itch.io

You are welcome to the feedback... I generally try to give feedback to all the devs of games I try and especially ones I play regularly, especially in the review but sometimes in the comments too if there is a lot but some of it might be easy to change. I'm happy to help out as I myself would love to develop games and contribute to a few but I have so little time and my origin was as an alpha tester of computer games so this is just a little light exercise for my mind (I am genuinely suprised I missed reporting the source of my copy of the game and not checking the version! But at least that little wrinkle is easy enough to fix :)

I didn't realise you had so many games but then there are always more platforms, right?

As to you feedback responses; I'm glad I was able to suggest something helpful and maybe these bug reports might make it a little easier to put in fixes. As for the patrons, I like the mechanic but I found it harder to stomach because I just don't have the time to dedicate to a whole run through, especially with the increased time due to having to mess a little to get exactly the right bird... I suppose over time as I play again and again I will develop a more streamlined understanding of the game systems and so not have so much trouble but by then I guess I will be much worse at spotting issue and wrinkles in the game since I'll be accustomed to them :/ - this is what always causes issues towards the ends of games if one is not careful with ones testing (as so many AAA titles can atest!)

All the best with your new projects and I'll just hang a little hope that some of the issues with this one can be ironed out in time :) <3

New comment for new version! :)

I installed the PostJam version (dated: 2023-05-23) using the itch.io app on Windows 10.

First general comments: WOW, this is way different from the previous version... a lot more streamlined and with some information management made significantly easier, though I will note that the extra information and how some of the old information now matters more means the information handling load is pretty heavy, though due to the extended play time (WITH NO SAVE) caused by the need to get each patron on the list rather than skipping some is useful for teaching more about how the system work and working on that muscle memory but also makes it less likely that I have a play session long enough to finish the game... so the end game will not get play tested or only one or twice I'm afraid.

I'll also add that the absolute need to get the range numbers right due to tightening up the speed and distance requirements make it possible to stuff yourself going onto a new patron... I couldn't deliver anything for the smiths for ages because I had to save up for birds that could do the work and the fastest apothecary note was also a long term saving project (made worse because I over committed due to not realising that one of my crows didn't have the range and not correctly sequencing things).

I appreciate being able to see how my birds are flying as well as being given times for sleep and return though the jump in speed of sleeping between minimal and short is rather big, no? It definitely makes getting some birds to minimal or just not bothering to upgrade that at all and going for speed as long as they have enough range. I think overall this part of the game is the hardest as I've already had to sell one bird (and extend my playthrough) because the upgrades I made didn't match what I later needed from said bird - I like that it was feasible to do this but maybe not the reason (a lack of information about what ranges are actually needed - can I suggest that either the birds' and delivery items' range be listed in the same way as sleep and not to require exact numbers (do these birds really count the exact kms they fly?? or change the patron list to include a maximum range in numbers for them?) Also see below...

Bugs:

I can no longer get trapped in the shop thanks to every overlay screen properly pausing the action and time and note being able to click on the shop once it is leaving *yay* but I did get trapped in the shop when I went to sell a bird, then hit cancel without selecting a nest (I planned and then decided against selling a bird right then) the overlay screen went away but I could not click on anything or us keys when later started causing beeping, as if they were being queued? However I accidentally pressed right click and everything started working again... so not a soft lock unless you don't know to press a button never used in the game! ;)

The predicted arrived time for one note said I would be late but my bird made it anyway... I sent it just after it ticked over from being unlikely to arrive in time but never-the-less it made it just fine... so the predictor is inaccurate despite having three possible outcomes; arrives in time, might arrive in time, definitely won't - I didn't have a choice with that one as I had a spare bird and it would be late with any other I might send it with hence sending it anyway...

I went into debt by almost a 100 credits when I bought the kernel silo upgrade for 500 credits when I had over 850 credits... it looks like it charged me for the grain I already had in the silo as well as the silo upgrade?

I ran out of time to test more but I am worried that I will have to sink a lot of time in to discover why herons have such long ranges even though so far that is useless as the only long range deliver is a note that has to go super fast (and therefore by pigeon).

