It looks good to me

Hello,

I don't know much about crowd funding rewards...

My first thought is that there there really a many different stages. I don't know how efficient it is... (for example, is it usefull make a difference between the $25 and $30 stages ? and the $75 / $90 stages ?)

If you need some feedback, on my side, if I had the cash, I would go for the $50 one. But my finance would probably only allow the $25 or $30 one.

But overall, it looks fine and attractive.

Hey, has anyone noticed that the developper posted new videos ?

Here, he is detailing the

.
And there the

.

To be honest, I am really curious about that abstraction level between fleets, squadrow and ships. I'd love to try how it works in game !

Hello,

nice game ! I hadn't realised at first that you don't heal between fight. ough...

some suggestions (even I haven't played that much. So I might have missed few things):
- It'd be nice if some monsters had specific hit locations (with special effects). For exemple if you could slice a "deep horror's" tentacule.
- On the other way, some monsters could indulge you special injuries (soul, poison, mouth,...)
- A little bit of story would be nice (one sentence, told once in a while. Maybe through objects, or told by the caracter)
- I'd be nice if dice which have been rerolled were marked

[I have also found some bugs :]

Hello,

thank for your game, obviously crafted with love !
I also do really prefer the original pixel style. So, I fully agree with your choice.

I do really enjoy the game (and it took me a while to figure what was "lakeview cabin 2". Nice !). I have some remarks though (for future episodes):
The original game was much more powerful in terms of story, as we gradually got to wonder if the player was not the real monster (at least that's how I interpreted the apparitions). In episode 3 (and 2) we don't get as deeply involved. Also I didn't feel that the apparitions were brigging that much understanding to the situation (EDIT : after playing more, the story and apparitions gradually makes way more sense. Which is has intended I guess. Hmm, reading that interview also explain a lot of things on the change between both stories...).

I understand that episode 2 is meant to be short and simple. But maybe would there to some easy ways to flesh a bit its story out :

• newspaper page mentioning disparitions. And maybe connecting police sirens to the search of a killer in the area, who might wrongly thougt to be the shotgun man
• one of the caracter's girlfriend body or belongings could be found there. It could be a heart shaped necklace that the black guy is wearing too
• some hints explaining why the guy who hang is tied to the sewers (did he invoke the thing, has a lost someone, was he somehow obliged to fed it...) If we follow the idea of the black guy having lost someone, the heart shaped necklace could be seen in the man's room
• ...

I guess that most of it could be conveyed through 2 or 3 carefully placed items, as long as we have a way to link them to the story (and eventually to 1 or 2 characters).

I have also found some bugs :

• One of the girls got killed, and I severed its head from the body. When I came back, there was 2 heads : one on the wall (with the guts and all stuff), and another on the ground (where I had left it).
• I killed a girl with the weather cock. When I tried to pick her body afer that, I also took a huge and distorted blood spatter sprite (it was 6 times as big as a character) with the body.
• Fire is sometimes behaving in a weird way : I have seen the baby caught fire in a place the fire had died (maybe from flares). I have also had an instance of the corpse of one of my mates burning for ever : the corpse never turned black. The flames where gradually going down, but as soon as they stopped, the fire started again. I think that a flare (from the gun or the "crackers', I don't remember) was involved too
• Another Fire bug : in a Youtube video, one of the flashlights is burning. The fire never stops, the flashlight can still be wield and can be switched on and off
• The woodchipper was on with one of my mates' corps in it. When the baby turned the power off, the moving feet animation and chipper sound did not stop. The option to turn it on/off while in front of it, did not show though.
• If you send the dog (alive) in the water, then jump into the water with a weapon, you can kill the dog (the sound of the dying dog is played, even though it should have drown already)

EDIT : as a side note, they way you are using music and sounds to tell what is going on is really powerfull and well done.

EDIT 2: whooo, nice unlockable !

EDIT 3: Added some more bugs.

Hey, I'll give it a try.

