Demo Feeback

[Catmander]

I've put SD on my whishlist a while ago and finally found the time to play the demo.
Unfortunately i lost interest already and i didnt finish the demo.

My main critique is that the game feels way to railroaded with lots of recycled themes which have been better done elsewhere.

Here are some points wich are not well executed:

- PDA: No one would buy a smartphone today with the ui of your pda. Klick and scroll left/right... no way of sorting and structuring things. Taking notes, draw... the map is also bad at first sight. Its hard to tell in which direction you're looking and what all the symbols mean. No mouseover for infos, etc. Ok the ship is small but you should still be able use a map seperately eg by pressing standard M instead of klicking pad and then map.

- The chatter between the crew is quite nice. The downside is i have to wait till it ends to continiue eg to wait till a door gets unlocked. Give me at least smth to do during the chatter eg i have to select the "answer" instead of waiting till its been spoken out. There are cinematics and these dialouge scenes which won't let you progress and also feel like cinematics. You need more player interaction during these phases. For me it feels terrible to be just a bystander.

- This problem continues in the mini games / riddles. But they are so shallow its hard to use the word riddle. Best example is to reactivate reactors and other devices. Basically its run around till you reach a spot, press the only ~3 Buttons on a console and do the same thing a few meters away again. Thats not challenging nor interesting. Afaik its 50y old tech, so let us at least learn smth about it during the repair or put a more comlex task in - could be also interaction with you mate on the other ship.

- As scifi fan you guess the 1st part of the storyline. But theres not much flavour in both ships. The UI kicks in too late with the scanner. In the starter room you already touch different things or you wonder why you cant... its a while later you'll get introduced to the scanner but that should happen right away. Also a big minus is that you scan things and lift them, but thats it. I havent seen any flavour text to get some immersion. Whan about personal belongings of the crew or historical, technological history of given universe. At the end you'll think twice to grab every plate in a room because you wont wfind anything special about it.
Its the same prob with PDA's and notes. They are placed on obvious spots and the interaction with them is a bare minimum like klick klick.

Then i reached the part with the cameras and smth said ok, i'm not going to do this, no way. I had my fun with splinter cell but you cant be serious to let me play hide and run to the alarm button in such a game. I know its an intruduction to game elements but as seasoned gamer... meh. If i'd learn at least smth about security measues on board of a spaceship... but not even that its the old avoid the scanner field without immersive elemts like getting to know the tech in this universe.

The story has a decent start and voice acting but somehow the gameplay (points i made above) feels detached from it. I don't know if it gets better. I just can tell its hard to continiue playing because of this "being disconnected".

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by Catmander:

I've put SD on my whishlist a while ago and finally found the time to play the demo.
Unfortunately i lost interest already and i didnt finish the demo.

My main critique is that the game feels way to railroaded with lots of recycled themes which have been better done elsewhere.

Here are some points wich are not well executed:

- PDA: No one would buy a smartphone today with the ui of your pda. Klick and scroll left/right... no way of sorting and structuring things. Taking notes, draw... the map is also bad at first sight. Its hard to tell in which direction you're looking and what all the symbols mean. No mouseover for infos, etc. Ok the ship is small but you should still be able use a map seperately eg by pressing standard M instead of klicking pad and then map.

- The chatter between the crew is quite nice. The downside is i have to wait till it ends to continiue eg to wait till a door gets unlocked. Give me at least smth to do during the chatter eg i have to select the "answer" instead of waiting till its been spoken out. There are cinematics and these dialouge scenes which won't let you progress and also feel like cinematics. You need more player interaction during these phases. For me it feels terrible to be just a bystander.

- This problem continues in the mini games / riddles. But they are so shallow its hard to use the word riddle. Best example is to reactivate reactors and other devices. Basically its run around till you reach a spot, press the only ~3 Buttons on a console and do the same thing a few meters away again. Thats not challenging nor interesting. Afaik its 50y old tech, so let us at least learn smth about it during the repair or put a more comlex task in - could be also interaction with you mate on the other ship.

