Messages

1

General / Re: Aquaria hit the P2P

« on: December 14, 2007, 05:36:22 am »

You know, one of the things I love about Bit Blot is their willingness to even tolerate a discussion about the fact that their game has been cracked and released.  I can count on one hand the number of devs/publishing houses that would do likewise.  In my mind, it's a real sign of maturity that they're willing to do so, and a real confidence in their product.  A confidence, I might add, that's well-founded. 

What a breath of fresh air!

2

General / Request: Free play mode

« on: December 10, 2007, 01:45:19 am »

I know the game has just been released, but if at all possible, I would love to see a free play mode in Aquaria: no barriers and no bosses.  My three year old is absolutely enthralled with the game, and I love letting him play through the game and watching him point out the various sea creatures we run across.  No idea how difficult this would be, but this is a feature I would really enjoy.  Thanks for reading!

3

General / Re: First look Critique

« on: December 09, 2007, 09:14:09 am »

How so?
It forced me to quit and restart it multiple times while writing the op, for example, and may force people to do the same while referring to forums when they have problems or are trying to get it to run smoother. I can't think of a better word to describe that.

Alt-tab works if you need to stop playing and write down comments about the game immediately.

@ Alan:
I live in germany and my banking account has well in excess of what would be necessary for this game. However credit cards are a rare occurance here.

Fair enough.

Also, yes, many of my complaints are miniscule, but for one, attention for detail in all matters is what seperates a mediocre product from a great product, and furthermore, not all of them are. For example the fact that continously holding down the left mouse button causes my finger to hurt considerably is not miniscule and i can't imagine i'm alone in that.

Your suggestion of a double-click to move strikes me as more aggravating than simply holding down the button.  First of all, it's more clicking, which is less user friendly, and second, it's less accurate.  In a car, you press down the accelerator to move forward and take off your foot to stop accelerating.  In other video games, you press the forward key to move forward and stop pressing the key to stop accelerating.  Aquaria uses this control scheme (familiar = intuitive = user friendly) by using the left mouse button in a similar manner as an analog lever or a key on a keyboard.  Ergonomically speaking, there are enough breaks in the game itself that holding down your finger on the LMB to move shouldn't cause a problem.  As far as I'm concerned, double clicking in general is bad ergonomics, despite the fact that it's become intuitive thanks to years of double clicking in Microsoft products.

Bottom line: there are very few games in which your character automatically moves forward, or where you can toggle a movement button and have your character run indefinitely.  Imagine an FPS or RPG where movement was a toggle!  I think the game would be infinitely more frustrating if I couldn't simply stop moving by taking my finger off the left mouse button but had to click or hit a different key or whatnot. 

If this is really a problem for you, Xenofur, then you could either get a trackball (use your thumb rather than index finger), a gamepad (an Xbox 360 controller works perfectly with the game), or simply take more breaks.  (Or, Bit Blot could implement double-click to move as an option.  I personally don't see it as a worthwhile expenditure of time, but that's just my own opinion.)

There also are some parts where the game leaves you to figure some things out for yourself.  (Unless there's a tutorial message a bit later that I haven't played up to yet).  Like riding a seahorse.  It took me a little bit to figure out how to get the thing to get moving.

I love the intuitiveness of the game and the fact that it doesn't beat you over the head with tutorial messages.  Instead, the hints come as part of the narration.  Xenofur earlier commented that the game needs to show, not tell: that's exactly what this is.  I'm not commenting directly at you, Zaratus, but I'm impressed with developers who have the courtesy to not treat us like we're idiots and give us a bit of leeway to figure out things ourselves -- or at least hide the help so that we feel like we're figuring it out ourselves.

4

General / Re: First look Critique

« on: December 09, 2007, 07:07:37 am »

Meh.

Up to this point i was ready to buy it as soon as i could get to the bank on monday, just so you have incentive to actually improve or do better on the next game. Shame, really.

Note: It is not the fact that my input was disregarded, but the attitude itself that made me reverse my intention.

The problem is that your complaints are so miniscule and nitpicky that they're very, very hard to take seriously.  (By the way, it would seem to me that somebody who couldn't afford $30 on a credit card on the spur of the moment wouldn't likely have the cash to buy the game now or a week from now.  I would have much, much more sympathy for your concerns had you actually purchased the game.  As it is...)

I should also point out that 1) I have absolutely no association with Bit Blot, and 2) after lurking on these boards for months, I registered solely to comment in this thread.

5

General / Re: First look Critique

« on: December 09, 2007, 06:20:47 am »

"Fullscreen: This can take considerable time to enable when cold-starting a game, especially when memory is low. Your game is quite demanding, so please do not make this a default option. The sanity of your users will thank you."

Yeah, no thanks.  This might be your opinion, but don't assume that this particular opinion represents all users.  Personally speaking, starting a game windowed is incredibly, incredibly annoying.

"One thing i disliked: I can't move the configure window. Please never make windows stuck in the center of the screen like that, it's just rude."

Rude?  Poor choice of words.

"Main screen: Lovely, like the swarm thingy. The texture of the aquaria logo draws an ugly horizontal line through the screen, transparency needs tweaked there. Options and Mod buttons are too dim, i only saw them on the third start of the game. Perhaps make the text glow a bit with plants or something. The green water plant behind the R looks unnatural due to too strong stretching."

You think this might have to do with you running the game at 640x480?  The menu looks terrific on my computer at 1024x768.

"The intro is also missing something else: There is NO emotion. At all. Does she welcome the player, is she happy about the chance of telling her story? Is she sad about what's going to unfold? She seems emotionally speaking, dead as a fish. If you can't think of anything else, at least make her smile at the player. She is visually not particularly endearing, and that will need to be off-set by personality."

No, she's serious, and she's setting up her story as if it were incredibly important to her.  Smiling would not be appropriate.

"Quitting the game should not be an ordeal in itself. When i quit the game, i want out, period. Alt+F4 should never be disabled, ever."

Your opinion, of course.  Do you have the full version of the game?  This might be a valid complaint if you were a paying customer, but not for a free demo supported by advertising.

"Also, don't throw ads at me when i quit the game. Seriously. I know it is a demo, i downloaded it rom a link labeled demo, and the installer itself says demo, even the start menu entry does, and i think i saw it ingame too. I repeat, i must be blind and dumb to not notice this was a demo and that i'd need to buy the full game to get more."

No offense, but is this the first demo you've downloaded?  The exit screen promoting the full version is practically canon for demos.  You're getting a taste of the game for free, and in exchange you need to look at an ad for as long as it takes to click the quit button. 

"Take hints from Introversion, read their blogs, learn how they use input of people who've never before touched their game to give it a *sensible* interface and learning process that can be picked up intuitively."

Bit Blot, I have complete faith in you that you'll keep the interface exactly the way it is, as it's perfect.  Xenofur, most of your complaints are matters of personal preference.   I would hope that you understand this, and also accept that other people (including the developers, obviously) do not share the majority of your opinions.