I have to say that I didn't like the artstyle at the beginning but it grew on me with time, mainly because it stays consistent through the game and the game feels very competent already. UI elements, inventory, journal, interactions with friends, building mechanic etc. work flawlessly and feel natural. It's already a very pleasant experience, especially with that chill soundtrack.
Typing this out while I wait for the berries to grow for the objective to harvest 10 berries. Been seeing your progress posts and really impressed with your development.
The art and vibe of this game are great and very relaxing, the UI is really well done and i like the squiggly line aspect. My eyes adjusted eventually but when I first started I could not tell what was a background and foreground element. Past a certain point the game kind of turns into an idle game where there is nothing interesting you can do outside of your base (going out and actively gathering is a marginal increase in speed once you have like 8 pawns). I'm imagining this will change once more interesting kritters and events are added in. Managing your dudes was simple and fun, though it feels unnecessary to have some chest inaccessible to the player while pawns are out gathering. Getting into nitpick territory here, but if there are 9 logs in a chest, shift clicking should just transfer all 9 even if there isnt a full stack of 10.
I really dig the vibe and found myself kind of addicted to the progression. The tutorial is well done, though im imagining once more mechanics are in that there will be more to juggle rather than just hyperfocusing the objective.
I ended up quitting right about the point where you need to wait on 10 wheats to grow and be harvested. I aint waiting that long again after the berries, I feel like having a tutorial much earlier to plant them all would alleviate that somewhat.
Favorite thing would probably be managing all the little kritters. Keep up the good work! Adding to steam wishlist
Thank you. Yeah, the art style does take some time getting used to. Hopefully I can do things to iterate on making it more visually clear. Obviously this is experimental, and there isn't much I can use from previous work to learn from. Maybe Moonring would be the closest.
> Past a certain point the game kind of turns into an idle game where there is nothing interesting you can do outside of your base
Well, the game in its full form will be about managing the settlement. Some of those management tasks will have to leaving the main map to deal with issues. More it less it is a colony sim with idle production mechanics. I guess its "factorio-like" in that way with less automation. Unless you count the pawns as machines.
> Getting into nitpick territory here, but if there are 9 logs in a chest, shift clicking should just transfer all 9 even if there isnt a full stack of 10.
That is fair and easy to implement. I'll do that sometime shortly. > The tutorial is well done, though im imagining once more mechanics are in that there will be more to juggle rather than just hyperfocusing the objective.
It will start to ramp up at rank 8 after the training wheels get taken off and pawns can leave the settlement. The player will be more or less playing discount "animal crossing x rimworld" managing relationships and pawn complaints (which you can see by pressing the L button). It teaches the basics of crafting, then you set up pawns to do the labor and growth.
> I ended up quitting right about the point where you need to wait on 10 wheats to grow and be harvested. I aint waiting that long again after the berries, I feel like having a tutorial much earlier to plant them all would alleviate that somewhat.
I am actually restructuring the objectives at the start. As it isn't quite clear that you don't have to wait for each objective. Pressing the "O" button shows all of the objectives for the current level. You can do all of the objectives for each rank simultaneously. IE you can plant 10 wheat, berries, cotton, and linseed, and have them all complete. You don't have to wait for one objective to finish before starting the next.
After 10 wheat is 10 cotton then 5 linseed harvests. However you can do the 5 linseed harvests before the berries if you want to. It just shows the objective at the top of the objectives list.
i feel the game has improved alot since i played it last. faster movement speed, more aesthetic and a better tutorial. once the other beings come and help you collect stuff i got really engaged with the game. been playing for a while now. just reached shrine rank 4. the aesthetic is great, i like how the creatures talk and animate. some of the music is incredible, did you compose it yourself? the background cosmos effect is a bit distracting maybe. i turned it way down in the options. there are some bushes and rocks that might spawn inside your shrine area at the start of the game and they cant be moved but can be destroyed. a bit awkward but once i figured that out i could organize my base better. just got to the creature manager and its great! not sure how im supposed to use the fertilizer, would like to make my berries grow faster. got to shrine rank 5! and finished the demo
i like it. after a bit theres no real reason to leave your base as your busy crafting or building stuff, ordering your buddies around. i think it couldve been fun to go out and cooperate with the creatures, maybe shoot down a big monster or something like that, or set up other camps with different resources available. you managed to make ordering the creatures and giving them duties very simple which is great, so fun to see them running around. might be cool if they interacted a bit more socially maybe, i really like the way they talked at the beginning of the game. eager to see where you take the game next!