- As scifi fan you guess the 1st part of the storyline. But theres not much flavour in both ships. The UI kicks in too late with the scanner. In the starter room you already touch different things or you wonder why you cant... its a while later you'll get introduced to the scanner but that should happen right away. Also a big minus is that you scan things and lift them, but thats it. I havent seen any flavour text to get some immersion. Whan about personal belongings of the crew or historical, technological history of given universe. At the end you'll think twice to grab every plate in a room because you wont wfind anything special about it.
Its the same prob with PDA's and notes. They are placed on obvious spots and the interaction with them is a bare minimum like klick klick.

Then i reached the part with the cameras and smth said ok, i'm not going to do this, no way. I had my fun with splinter cell but you cant be serious to let me play hide and run to the alarm button in such a game. I know its an intruduction to game elements but as seasoned gamer... meh. If i'd learn at least smth about security measues on board of a spaceship... but not even that its the old avoid the scanner field without immersive elemts like getting to know the tech in this universe.

The story has a decent start and voice acting but somehow the gameplay (points i made above) feels detached from it. I don't know if it gets better. I just can tell its hard to continiue playing because of this "being disconnected".

Valid points. There's a lot I would have done differently if I would start this project today. A lot different actually because I can do more now. I would like to make the point that gameplay was never really a major focus but I also didn't want to have nothing to do at all so I went wit ha middle ground.

As for the UI design, I wanted to break away from the usual kind of weird looking blue toned interfaces and I never worked with UI's before so it's a bit of me experimenting and also at the time being quite new to it. I'm also not an expert when it comes to UI design in general, it's a lot of work but I waned to give it a try. I don't hate it but there are better ones out there.

As for the story, well, since you haven't finished it, you haven't really gotten to the first interesting bit. I'll admit it's a slow start but once you get to the ending things pick up, quite a bit.

Chapter 3 is where things really starts to become interesting but I believe if you're not invested at the end of the demo, then you might not get invested at all. It's a very difficult topic to talk about because I don't know what you enjoy and what you would like to get out of a story.

However, don't ever expect anything "epic" it's a very intimate story in a way and I wanted to avoid epic space opera stuff, or bad guys in general. I'm quite proud of how the game progresses from chapter 3 personally and the ending but again, I think you'd need to feel invested before that happens.

This game is also not for everyone. It's a lot of experimenting with narrative flows, and trying to make a non-action game fun and interesting. I appreciate the civilized critique, I wish more people would do that. It does help me learn more about what I might have done wrong or could do better in the future.

The last thing I want to say is that overall I'm happy with what the game has become. I know this is probably something any developer would say but I am always very critical of my own work and while I can see the flaws I believe the overall experience is unique and offers something different. I've spent over three years on it and it's taught me so much for which I'm grateful for.

Receiving this kind of input adds to that so, again, thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. :) I also don't think I'll ever make a game like this again, either. I'll soon be releasing the final chapter.

Okay, so, sorry for the wall of text I'm kind of having a lot of things going on. So, yeah, thanks again man and take care! I appreciate you checking out the demo!

[mcquigan]

I saw no mini-games in the demo. The demo was quite short, but it gives you a feel for the game and the controls; you can see all the wonderful graphic options available to you.
I also did not see a PDA.
Is this person a backer that has a longer demo he is referring to?

[Orphanage]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

I saw no mini-games in the demo. The demo was quite short, but it gives you a feel for the game and the controls; you can see all the wonderful graphic options available to you.
I also did not see a PDA.
Is this person a backer that has a longer demo he is referring to?

The demo got updated just before the actual release of STARDROP. Are you sure you were using updated version?

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

I saw no mini-games in the demo. The demo was quite short, but it gives you a feel for the game and the controls; you can see all the wonderful graphic options available to you.
I also did not see a PDA.
Is this person a backer that has a longer demo he is referring to?

The demo used to be very different. I'm wondering how short the demo is for you, It should include chapter one and two and it should also have a bunch of DataPads (PDA's) to collect. I'm wondering if I included everything. Did the game end with a than kyou for playing message at the end fading to black?

