Hi Tamat!
I saw the post on reddit but I'll reply here. Thanks a lot for playing and taking the time to send across your thoughts. I'll reply to each individually.
Sucks that you sold a goat! I know I could have put more work into the UI in general, to make things a bit more logical. Like you say losing a goat is not necessarily a disadvantage and definitely not the end of the world, but I can see the frustration if it's done without realising. I have made it so you can't sell your last goat though!
The daily routine is definitely part of the game, some people enjoy it and some people find it boring. It's a tricky one, as like you pointed out, the boring routine is kind of the point, but if the game gets boring then that's an issue. In attempt to combat that I added in more 'things' than you can reasonably get done in a day, but these are optional (or more optional) and I've noticed generally people not engaging with these as much as I would have liked.
Yes the blue night is one of the biggest things I wish I could change! Problem is I added in the lights right at the last minute, but the post processing profiles I had set up were done in a way that didn't allow the colour through, and I had forgotten this. Also the way it is integrated means there is a lot of work to go in and try and change it. Hopefully at some point I can find the time though, as I really want to!
This is another tricky one, as again, this is the desired reaction but some people don't like it. I like the fact that you have to sacrifice your "working" time to read the letter, that you have to make a conscious decision to do so, even though it brings no tangible benefit. I am very interested in optional interactions, and what the player sees as the primary objective. It's funny how most people see the making of cheese as the main objective, even though that is not explicitly implied anywhere, although admittedly it is the most developed system. This game was very much an experiment in these kind of things, so great to hear what people think of them!
My thinking was that the chickens didn't die but ran away in the night :)
Hah, yes, good observation, maybe she doesn't like cheese ;)
Other camera angels would be nice, however due to the scale of the project I had to limit the scope and chose to have a static camera and the story would be of a specific place which you can grow familiar with and see the environment change over time. Early on I deliberated different camera angles but I couldn't justify it from a gameplay perspective, it wasn't strictly necessary for what I wanted to do, so it got cut. This project was done in my spare time whilst working a full time job, so many design decisions had to be made on the basis of time investment.
But yes, thanks for your insights. Definitely agree on most of them, and there is a lot I would do differently if I were to do it all again now, but I suppose that is always the case, isn't it? :) At some point you have to accept it will never be perfect, get it out and move on to the next project, I guess.
Thanks again and all the best
Memory of God