maybe the granny. This is a textbook case of front-loading tons of information that the player doesn't need yet and doesn't understand and is unlikely to remember. And you do this before the player even had a chance to experience the game. I like that the dog can help you find people, but maybe instead of making it a progress quest, make it a side quest that can be done at the player's leisure, like in Stardew Valley.

I hope you seriously reconsider your on-boarding before release, or I fear your game may suffer from high refund rates and low retention. I myself decided to put it down for now and will revisit later.

[No More Robots]

Hey Himulaya — no worries, that’s fine! It’s not a race :) we’ve had feedback from 1000s of people at this point saying they love the pace of the intro, so if we’re honest, it’s a shame that it feels slow to you, but we’re pretty confident with how it is. Spirittea is a chill game that you can sit and just take in, take in the world, let it wash over you. It sounds like that’s not for you, and that’s completely fair! But that’s the kind of game we’ve made, and we’re sticking to it :)

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Hey Himulaya — no worries, that’s fine! It’s not a race :) we’ve had feedback from 1000s of people at this point saying they love the pace of the intro, so if we’re honest, it’s a shame that it feels slow to you, but we’re pretty confident with how it is. Spirittea is a chill game that you can sit and just take in, take in the world, let it wash over you. It sounds like that’s not for you, and that’s completely fair! But that’s the kind of game we’ve made, and we’re sticking to it :)

1000s of people? Not from steam I take it

1000s of people is a pretty big audience for an external user test. Im impressed.

[Himulaya]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Hey Himulaya — no worries, that’s fine! It’s not a race :) we’ve had feedback from 1000s of people at this point saying they love the pace of the intro, so if we’re honest, it’s a shame that it feels slow to you, but we’re pretty confident with how it is. Spirittea is a chill game that you can sit and just take in, take in the world, let it wash over you. It sounds like that’s not for you, and that’s completely fair! But that’s the kind of game we’ve made, and we’re sticking to it :)

Alright, I wish you the best. I'm good with chill games, I just don't enjoy waiting 30 minutes before I start playing them, learning stuff that I won't remember anyway.

[garbagefangirl]

I also agree. I stopped the demo after this part and haven't worked up the motivation to go back. It's not fun to have to run around and find everyone, even with the dog's help. Plus, so many new names and faces at the same time pretty much guarantees I won't remember most of them, making the whole thing useless.

[Wonyan]

Don't worry, WONYAN TO THE RESCUE

Because I'm a spirit cat, I am able to better understand the woes of humans. I see your woes humans, and I say: LET THOSE WOES BE HEARD!

How about this -- it can't be changed for launch, because *oh god* that's only 6 days away. HOWEVER, I will whip the dev and make them consider altering it as a post-launch patch

Would that work for you