Anyway, the PostJam version is way better overall even though it might have become worse in one or two ways and also exacerbated the lack of saving quite a bit!

Best wishes and although I hope for more updates to this I am just happy that you appear to enjoy your work here enough to stay in contact with your players! :) - it seems to be a little rare and unfortunately a lot of those who do also don't seem to have the time to do much about bugs (especially in anything but their most recent game *sigh*).

<3

Okay I've found why the PostJam version is not the default to install. The Jam version's data file lists the Jam version as having been updated  26th November, 2023 but the PostJam version is listed as having been created and updated at 23 May 2023 so the app finds the latest version to be the Jam submission and therefore installs that by default and it is not obvious from the interface that there are other versions... indeed the "Install" button is visible once seeing the very top of the page so someone my never see the list of versions before deciding to install the programme and then the drop down for other versions exists whether there are other versions in that dropdown or not and so it is not clear if a programme has an alternate version without active clicking on the dropdown to find what other versions there are.

All this means that since your latest updated version (according to the metadata the app uses) is the Jam version that was "updated" 26th November 2023 and so that is given as the default (by the looks of it). I presume that, if nothing else, you "update" the PostJam version this issue will be fixed nd you'll stop getting so many reports about the Jam version! ;) <3

Apologies for entirely forgetting to specify my system information. I installed the game using the itch.io app in Windows 10 which I believe usually makes it the latest available version of the app... but I've just double checked and it looks like it defaulted to the Jam version, so yes, I will need to double check this lot - apologies... I be back to you with what I can find once I've played the latest version. I have to say I'm a little perturbed as every time I've had reason to check previously it was indeed the lastest version installed by default, I wonder what happened this time?

Right, this is an amazing game but could be so much better if there were not so many weird GUI issues, bugs and two odd choices.

GUI: Mixing the mouse and keyboard feels weird to start with and gets downright horrible later on with lots of birds, even the keyboard is objecting since pressing two keys at once often/always locks the vertical movement out and you slide awkwardly along the horizontal. Having to go to the bottom and then to each bird (especially pigeons) for each message (even when messages are grouped) is cute to start with but gets frustrating fast with lots of messages and birds... I spent more time giving messages than I did anything else in the game and paying attention to deadlines was not worth it beyond half-way through the game... make sure your birds are upgraded and just send them with the right size package plus don't take on the apothacary or the other short deadline patron... not worth the trouble because there is too much time just trying to get message to birds in the roost.

Bugs: Upgrades to birds cost nothing despite what it says. Birds taking twice as long as they should (occassionally but impactfully in the case of multi-parcel deliveries, especially with the queen given the hit to reputation is at least twenty well sent packages... plus the time it takes to do so given the decline in reputation over time. Looking at the bird seller screen when they leave the page makes it so you can't leave that page ever again... this is a HARD RESET BUG. Kernels seem to jump in price by ten times once you go into buying them individually (whatever the price marked) - I was within days tens of thousands in debt due to having run out of kernels... no the price being charged for kernels was not matched by what was being charged automatically. Going into debt doesn't end the game? It is not possible to leave debt though as the cost of kernels far outstrips your ability to make money.

Design choices: keyboard plus mouse. no save function. little to no information on the main stat in the game (reputation), it seems to be impacted by debt status, failed packages (by a huge degree) but not improved for delivering early or for larger deliveries (because four stork delivery a day ahead of time is entirely normal for a forge!?! Never mind four note deliveries over 1400kms on the same day - and that wasn't even a short deadline!?!?)

I have to say this feels a lot like a game that was always playtested from beginning to end (given the lack of saving this is even less surprise) and therefore the start of the game experience is very good and then the end of game experience is a terrible mishmash because little problems magnify to become big problems because the choice of "difficulty" curve was "all of them" (more packages, more reputations to maintain, more birds, less time (caused by a slow and inefficient UI) and way too much information that just can not be parsed in time... I would challenge you to create an automated bot to play this game to the end without having the same issues as human players (which given their speed suggests that the mechanics of the game themselves are the problem, not human skill).