Also, my sentence generator is done operational. No I need to create some content, that could fit with Even the Stars if you are interested.

hey, maybe the falling sun could be a mini game idea for Icarus, or an intro : http://kingdaro.itch.io/the-falling-sun

Some fun with the text generator :

-ven -he sta--
You read some ancient text : -ve- th- -t---
You read some ancient text : eve- --- -ta--
You read some ancient text : e--n -he s-a-s
You read some ancient text : -ven th- stars
You read some ancient text : -v-- th- ---r-

Adding such randomly garbled text to artifacts or other features could be fun... (with more variety in the introduction)

(...)About the sound also, It'd be nice if sceneries made an ambient noise as you go near to them. Once again it's not planned really (plus the game file is already kinda heavy and sounds are the heaviest file type, sadly).

That would be really cool !

Oh and your generator looks even nicer now, I like how the structure adapts a bit rather than staying the same. Keep it up ! - I mean if you want, not trying to force you or whatever :I

I'll keep working on it. Those few changes very easy to do : it is just some more rules in a text file (the code behind remains the same).

However, right now, every rule at planetary level would be perfomed independantly. I would like to have more consistancy between features. For example if a planet hosts "green fat lizards". Then we could have :

Forest : Behind the leaves, tens of green fat lizards are looking at you.
Farm : An old farmer curses against the big fat lizards which scare his cows.   

I am working at that.

EDIT : I have included part of these "variable" things. See previous download. The grammar file which can be edited is in RandomText_Data directory.
There is still one tiny thing I'd like to code, and then it will just be the fun to create rule sets.

EDIT 2 : I have now done all the variable things I wanted to. For example, now you can define a planet as "Dry", and it could be taken in account in any feature description.

It's super nice  ! I haven't tested it tho but I see how you're doing it and it makes sense. I don't know how much we'll add to Even the Stars from now on, we're chilling out a bit right now and we'll see if we keep working on it a bit later or just keep the game as it is - if we keep it up I'll look further into your script I guess ! In any case, what you built is interesting, I mean don't hesitate to develop it further for yourself or build an actual game/toy/thing out of it :D

He, that was a quick reply...
Well, for sure I'll have fun creating some rules. But, I probably won't have time to create a game with it. Maybe I'll try to package it in the asset store for free...
As for Even the Stars, if later you wish to come back to it, I would be glad helping with creating some rules.


As a side note, I did quite like to old way when features were grouped together : it made it easier to imagine stories.
Also, appart from the mood, has the radio any use ? Maybe its sound could change when getting closer to feature (it is maybe the case already...)

EDIT : I have played a bit more with my new toy. I have made the forest grammar evolve a bit :

Thousands of shrub-birds are blinking at you. It is unusual.
The sky is unremarquably scarry.
Two things are running away. It is intriguing.
Thousands of eyes are rolling. You turn away.
Tiny eyes are escaping. It is scarry.
The landscape is really beautiful.
Some vine-animals are staring at you. You escape.
The forest is really eerie.
Green fishes are mating. You wish to stay.

Hey Pol,

in case you think that you could be usefull for Even the Stars, I have created a script for unity that generates random descriptions from a grammar.

For exemple, you load this grammar :

Code:

Forest
#Adjective #Verb. It is #End.

Adjective
Red
Globulous
Tiny
Thousands of
Two
Some

End
beautifull
eerie
scarry
intriguing
rather unexpected
terrifying

Verb
eyes are #EyesActions you
#Beings #BeingActions

EyesActions
staring at
watching
blinking at

Beings
mooses
animals
things
chimps

BeingActions
are #EyesActions
jumping around you
running away
escaping
mating

And when running the rule "Forest", it would produce following strings :

Red things jumping around you. It is rather unexpected.
Tiny things are blinking at. It is intriguing.
Globulous animals running away. It is rather unexpected.
Red eyes are blinking at you. It is rather unexpected.
Red chimps escaping. It is beautifull.
Tiny eyes are staring at you. It is scarry.
Globulous animals running away. It is eerie.
Some things escaping. It is eerie.
Two eyes are blinking at you. It is intriguing.
Tiny eyes are staring at you. It is beautifull.
...

A sample application can be downloaded there and the unity asset package there.
And of course that grammar is just a sample and could greatly be improved...

Feel free to ask, if you find it interresting or have any question !

That software is doing that kind of gravity simulation (with orbits stable enough to be watched over thousands of years).

I am sure that its author would be glad to give all required info. However, I am not sure that it would be that important to implement more reallistic gravity interactions...

