Any Major Bugs

[ryorzins]

I notice their is no demo available. Might purchase but concerned about the mostly negative reviews. Have most of the game breaking bugs been squashed?

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

I've been playing this off and on for over 3 years. I would say at this point, yes, the game is a lot better than it used to be.

However, a lot of the negative reviews are not about the bugs, but rather how the game plays. You build stuff during the day, and at night monsters come and destroy your stuff. After so many day/night cycles, the monsters start destroying stuff faster than you can repair/rebuild. Many players feel a lot of frustration watching their hard-earned work get destroyed night after night when there's nothing you can even do about it.

[Tom]

I can relate to that, yes.

But then this game is not for those players. Some players don't like shooters, some don't like survival games, some don't like simulations, and some won't like the game that Black Forest is. I've tried to be clear in the game description and there's a free demo available. I don't know what else I can do to let people know what kind of game this is before buying.

I also note that despite the negative reviews, the number of refunds is quite small.

[ryorzins]

Thank you Tom for the reply. Does the game have difficulty options? From Kenpoleon's response it sounds like the game is too punishing and may need some balancing to make it challenging but fair. Hope you are planning future updates. Also, I don't see a DEMO button on the game's description page. I was going to take a chance and buy it this morning while on sale but had problems getting into my account. By the time I was able to access my account it switched back to full price. So I would like to try the game out before buying.

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

Originally posted by Tom:

I've tried to be clear in the game description and there's a free demo available. I don't know what else I can do to let people know what kind of game this is before buying.

Many people just don't bother to read anymore, Tom. You could put a huge banner on the front page of Steam, and it still won't stop offended keyboard warriors from writing negative reviews because the game is not what they wanted.

Originally posted by ryorzins:

I notice their is no demo available.

Originally posted by Tom:

... and there's a free demo available.

You might want to check that out, Tom. I don't see a "demo" button anywhere on the Store Page for new players to download. I thought maybe I just can't see it since I already own the game, so I asked a friend of mine (who does not own the game) to go look. My friend reported back she doesn't see a "demo" button either.

[ryorzins]

Your very right about the banner thing. Some people don't read. When I first found the game on Steam, I read the entire description. I am very interested in trying the game for myself to see if I enjoy it. Just hope Tom is able to have the DEMO available.

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

Originally posted by ryorzins:

1. Does the game have difficulty options?

2. From Kenpoleon's response it sounds like the game is too punishing and may need some balancing to make it challenging but fair.

3. Hope you are planning future updates.

1. Yes, there are difficulty levels, and different preset scenarios within each difficulty level. However, I don't believe you can change the preset scenarios. For example, if a certain scenario is set for "medium" difficulty, I don't believe you can change the difficulty to "easy".

2. Tom designed the game to be somewhat punishing. However, it IS beatable. The goal is to survive, not to have 100% of your village still standing. So if just ONE peasant survives, then you beat the scenario.

3. Tom is a sole dev, and one of the most active devs I've seen. He's usually on these forums every couple of days, and puts out updates every couple of months. To my knowledge, he has no plans on quitting anytime soon.