Anyway, I have to say that this game starts out great and I could see it doing well in competitions where completion is not necessary but remember that fans will complete your games and may not stay fans if the game drops off in quality as one progresses through it... this is a real problem in clicker games, time blocking games and AAA games that playtest only the first few hours of their games because after that no refunds are possible.

All the best and keep on improving :)

Heh... I was slowly working my way through but I guess too slowly? There was a lot to go but I (hope) I have the years left even if it is only a few snatched minutes here and there... either way though, I don't mind not having the goal, it's not like it was the main reason to play! ;)

Thank you again for your hard work and time <3

The community challenge goal thing disappeared and revealed three new flowers for me... is this intentional? The server being checked went away?

Just got "trail" and "trial" and picked the wrong fifty/fifty... happened two other times but I didn't spot the second of the anagrams... (I had already confirmed the word I chose had exactly the correct letters) out of five games which gives a rate of 20% of lives lost due to this bug and about 3% of problems posed - I got to an average of about 20 puzzles solved in each run.

Great game though - still play regularly! :)

Any news on this?

There's a cheat sheet lower down but better is to take the time to learn :) - trial and error until you get it :)

Trial and error will be your friend until you discover how they all work :)

Gardener 7191 growing the 5885th sunflower, may many more be grown in Ukraine's green and pleasant land, once the orcs have stopped fertilising its soil.

I forgot to mention; if you have any of your own models built and imported into BS or if you fix the Marina Bay Sands one (you can open it in the editor even though it is greyed out in the game... it is missing about half its dependencies - clear blocks at right angles at the bottom; yuck) I am happy to put them into the same Git Repo as mine... I've a few from someone else who had a go and it is relatively straightforward to add things to a git that already exists :) (I'm happy to create a step by step if it'd help, though I think I just need to cull it from somewhere on this comment section! ;)

There's also another few new builds in the git... nothing large yet... and three more miniture Architecture ones I'm working on.

Thank you for saying so - I appreciate the support and it's nice to know other people also get joy from these models :D :)  <3

Most of the builds are designed to be built by someone on the ground with limited jump ability rather than designed to obscure the final result but I guess I could redesign some with that in mind instead... maybe rather than designing them to be built up go from the core outwards instead? It would definitely give them a different feel but I'm not sure a lot of the buildings would work very well! :D - Maybe I'll try it with some plane or fish models ;)

Thank you :)

Added three new sets today, just some small boats to get my hand in again (the hovercraft brings back memories though, nice realistic model that "works" - you'll see ;)

You didn't need upgrades, just scare the fish into a cove and then you can catch any size as they swim towards you because they are trapped and pulling you towards them!!

I caught them all and all the semi-legendaries too!!!

Ditto.. all hidden at the edges for me!

Maybe it is just how my mind is wired but I was fully expecting over-fishing to be an issue so I only fished the biggest fish I could find... let the little ones grow... didn't help :/

Great game though! :D

(27:something)

Perfect, don' worry, I'm patient and have plenty going on RL (which helps!) :D

Gambate (Keep up the good work :)

I am not able to make the submenu disappear either now... strange... apologies for a misreport (maybe I did something differently... I'll keep a closer eye in future and make sure to repeat it a few times before reporting it).

If there are technical reasons then I guess that's the way of it but thank you for trying :)

Pillars, indeed! :)

I also noticed that it is not easy to create a pedestrian area because buildings have to be next to roads... I can fake it by making all the buildings part of one building with a pedestrian area inbetween but that is annoying, especially for a pedestrianised town centre!! Would it be possible to create a road type that only pedestrians can use? (and are bicycles / mopeds / motorbikes planned in the future?)

Actually I guess I should be building delivery vehicle roads but then again a lot of deliveries here are by trolley so moking something up along those lines would be difficult... I guess I'll just stick to outside town centre for now...

Despite the description including an English version your game is only in Indonesian? Maybe worth mentioning.

