I've never been so confused about what to do in a game ever before. Am i missing something.

[Jnx]

So I started playing this game with great enthusiasm, as the game promises to turn players into coders, and as I have absolutely 0 coding experience, I thought that was an amazing idea as I've always toyed with the idea of wanting to learn some basic coding.

I'm 2 hours in and I'm utterly confused.

So here's what has happened so far.

I got into town. Slept in my room after sorting the problem with the door (wtf was that about?). I went to some cafe to look for my trainer. They sent me to some basement club. There I met Pixie, who told me to come back the following day for some other party. I went around aimlessly until I found the soda trainer guy, who led me to the warehouse where I stocked up on 5 cans (which nobody wants to buy), and met her the following day around 30 minutes late. We went to some other club, and she told me to talk to people while she up and left. So I thought screw that, I'm heading for the hotel, where I went to sleep. I get some weird cutscene that makes no sense, then by looking around on google I found the key to room 4 (had no idea what to do), and went there to find a hack tool.

I'm now outside the room and I have no clue what so ever to do now. The game is completely aimless. I feel like I gave it a pretty damn decent shot, but does it ever get better than this? Because I feel like this is a huge waste of time to play. I saw I could hack the key, but there's no indication of what to write to make it into a skeleton key or whatever for other doors, so that's a no-go. I even tried copying some simple code from a guide here on reddit, but the compiler just told me it didn't work (and I'm sure I got it right), and that's it.

Like, what in the hell are you supposed to do in this game. Don't tell me I have to walk around and find every NPC and talk to them to push the stupid soda thing on them in order to progress? Furthermore, isn't there some sort of tutorial for the hacking? I mean do they really expect everyone to just know what to write from the outset of the game? The store page says no coding experience required, which obviously must mean I'm missing something, right?

[FCC]

You can ignore the soda quest, and focus on trying to stalk Pixie. The in game justification is that Seb is curious about what Pixie does for a living, but that kind if behavior is creepy enough that a lot of people don't make that mental leap.

Spoilers - but I get the feeling that you don't care at this point - your goal is to get a job at Pixie's workplace, and someone associated with her workplace will give you a tutorial on programming.


Oh yeah, and if you try to use hacking before characters are telling you to find a hack tool, you risk confusing the game logic. So don't try to change code yet.

You might also want to keep your eye out for any random cigarrette that you can keep on your person. It could make a good gift.

[Jnx]

I see. So I have to find pixie again and stalk her. What about the diskettes. Do they serve a purpose other than cluttering up your inventory?

[FCC]

If you have the hack tool already, most of the diskettes are flavor text that you can read with your hack tool. Otherwise you need to find a computer to read the disks in, which is a massive chore given how ironically rare working computers with floppy disks are in this world.

Really, regarding the disks I recommend not sweating them too much. Later you can open up the game directory to read the disk contents and other conversation related stuff, when you're ready for spoilers.

[FragmentalStew]

I think the game is the way it is to try to encourage exploration and experimenting with programming. It can leave you well and thoroughly lost at times, and frustratingly confused(kind of like learning programming, tbh). Generally if you talk to the right people they will give you hints, but some hints are more obvious than others. There are often also multiple ways to go about doing something.

For example:
After the thing at club dot. (Another thing you could have done at club dot would have been to get really drunk and pass out. Something interesting happens, but it doesn't really affect the story.) Numerous people will hint that you need to find where Pixie works(A guy on the tram, for example). Also, also at least one person will hint that you need to go to where Pixie works, for reasons unrelated to Pixie. Some people will even tell you not to do that or to let it go, which is confusing.

Even though Sebastian's obsession with Pixie is cringey as hell, and even more cringey for him to show up in the covert location where Pixie works, it's necessary for the story to move forward. I believe this has something to do with Pixie filling the role of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope. Her existence in this world, as with many other MPDGs, is to propel the protagonist forward in some way.

Less cringey, the game gives you at least 2 reasons to go to Pixie's work place, unrelated to Pixie, that I know of, but afaik, the outcome is the same regardless. One I formerly mentioned, and the other is to follow a colorful looking person hacking a fuse box who runs away from a Typer(Suit) in the Plaza.

I think that's the typical route for getting the modifier and learning about programming in Sprak (meet pixie, go to club dot, stalk her and then find her place of work). From there you get the modifier, and you get a sort of brief introduction to using it. There are 4 floppy disks there that give you an introduction to programming. If you talk to the right people they will suggest some people who can teach you more. Specifically Fib and Hank. Fib can give you a modifier. Hank has a bunch of floppy disks on the sprak language that are helpful that can be found in the place where he lives.

