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[ZoidZilla]

Good eye. Did you find the floating knife? I noticed it for the first time while running through the pre-upload build check :/

The curse of the author. Once he holds his printed book in the hands, he immediately finds a spelling error.

No I did not find the floating knife even after searching for it. But I found something that looks like a dummy near the mainmast. There is also something clipping through the ceiling of the captain's balcony. Might be part of one of the cages, but I am not sure. I also found your "vision escape door" and wondered if it wouldn't make more sense if one can just wander into the void to end the vision.

It's probably the dithering. Does playing in Reduced mode help?

It helps, it makes it easier to "process" the Image as a whole and especially makes the faces more recognisable.  It also makes a big difference for the font, which is really "dirty" and hard to read in the precise setting. But I think many people would rather like to play in full screen.

But after I finished the demo I was able to go back into the ship and solve the whole mystery, was that intentional?

Easter egg!

Eh, did I miss something?

[MadmanKThree]

The demo crashes for me at the beggining(either as soon as i take control, on the ladder, or when i get on the ship)

error.log: http://pastebin.com/FJ7gPXKQ
output_log.txt: http://pastebin.com/nEQfiu5V

(yes i ran it from desktop but moving it somewhere else produces the same results)

[lil lantern]

This is Awesome!!
Just play the demo,loved the 1-bit mist floating in the air!  Can't wait for the full resale!

[cosmictides]

First of: The new flash back is spectacular! Also the ship looks fantastic with all the added detail! Great work mr!

Some observations:

*extremely mild spoilers ahead for those who haven't played yet*
I noticed you changed the suicide from the first dev build quite a bit. In 0.0.4 it was easy to see who it was, but in this demo you kind of have to assume who it is, as you can't really see his face.

The possibility to zoom in by pressing LM or Space is a nice touch that makes its easier to get a proper look at faces, but I did find myself missing a way to crouch. For instance the face of, whom I guess might be Martin, was hard to get a good look at because of the angle hes head was turned was so low.*end spoiler*

I found the floating knife, and i also noticed that the you put the crew muster roll back in the shelf in the flashbacks. Which makes sense, since you are back in time before you picked it up.

I missed the "It shouldn't be back you know..." part of the opening dialog from the dev build, but that's just nitpicking.

I was only able to get 3 fates correct thou. How many can be deduced in this demo?

Great to get a chance to play a new build! Very much looking forward to the rest!

[ZoidZilla]

Another point I want to address are the waves in the 'Abigail' scene. Personally I think those lines that run along the waves/water look very unnatural. They make the wave look more like some sort of blanket. I know those are needed to give the water some volume and substance. But maybe some sort of other pattern, or maybe a texture like you use on the wood planks and sailors would work better. How about some dithered karo/diamond pattern?

[saluk]

Wow. First let me just say that playing these graphics on my 50 inch tv was epic. It's been a while since I played the earlier dev build, so other than the extra flashback I'm not entirely sure what changed. But I did find myself much more engaged with the game this time around. And that last flashback... I like where things are going. I really like where things are going

I was also only able to deduce 3 deaths. We only have 3 names/crew positions, so I don't see how you could deduce more.

I dislike the way doors autoclose. First, because I'll think the door is open and try to back out, hitting the wall. Second because there are times where you are trapped behind a door and can't get by until it closes, having to wait for it.

I accidentally clicked the stairs a few times without meaning to and had to wait for the full climb to go back the other direction.

So nothing major. I hated that it ended.

[dukope]

The demo crashes for me at the beggining(either as soon as i take control, on the ladder, or when i get on the ship)

Thanks for the error log. Checking into this. Do other Unity games generally work ok for you?

I noticed you changed the suicide from the first dev build quite a bit. In 0.0.4 it was easy to see who it was, but in this demo you kind of have to assume who it is, as you can't really see his face.

Ah good point, I hadn't thought about that. Gun to the chest felt better from a character standpoint but yeah, now you can't see his face. Hmmm...

The possibility to zoom in by pressing LM or Space is a nice touch that makes its easier to get a proper look at faces, but I did find myself missing a way to crouch. For instance the face of, whom I guess might be Martin, was hard to get a good look at because of the angle hes head was turned was so low.

I'm trying my best to resist adding a crouch button. For that case in particular, I set it up so you can descend the staircase slightly to get a better look.

