itch.io

Yoooo, congratulations on the early access drop!

Is it more beneficial to you if we purchase on itch or on Steam?

I believe that small issue is being left as is for now, being a very complex fix, and players have OOC explained it as someone painting the tunnel walls a REALLY bright colour. x)

Yessss I was so tickled to find that I could do that at Talos.

I've got very fond of the rover but, with all the different 'customisation' options it allows*, I imagine it's a huge plate of spaghetti on the inside!

*two sets of solar panels, boosted, and upgraded water filter my beloved

If you've found two sets of crates in different locations, you will have picked up a new name (your character remembers this even if, like me, you immediately forgot what it was). You can do a small bit of research on this new lead at Laurion.

Open the menu via the PDA and I think it's in settings.

Yes; the repeating wasn't too onerous at all once I understood what I needed to do, and now I've done the route scouting (which is way cooler the new way) the combined driving to Astrape works fine.

Ooh thank you. I've now found everything new, I think (and according to my whizzy new PDA whom I shall name Ziggy) (ability to name PDA when? - joking!), and it was so so fun! Also congrats on the Steam thing! I really wanna see this game succeed. It's got a combo of mechanics and flavours I really enjoy.

And a very relevant choice for that reason.

Some of the things I like (spoilers)

• New lore new lore
• The new way the tram works (and new things to do on it)
• PDA, at least in concept - I am guessing it'll offer us some way to view our notes and a story-so-far, both great, because I've forgotten who [redacted] is... and any writing style could give more hints about the nature of our MC
• New things to find at old locations!

I'm so excited for this update and I haven't even finished all the new content!

I'm sorry I'm not on the Discord, so bugs here may be dupes.

Bugs on my save from the previous patch, which probably won't be present on new saves: when you've found a faster route to Astrape on the old version but not on the new version, there are issues with the combined travel actions "close dam and cross" *from starting side of dam) and "drive to Astrape" (from Santorini quarry compound). Both probably use old versions of the "drive to x" action that have been changed in this new release.

New content bug, Astrape basement: Can't exit to civilian sector from basement even after unlocking the door from that side.

New content bug, Astrape central, after acquiring [spoiler]: text on water recycler still says it's suffering from an issue that should have been prevented.

Proofreading: "detach [spoiler] from reactor" includes one typo of "rector"; text beginning "the physical structure of this" contains what I think is meant to be two text strings dependent on what order you've done other things in, but is currently just placeholder text in brackets.

Your game definitely got my imagination going and had me anticipating how the story might develop!

And I didn't see the old art, but the current is REALLY good. So are the bits of story we receive. And the overall mechanics make sense while still offering novelty as you advance. I realise I concentrated on the gaps, but don't get me wrong - the game definitely engaged me.

Just got to the end. I liked that there was a definite ending where you could tell you'd won, but the ending itself was very sudden and the... part immediately before the ending was very unlike the rest of the game.

OK, can't write this without spoilers. Spoilers from here on.

I'm jotting down some suggestions here in case you'd like ideas. They're in no particular order.

• Clicking by accident should not exit the ending screen (haha... guess how I know that.....) - exit button or "press x to return to main menu"? Please haha I'm so clumsy.
• 'Suddenly, bullet hell' is quite a gameplay shift. It was also difficult for me and took multiple tries, and I had to look up how much health the thing had so I didn't give up.
  • What I do like is that the cat fights back against you, unlike all the other enemies that just stand there as damage sponges.
  • I can't immediately think how I would redesign this battle to be less reflexes and more strategy, but that would be the way I'd personally go.
  • I would have liked a little more introduction to the boss battle. Some narration explaining what's happening, like 'Billions of followers vanish with the slash of a paw. You stand alone, newly-formed soul vulnerable in your hand. Your heart, pounding. Your insides, churning. Her eyes burn into yours. You look away.'
• Lasting consequences for execute vs absolve... right now it's just a mechanics choice and doesn't feel meaningful to the story.
  • I know you're trying to avoid being an Undertale clone and your tone is darker, so...
  • If you start absolving, perhaps the game starts constantly mocking you (having seen that some of the in-game text already leans this way) and hinting that you're making the game harder for no reason. (And have this be mechanically true. Within reason.) But if you persevere, you get some kind of story payoff at the end. More about story in the later points.
  • Meanwhile, executing could have an added effect of making the final boss easier, like maybe the fight back button does more, but you don't get as much lore and at the end you get a hint to challenge yourself more.
  • Possible other 'kind' vs 'cruel' choices that add to the challenge. Such as adding a useless but 'morale' follower job (cook/nurse/musician?) and/or you give the villagers a weekly day of rest and it slows your production, or you can choose to give them better housing that costs more. Make the player work for their good ending/OSHA approval.
• Storyyyy! I was certain I was imprisoned in the dark forest for a very good reason, as the game text kept hinting, and I was hoping for some payoff for that at the end. I was sure the cat would turn out to be a prison warden, just doing her job and keeping the big bad contained.
  • The ending could have us escape and be just as bad as before, if we've been executing things, but if we absolve everything and make other merciful choices, it could leave us with a small hope: have we reformed? Have we learned anything from our time in the forest?

A lovely game that wears its inspiration on its sleeve. The soundtrack to the fights is excellent. I'm thorougly stuck on the final boss, but I got to the first interlude and it gets props for what it's doing there. I just wish it had checkpoints like the battle that is its distant ancestor, haha.

Yep, it's the place with the chalk drawings. Something there is interactable - in a strict order. Create one continuous path.

I am LOVING this. Can't resist a good time loop and optimisation challenge. I picture my character stumbling around at first, then later executing a swift and elegant dance around desks and machinery.

edit: never mind - thought I'd found an issue but misremembered the numbers involved.

Xngurevar znqr gjb qevaxf. V guvax Naavr unq n snibhevgr zht.

Ivpgbevn qbrf unir n culfvpny erzvaqre bs Qnzvna, fb gb fcrnx... pneevrq nebhaq jvgu ure... :(

I decided this @ person deserved a name, but he clearly doesn't have one, so I named him David Langford.

(Lrf, guvf vf n ersrerapr; fcrpvsvpnyyl gb Ynatsbeq'f fubeg fgbel Oyvg.)

Love, love, loved this game. I had caught 97 Pokémon by the end, but the 98th was a bit too hard to find without looking in the comments.