[FCC]

Originally posted by FragmentalStew:

I think the game is the way it is to try to encourage exploration and experimenting with programming. It can leave you well and thoroughly lost at times, and frustratingly confused(kind of like learning programming, tbh). Generally if you talk to the right people they will give you hints, but some hints are more obvious than others. There are often also multiple ways to go about doing something.

That was my experience as well. I think a potential issue was that if the player is not receptive to taking the story at an easy pace, they can miss a lot of details due to being so focused on reaching the "hacking" part. From analysing the story scripting, I found a lot of effort on the dev's part to point you in the right direction, it's just unfortunate that there's no safety net when one misses all the hints.

[Jnx]

Originally posted by FragmentalStew:

For example:
Spoiler things here

So I met Pixie, and followed her home like the creep I apparently am. I found a bruteforce code for doors, and had her door hacked. I went in there while she slept, but sadly there were no clues in there as to where she works. I quickly left again after reading her diary, as I felt like a super creep, and I just had to get out of there :P

Is there any sort of best way to go about finding her place of work so I can get started with this game? Clearly I wasn't supposed to know how to brute force her door, since I only got that code by looking it up on the steam forums.

*Edit*
Ok so I found out where she works, and went there. She got super pissed, and the whole writing was just so terrible. She told me to wait a day or two and then we'd talk, so now I'm left to just wander around and pass the time. I honestly think I've given the game more than a fair shot, but it's incredibly amateurish, and there's no way I will be able to complete the game if this is what I have to look forward to just seeing more of. 3 hours in and we've not arrived at what is surely the main attraction of the game.

I think I'm done.

[FragmentalStew]

@FCC very true. I almost enjoyed the game more after I beat it, which is weird. I think it's the "making your own fun" aspect of sandbox games. I can recall doing similar things in the Grand Theft Auto series, but with less hacking obviously.

@Jinxtah That's one of the things I was referring to when I said cringey.

You only really have to wait a day. If you talk to Felix he'll invite you to a party at his place to pass the time. And Pixie just lets it go like it never happened.

IMO the game gets better, and as you learn more about what you can and can't do it makes the game less frustrating.

You can figure out how to run faster, teleport anywhere, make time go faster. Put yourself to sleep instantly. Conquer sleep entirely. Find anything or anyone. Unlock every door in the game at once. Manufacture objects.

There's a ton of stuff you can do and the funnest part of the game is discovering those things. The game does a descent job of rewarding exploration. Some things certainly could have used some better documentation.

Also, all of this involves programming, and programming isn't for everybody.

There are other opportunities to get stuck later in the game, as well. Specifically, there is a spot where you have to sleep in your own own bed, or the story won't progress. Also, if you get on the Tram, sometimes there are people there to give you hints.

A lot of things that seem important to progress the story may not really be; they're just interesting things to do to pass the time. Beats sleeping or taking drugs, sometimes (...in the game!).

Scene loading can be a chore too. I ended up moving the game to an ssd to help with that, somewhat.

What I feel is the greatest flaw of the game are the endings. There are 4 of them, with 2 cutscenes. None of them are particularly satisfying. There may be some sort of symbolism, or lesson to learn from them, that I'm not entirely getting. Like maybe "the journey is more important than the end" or something?

I don't know. Anyway, I completely understand if you feel like the game's not for you. I spent entirely too much time playing it, and I wouldn't recommend that to everyone.

[Jnx]

Well programming is the main (and pretty much only) selling point of the game, so I'm not sure I agree with that. I have 0 experience, but I actually really want to learn, and thought this game might be a good starting point, as the game proclaim that you don't need any experience. However so far it has been a huge waste of time. I'll give it a day, and go to that party at Felix's I suppose. If it doesn't pick up by the next day, I'm out.

Thanks for the replies!

[Jnx]

Yeah alright I'm done. I wandered around aimlessly. Sold a soda to someone, but couldn't remember the way to the soda warehouse. No big loss. Wandered some more. Around 6pm I found Pixie at the basement club. She was still upset, and wanted some time. Told me about the party at Felix's and asked if we could meet there.

She gave me directions, and I went there. Nobody else there, so I just sat there waiting until midnight. Went back to the basement club and pixie is still there just standing on the dancefloor. She won't even talk to me now. So I went to find a bed, but even though it's now 1.32am I'm apparently not tired enough to sleep.

That'll do it for me. I'm so incredibly disappointing, but 4 hours is my absolute limit to how much time I want to waste on a really poor game.

[FCC]

That's a shame but totally understandable. If you're interested in another game that can teach you programming, I would recommend Code Combat:

https://codecombat.com/

It's free and starts off really easy. You run into a paywall, but the beginning is worth a try.

[Jnx]

Thanks, I'll give it a look a bit later. It's a shame there aren't many choices when it comes to this sort of thing, but I suppose it is too niche.

