Objective feedback

[Phayned]

I have played through Act 2 now, tried a couple of different things and while I thoroughly enjoyed the game up to this point, I also believe that there is one flaw people need to be aware of.

The biggest strength of Sacred Fire is the rather large amount of choices you can make and that they actually have an impact on what happens in the game, so while it goes in the same direction as The Walking Dead for example, your choices do matter. However, that also is the game's biggest weakness due to how long the development process and game length is.

Objectively speaking, the game was released in EA, as per my understanding, in 2021. It's going to receive a full release in 2025, as it appears right now. Considering that most people will only be interested in having a single playthrough, "Their playthrough," the game length at least at this point is not satisfying. The time it takes for the game to be done is also really long, although you can hardly blame a solo dev. I believe I have had this game on my wishlist for 2 years before deciding to buy it on a whim after I got a notice that it was on sale.

Essentially, it IS a great game. However, your opinion regarding the waiting time, price tag and amount of time you will spend with it heavily depends on whether or not you are ready to try different things and play it more than once. It DOES have replayability. But if you're the "once and I'm done" type of person, this game will not necessarily catch you as much as you would like it to.

Furthermore, what needs to be understood is, that while you can forge your own story, the story itself is nothing monumental. It's serviceable, well well-executed, but comparatively predictable in the overall story arc.

I am frankly not sure whether or not I could recommend it. I believe (and trust me, I earn more than enough and spend a LOT on video games each month) the price is an issue. For what the game provides, it is a more than reasonable sum to ask for. For what most people would get out of it, it's too high.

If I had been the dev, I would have explored the option to go for the route that Life is Strange or The Walking Dead went for and released essentially full games per chapter, so you could continue developing the story further than what is probably going to be expected at this time while scaling the production team to have a reasonable amount of progress.

[poetic]

Hey there,

Thank you for your kind words about the game and your open-minded feedback. I appreciate you letting other gamers know what to expect from the Early Access build of Sacred Fire.

It's the same goal we try to achieve by leaving the free demo up the whole time and informing the players at the end of the demo what they can expect when buying the Early Access build - that it has 15 times more scenes. I understand it does not inform on replayability, and that's a good point, so let me address that a little bit:

What could help establish to people reading this how many players replay the game or explore different branches are the data Steam shows us in terms of how much time players spend with the game:
- on average it is 6 hours
- exactly 50% of players spend more than 5 hours (which I hear is enough for most people to complete the game once)
- the upper 5% play the game above 20 hours

Based on those data, I'd say it's reasonable to assume half of the players enjoy replaying the game, and half of them play their one true playthrough.
The game does not only enable exploring the distinct Act 1 and Act 2 branches but also provides a different experience replaying the game with a new character build. E.g. when playing a female protagonist the childhood friend and older brother dynamic changes etc.
More importantly, I think that only once Act 3 adds 5 distinct endings will people be truly incentivized to replay the game, either to see if they can get a different ending, or how different playing a warmonger, peacemaker, or say an opportunist, is.

In terms of predictability, I'd say, yes, the external events gravitate towards an expected decisive battle, and while there are a couple of nice twists adding complexity to the arc as well, I'd say that's not at all what the story of Sacred Fire is about. The magic is not in what's specifically happening, but in the framing letting you enter the protagonist's mind and to what degree you get to:
- navigate the scenes tactically
- interact with the characters
- and interpret how you perceive what's happening

In terms of price, value and production:
- it was always my goal to create a new role-playing experience with nuanced choice-making, high NPC reactivity, and let-me-be-smart gameplay
- I consider more role-playing in less time, with no filler events, or tedious repetitive combat, to be a plus
- what matters is you get a full-fledged story with dozens of fleshed-out companions, hundreds of hidden options on how to gain a tactical advantage, altogether 350,000 translatable words providing 40 playthrough variants (2 branches per each of the 3 acts and 5 distinct endings = 2 * 2 * 2 * 5)
- as demonstrated by Larian with Baldur's Gate 3, Early Access seems to be a good method how to develop exceptional choice-driven RPG content
- so yes it takes time, as it's not like anyone could've predicted the gameplay complexity and story scope, when I started working on the project years ago with no budget and no team, with what've been up until now 7 funding phases, each one presenting a life and death situation for the project, which luckily I was able, with the help of community and partners, resolve to avoid compromising the story.

So thank you, everyone, for your support and patience, while I work towards sharing the 3rd act with you all.

[Phayned]

I appreciate you taking your time to respond in-depth. I can fully understand and appreciate your perspective and let's be honest, you have succeeded, your vision is taking shape and the game is generally really well received.

My closing comment is that you are doing a wonderful job in terms of community management. I have seen your comments in other threads and how you have kept everyone up-to-date. I couldn't find a thing you could improve upon in that regard, even if I tried, unless I missed something.

[poetic]

Thank you. I'm grateful for the community that gathered around the game and for all the feedback people take the time to post to help make the game better for everyone. Cheers!