How do you play in your living room?

[zenasprime]

Is the expectation that players need a PC connected to their living room TV?

[Xeirus]

At some point, if the people you want to play with are both unwilling to drive to you AND are unwilling to download a FREE app like discord to play....... it sounds like they just don't want to play with you man.

This isn't a fault of the game, it sounds like a fault of your friends.

[zenasprime]

It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just how it is.

[Glaicee]

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

You are still not understanding.

I am perfectly capable and willing to: 1. Play the game via the PC I have connected to my living room TV, 2. Play the game while streaming it via my nitro plan Discord account at Source level quality.

The dozen or so people that I could interest in playing this game: 1. Don’t all live within an easy drive to sit in my living room, 2. Dont use Discord, 3. Aren’t going to set up a computer running Steam to their living room TV, 4. Would rather play a traditional TTRPG if they are going to truck the 1+ hour to my place.

How much clearer would you like me to try and make it?

I’m just very surprised that nobody thought this through that far and just assumed that the market can bare the strict requirements that seem to base been laid out.

Hey!

If I'm reading this wrong, apologies!

For couch co-op, the options I listed are for the host, not for each player! if you're hosting and you have your game running on a laptop/PC and it's connected to your TV, then any guest you have will only need to scan the QR code with the Sunderfolk controller app, which is free and will install once you click on the link that the code provides. Once that's done, it's simply viewing the main screen (TV) and playing the game! No other copies of the game or other consoles/PC are needed beyond a phone/tablet!

The options I stated initially are for remote play, but it still follows the same principle: You share the screen, your party downloads the app and plays the game! As long as they can see the main screen, you'll be able to play.

Now if none of that works for you, that's fair! I just wanted to make it clear that only one copy of the game is needed, and that you don't need multiple setups, just the one.

[Deathfromace]

Автор сообщения: Glaicee

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

You are still not understanding.

I am perfectly capable and willing to: 1. Play the game via the PC I have connected to my living room TV, 2. Play the game while streaming it via my nitro plan Discord account at Source level quality.

The dozen or so people that I could interest in playing this game: 1. Don’t all live within an easy drive to sit in my living room, 2. Dont use Discord, 3. Aren’t going to set up a computer running Steam to their living room TV, 4. Would rather play a traditional TTRPG if they are going to truck the 1+ hour to my place.

How much clearer would you like me to try and make it?

I’m just very surprised that nobody thought this through that far and just assumed that the market can bare the strict requirements that seem to base been laid out.

Hey!

If I'm reading this wrong, apologies!

For couch co-op, the options I listed are for the host, not for each player! if you're hosting and you have your game running on a laptop/PC and it's connected to your TV, then any guest you have will only need to scan the QR code with the Sunderfolk controller app, which is free and will install once you click on the link that the code provides. Once that's done, it's simply viewing the main screen (TV) and playing the game! No other copies of the game or other consoles/PC are needed beyond a phone/tablet!

The options I stated initially are for remote play, but it still follows the same principle: You share the screen, your party downloads the app and plays the game! As long as they can see the main screen, you'll be able to play.

Now if none of that works for you, that's fair! I just wanted to make it clear that only one copy of the game is needed, and that you don't need multiple setups, just the one.

They get it, but are just making it sound like a chore to have friends play the game "on a TV"....but they are correct in that if your friends dont have Steam, discord, ability to come over in person, OR any method to watch a stream of your game then yeah sure....with all those choices out of the way they are correct in that you cannot play a game with your friends online using the internet.

If the persons friends would rather play a traditional TT game if they came over...then THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS.

[sesspool]

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

You are still not understanding.

I am perfectly capable and willing to: 1. Play the game via the PC I have connected to my living room TV, 2. Play the game while streaming it via my nitro plan Discord account at Source level quality.

The dozen or so people that I could interest in playing this game: 1. Don’t all live within an easy drive to sit in my living room, 2. Dont use Discord, 3. Aren’t going to set up a computer running Steam to their living room TV, 4. Would rather play a traditional TTRPG if they are going to truck the 1+ hour to my place.

How much clearer would you like me to try and make it?

I’m just very surprised that nobody thought this through that far and just assumed that the market can bare the strict requirements that seem to base been laid out.