[mcquigan]

I began in my room, left it, looking at everything within the rooms, pictures, the fish on the lower shelf but found no hotspots.
I continued through the ship, trying to interact with the AI's/ robots, non did, after the third one I quit trying.
I wandered around and over to gate 24. There were blank consoles on the walls I could do nothing with.
There were two consoles where I could "update location" I believe it said. I used the "E" or enter key, I went through the only door available to me next (not the silver doors at gate 24) and the shuttle launched.
It was about a five minute demo.
I mentioned the demo being short on our Senscape server and will edit that post if I have not played the correct version.

[Catmander]

Oh i totally missed the release Oo
Gotta check the Demo if you have updated it.

@Pads: as far as i remember, you find data on tables or boxes if they havent changed it.

@Devs: thanks for the wall of text. It shows you are engaged with your audience. And despite i'm very picky when it comes to games - i still like the idea behind the game.
Its also nice that you're going to include little QoL changes like the pda count or those juke boxes.

I just wished there were more consoles and juke-box like stations where you can enter the data bank and get your parts of the story puzzle. Visually it looks very nice mabye a bit too nice. Its a salvage ship and it looks like a polished ship of the fleet, like the Normandy. More scratches would add more to the scene imo. I know thats whining on a high level, but yea thats me :P

All in all 2018 was again a bad year for gamers and small studios with good ideas are the only reason i haven't dumped my PC already. I feel the game is still not my cup of tea but i think others may like it and i enjoy following such projects <3

@mini games: Depends what you call mini games. For me it starts with "get this machine to work" and i have to press 3 buttons to do so.

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

I began in my room, left it, looking at everything within the rooms, pictures, the fish on the lower shelf but found no hotspots.
I continued through the ship, trying to interact with the AI's/ robots, non did, after the third one I quit trying.
I wandered around and over to gate 24. There were blank consoles on the walls I could do nothing with.
There were two consoles where I could "update location" I believe it said. I used the "E" or enter key, I went through the only door available to me next (not the silver doors at gate 24) and the shuttle launched.
It was about a five minute demo.
I mentioned the demo being short on our Senscape server and will edit that post if I have not played the correct version.

AH okay. There should be a lot more to play in the demo. After the intro sequence you should start aboard your ship and be able to wander around some more . The demo includes the first two chapters so I'm wondering what happened. Did the game just quit at some point? I just checked to make sure all the maps are included and it seems fine. I'll do a run of my own soon to see what's going on.

Originally posted by Catmander:

Oh i totally missed the release Oo
Gotta check the Demo if you have updated it.

@Pads: as far as i remember, you find data on tables or boxes if they havent changed it.

@Devs: thanks for the wall of text. It shows you are engaged with your audience. And despite i'm very picky when it comes to games - i still like the idea behind the game.
Its also nice that you're going to include little QoL changes like the pda count or those juke boxes.

I just wished there were more consoles and juke-box like stations where you can enter the data bank and get your parts of the story puzzle. Visually it looks very nice mabye a bit too nice. Its a salvage ship and it looks like a polished ship of the fleet, like the Normandy. More scratches would add more to the scene imo. I know thats whining on a high level, but yea thats me :P

All in all 2018 was again a bad year for gamers and small studios with good ideas are the only reason i haven't dumped my PC already. I feel the game is still not my cup of tea but i think others may like it and i enjoy following such projects <3

@mini games: Depends what you call mini games. For me it starts with "get this machine to work" and i have to press 3 buttons to do so.

I really don't mind picky gamers. I myself am also like that in some ways. I honestly don't want people to feel like they have to like a game, it's something you should just do or do not. It's why to me a demo is so important to have and making sure it has substantial content for anyone to get a really good idea of what the game is like.

I'm just happy that people are able to say, nah this is not for me after playing it. :) Which is the reason I made the effort to make it haha.

I appreciate the feedback for sure, it's always nice to read other peoples experience.

[mcquigan]

@deranger
Yes, as soon as i went into the gate on the right (before the silver double doors) and click... whatever I clicked in there, the demo ends.
I will replay the demo today and see if there were other possibilities I overlooked.