I had a chance to look at the current state of things and found out part of why it got left for a bit... took me  couple of hours (that I only sort of had) to sort things out but apparently I was half way through shifting a bunch of things into a new category ("Heavy Plant") because the "Town" category (which is really "Town", "City" and non-descript mixed together) was getting too big, especially with some of the models I had planned for the future (which I have now found) but have no time for.

I also added three new (lower-medium sized) sets that had been queued but got lost in the mess of uncommitted changes and found a fourth that will need a bit of work before it can be added but is close (but also apparently incomplete, so maybe it will have o stay in limbo until that is also sorted out!!)

I don't know when I might have time to do more but now that the mess is sorted I feel more confident abut seeing if I can knock one or two more out (assuming RL doesn't whack me over the head again! ;)

Hope you enjoy the sets and thank you for the motivation to look at this again! :) - I tried out a couple today and the bug bit me again... just like it has been biting me my whole life! :D

If you have the itch app installed you can download the browser version and play it locally! :)

I enjoy building them while listening to podcasts, at least once I've ironed out as many kinks as I can... With Tower Bridge I had to move the piles because the autoplacer put the colours so far from where they were needed (especially the most used colours) that I ended up having to hand place them all, usually I don't care so much but because this was such a large and, especially, long build the autoplacer just wasn't set up for it!

I enjoy the building ones the most so they are probably optimised the best, like changing the standard to only placing doors and windows once the top block is also in place made it harder for people to block themselves off from the stairs (assuming they didn't have flight) though later I also reworked them to have the door mostly open (though that doesn't always help in some builds with tight spaces!) I also have a lot of nostalgia for the old space sets since that's what a lot of what I played with as a kid, though also some technic but those sets are a lot more work to transfer across and the requests I received were for simpler builds (which those are not, especially from a lego character's perspective!) - that's also the reason for the large number of small easy builds (Lego is a children's toy (too ;) after all! :D

Oh, I should apologise for the Marina Bay Sands model... I have yet to complete the build order for it - the small model buildings are probably the hardest ones to do as they seem to have been optimised for block count and compressing as much as possible into a small space which means they have huge numbers of blocks for such small pieces as well as specialised pieces used in strange ways to get a good match to the original buildings in a small space... they are kinds impressive in a way but the build order is really hard to organise because base pieces are often rotated ninety-degrees to build the sides of the buildings which means I have to rotate the build progression with them so it make sense but then I have to make sure that higher pieces don't overlap with lower pieces in a different rotation as well as make it hard for the player to place pieces that block their view of where unplaced pieces go (something I find frustrating, hence caring about it!) The Marina Bay Sands model has multiple rotations with many possibilities for overlaps and hiding pieces that are not structural and therefore might not yet be built hence it isn't finished yet... and I have to admit it might be a while before I get a chance to finish it - I don't have much quiet time to have the time to build the model in my head and then work out the potential problem points... I'll check my personal git to see how far I am from completion but I think the one in the public git is the latest.

In case it is of interest I'll mention that the majority of the ones I currently have on my slate are larger figure-scale buildings, a few more space ones and a few fun builds like the medieval ones and the "multiple models from one set" ones (e.g. the three beach huts and the seasonal houses). In summer I might get a chance to work on some technic ones for myself! :)

Edit: P.S. Do you have any other block style games you could recommend? They are a firm favourite here, Bricksperience included despite it's lack of development.

WOW! Your PC is clearly a better setup than mine, I once waited an hour (with minimum settings) for the bricks to settle but wasn't able to get enough done that when I loaded the save I was ever able to complete it!

