Was day two was incredibly overwhelming for anyone else?

[mush]

The first day was very easy and the tutorial and walkthrough was simple and awesome.
However, day two was insanely overwhelming and stressful... First, I had a visitor at 9am. Perfect! Then, three dogs came in and needed to be placed in kennels. Then, I realized that all my dogs were still in those showing areas from the previous day and they were all hungry and thirsty. By 12pm in game, I had three more visitors. By 3pm, I had five dogs waiting, all neglected. Feeding and giving water to my current dogs was time consuming, and I had five people wanting to adopt at the end of the day but I could not get to them because the animals needed so much care. Prioritizing taking care of the animals gave me a very poor review when the game ended.
Did anyone else have a second day like this? If the game after the first night moved the animals to the kennels for me, it would have made things so much easier I think.
I also think that I wasted a lot of time reading the descriptions of each animal. Time does not pause when you do that, which I found insanely frustrating.
I don't know, I have been excited for this game but didn't even want to play after day three because there was so much happening. I felt like if the controls were a bit cleaner and easier to maneuver, it would be ok. But i found myself just being bombarded with so many things to do. ):

[LittleRockGames]

Sorry you had such a rough experience! We are always working on balancing the game and finding a satisfying flow. The small number of possible events that are in the game right now making finding that balance especially difficult. We have definitely learned a lot from this public demo though, and we've gotten other feedback similar to yours. We are going to be using that to improve the pacing. We hope you'll check out the game again in the future when we have things running a bit more consistently.

[mush]

Thank you so much for the reply and for also releasing this demo! Despite the stress I had a wonderful time and I am so excited to see how the game progresses! Keep up the good work!

[Phoenix]

I definitely second that the game difficulty is too high. I am restarting for the third time because I can't seem to manage everything that needs to get done. You can maybe do 3 adoptions a day and that's if you don't have major issues like a health crisis or a lot of dirty dogs. There was also not enough time for me to get my dog to quarantine. I was doing an adoption when the alert came up and by the time I was able to start moving dogs to the hospital ward, I had 9 sick dogs and not enough money to buy enough medicine to heal them all. I would recommend changing the adoption format. Instead of walking dogs to and from the 5 selection cages, I recommend being able to select dogs from a screen so you can see every dog's traits and can easily select the most appropriate animal. The dogs should then be put in the cages automatically and taken out after the adoption. Having to take 2 dogs at a time for each adoption is very time consuming and frustrating.

[mush]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

Instead of walking dogs to and from the 5 selection cages, I recommend being able to select dogs from a screen so you can see every dog's traits and can easily select the most appropriate animal. The dogs should then be put in the cages automatically and taken out after the adoption. Having to take 2 dogs at a time for each adoption is very time consuming and frustrating.

I couldnt even get two dogs on a leash for some reason. But I totally agree with this! Or, if we were to have volunteers helping, click on the dogs to be moved and the volunteers do it for you. (: just to eliminate all the time it takes to move dogs all over the place.

[LittleRockGames]

There is a tool in place that helps with moving dogs for adoptions but I don't think that it's conveyed very well in the current version of the Demo. You can pick up the Ribbons near the show kennels to teleport dogs back and forth between the show kennels. I hope that helps a little!

[VinelMint]

Yes! It seems that I either handle adoptions or I handle the dogs, and there's just too much for me to take care of at all times! Once disease started to spread I had no clue how to take care of it.

[VinelMint]

Two hours later I've learnt how to take care of diseases but only through the description in the shop menu. I keep encountering the stuck dog walk where the dogs won't eat or drink in their kennels. Pretty good game and it's absolutely adorable but I'm bummed out by my dogs starving themselves

[manoncharles]

I really relate to this post. I adore the game but I feel like the time should at least pass twice as slow to get us time to manage both dog care and adoptions.
I haven't understood how to move dogs quickly (the ribbons don't do anything?) and it's quite hard to understand which dogs eat which food and to remember it.
Also how are 4 puppies popping in my big kennel 19 seconds before the end of the day ? :O

[mush]

Originally posted by LittleRockGames:

There is a tool in place that helps with moving dogs for adoptions but I don't think that it's conveyed very well in the current version of the Demo. You can pick up the Ribbons near the show kennels to teleport dogs back and forth between the show kennels. I hope that helps a little!

Omg yes! This helps a lot. I'm going to play the demo for like the 5th time now and try this! xD

[Gamingscot]

I agree, I got to day 3 and when it started there were so many hungry and thirsty dogs, a few dirty dogs. And three people came to adopt within the first hour and I just got very overwhelmed

[Memento Mori]

Yeah I just started day 3 for the first time and a few hours into the day I quit out, I was really looking forward to this game but it feels impossible at the minute. I'll keep giving it a go to see if I can get the hang of it but too stressful for me right now :(

[Bertie]

Yes, the amount of stuff you have to do is definitely a problem. Having to ferry dogs back and forth to the adoption kennels is a pain, especially when you add on the fact that you have to check what the visitor wants and try to find a match. Perhaps I'm missing something but when I got warnings like a dog being hungry I didn't know which dog it was and had to go round them all to work it out.

I also don't really understand what happens overnight. I don't have time to feed and water all the dogs before the end of the day so when the new day starts I have loads of dogs with low welfare. It all just seems too busy, especially when things are a bit fiddly

[cyndisa]

I love the idea of the game and was enjoying the tutorial, but once it was done and I was tossed into the deep end, I had to stop. There's too much going on and no way for me to do it all! While there is certainly an audience that likes a hectic game, I am not part of it. So I'll have to pass, if the game stays as is.

Maybe it IS the controls. Maybe it's the game mechanics. I don't know. In its present state, with the controls as they are, what I'd really like to see is different modes ...

--- Relaxed (with a VERY generous timer or even with NO timer - you get a certain number of animals and clients in each day and are able to care for them at your leisure. The day is done when you want it to be,)

--- Middle difficulty (something that presents a challenge but is not super-hectic)

--- Fast-paced (clearly, this would be be for those that really enjoy the adrenaline rush of a demanding game)

As I said, I really liked the idea and the presentation - basically everything about the game EXCEPT for the speed required to meet the animals' and people's needs.

[LittleRockGames]

Hey everyone! Thanks you all so much for all your feedback and taking the time to try our demo! We are patching the worst issues in the demo as fast as possible, and one of our recent patches slowed down the rate at which things happen in the game. We are planning some pretty nuanced customization settings for launch though, plus extensive balancing passes!

[Bertie]

Good to hear, my 8 year old wants to give it a go and currently it's a bit too much for her but I'll try it with the latest patch!