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

@deranger
Yes, as soon as i went into the gate on the right (before the silver double doors) and click... whatever I clicked in there, the demo ends.
I will replay the demo today and see if there were other possibilities I overlooked.

That would be appreciated and I am working on a lot of things atm. Sorry for all the problems I was sure things were more stable than this.

[mcquigan]

@deRanger and all,
I replayed the demo.
The demo was not over.
Those of you that may think the demo is over after you launch in the shuttle and a black screen comes up with a writer's credit on it, wait. After a couple of minutes there is more demo.
It looked like an ending sequence to me
In the second part I was able to pick items up (still could not in the first part, oh how I wanted that big red book!)

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

@deRanger and all,
I replayed the demo.
The demo was not over.
Those of you that may think the demo is over after you launch in the shuttle and a black screen comes up with a writer's credit on it, wait. After a couple of minutes there is more demo.
It looked like an ending sequence to me
In the second part I was able to pick items up (still could not in the first part, oh how I wanted that big red book!)

I'm really glad that it wasn't the game itself. Hope you're able to enjoy the rest of the demo. ;)

[mcquigan]

Have you changed something? When I first played it, after he shuttle launch. it went to a black
screen with a writer's credit on it; it looked like closing credits and exited out :-) This morning, it was obvious that this is a transition into the game; I did not see the black screen at all, there were no long (minute or two pauses) in between screens.
It looks great!

[DeRaNgEr]

Originally posted by mcquigan:

Have you changed something? When I first played it, after he shuttle launch. it went to a black
screen with a writer's credit on it; it looked like closing credits and exited out :-) This morning, it was obvious that this is a transition into the game; I did not see the black screen at all, there were no long (minute or two pauses) in between screens.
It looks great!

I think it depends on how full your ram is at the point of playing. Sometimes when I play/test the game everything loads fast, other times after working on stuff loading apps, etc, playing the game it may take a little longer to load up a level. So I didn't change anything but it seems that this influences how fast levels load it seems.

[Argentium-Star]

I've finally been giving the Demo a run.
"Home" stage fully completed; however, maybe I didn't look at the screen properly, cuz I had picked up and examined a doll, but had not noticed I could collect it.
So I joined John onboard and had noticed Left-Click to collect (BEFORE the MCCV model), and regretted missing "collecting" the first doll back in Earth orbit. :P

My transition wasn't too fast - other things still loaded elsewhere - but I'm a patient guy. ;)

The only problem I've found so far, I've described already elsewhere - re NOT going to SD-01 Maintenance [Deck 03] first causes the Maint. lift to "not respond" to the Interact command, after returning from the (unpowered) SD-01 Command / Crew deck [01]..

I've just come out to the Main Menu, will try Continue first...

UPDATE EDIT:
Not quitting the game, but selecting "Continue" from the Main Menu:
1st try - fade to black; disk read; back to Main Menu - no messages. O_O
2nd try - fade to black; disk read; loaded in [01] elevator at Airlock level [Deck 02].
03 elevator works "properly" now. Single exchange Aryn/John played fine.

So, "Autosave" in the game is triggered by Level Loading (elevator transition)?
That's a relief. :D

[Argentium-Star]

PS: I LIKE everything so far.. I've a "little gripe", though -- after being "spoiled" (years ago) with Ultima 6 allowing you to pick up practically everything, and having many things actually usable, or at least sell-able, in that game, I find myself a bit disappointed with being able to pick up some items which have no use (plate WITH cutlery "attached"! LOL, spanner / screwdriver, not keep-able to use elsewhere), and then I can pick up 1 or 2 computer "mice" but others I can not..

I've seen someone else's comment, and I agree, in part -- it might be nice for items picked up / examined to offer some "flavour text"; e.g. "It's just a plate; it looks clean though." or "It's a screwdriver / spanner, but I won't be needing this." and even "This is a 3D-printed figurine of John; I might want to keep a hold of it." and "This is somebody's Zero-G drink flask; I have no use for this.."

:)

If you want to supply (PM me) a list of Interactive items, I'd be happy to restart the demo, and write some "flavour text" suggestions for you to use or modify to your liking -- it may save you the time to create them all, so a final edit may be quicker for you...