Thanks for playing the game.
Controls are pretty bad on a controller
Sadly, there is not much I can do about that. Default control scheme is not good and there is no way to change it since it seems to be hardcoded into the engine. However, you can change them by pressing F1. I think the game says so in one of the hints, or maybe in the initial control screen.
Also, I don't think there is a way for the game to detect if you are using a gamepad or a keyboard, which makes making UI prompts slightly more difficult, especialy with the limited ingame resolution. It will investigate and think of some solution.
I wish there were better descriptions to know what a given skill does
That's pretty much a problem with most rpgs that I played. You create your character first, but there is no way to know what the game is about at that point. I will fix this by adding longer intro section introducing all mechanics and you will get to pick the traits at the end of that section.
Also, traits are a very new addition, so the game is balanced around having none at all, which is the default.
It would be nice if they didn't disappear, just in case I needed to reread it
I tried that when I was making the hint system and it didn't really look good. There is way too many of those questionmarks, which is anoying. Good thing is, it nudges players to read them so they dissappear.
However, being able to reread them seems important, so I will probaly add every hint you read into the diary, which is pretty much useless now anyway.
The UI is serviceable to use, a bit busy
Deffinitely something I will be working on. The 640x480 resolution is a big limitation, but it's not that hard to work around that.
Wish running was a thing so it didn't take long to go somewhere
There are several ways to be faster, they are just locked at the start to make players actualy walk around a bit and get used to where everything is.
You can pick a trait that allows you to run faster, you can get speed potions, you can buy a motorcycle or you can get mutations that make you ran faster. You can also unlock shortcuts, fast travel and even set custom fast travel points. As you progress, you spend less and less time walking since you start unlocking all of those options.
Fast travel costs food, but not that much and you can even get a trait that makes it free. Again, this is to make people walk everywhere at the start of the game to learn the map. As they get better, they will use fast travel more often since food will stop being an issue.
Maybe have an unobtrusive popup when an action does something to the player's mood?
I had a system for that almost ready. It's comming.
I was disappointed to have no one who would train combat, since I wanted to be violent and the first enemy, the chicken outside my house, clobbered me big time.
Pretty much everyone I saw playing the game got killed by it. It's becoming some kind of tradition.
Olaf, the bald guy, can increase your physical stats a lot and on top of that, you can exercise in your hideout to get stronger too. Weapon skills can be increased early on in two ways. There is a training dummy near the bridge with the guard. You can use it every day for free. You can also tell Billy to follow you and he will help you fight. He kills most weak enemies alone without any problems and you still get some XP even when you yourself deal no damage.
And that pretty much covers it. Walking is a pain at the start, but that's intentional and it stops being a problem rather quickly. You make a character, fumble around and learn the game a bit. You either continue or you make new character, fix the things you don't like with the traits and start again. This is not ideal and the intro section will fix that.
Again, thanks for playing and commenting.