[FragmentalStew]

Haha. Your responses are too much like real life. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've done that before, irl.


Not going to try to convince you of anything, but:

Major spoiler

You can speed up time with FastForward(), which can be found naturally on drugs, but can be added to consumable items like cigarettes, snus, and food. With any drink you can use Sleepiness(+100) to pass out instantly where you stand or Sleepiness(+70) to go to get very sleepy. Sleepiness(-100) will take away your sleepiness. You can connect to a tap to automatically refill your drink when you take a drink.

the total changes to stats should equal less than the total of the drink. So if you have 100, they shoulds -35,+35, and -35 would put you over that limit by 5. You're not limited by only 100, though.


If no one showed up, then maybe you didn't get the right dialog? Like maybe you needed to tell Pixie you were going sooner in the day, otherwise the party rolls over to the next day? Or maybe it was just a bug.

AFAIK going to the party isn't crucial to moving the game forward, but I don't know that for sure. Edit: I just checked and all I had to do was talk to Felix at work, after having that conversation with Pixie.

Oh well. c'est la vie

If you want to learn programming there are probably more efficient routes. I could direct you towards some if I knew what kind of programming you wanted to do.

The one thing I think the game does well, as far as programming is concerned, is to actualize object oriented programming in such a way that it feels natural. Learning OOP the normal route can sometimes be confusing. The language is also really easy to use.

Mostly I just enjoyed the escape. I should have spent the time doing some real programming, that I need to do.

After spending so much time and going to so much trouble to figure out the secrets of the game and try to figure out how I can wield god-like powers most efficiently, I'm starting to feel a lot more motivated to get my real work done, though.

I know you didn't ask, but I'm trying to use game engine technology to combine productivity applications and games into a tool to help people do more with their lives. Essentially. You can find my feeble attempts here http://www.productivegaming.com/.

[Jnx]

I did talk to Felix first after stalking Pixie to her work. He was the one who originally invited me over the previous day.

As for what kind of programming I'd want to learn, that's a tough one to answer. I have been toying with the idea of making a game for the mobile platform. Not because I have any illusions that I'm going to make money, but just more for myself, and it's something I can do that might be fun, and a challenge. I've always wanted to learn some sort of programming, but it always just seemed like too monumental a task. I've tried looking at Unity, but I don't know it just doesn't strike me as very accessible for complete newbies. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I could find out on my own, it promptly stopped me in my tracks, though perhaps I just wasn't persistant enough.

Language wise, I have no idea what's best for the most general use when you take ease of learning into account.

[FragmentalStew]

After you show up at her work and talk to felix and pixie comes out and gets upset about it. And then after you talk to pixie again, and she asks if you're going to felix's party, you then have to talk to felix again at his work and you will get dialog options that lead to you getting tested

Native android apps are made in Java. The best programming language to use for Unity is C#. I honestly don't know about IOS/Apple There are some other engines that can port to mobile platforms, but I don't that much about them. I use Unity and C#, because that's what I know. Likewise, I'll direct you toward the resources I'm familiar with.



https://www.coursera.org/learn/game-development/ this is a pretty good course on starting with Unity. You can speed up and slow down the videos. Access to all the learning material is free, but you have to pay to get a certificate, and to get graded on your work, and to be able to answer th quizes. If you really feel like you need the paid thing, you might be able to get financial aid. I did all the material for free, and then got a scholarship and just finished up the quizzes, submitted my work and graded others. That way I knew I wasn't going to be late on anything, and I didn't have to rush.

I used Evernote to take notes and also copied questions and my answer to the quizzes. I mean, i could have just used word or something, but I like to save things to the cloud, and evernote was just convenient.

The course mostly deals with working with Unity, and just barely scratches the surface on programming, but it is a good introduction to both Unity and programming in Unity.


https://www.coursera.org/learn/game-programming is a game programming course that does a really good job of teaching C# and good programming practices. It covers some general aspects of programming games, but it uses XNA, which isn't really used anymore, instead of Unity. It's a much more indepth study of programming.


And of course there's always https://unity3d.com/learn . The beginner tutorials will do you better than the intermediate, at least to start.



http://www.digitaltutors.com/ probably has some good tutorials but it will cost you.


Having a second monitor is really useful for playing tutorials on one screen and following along on the other, but you can do it on one screen, if you have to.

[Jnx]

In regards to Felix, that's just stupid as he invited me when I was there the first time after talking to Pixie. Poor design if you have to go back, as there's no reason to since you've already gotten an invite. But then it doesn't surprise me as the developer seems very amateurish. He may be a good coder, but that does not make for a good game designer.

Thanks for the course suggestions. I'm really tempted to do one of the coursera ones, but I'm wary at making an account as I'm not sure I want to give them my personal information before I know what kind of quality I'll be getting.