I missed the "It shouldn't be back you know..." part of the opening dialog from the dev build, but that's just nitpicking.

The original dialog was too long so I cut it way down. Even now it's 40 seconds which is borderline for some and a bore for others. I'll probably cut one more line before final.

I was only able to get 3 fates correct thou. How many can be deduced in this demo?

3, so you got them all.

Another point I want to address are the waves in the 'Abigail' scene. Personally I think those lines that run along the waves/water look very unnatural.

Ok, I'll play around with alternatives. I also realized (too late) that the blur effect may work well to soften the rigid water mesh. Will also try that.

And that last flashback... I like where things are going. I really like where things are going

Nice Even though there's only one additional scene, I'm definitely showing more of my hand in this demo. What's been particularly difficult narrative-wise with this game is that I can only tell story bits when someone dies. So I basically need an unbroken chain of dead bodies reaching all the way back to the beginning - dudes are dying constantly. My solution for that is a series of (connected) fantastic events, of which the kraken is one.

What I really like though is that the story is not critical to the core gameplay mechanic. You're not being asked to document the overall tragedy, only the specific fates of the crew members. So there's a nice tension between the things that are important to your task: "which sailor got stabbed in the lung, by who", and the things that are interesting: "wtf happened here?"

I dislike the way doors autoclose.

I'll probably change things to have the door stay open until you leave the room. Not gonna make it manually closable though; that's just too fiddly.

[slarti88]

Just to pile on to everybody else's feedback

Loving the 1 bit look now. I'm also using a PS4 controller and its really smooth.

Couple of small issues that bothered me a little

1. The 'blurry' doors indicating that the door is now open after the flashback. I actually liked the earlier version where I had to end up figuring out that something changed after the flashback, it was a sort of an aha moment for me.

2. The flashback themselves. I'm not too sure what I'm supposed to do apart from observing the faces of the deceased etc. I did get a kick out of seeing the last guy run all the way the top and jump back down and attack from behind... however I feel like I'm missing something crucial about what I have to do during the flashbacks

Apart from that I'm really excited about where this is going, I was a tad heartbroken, when the demo ended just as I was about to see the lower deck!

[ElkiwyDev]

I really enjoyed the old demo and even more the new one!
Can't wait to see the finished product of this, but please let us play more demo of it in the future, we need it! 

[jegus]

I feel that the gun-to-head pose is more visually poignant.

[MadmanKThree]

The demo crashes for me at the beggining(either as soon as i take control, on the ladder, or when i get on the ship)

Thanks for the error log. Checking into this. Do other Unity games generally work ok for you?

Yes, they work fine

[kythg]

Finally got round to giving the GDC build a run - fantastic work!

One thing I think would add a lot of intrigue and mystery to each vignette is if character lurking in other rooms or around corners were also included in vignettes in which they were not killed. For example, in the third second vignette, being able to spy the character killed in the third vignette would add a sense of 'what happened next?' to each event and add a little more spice to wanting to find out - almost like a cliffhanger on the end of an episode - 'what happened next?!'

I understand this would probably require a lot more thought to get right, but I really think it could add another dimension to proceedings.

Anyway, keep on the great work - very excited to see how this turns out!

[blahmoomoo]

One thing I think would add a lot of intrigue and mystery to each vignette is if character lurking in other rooms or around corners were also included in vignettes in which they were not killed. For example, in the third second vignette, being able to spy the character killed in the third vignette would add a sense of 'what happened next?' to each event and add a little more spice to wanting to find out - almost like a cliffhanger on the end of an episode - 'what happened next?!'

Did you look at the deck behind the captain's quarters during the second vignette?  There's someone back there...

[kythg]

One thing I think would add a lot of intrigue and mystery to each vignette is if character lurking in other rooms or around corners were also included in vignettes in which they were not killed. For example, in the third second vignette, being able to spy the character killed in the third vignette would add a sense of 'what happened next?' to each event and add a little more spice to wanting to find out - almost like a cliffhanger on the end of an episode - 'what happened next?!'

Did you look at the deck behind the captain's quarters during the second vignette?  There's someone back there...

I thought I did but I must have missed it! Well, ignore what I said then! 

[TitoOliveira]

Really enjoyed playing through the demo. People already praised the visuals enough, so i won`t say more of the same, so i'll leave it here how nicelly the music starts and closes each scene. The music is really helping to set the theme and mood.

spoilers ahead!

