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(2 edits) (+1)

I'm gonna start off by saying that this game has potential purely because true RPGs are a genre completely abandoned by studios and indies alike at this point. There's a lot of games out there that call themselves RPGs, but which do not do the thing that this games does -- changing the player's journey based on his stats. I like that you start off the game as someone with literally no skills. I like that lacking certain skills locks off paths to the player. My advice about all of this would be whatever you do with this game in the future please do not make it possible for a player to max out all the skills in a single playthrough. It takes away from the main strength that this game could have. Also a fair warning that making any kind of true RPG can very quickly escalate into terminal scope creep due to just how many different stat configurations have to be accounted for and having to provide unique content for different stats.

I got two endings -- the naked guy one and the goblin one. Sedating the bird was funny. I think the graphics work really well for the type of experience you're going for and I think they're evocative enough to work as is. Of course most people might not agree with me, so maybe your ideal sweet spot would be to keep the art direction and just improve the fidelity a bit.

The story all on its own is fun -- not just funny -- fun. The tone is just right for this style of game. I liked the writing but it has a lot of ESL spelling and grammar errors all over the place.

Still felt like playing some kind of lucasarts game from the 90s (except actually funny) so that's good.

The thing I like the least is the pixel hunting. Some interactive objects have way too small of an interaction collider or blend just a little too much into the background (the grain). If you overcome this properly you've solved one of your main problems.

The core of the game is absolutely the stat system. This is the one thing that makes this game stand out among a sea of other games. Focus on that. If you didn't have it it's possible I might have come to the conclusion that the game has nothing to offer.

PROBLEMS AND BUGS

Only serious bug I encountered is that when you click exit game it just places you in the home screen (with the stats) but everything is frozen. Pressing Z just refreshes the whole program but nothing happens. Have to alt+F4 the game to close it. 

Starting a second run spawns you in front of the mounted head without any of the intro dialogue. If you walk left to the intro dialogue position only then is the dialogue triggered. 

Finishing a second run tells you you have 3 spare points but only allows you to use 2. 

This happens too from time to time. Just randomly.


(1 edit)

Thank you for your input. Something to clarify: 

stats can be increased only when you have the same or higher amount of spare points. Maybe I should write this somewhere or give a visual clue that it's not possible, but I think it makes sense. It makes the least effort to improve from a total newbie to someone competent, but if you want to be above average you need to invest more in self-improvement. It also gives extra choice - should I keep my spare points to improve my main skill, or maybe spend them on other skills that will still alter my path.

The bug with frozen stats after hitting Esc, you can unfroze it by pressing X. I managed to replicate it and I'll fix it the next free moment I have.

Please tell me more about that blue screen bug, I need to fix it as I believe it impacts the replayability the most. Which dialog, which character, which playthrough, I have a faint idea what causes this but I've never had it break in this place.

Also, point me to these grammar errors, I'll un-ESL the game as soon as I spot them. Some of the dialog options still need proofreading as  a lot of the later game dialogue was written in a stream of consciousness during the demoday. 

2 Endings? The naked guy was supposed to be a secret, I think I made it a little too easy. You have to free the Bard at least, you can't leave him there do you?

This gets wild. Time to cover some issues.

Did the treasure map ending and escaped that way. Managed to free the bard but couldn't do anything with him so no idea if there's another unexplored path with him. I can't give the makeshift comb lute to the bard or really do anything obvious with it.

If you want to make interaction points a little less frustrating you should make sure that every single interaction point (the nest, locked doors, etc) should give interaction dialogue by default.

Very often it seems like it's very easy to break dialogue order and trigger dialogue lines which you shouldn't be able to access in the current context If you get the sparrow without talking to the lady and only talk to her after that she still gives you the task and the sparrow is RIGHT THERE.


After returning the sparrow to the lady it goes away again and I can capture it one more time but this time I no longer have the option to return it to the lady. Not sure if a bug or just an endless cycle of negligence that's intended so that the sparrow can be used for another purpose.

Since the game allows you to inspect objects at any point and that counts as dialogue you can trigger the animation while Dirk is facing backwards.


Pressing the escape key triggered this screen at one point. This is after starting a new game 3 times in a single run. The ESC menu was stuck like this from that point on for the duration of that session.



Using the bow displays debug text for each arrow fired and it keeps stacking. It disappears when the arrow hits something or you leave the room you're in.


Some objects are rendered over the health bar.



Grammar and spelling mistakes are too many to list. I came across at least 30+ lines like this. Some of them seemed intentional but others are just errors.



I didn't get the blue screen crash again. The only thing I remember is that the one time I got it was when I pressed two keys at once and the other time was when I was just walking. No idea.

Hello mr charming!

Yeah, that bird thing. That one dialog should be disabled, my bad. Sparrow can be used couple times for one extra ending though, so try to not get him drunk next time :P

I tried to delete all of the debug messages, but it seems there's always something thet gets through.

Now talking with his head turned, that's definitely something I should fix. Now to think about it you probably can trigger it even when jumping...

That frozen screen is an unfinished journal page. It still holds some info from main game but I'll be honest, I have no idea why it showed up. 

Too many spelling errors eh...? Maybe my intelligence is on par with Dirk's after all T.T.

Thank you for all those finds, they'll be very fun to hunt down ;)

I tried to go for a 0 skill ending and yeah it worked. I didn't originally think it was possible.

Led me to another nonsense dialogue that appears after it should already be gone.