itch.io

Also, sorry to see all the comments about tracing and whatnot. I imagine it's frustrating.

I can fully understand honing your craft based on / inspired by another style, and trying to replicate great artists whose work you enjoy. It's fun to redraw, to imitate, and do studies like that, I do it a lot too! It takes hard work and great talent to keep at it consistently, and it's incredibly impressive.

I appreciate the inspirations for Elderfield and your own art as a whole shining through in the game. It might be interpreted it as a sort of love letter to its inspirations, you know? I think that's nice.

Really looking forward to the full game, there's a lot of interesting things to do and it's clear this is being actively worked on, which is rather exciting.

One thing that's been on my mind since the beginning so far is, while I appreciate the radio show feature and see what its inspirations are, it could use some improvements as well as accessibility options.
I.e. a transcription of the text for players who are hard of hearing, because otherwise there is an entire possible playerbase locked out of some content. This would for sure be useful for other types of players as well.

The other thought I have for this may be more of a personal preference, but I think it's worth pointing out regardless. So, I find Welcome to Elderfield to be pretty immersive so far. The variety of features makes the world feel alive, and environmental events and such that are out of your control help this, too. As with characters showing up unexpected places (although you quickly enough learn their routine).

The radio show's dubbing kind of breaks this, though. Probably these lines are read by the developer themselves or a friend. The cadence of these readings makes you pretty acutely aware it's
1. inspired by WTNV and
2. as I said earlier, someone without particular experience in dubbing.
There's also the fact nothing else in the game is voiced, so it's rather jarring on that front (maybe the television should have this too? Or maybe if both were text only, it would fit better).

Otherwise.. I think if these line reads were done by somebody with experience hosting radio shows, it would add a lot to the immersiveness of this world. I realize it's essentially a one-person-team working on this now and it might turn out to be a considerable expense, but if the radio show feature were to be kept as is, I think a professional dubbing would add a lot of depth to the world of Elderfield as a whole. I.e. if an older gentleman with that sort of working background were hired for the line reads.

On that note, more interactable and relevant characters (with character portraits and friendship development) of varied ages would give the world a fuller feel, too. Instead of it essentially just being that your player character is a young adult / adult and so is every single other character with notable substance to them.

Since this game already has been and inevitably will continue being compared to Stardew Valley and I do think Elderfield is much better, much more fun, in a plethora of aspects already -- exciting! I hope to see it come even more into its own.
One of my biggest gripes with Stardew is the characters' and worlds' lack of depth. NPCs feel rather hollow and uninteresting and their stories play out rather quickly, they kind of become husks afterward. And most of it is centered around or locked behind a romancing plotline. So, with more varied NPC ages and characters you can't romance being just as fleshed out, I think Stardew could've been a much better experience.

I hope WTE can learn from shortcomings of other games of its genre in this sense. I see its trying to do a lot all at once already. I hope, if possible, more collaborators can be brought into the team to make it a real masterwork of a game. Two brains are better than one, and the more the merrier. Plus, it would considerably reduce the workload, wouldn't it? Wouldn't want to see such a promising developer burnt out.