The seed for what could be a great game, for sure. There's not much actual language learning yet, since other than clicking on selected items, there's not a lot of context for the words you learn. Hopefully that's something that gets added at some point as you get the mechanics solidified and start deepening the NPC interactions.
I managed to get outside the town through a gap near the sailboats, onto a largely empty plain.
I will say that I am quite impressed with what you have here, and would love to see this meditative, absorbing experience expanded with more interaction between the character and their environment. And thank you for making this available on multiple platforms. As a Linux user, I appreciate it.
I find that on the idland where the chicken-person talks about plants growing, if I go on to the upper balcony a red halo appears around my character, suggesting some sort of action to be done. But I clicked all around, and nothing happens. What am I not seeing?
I like the view and the plants, but the lens thing still makes no sense to me.
According to their blog, it isn't. Mac and Linux support have been officially dropped.
From the dev's blog:
No more Linux and Mac support!
Unfortunately, we will no longer support Mac and Linux. Since we are three people, and we do not work on Linux or Mac, we don't have the time or resources to develop to these platforms. As the game becomes more complex, more and more problems arise specifically on Mac and Linux, which means we would have to spend too much time fixing those problems. We're really sorry about this, and we hope to be able to port to these platforms in the future! We hope you understand!
I'm on Linux myself, so I sympathize. But it looks like we shouldn't hold our collective breaths.
A thought about food and water.
You could have both hunger and thirst diminish at a set rate, but for thirst that rate could increase while you're in the sun, reverting to a lower rate when you're in shade. Likewise hunger could increase while you're using tools, before returning to the base rate.
This would allow you to introduce a reason for the player to build shelter from the start, without making it overly difficult in the early game.
Running the game on Linux (Ubuntu 16.04), I find that I have very little in the line of sound. Here's what I do hear, although very quiet:
Again, all of those are extremely faint. The shark attacking the boat is utterly silent, and I don't hear anything when I hit it with the spear either. The only way I know the shark is attacking is if I see it.
Scuba seems unrealistic, given how much gear is involved, but snorkeling would work. Limited range (and your raft keeps drifting) and depth but still an opportunity to explore a bit while still keeping the world fairly small. Perhaps craft flippers to extend the range, add spear fishing (attracts sharks?) or perhaps clams/oysters that can be collected.
Not sure if anyone has suggested this, but what about sunstroke? It could be an environmental threat, alleviated by spending time in shade from structures or palm trees, thus adding more reason to grow them.
The difficulty with that, as well as the need for warmth in a day/night situation, would be balancing the early game when you're scrambling for resources to feed yourself, stay hydrated, and have a big enough raft to put other features on. It's pretty easy to die during that period as it is.
In terms of underwater, snorkeling would be great, but you have to keep track of where the raft is drifting to so you don't lose it. Danger of shark attacks when you get too far out, or maybe limits on stamina.
Spear fishing would be cool underwater, with a chance that each kill might attract the shark so you have to be vigilant.
Possibly a blur filter on the screen to reflect the catstronaut's impending death?
Some way for ice to replenish on the map might be nice. Even in the normal game I noticed if you've got a couple of greenhouse modules on the go, you use the stuff up pretty quick, and are forced to go further and further to find more. I can see in Endless mode how you'd eventually just run out, and as a result run out of food as well.
Alternatively, some sort of collecter the player could craft to extract moisture from the air and turn it into ice would solve the issue too. Nothing too easy to build, since you want the player to be hunting for the stuff in the early game.
If you add native animals, perhaps you could make it possible to capture and keep them in pens, possibly for food or crafting ingredients (milk or some wool equivalent) to make for instance food with different potency/duration.
Alternatively, animals could be a natural hazard. If they were attracted to the especially healthy plants in your greenhouse module(s), you'd need to erect fencing or craft some sort of force field to keep them from damaging your base. You wouldn't need to run around shooting them with a space gun, but rather take a more passive approach to keep them out of your business.
Oh, a locale from Japanese folklore. It's the home of the sea god, who happens to be a dragon, and a number of stories concern humans who end up there. The idea of this structure under the water, inhabited by a large creature, reminded me of it.
You likely need to add a caution to the page that this game needs to be completed in noe sitting since there's no save. That makes it kind of tough to get through. Otherwise, it's a great experience.