I'm really confused at this point. In what format WOULD you be able to play with your friends? Every single thing being said to you is an explanation of how this is easier to do than other games.

They don't NEED to login to anything other than steam. Just share or remote player - it's free. It's also coming out on other platforms. If any game can be played by your friends on any current system in existence, this is EASIER to do that with than any other game. Just...have a copy and a way for them to see it. That's it.

If there is literally ANY way for you to play any game with them, this should be just fine and easy to setup. So...what kind of circumstance would any digital product be able to be experienced by you with your friends? Cause your responses are basically, "nuh, uh. This is dumb and I'm gonna play an age card about how a PC and TV don't work together."

Are you misunderstanding and thinking all your friends have to look at your TV while they are on their own computers? Or that they all need their own TV's hooked up to a computer?

It needs 2 things - 1 game running where players can view it, each player having a smart phone that can download an app. That's it. If there is no way you can have friends on phones while looking at the same thing on computers or a tv - then you've got to understand that you literally can't play any video game multiplayer ever in any capacity. It's mind boggling how obtuse your posts are.

[zenasprime]

Автор сообщения: sesspool

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

You are still not understanding.

I am perfectly capable and willing to: 1. Play the game via the PC I have connected to my living room TV, 2. Play the game while streaming it via my nitro plan Discord account at Source level quality.

The dozen or so people that I could interest in playing this game: 1. Don’t all live within an easy drive to sit in my living room, 2. Dont use Discord, 3. Aren’t going to set up a computer running Steam to their living room TV, 4. Would rather play a traditional TTRPG if they are going to truck the 1+ hour to my place.

How much clearer would you like me to try and make it?

I’m just very surprised that nobody thought this through that far and just assumed that the market can bare the strict requirements that seem to base been laid out.

I'm really confused at this point. In what format WOULD you be able to play with your friends? Every single thing being said to you is an explanation of how this is easier to do than other games.

They don't NEED to login to anything other than steam. Just share or remote player - it's free. It's also coming out on other platforms. If any game can be played by your friends on any current system in existence, this is EASIER to do that with than any other game. Just...have a copy and a way for them to see it. That's it.

If there is literally ANY way for you to play any game with them, this should be just fine and easy to setup. So...what kind of circumstance would any digital product be able to be experienced by you with your friends? Cause your responses are basically, "nuh, uh. This is dumb and I'm gonna play an age card about how a PC and TV don't work together."

Are you misunderstanding and thinking all your friends have to look at your TV while they are on their own computers? Or that they all need their own TV's hooked up to a computer?

It needs 2 things - 1 game running where players can view it, each player having a smart phone that can download an app. That's it. If there is no way you can have friends on phones while looking at the same thing on computers or a tv - then you've got to understand that you literally can't play any video game multiplayer ever in any capacity. It's mind boggling how obtuse your posts are.

As a developer looking to tap into the couch coop market with an RPG game where my main pillar was to get players together playing in their living room with as little barriers to entry as i could so that "normies" could play the game, I would target consoles (xbox, playstation, switch) but also set top boxes like AppleTV and FireTV.

I'll stick to the platform I know better as a developer... iOS and AppleTV. I'd have the host program running on the AppleTV but you could also run it from an iOS device, from which you could mirror the game to an AppleTV device. Worse case scenario, you plug an HDMI cable from the (preferably) iPad or iPhone to the TV. Everyone else could connect to the local WiFi with their own phones as controllers to communicate with the host device.

Why would this be my ideal setup? Everyone has a phone (even red shirt guy who didn't like Diablo Importal), Everyone has a TV with HDMI, or maybe an AppleTV. I have half a dozen AppleTVs around my house too. This setup is incredibly portable and more importantly user agnostic. Nobody who I want to play with needs to have any special set up at their house for me to bring the game to play with them. If they come to my house, it's running on a simple sets top box (no special steambox PC or precarious laptop dangling under the TV necessary to play).