I just couldn't quite grasp how to solve the mysteries.
The only one i could try to make sense of things is the guy commiting suicide, because he mentions Abigail and that he killed her brother. So i could search Abigail`s last name to search for her brother`s name, which was the captain, if i remember correctly (now that i'm typing this some other things are reaching my mind, but anyway). So i could deduce that Abigail's brother was killed.
Is this the main loop of the game? Finding the first clue that links a name and then tracing back and making the connections. Or there are other kinds of clues around? I completely discarded the possibility of recognizing people by it's face and whatnot. But i'm seeing some people mention peoples faces, so now i'm confused.

OH! It really blew my mind the scene with the giant tentacles grabbing everything. That caught me with my pants down.

Anyway, you have a great game and a really cool concept here. Hoping to see more soon

[dukope]

[...]IIs this the main loop of the game? Finding the first clue that links a name and then tracing back and making the connections. Or there are other kinds of clues around? I completely discarded the possibility of recognizing people by it's face and whatnot. But i'm seeing some people mention peoples faces, so now i'm confused[...]

That's exactly it. Clues don't always start with a name though. In some cases you'll discover someone's identity based on their job, location, wardrobe, conversation, etc visible in the flashbacks. Some clues have a chain effect, like the one in the GDC demo where one piece of dialog reveals multiple identities. Some characters won't have specific clues and you'll need to work on the process of elimination. Sometimes multiple characters may die the same way and you won't actually ever need to decide exactly who is who in a certain group.

Because this is exactly the kind of game where you'd expect to find and read notes lying about, there'll be no notes lying about. Everything is presented in the muster roll, environmental structure, black-screen dialog, and frozen flashbacks.

Faces are important for recognizing people in separate scenes. So, you may learn who the cook is in one scene and need to recall that when he's killed (or killing). There's also a race/nationality element of the faces that will give you helpful clues. Wardrobe will also help with all this too.

(And thanks!)

[MrElmo]

This is just great. I really appreciate that you're so willing to write about all the interesting stuff that goes into making a game like this. I am thoroughly entertained and am always looking forward to your posts.

Some picky bug report type of things in case you're into that yet:

• Menu bug: Open the manifest. Click on a crewman's fate. Click on their fate to open the options. Press ESC. (The manifest closes). Reopen the manifest. Again, click on a crewman's fate. At this point, the manifest is locked, and neither will the fate options appear nor will the back button work. ESC still closes the manifest. This bugged condition resets after a flashback.
• Floor bug: During the 3rd flashback (in which Martin has a knife in his side), I was able to fall halfway through the floor near the seaman with the slit throat. From that position, I wasn't able to move around until the flashback ended. I haven't been able to reproduce it, but I have screenshots to show about where I was. First, Second, Third. If this happened outside of a flashback, I imagine I'd need to reload a save.
• Walking into the rails on the upper deck near the top of the stairs causes the character to twitch between standing on the floor and the rail.
  

Here is a link to my logfile.

[jajunior]

i'm getting just more and more excited about this game

[shmo]

I really love the atmosphere of this game, the voice acting is amazing and the attention to detail - like the hand grabbing things - is awesome. I fell through the floor after the first flashback while walking into the captains room. Sorry I can't give steps to reproduce yet.

[rjw801]

Okay, I registered so that I could say that this game looks amazing so far! Looking forward to it.

I was only able to get 3 fates correct thou. How many can be deduced in this demo?

3, so you got them all.

I've actually been able to determine the fates of five of them (verified by the game), although two of them (the ones killed in the captain's ready room) had to be done via trial and error. I actually bothered to make a spreadsheet of the muster roll so that I could document what I learned. I did this for the original version, too, so I've noticed that there are significantly fewer crew members (only six pages instead of eight), some of them have had their names modified, cities of birth have been simplified to just countries or changed to a different place altogether, and many have had a change of career. A couple appear to have even changed genders!

Floor bug: During the 3rd flashback (in which Martin has a knife in his side)...

To be clear, that guy isn't Martin. As far as I know, we can't be 100% sure of Martin's identity at this stage, although he's likely one of the people visible in the kraken scene.

I have to ask: is that a cradle we see against the starboard wall of the captain's ready room? Are we going to have a dead baby in this?