I'm also impressed at the time you put in to complete this one, great job... I'd love to know what you thought and whether you found any issues with the build order or things I could fix (I know there are some blocks that have a render problem when in your inventory but I'm not able to fix those without deviating quite a bit from the original model I'm afraid - maybe the original dev might be able to fix it in the future if they have time and inclination)

I also want to ask if you are interested in doing other models that large... there are a few and I enjoy the process of getting the models into Bricksperience format so I'm happy to do more but I dropped off doing them (in favour of designing my own models) as I received little to no feedback on them! If you have any other preferences I'd be happy to hear those too although the brick selection is limited and so even with swapping bricks for others that work there are limitations there (particularly with sets that have more custom bricks, of course).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed our work :) <3

Hey, thanks for the quick reply and it was fun to try out, will be doing more in the future (today even, if I get time!)

The delete mode thing is less to do with knowing which mode than being able to change which delete mode I was in; because the submenu disappears I have to open it again to change delete mode...

For mixed use it was placing the zones that was more confusing... you have to select mixed use when you place the original plot and then you can zone from whichever type you want and add things from rooms from whichever type but it was that initial choosing mixed use that was confusing since that zone has almost nothing in it - also that a good half of building here are "mixed use" by this games' standards! (Here many people would expect that the ground floor is a shop regardless if it is in a residential, commercial or industrial district!)

So I just wondered if you could automatically make a building mixed use if someone tried to add different zones to a building - that way there is no need for an error message and no need for the "zone" mixed use in the build menu, two birds, one stone ;)

I also wondered if maybe it would be better to have the roof as it's own separate zone so that roof furniture (e.g. solar panels, air conditioner units, solar heating units, wind turbines, TV arials, mobile phone masts etc.) could be added, also it would allow the player to decide whether an area should be roofed or not - e.g. roof gardens, balconies etc. shouldn't be roofed. It would be a zone every building could have but also would not trigger a building to be mixed use - kinda like the parking lots out front.

I also wondered if external pillars could be added that would allow a zone on the second floor to extend beyond the first floor zone? these pillars might not be necessary but they'd be nice to have architecturally... for example, to created a covered walkway under the side of the building or to create covered walkways and bridges in general...

Just my thoughts while I was travelling today - clearly I have been bitten by the bug to play more of your game! :D - I even considered creating a github for storing my blueprints! :D :) - we'll see I guess!

Thank you for your time and effort.

Checked out the new version and spent over an hour playing it... though I don't know exactly since integration with the itch app is still missing so it doesn't record my play time. The name of the app is fixed but that's the least of the unfriendly things it asks me to do to play it.

The lack of save is disheartening and the sudden jump from sapling to huge shading broadleaf in one season is odd - run out of time I guess? Though at least the option that was broken is now fixed.

Will give this another try in time but I've not the time for this right now, sorry.

Maybe once it is a more mature game.

I didn't have long to try it out but I tried to blueprint a building more similar to those where I live and I had some troubles, both related to that and in general, in order of importance:

No quit button?

When I placed the roof (by accident) I could no longer see the floor I was trying to place objects in, or the roof was that floor? (what about attics?) and I could not find how to delete a roof...

No basements? Basement shops and car parks are pretty common, if not ubiquitous here, even the centre of my small town has the main supermarket underground in the basement of the biggest building with the one next door having bar and restaurant in the basement...

No indoor windows... I tried to build a mixed use building with apartments above and shops below; the two ground floor shops were separated by a hallway that leads to the stairs to the apartments (very standard design here) but I wasn't able to make the walls between the shops and the hallway into windows as they would normally be, though I was able to use the same doors for inside the building and outside the building which was good :) - if I can't make indoor windows I don't know how I can make "galley" windows either... a window from the kitchen to the dining room to pass plates and dishes through (very common in older houses).

When you select delete mode and then select a type of deletion the type submenu disappears which was unhelpful when I had to delete my building because I made the wrong initial zone... talking of which:

It was not entirely clear how to make a mixed use building - maybe if the user tries to add a floor with a different zone type then automatically make the building mixed use? (But better also to put up a message saying this will or has happen(ed)?)

Just my first few thoughts but other than the above I found it very good indeed and will try to play around with it more once I have more time to spare, apologies, I have to go now...

