10 days into Early Access Update
just some insight into how things have gone the first 10 days of EA release. firstly thanks to everyone for the support and interest in Desolation Seed. the first 10 days have been successful. since launch the game has gained 40,000 wishlists! and it's incredibly motivating to see the community and interest continuing to grow. right now we are working on getting the next major content update out. we will most likely have a private beta build for it before releasing to the general public. if you are interested in play testing the beta build please reach out in PM.
Steam Reviews
reviews have been teetering from "mostly positive" to recently "mixed". we definitely take every review into consideration. most players have been forgiving about the presence of bugs and it being in EA. some haven't. most of the negative reviews do provide valid criticism and valuable insight into what we need to prioritize. There are also a small number that appear to be more impulsive or made before players had spent much time with the game, which is to be expected.
we're getting reviews from players saying the controls and lack of handholding are too obtuse, which can translate into a perception of a lack of care and polish on the development side. This seems especially true for players who aren't willing to invest more than 30–45 minutes before leaving a negative review. For those players, the lack of handholding and the game's initial difficulty often translate to the game feeling broken beyond the obvious bugs. For us, the "tutorial" level is meant to invoke a sense of dread and intentional emptiness. However, we also have to give players who aren't willing to endure that initial learning curve or those moments of discomfort a fair chance to invest in the world because at the end of the day we want players to have a smooth and fun experience.
So a couple of questions for you all:
Is the intro too obtuse?
Do you find the lack of information about the controls frustrating?
Once you know them do you find the controls obtuse or off-putting?
Mouse Controls: the Surrogate is meant to feel sluggish/weighted. this is relieved by crouching and/or using SPEED stimulant - is this not enough?
one Steam review compared the game to a broken WAD which is hard not to take as a compliment because obviously "jank" or low frame rate mechanics are an area of inspiration for us. but not to the point of coming off unrefined. the task is to get players to take the weighted/sluggish game feel of lower frame rates seriously or at very least not assume it's a lack of care. it shouldn't impede on the fun.
That being said, please continue to share your feedback, and if you've enjoyed the game so far, we'd really appreciate a positive review! It helps provide a more complete picture of the experience for players considering jumping into Early Access.
Next Content Injection
Not promising anything but shooting for July 29-30 release. this will depend on a few things especially if we are going to prioritize a rebinding system, as giving the player freedom to reconfigure controls seems generally important from feedback we've gotten.
OVERALL
these first 10 days have been very inspiring for us, the feedback and interest have been very motivating. we are on schedule and excited to keep moving closer to what the game will be at its full release. thanks again for everyone who is here contributing !