Hey Devs - folks don't understand the lack of auto save

[JimmyD]

TL;DR: the game isn't good at explaining save behaviour and players are rightfully frustrated by that and leaving bad reviews

There's been a lot of negative feedback about save issues but I don't think it's a problem with how you have the game managing save files. The issue is the save mechanism is not made clear until you're near a feeder (at least for me).

Most players die at some point in the bunker intro and understand that the game has checkpoints*. Generally, or at least in every game I recall playing with them, checkpoints indicate to a player that the game is creating save points to return to, so they assume they don't need to seek out a save point.

The game also retains your super/elite/glowy acorn progress between deaths in the bunker, so the player assumes that this is being recorded or saved in the checkpoints.

This assumption is further reinforced when starting the sandbox area because the cutscene leads the player to a house, with lava, that the average player is going to die in. When you respawn, you aren't in the bunker, you're in the lava house right where you left off.

See how this could be misinterpreted? I had read about the "bug" in reviews but I assumed that respawning inside the house and keeping my gold acorn amount meant whatever this bug is wasn't applying to me. I almost refunded in a rage because I purposely quit after the bunker so I could stay inside the refund window (I wasn't really sure just yet).

Please don't take this as disrespectful or a Steam troll, I really don't have an issue with the lack of autosave behaviour, but for your player's sake you should hotfix in a popup or tool tip or something to better explain that you need to save for yourself. Maybe make the squirrel look at the bird feeder instead of the acorn in the window of the lava house. I wouldn't mind autosaves but until that's added (if they're being added) some more clarity in-game would go a long way. I dunno, just my two cents.

*I love the way y'all do checkpoints btw. Dying isn't a huge inconvenience like some platformers and while the controls aren't perfect, they would be way more frustrating if you had to repeat a bunch of stuff to recollect the big acorns. I'm usually laughing when I don't make a jump instead of throwing a controller lol

[Bud]

I agree, I have an actual life with work and the kids and as much as I would like this game. I truly loathe a lack of an autosave and how the controls pretty much force a controller to use.

[JimmyD]

I haven;t played since after the first patch added in autosaving but it apparently works well now. Thanks to the dev for implementing it even if they didn't think it necessary