The music is AI generated. However, I did a lot of mastering to it after the fact to make it cohesive with the rest of the tracks. The cosmos effect was made adjustable for that reason. Most of the layers are editable now.
You can only move constructible objects, you can plant domesticated berry bushes that can be moved. Perhaps I should add the ability to move environment objects as well.
Fertilizer currently has no use, as plant health is not yet implemented. It will be required to keep linseed and other plants from dying.
> theres no real reason to leave your base as your busy crafting or building stuff
Not during ranks 1-5 which are effectively a tutorial. Most of the progression will occur in the base claim area which increases with each rank to cap out at the size of the map.
> i think it couldve been fun to go out and cooperate with the creatures maybe shoot down a big monster or something like that, or set up other camps with different resources available
There is a planned structure called the "Expeditioner". Where the pawns will leave the camp to get resources from outside of the map. As for construction in other maps, you can walk outside of the main map. Building structures there, after an Auditor is assigned (which will happen much later into the game) will contribute to the economy of the main settlement.
> might be cool if they interacted a bit more socially maybe, i really like the way they talked at the beginning of the game. eager to see where you take the game next
The pawns are meant to talk to each other, and the player. With voice, and bubbles over their heads. I'm just making the progression part of the game before the social management portion. I discussed this in a devlog post a couple of weeks back.
The issue was caused by attempting to load a legacy options file (from last demo day). The new build should replace the old file with the new one if it is detected.
Comments
I have to say that I didn't like the artstyle at the beginning but it grew on me with time, mainly because it stays consistent through the game and the game feels very competent already. UI elements, inventory, journal, interactions with friends, building mechanic etc. work flawlessly and feel natural. It's already a very pleasant experience, especially with that chill soundtrack.
Thank you. It will be a whole different game 6 months from now. ^--^; Once all of the pawns actually have social interactions in.
Typing this out while I wait for the berries to grow for the objective to harvest 10 berries. Been seeing your progress posts and really impressed with your development.
The art and vibe of this game are great and very relaxing, the UI is really well done and i like the squiggly line aspect. My eyes adjusted eventually but when I first started I could not tell what was a background and foreground element. Past a certain point the game kind of turns into an idle game where there is nothing interesting you can do outside of your base (going out and actively gathering is a marginal increase in speed once you have like 8 pawns). I'm imagining this will change once more interesting kritters and events are added in. Managing your dudes was simple and fun, though it feels unnecessary to have some chest inaccessible to the player while pawns are out gathering. Getting into nitpick territory here, but if there are 9 logs in a chest, shift clicking should just transfer all 9 even if there isnt a full stack of 10.
I really dig the vibe and found myself kind of addicted to the progression. The tutorial is well done, though im imagining once more mechanics are in that there will be more to juggle rather than just hyperfocusing the objective.
I ended up quitting right about the point where you need to wait on 10 wheats to grow and be harvested. I aint waiting that long again after the berries, I feel like having a tutorial much earlier to plant them all would alleviate that somewhat.
Favorite thing would probably be managing all the little kritters. Keep up the good work! Adding to steam wishlist
Thank you. Yeah, the art style does take some time getting used to. Hopefully I can do things to iterate on making it more visually clear. Obviously this is experimental, and there isn't much I can use from previous work to learn from. Maybe Moonring would be the closest.
> Past a certain point the game kind of turns into an idle game where there is nothing interesting you can do outside of your base
Well, the game in its full form will be about managing the settlement. Some of those management tasks will have to leaving the main map to deal with issues. More it less it is a colony sim with idle production mechanics. I guess its "factorio-like" in that way with less automation. Unless you count the pawns as machines.
