The only gripe with this masterpiece: Exit Points

[Luio]

Hello, I have seen quite a few posts asking what I'm about to suggest, but I think this deserves a new discussion for I believe the outlook on the matter that I can provide here can really make you rethink the decisions you made towards those request.

First of all, let me say that this game is a masterpiece. A perfect couch game to play with friends that subverts each and every problem with any competitive coop game: The game centres around fun, awesome crazy moments where you and your friends cant help but be either amazed, confused, or rofl. It perfectly declares its purpose with every step of its design, and makes for an experience that all parties will inevitably enjoy regardless of skill, and many other factors that create a disparity on which games you can play with which friends in order for everyone to have equal fun. It even nailed the part where you skip all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and go straight to the game, so that you can introduce literally anyone to play it and avoid any posible mishaps or problems. This game is almost perfect; except in one and only one respect.

The term "Exit Points" perfectly defines what I feel is missing from the game. An accurate description and explanation of said idea, and why its the job of the devs to look after, you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjkWec61gQ

I won't pretend that I know how to make games, or that I know in any way or form more than any of the devs involved with this game. However, I find the argument extremely compelling, and it perfectly explains my one and only gripe: There is no way to end a match. No way to give closure. The only way in which you can leave is by literally pressing Esc and Exiting by hand, in a game that is otherwise perfectly tailored for the kind of play that people will get from it.

This may seem like a reasonable way to allow people to stop playing, but let me try to explain why I feel this simply doesn't work. I just played with my friend for about 2 hours straight, we just kept going and having fun, played like 100 matches, we loved it all around... But it was getting late, and after so much game we were getting burned out, we felt like, we should quit at some point, even tho our experience on each subsequent match was only pushing us forwards. This creates a disconnect between what the user expects and what the game provides, you are waiting for the game to give you an Exit Point, a moment where you can say "ok, this seems like a reasonable enough place to end it, lets exit and play again some other time! :)". There are no such parts in the game which allow for either party to consider stopping and actually doing so. Having to literally stop and exit just doesn't feel right at all, in a game that has literally been picture perfect right until then.

This could be easily corrected by just giving an option every X number of matches to "settle the score" or to simply ask if you want to continue, or if you want some last matches, etc. A point where the game tells you "Hey, if you are ready to quit, now's a good time". A point where the game can be the middle man between friends and let them stop; and doesn't make everything else in the game feel like it didn't matter.

Let me explain that last sentence in more detail. Why does the current way of exiting make it feel like everything you did didn't matter? Mostly because it feels like you are stopping mid way, like you are cutting the time short even tho you played 100 f***ing matches and its 6am and you haven't slept yet. That feeling is horrible and leaves a bad taste, it makes a HUGE contrast with the extreme intense fun that we'd been having before my friend just needed to hit the hay or hit his face on the keyboard. That exit point is perfect for an emergency, but horrible for a normal match, it gives no closure and leaves you wanting more.

Here is where the request that you got so many times comes in: Create an end, a point where you can choose to continue or to stop and gives you good enough closure for when you do decide to stop. An exit that leaves you feeling that you are wrapping up all the fun you had been having up until that point. I saw this game from some youtubers playing it (the game grumps) and I saw that every couple screens, you would make the game call out the kills, the deaths, and then a bunch of other silly data alongside it. I think that is a perfect way to give a place to end the match. Every once in a while you get a map where you can't really kill each other at first, and give this data to the players, then you can just place a text saying "Continue?" and open up the way for the players to kill each other again. If they do, matches go on until the next of these recounts, if they exit, they feel like the game was giving them a place to stop properly.

The main reason I saw for denying said use of scores is due to an interest in keeping it "straight fun" and "non-competitive"; while that's great and all, I think you are overshooting it. The game already makes it clear with its every mechanic, with the very gameplay and maps, with literally every asset it already tells you that the main interest here is to have fun. We never kept a score ourselves not because we didnt care, but because the game was already so much fun we didnt care. In the very foundation of the game, you already show pretty clearly that this isn't a competitive game... so showing a score like the one in the youtube video doesn't in any way make it more competitive or ruin any of this perfect depiction of "fun above all". Heck, the very way it was presented in the youtube video was the perfect way to give a score but at the same time show that it matters little to nothing. It did that by presenting the kills and deaths in a very non-chalant phrase and by then listing other sets of silly asinine data that's just fun to have, but means nothing. This asinine data, by being alongside the kills and deaths, takes importance away from these, and alongside the rest of the game will make it feel perfectly clear that the game is non-competitive and just pure fun. Data like how many times you jumped, how many times you suicided, how many times you got lasered, how many times you tripped, how many times you died from recoil, how many swag moments a player had, how many "cool" moments the other had, data that really makes the player understand that its just given out of courtesy or to poke fun at scoreboards. It won't detach from the motto of the game and it can give us the exit point we need.

Anyway, this has gotten long enough, and if I didn't make my point by now, then I just lack the expressive skills to do so. Devs, if you got this far, thank you, and sorry for the long read. I hope it gets you to reconsider this option. This is trully a masterpiece you have brewed, a source of pure fun. Thank you for that.

[Luio]

I just realized I forgot to give the link of the GG video that made me aware of this game's existence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdhXMbr9Dxk
Watch it if you want to spot the examples I used from that video. Thanks again.

[Botten Hanna]

Hello! Thank you so much for this well thought out feedback, you have some very valid points. I'll link this to the others :)