Playtest feedback

[GrailQuest]

Started a new game.

Issue with ESC not exiting menus is on Journal. ESC just flips you back and forth between Journal and Menu.

No idea which items are interactable and which are not. E.g., first quest to gather Sticks. I go to a shrub that's leafless and is basically just a bunch of sticks but cannot interact with it. So what does a "stick" look like in the game when stick-like objects are not sticks?

While looking for a stick, a wolf runs up, attacks me, runs off. It keeps doing this. There is nothing I can do about it so I end up dying.

Highly recommend the dev play some basic survival games -- or really, any game involving gathering and crafting -- and present a proper UI for players as well as a proper onboarding/tutorial area before releasing. The game is far too early in development to release even as a demo.

[Enchanted Pumpkin Co.]

Thank you very much for your detailed feedback. We apologize it didn't reach your expectations regarding the onboarding. We'll think about ways to make the UI more intuitive when it comes to non-interactive objects. A proper tutorial is something to consider for the next playtest.

About the wolf, you can hide behind trees or climb rocks. If they can't see you they will stop chasing. If he sees you he will chase again, but if you keep moving he won't catch you. You can't fight back in the initial stages, similar to Subnautica which is one of the inspirations for the game. Wolf damage will also be reduced.

Indeed this version is still early in development and hopefully you will give it another chance when the official demo comes out, since this is only the first public playtest.

[GrailQuest]

Originally posted by Enchanted Pumpkin Co.:

About the wolf, you can hide behind trees or climb rocks. If they can't see you they will stop chasing. If he sees you he will chase again, but if you keep moving he won't catch you.

I'm sorry to say this honestly makes no sense whatsoever. The wolf attacking then running of then circling back also makes no sense whatsoever.
If a wolf actually wanted to attack you and eat you, this is certainly not what it would do.
Outrunniing a wolf or really any animal to "hide behind trees" or "climb rocks" is also highly implausible as a successful course of action.

When you have any element in part or in whole which is implausible to players, they are first of all unlikely to even try it (because it goes against common sense). They are more likely going to mash buttons looking for their unarmed attack.
If you do tell them that is what they should do as the mechanic, likely you will then encounter resistance because it goes against plausibility.
If players do discover this mechanic on their own, they will likely think it is a failure of the creature AI or some kind of exploit.

And sorry, I really don't care what another game does, especially one that does not have a forest as a setting. Do you seriously think you can swim away from a man-eating shark to hide behind a rock? Or maybe you actually need to find some kind of cave too small for it to push through and hope your diving tank has enough oxygen to wait it out?

For a small scale open world where you are not going to have full blown wolf packs in a huge wilderness, I recommend that wolves growl at you to make you leave and only if you insist on approaching them will they then attack.
Players will instinctively understand that you have scaled down the number of wolves due to game requirements but at least the behavior of the wolves will be manageable for gameplay.

[ToxicMystic]

When I start the game it crashes every time. I have tried a few time and verified the files and it still crashes. I am going to try a few more times before uninstalling and giving up.

[Enchanted Pumpkin Co.]

Originally posted by ToxicMystic:

When I start the game it crashes every time. I have tried a few time and verified the files and it still crashes. I am going to try a few more times before uninstalling and giving up.

Hello and so sorry you've been encountering this issue! Does the game crash at launch or when you click start a new world? Does your PC meets the minimum system requirements? Every information is useful so we can find what exactly is happening.