Woah, how does that happen? Rounding errors?

Karlin explained that it was for large maps. So I guess that some numbers somwhere in unity engine get too big : For example, if your number is stored in 1 byte, the max value is 255. If you add 1, then it goes back to 0. So, the steps you see in the picture probably are caused by similar errors of numbers hitting the roof.

I think that it is the case already.

The shadow caused by the sunset on cities is terrific !

That version version runs smoothly on my main computer, but the typing fells slow on my netbook (not sure that you can do much about it...)

About the escape key : I often press again escape twice before reading the screen (as if it was paused, and I wanted to quit the pause), being kicked out of the game without realising it. I am sure that I won't be the only one.
So maybe to quit the game, avoid asking to press twice the same key. Instead you could ask "do you really wish to quit ? Y/N"

Otherwise, congratulation ! I hope that they'll enjoy it in Strasbourg !

Ah, it is good to try that new version and try that new map feature. I see that you have added new textures for the planets (before we could follow "trails" when exploring).

Two thougts :
- Do we need to confirm that we want to leave a note ? Removing that step would require step less.
- Also, I was missing the possibility of writting question marks...

I like that it takes less turns now to passe out. However, fuel if of no use anymore. So maybe could you get rid of it, or make its use proportional of distance crossed...

Hello pol.
I am affraid that there is a game breaking bug : after my first jump, I always am out of fuel. Is it intended ?

Otherwise, good job. I'd like to see more !

That ship looks very privateer like. I loved that one !

Haha dude, I appreciate your enthusiasm but when I say I'm short on time I mean it.

Oh, I am sure of that ! That was just for later use, in case you plan to keep working on it  afteward(But you might prefer moving on to something else), or wish to open some portions of your code...  

Ahah, it looks nice. I hope that you'll be pleased enough with the version that you'll send to Strasbourg !

A question : will the map cope correctly when you have been visiting neighbouring systems (for example 64 75 32 and 64 65 31) ?

Also, some suggestions, to be stored carefully for later use :

Procedural features describtion
Every feature should have a description (maybe given when typing the feature's verb, such has "hangout". Have you heard of the goat soup string from elite (there is a modern remake : oolite). Very similar to your game, hundreds of planets are procedurally generated, with their own description such as :
"This planet is most notable for Tibediedian Arma brandy but scourged by deadly edible grubs.",
"Tiraor is a revolting little planet." ,
"This planet is noted for its exotic fish meat".

There could be a similar thing for planetary features. It would definitelly make every planet, and every single town different from each other, enhancing the pleasure of exploring.


Possibility to walk around
I hear you screaming already... But don't worry, I am not that crazy !
When out of a the ship, and while watching a feature, if there is another one, not too far the player could type the verb "Walk", and then be proposed the different feature it can walk to by foot.

Why is it cool ? Because the only thing that we own is a ship. The best way to give it more value, is somethimes not using it and see how limited we are (we can only move around from one feature to another).

This lead us to the final suggestion :

Using stargate and spaceport
When in front a stargate you type the verb "open gate" or something similar. Then you would be asked to type a code (the reference of another stargate) and be warped on another planet with a stargate.
The issue is that you travel by foot (your ship has stayed on the other side of the gate), and stargate references are not the same as warp coordinates. Chances are that you would not have noticed the reference of the stargate you have just left (or that it was not written). The stargate you emerge from might also be broken...

That's were the "walk" feature could be usefull : if lucky enough you could walk to a spaceport (or try your chance jumping from one gate to another untill you are stuck or find one close enough to a spaceport).

Spaceports would allow to travel to a neighbouring spaceport (up to 10 sectors away) or take "cab" or hitchhike to a planet without spaceport (cab and hitchhicke would work only for short distance. And you might have to wait...). Thus you could try to go back to the planet where you have left your ship.

In terms of programmation, as present time, you can probablay can't know exactly how many stargates there are and where they are. So, to make that network managable, they would have to be placed ahead of planet creation (generated at galaxy level)

For space ports, as you only need to know those around you, checking the 10*10*10 neighbouring systems mught be feasable, so they could be place with the regular procedural planet creation algoritm

Being allowed to travel without ship, but with great limitation could enhance the experience,and the feeling that your sole home is you ship.