> Getting into nitpick territory here, but if there are 9 logs in a chest, shift clicking should just transfer all 9 even if there isnt a full stack of 10.
That is fair and easy to implement. I'll do that sometime shortly.
> The tutorial is well done, though im imagining once more mechanics are in that there will be more to juggle rather than just hyperfocusing the objective.
It will start to ramp up at rank 8 after the training wheels get taken off and pawns can leave the settlement. The player will be more or less playing discount "animal crossing x rimworld" managing relationships and pawn complaints (which you can see by pressing the L button). It teaches the basics of crafting, then you set up pawns to do the labor and growth.
> I ended up quitting right about the point where you need to wait on 10 wheats to grow and be harvested. I aint waiting that long again after the berries, I feel like having a tutorial much earlier to plant them all would alleviate that somewhat.
I am actually restructuring the objectives at the start. As it isn't quite clear that you don't have to wait for each objective. Pressing the "O" button shows all of the objectives for the current level. You can do all of the objectives for each rank simultaneously. IE you can plant 10 wheat, berries, cotton, and linseed, and have them all complete. You don't have to wait for one objective to finish before starting the next.
After 10 wheat is 10 cotton then 5 linseed harvests. However you can do the 5 linseed harvests before the berries if you want to. It just shows the objective at the top of the objectives list.
ok, the game launches now
i feel the game has improved alot since i played it last. faster movement speed, more aesthetic and a better tutorial. once the other beings come and help you collect stuff i got really engaged with the game. been playing for a while now. just reached shrine rank 4. the aesthetic is great, i like how the creatures talk and animate. some of the music is incredible, did you compose it yourself? the background cosmos effect is a bit distracting maybe. i turned it way down in the options. there are some bushes and rocks that might spawn inside your shrine area at the start of the game and they cant be moved but can be destroyed. a bit awkward but once i figured that out i could organize my base better. just got to the creature manager and its great! not sure how im supposed to use the fertilizer, would like to make my berries grow faster. got to shrine rank 5! and finished the demo
i like it. after a bit theres no real reason to leave your base as your busy crafting or building stuff, ordering your buddies around. i think it couldve been fun to go out and cooperate with the creatures, maybe shoot down a big monster or something like that, or set up other camps with different resources available. you managed to make ordering the creatures and giving them duties very simple which is great, so fun to see them running around. might be cool if they interacted a bit more socially maybe, i really like the way they talked at the beginning of the game. eager to see where you take the game next!
The music is AI generated. However, I did a lot of mastering to it after the fact to make it cohesive with the rest of the tracks. The cosmos effect was made adjustable for that reason. Most of the layers are editable now.
You can only move constructible objects, you can plant domesticated berry bushes that can be moved. Perhaps I should add the ability to move environment objects as well.
Fertilizer currently has no use, as plant health is not yet implemented. It will be required to keep linseed and other plants from dying.
> theres no real reason to leave your base as your busy crafting or building stuff
Not during ranks 1-5 which are effectively a tutorial. Most of the progression will occur in the base claim area which increases with each rank to cap out at the size of the map.
> i think it couldve been fun to go out and cooperate with the creatures maybe shoot down a big monster or something like that, or set up other camps with different resources available
There is a planned structure called the "Expeditioner". Where the pawns will leave the camp to get resources from outside of the map.
As for construction in other maps, you can walk outside of the main map. Building structures there, after an Auditor is assigned (which will happen much later into the game) will contribute to the economy of the main settlement.
> might be cool if they interacted a bit more socially maybe, i really like the way they talked at the beginning of the game. eager to see where you take the game next
The pawns are meant to talk to each other, and the player. With voice, and bubbles over their heads. I'm just making the progression part of the game before the social management portion. I discussed this in a devlog post a couple of weeks back.
Cant launch game ):
If you played the game before, you will need to delete your older save files located at %appdata%/local/Cosmic_Construct
I will implement a fix, for this regardless.
The issue was caused by attempting to load a legacy options file (from last demo day). The new build should replace the old file with the new one if it is detected.