Thanks for the speedy reply... I like the art style but it was difficult to see much through the jaggies! :D

I'll check out the new version when I have a chance! :)

Thank you for the prompt reply! I wonder if it worth trying to contact itch technical support to see if there is something they can tell you or if it is app related? (Just a thought). I will see if I have time to try and file a bug report with them to see if they can help too :)

True it is less funny but also tone comes across badly on the internet so I tend to err on the side of caution when talking to people I don't know (or don't know that I know), better to be thought unfunny than a dick *shrug* But you do you, right? <3

I installed your game in the itch.io app and launched it but immediately got the following error and so can't try out your game, sorry :(

Error
The following features required to run Godot projects on the Web are missing:
Cross Origin Isolation - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

The itch.io app also does not let me play the game in the app so hopefully you find a way to fix this? I wonder if it is something to do with the app rather than the game but maybe also the way it is intended to be played? I don't know, sorry.

What the graphics and writing looks like (not unplayable but...):

I should also note that this option is broken (non-clickable), don't worry you get other options in Autumn if you want to wait all through Summer from this Spring option!

"Download it and play"... you mean download, install getting Windows to install the unsigned app and then agreeing to some random app's license and then start the game named "Created with Gamemaker"... Hmmm... seems a little sus? Really could do with making this explicit, especially since the itch.io app has an install button that only downloads your game and then when "launch"ed dumps the explorer window open with your apps executable there, running that install  the game onto my system but it is not accessible through the itch.io app where all my other games are...

I'm just saying that your game is a little unfriendly when it comes to first impressions - whether using the app (worse) or not (better).

I received the following error message when installing and then launching this from the itch.io app (latest version):

Error
The following features required to run Godot projects on the Web are missing:
Cross Origin Isolation - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

I don't know what is missing but I'm presuming it is something on the dev or itch.io end?

No-one else has mentioned so I'll put this here; I got the following error message after installing the game on the itch.io app:

Unable to parse Build/OthalaBuild.framework.js.br! This can happen if build compression was enabled but web server hosting the content was misconfigured to not serve the file with HTTP Response Header "Content-Encoding: br" present. Check browser Console and Devtools Network tab to debug.

I'm just using the app so I don't know that I can do anything about this, apologies.

I discovered that there might be a little bias ... I also rolled a 1 on a d12 but the d20 gave me a 16 on second roll and I needed less than ten rolls each to get a twenty on all three dice and I regularly hit million to one chances against me nine out of ten times... was playing the Minecraft boardgame last night and out of ten RNGs double potatoed four times (at the time a three in a hundred chance each) and triple potatoed once (at the time a six in a thousand chance), of the other five times a double potato in two cases could not have lost me the RNG (so of course I got the best possible score I could have), two cases where a double potato would fifty / fifty have lost me the RNG but the prize was small and one case where I got an average result that narrowly let me win the RNG. And this was a good day for me... the other players in these games generally end up feeling sorry for me at the very least (once they even offered to change the rules just for me!) So I only play RNG games that can be massively tilted in my favour (so I can get average results) or have ways to avoid the RNG entirely - it's not that the RNG wants the other players to win it just hates me in particular! :P :D - the killer for me was that out of tens of thousands of D100 roles the only 100 I got killed my character stone dead, it was (because I play conservatively and RNG hates me) the only critical failure role I've ever had to role... stone dead, in a "tournament" where new characters was a no-no and we just entered the first dungeon in the first game and I was the healer, so RIP my group. Was never asked to play with them again. If ever there was a circumstance in which I needed not to hit that 1 in a hundred that was it... but RNG hates me in particular.

But back to the game... it is clearly weighted in the player's favour... once you upgrade to the max... at the start make sure you have a backup chance or three, D4's are notoriously fickle! :D (just like dragons ;)

I feel like your expectations are the problem here... surely you realise by now that the title rarely reflects the content! :D ;)

How much mining is there is Minecraft these days? (since the Caves and Caverns updates) or, more pertinently, how many dragons are there in the average D&D game? This one is hardly an exception! :D ;)

Blame Youtube or Amazon since they are the clear market leaders in deceptive titleing!!! :P