You're so welcome :)
Playing the demo was a pleasure. I really enjoyed the established relationships of the crew and their banter, how the dialogue makes it clear the characters are comfortable with each other, having the ho-hum of working in space get infused with a spike of exhilaration of being in freaking space! when doing more rare tasks, I like the female relationships are respectful and friendly, the atmosphere is well drawn and written which pulls me right in, and I like how grounded in the body the game is which very much evokes the human on a more primal level but it also gets enough into the mind to establish the basis from which to contrast human and android as it has this interesting split narrative between body and mind without actually splitting it. I'm looking forward to see how the body and mind are further explored through Ambs in contrast to Isaac. It's an excellent game thus far.
Usually I don't like android characters and especially not romance with them; however, I'm realizing it's more a problem with how they're written/portrayed and their function in the plot which makes me dislike them. Not that I have a tonne of breadth of experience with them, but the only other android I've liked is Agashi's Silas from This, My Soul. He was written on that fine line between android and human in a way that felt realistic to me and did not veer off-path of what an android is, which was interesting for how the game explores Silas and it drew me in. The game got into some of the questions of how and why humans comes to establish relationships with and act on their feelings towards androids. Most don't manage that. Certainly, it's in part a matter of what works for me rather than some grand imperative of how androids 'should be done'. I'm uncertain if etiquette suggests it's rude to comment in a way that seems to advertise someone else's work. If it is, I apologize; I'll delete this part of my comment if you would prefer :) I mention him only as a means of better explaining what I'm getting at and because I think, based on what's in the demo, The Azimuth Gap will go into that level of depth with Isaac and in the relationship between himself and Ambs. I am quite looking forward to it. Even if it doesn't though, I'm still very much looking forward to this game.
About alternate
methods of donating... I'm not good with tech stuff, at all. The only
thing I know about it comes from reading through old posts on Azalyne
studios's blog on tumblr for the game Seven Kingdoms: the
Princess Problem. There she came up with an alternate to Kickstarter
allowing for donating through Paypal, but I wasn't even aware of
these types of indie games at that point so I don't know how it
worked. The posts about it were most likely around the time of her
Kickstarter so beginning in August 2015. I'll see if I can find the
specific posts about it and put the links here so you can read up on it
if you'd like. [edit 1: it seems more info is in July. I'm making a list of links to useful posts]
Once again, thanks for the great demo and I wish you success. Cheers!
[edit 2: adding info on paying through Paypal for a Kickstarter
campaign] Azalyne Studios set this up on their own prerogative.
Here's a link to the tumblr post describing how it works on the
buyer's end 7
Aug 2015. Seems part of the process involves becoming a Paypal
approved merchant (5 Aug 2015). And they set it up after
the initial Kickstarter goal was reached to avoid having to give
refunds through Paypal if it came to that (20 July 2015). I'm not
sure if this will be useful to you but at least the info is here if
you need it. Kampai!
Aahh, thank you so much. Just like constructive criticism where someone tells you specifically what you need to work on, constructive praise is also so incredibly helpful. Reading such a detailed account of what you found to be working well really made my day! I hope that you will continue to enjoy the way the relationships develop, especially with Isaac.
And yes, I've played "This, My Soul", too! [And it's totally okay to link it! :)] I really enjoyed it, too. I'm in the same boat in feeling like android characters and especially romances with them tend to be unenjoyable. I often find they are written too human for me to reconcile in my mind. And so I agree with you that "This, My Soul" really was able to walk that line in such a wonderful way. I really hope that I have managed to do the same that it will be equally enjoyable to you. When writing the story, I always tried to keep in mind that he is an android and what that means for him in his motivations and each interaction.
Also, thanks so much for the link about Paypal! That's really helpful and I will look into it. As it stands, it doesn't look like The Azimuth Gap will reach it's funding goal, so I have to look at what's next. But I plan to keep trying to release this game, and will make a post soon about what avenues are available!