Now I get why this may not be a startups first option for their first game. Going with a Steam release for Windows only execuatable makes sense in the quickest to market column. HOWEVER, given this scenario, and the stated goal of bringing people together, I would insist that the game have an networking built it That makes it very friendly to the one tech savy "gamer" in the family or circle of friends being able to "sell the experience" to those Fantasy RPG for Normies who don't want to jump hrough he hoops of getting a PC set up with this weird Discord app they never heard of, make sure they have a set of headphones and microphone available, etc... they just handle all that nonsense through the one device they already talk to people on all day long already (their phone). All they need to do is run the game on their computer, perform some kind of QR code setup to get into the game, and the "you know computers" guy run everything else for them.

I know that we are on steam and most of you don't even realize that there exists people who havre no clue what that means, but they are out there, some of them willing to have some fun playing a game on their TV with their "gammer" family member or friend.

[sesspool]

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

As a developer looking to tap into the couch coop market with an RPG game where my main pillar was to get players together playing in their living room with as little barriers to entry as i could so that "normies" could play the game, I would target consoles (xbox, playstation, switch) but also set top boxes like AppleTV and FireTV.

those are not platforms that support video games of this scale.

The appletv has 3GB of RAM, FireTV 2GB. Neither support DirectX or Vulkan, and barely support OpenGL, neither have dedicated vram, so their memory is shared between rendering and storing app runtime objects. It's not possible to run a game of any reasonable size on an AppleTV or FireTV device because those don't run real OS with real specs that have similar capabilities of consoles, PC's, or even phones.

It's not that they chose not to do it or something, it's literally not possible. Maybe the optimal setup would be synaptic direct connection in the global mind-space network, but that is also not possible.

Also, the game is cross platform. You can buy it on consoles as well as steam.

[zenasprime]

I know all about the limitations of those platforms… because I make games for them.

It is literally possible, there are just trade offs.

The game was made with Unity. I am a Unity software engineer. I understand more about the development of the game then you may realize.

[zolzar]

But you could stream this via Discord, and you could have your friends (assuming they do want to just sit on their couch instead of at their computers, even if they’re not in the same room as you) connect using that to get your game stream. Discord is available in a multitude of ways, consoles and TVs support the app. Sure there’s some setup but it’s better than dragging an PC into the living room or using one of the many ways they could cast their PC to their TV right?

Sorry you sound like an old guy like me with lots of friends who are PC idiots (not an insult, some of my friends are exactly the same) who just wants to game with them. I do have the luxury of gaming groups that are local who we’ll be playing couch co op with, but if I didn’t I’d spend the time to make this happen as I don’t see it as that onerous. We may have a different opinion on how much of a PITA setting up our friends is… not like I’m trying to set this up for my in laws! But considering the tools out there personally I don’t see it as a barrier. Now if you and your friends were all PC illiterate, well then I don’t have any help for you.

[Ginjii Raishin]

This isn't even remotely hard to get going. People are just used to sending an invite and having the steam client do all the work.
This is like 2 extra steps, the hardest of which is having friends that aren't lazy and actually want to spend 5 minutes of effort to have some fun together. The 1st is not being that kind of person yourself.
Good luck, you sound like you want to play a different game and that's fine. But pretending like this is even semi difficult to accomplish is disingenuous.

[Focuz0ndis]

Certain smart tv’s/devices have geforce now built in which will allow you to play it. Its how ive been playing on my big screen.

[MightyMightyMagpie]

Автор сообщения: zenasprime

I'm not trying to rain on anyones parade here, but that all sounds like way too many barriers to entry for casual friend and family fun on the couch. There is no gateway setup to get potential players to want to jump in.

I love the idea of going back to the 90s LAN days but I'm an old man now. And while I may have a house full of computers and consoles, that's not really true for many of the people that I could convince to play the game with me. Like with any board game night... nobody wants to wait around while you read them the rules... I mean remotely help them set up their desktop/laptop to play a "couch coop game" together.

I know that network multiplayer isn't the easiest project for a small team but... opportunity missed?

sigh...

I think you may be misunderstanding the whole premise here. There is no "waiting around while you read the rules" it is a learn-as-you-go situation. Everything I have experienced has been incredibly easy to understand, and I have even had friends whom have never played anything like D&D that have picked it up while over for a hangout. They even enjoyed it so much that they picked it up themselves when they went home! This promotes cooperation and teamwork, and it offers you so much customization within the story itself. No missed opportunity, just an opportunity for those 90s game nights to see a resurfacing in 2025!