itch.io

Alright, first of all, I want to apologize. You were right, actually, on the Help Center forum being closed. It must've been closed accidentally, since none of the staff seems to be aware of it, but still, you were right. And I apologize. And I also thank you for bringing it to our attention! We'll be working on fixing it as soon as our programmer comes back from his job or is available in general.

As for the timeline or devlog-- we're new to Itch.io, as we created this page in order to participate in the bundle for racial justice two days ago, as you can see if you click "More Information" at the bottom of the posting. I personally wasn't aware of the feature, and I'm not sure if my team was either, though it is interesting and worth checking out. From what my team and I talked after receiving your feedback, we are open to doing it. The thing is that it consumes manpower that we honestly don't have. Most of our staff is quite overworked from real life, and that leaves a very small window of where we can or should put the energy we do have. But I will say it really isn't a bad feature to have and we're definitely considering it.

And, when it comes to delays on development and problems, that's what we use Discord for as well. We wouldn't and haven't used Itch.io simply because we haven't had Itch.io outside of participating in the bundle so far.

And regarding whether or not an Alpha is a proof of concept or not: (forgive the text in Portuguese, as that is my native language and what PC is set to)

The Alpha does also have gameplay features. It doesn't have all of them, though, and, yes, you're right, it is a very bare bones site as it is. I won't deny it. I don't want to excuse it, either. However, from what I can understand, and forgive me if I'm wrong, you seem to think that we're selling the game as a finished product, which is not what we are doing. We're selling the Human Avatar Set and the Critter. The key is intended as a free add-on so you can redeem your codes.

And, as for criticism being deflected with promises, I have no intention to deflect criticism, but I also can't show you content that isn't ready to be shown, and therefore I can only promise you we've been working on things behind the scenes. You also aren't addressing the critcism that I did reply to without promises, namely: the one where we are a dress-up game as well as a petsite, both points on the issue with the sudden wipe of new accounts, and whether or not the screenshots on this page are true or not.

It seems your biggest issue with our team is our lack of transparency, but I don't think I could've been more transparent outside of creating a devlog right then and there. I've explained our team's situation and why development is behind, and our intentions with the game. When it comes to our players knowing that we'll deliver, it's because we have, and will continue doing so. We have had contests, a Winter Event, Game Nights, and several handmade custom pets that were delivered properly and on time.

I have a question, too, actually: have you gone into our Discord? We talk very openly about what's going on, and try to answer all questions as much as we're able. We have very much been open about how development has been going. If you'd like to ask our userbase about our transparency, you're completely free to do so.

Even though our game is unfinished, we have done what we can to engage the community, and we want to do even more. I'm happy to hear you were excited about our game! And I assure you we're as communicative as we can, otherwise I wouldn't be here trying to respond to your concerns.

Hi there! I'm one of the artists on the site! And I'll try to address this point by point in order:

"the help forum is locked to new threads"

The Help Forums aren't locked to new threads. However we do check discord more often, since the website as it is isn't nearly as functional as we'd wish. Questions, suggestions and any possible issues are replied to quicker if they are posted on the server or by DMing a staff member on Discord.

"they say all communication is done over discord which is bonkers in terms of dev transparency"

The reason our forums aren't where we usually help the userbase with questions and such is because, as you may have seen, the site is broken and going through a complete overhaul behind the scenes. Most of our userbase uses discord, as it is the place to get sneak peaks and participate in game nights. We're aware that it's not ideal, but we're working on it as fast and best as we can.

"there is very little to do in this game other than gather feathers and dress up your avatar"

We're aware of this, and we're working on a complete overhaul of the website layout and features, but that's a lenghty process. We also don't want to overwork our programmer since he has his own life outside of Figment and a day job. For now, however, the website is in Alpha, meaning very early development, and not even close to a finished game. It is, as you said "a proof of concept", because that's what an Alpha is meant to be. We do not have a finished game.

"i love dress-up games a lot, but that's not what this game billed itself as."

It is, actually. The first line on the game's description is "Inspired by Neopets, Figment is a fantasy pet + avatar dress-up game".

"is there a publically accessible devlog?"

Not currently. However we are completely open to questions and suggestions regarding our development, and you can always ask what's going on and we'll tell you and our userbase whatever we're able to disclose.

"upon returning found my account logged out and all my progress gone"

With the influx of people coming through the itch.io bundle, our servers were exploding. We decided to upgrade them so the site wouldn't crash. The loss of data was an unexpected consequence of that, but we did send emails to the new accounts that were wiped that this happened. We're sorry your account was wiped, of course. Any progress is progress and I'd be upset if it happened to me too.

"but i have less faith in this game if i can't trust that what i've done in it will persist"

We were very transparent in what happened, and have since worked to resolve the issue, as stated on the discord, my statement above, and e-mails to people who could have possibly been affected.

And I have to tell you, then, that there will be a site-wide wipe after Alpha is ended and we begin open Beta test. Pets, user IDs, event items etc. will remain, but things like feathers and user-owned avatar clothes will be wiped from the site so newbies and older players can begin with a blank canvas. That way there will be no players jumping the gun with advantages they got in Alpha, and the economy can start fresh. There are users with over 1mil feathers, and that would be a huge advantage over new players, and that and other reasons are why we chose to have a wipe before open beta begins.

"at this point this is not so much an alpha as a proof of concept"

Correct! Well, sorta. A proof of concept is, in fact, what an alpha is supposed to be. Many sites and games that are in alpha might have more features implemented, but an Alpha is supposed to be a proof of concept or a prototype rather than the finished, polished game.

"it's not at all like the screenshots they have on the page"

Those are screenshots from the game itself as it is in its Alpha stage. Right now, with the influx of new users, the website is slower and some images might not load properly because of server issues. However I can guarantee that the screenshots are representative of the website as it is.

Conclusion -- I am very sorry we haven't provided you with a product you're satisfied with, however your statements are misinformed. We understand where you're coming from in your frustration, as we're also frustrated with the lack of features on the website as it is. All in all we'd love to have everything ready as soon as possible, but all of the work that goes into Figment is done at the developers' free time, and most of us have day jobs or other jobs in general. We also always put our developers' mental and physical health first over the game, and we have delayed things due to IRL issues. That's why we don't and can't have a completely finished product right now, but we do pride ourselves in being truthful and transparent with the circumstances behind the scenes, especially when we're asked.

I hope you can understand where we stand, and that you stick with us through development!