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Thank you for playing our Demo, it was a lot of fun watching the stream! Unfortunately we missed watching it live, so we couldn't offer any help at the time, but we do recognize that a lot of the critique is something we need to work on, such as ensuring Quests are fully working as our next priority and such.  If Teal is looking to retry the Demo (or anybody is interested in trying it), we would advise that you download the provided walkthrough in case you get stuck, and that the Intro is not skipped, as it explains some of the more detailed aspects of the combat system

Thank you for your comments! As we've had a lot of complaints from other people about being unable to enjoy the product, we're offering everybody who tested this game in the Jam a free copy of Ratio to make up for it.  Please email us at [gamespeppermint@gmail.com] with the header [Jam Apology] so we can set up a download key for you, if you want

We're sorry to hear this, and from so many people.  Although we will be figuring out what went wrong, that isn't an excuse for letting our players down.  If you like, please email us at [gamespeppermint@gmail.com] with the subject line [Jam Apology], and we'll create a key for you to download Ratio for free, to make up for our mistake.  We hope that the brief working snippet was enough to intrigue you, and that, should you take us up on this offer, you find Ratio as useful as it was intended (or, at the very least, you can see it's potential for where it will end up)

We're sorry to hear this, and from so many people.  Although we will be figuring out what went wrong, that isn't an excuse for letting our players down.  If you like, please email us at [gamespeppermint@gmail.com] with the subject line [Jam Apology], and we'll create a key for you to download Ratio for free, to make up for our mistake.  We hope that the brief working snippet was enough to intrigue you, and that, should you take us up on this offer, you find Ratio as useful as it was intended (or, at the very least, you can see it's potential for where it will end up)

We're sorry to hear this, and from so many people.  Although we will be figuring out what went wrong, that isn't an excuse for letting our players down.  If you like, please email us at [gamespeppermint@gmail.com] with the subject line [Jam Apology], and we'll create a key for you to download Ratio for free, to make up for our mistake.  We hope that the brief working snippet was enough to intrigue you, and that, should you take us up on this offer, you find Ratio as useful as it was intended (or, at the very least, you can see it's potential for where it will end up)

Completely understandable! We made the choice to use an installer to cut down on file size for people who may have slower internet speeds and such, as well as making things easier for users who may not be using the Itch app (which is itself a kind of installer).  Again, however, we aren't sure what's going on with the requirement for Admin access, or prevent players from swapping installation locations, and we only wish we could fix that without having to wait for the Game Jam Judging period to be finished

We discovered the issue! Turns out we uploaded the wrong zip file, and the colliders were setup wrong.  We've updated the zip, but kept the installer the same, so as to still follow the rules of the Game Jam

Ah, we understand now.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we must have missed a setting when setting up the plugins, and apologize for the oversight

Does this happen consistently? If so, is there any sort of lag or such that you are noticing while the level is loading in?

Thank you for your feedback, and there are certainly a lot of things we agree with.  We will certainly improve the hallucination sequence, as well as adding to the class selection so that the player has more control over the final product

We'd also like to thank you for your suggested method in regards to the formation functionality.  As we said, our team is very new to using RPGmaker, so we will certainly test the system you recommended to us, and we would like to apologize for the issue with the Temple.  As stated, we can't seem to replicate the issue (even testing just now), so we aren't quite sure what's going on there, and will likely just redo the entire Temple area anyways.  In regards to the moment of silence taking so long, we recognize that this is an issue, and will work to fix this in the future

You should be able to see the Gold Ore in the Key Items tab.  If this isn't working, we are again confused as to what is going on, but will go through and recreate the system, as we probably missed something crucial somewhere without realizing

Unfortunately, a lot of what you have requested was content we removed from the Demo to avoid spoilers for the main game.  We decided to take the gamble that the Demo would function better as a mechanics Demo instead of a gameplay Demo, and, based on community feedback, this appears to have been the wrong move.  We apologize for this oversight, and plan to create a new Demo, that focuses on gameplay and addressing our player critique, once we are able to upload the next iteration of the project

The unfortunate truth of this project is that the menu clutter is actually the product of a lot of testing and optimization.  The project itself has a lot of customization for the player to use, such as crewmates, matelots, item equips, crafting, and so on, and we found that the game became a lot easier when we grouped certain things together for the player to examine.  That being said, we also fully take the blame for the difficulty in building your matelots and such, this was due to a lack of experience with creating our own plugins, and we could not add customization functionality inside the extra inventory screens, rather than forcing everything into the main Items screen

We apologize for the lack of Quests.  As previously stated, we removed a lot of the Main Quest things from the Demo, and this removed a lot of the Quests we had originally working.  Upon our redirect into a mechanics Demo, we removed certain menu options, such as a Journal (in which Aarn would write a diary, and the About information could be located), as well as a Quest screen

However, the most important thing, is that we would like to thank you for your feedback.  We at Peppermint Games pride ourselves on our transparency and openness to our community.  Although the community is still very small, every interaction serves as crucial feedback and important information for us, and lets us work with you to build a better product that everybody can enjoy.  Your feedback on Star Chaser is not only crucial to helping us plan the next steps in our project, but it is also helping us adjust our design process and help prioritize future projects.  Thank you, again, and we hope to continue interacting with you both on this topic, and on our other projects, so that we can constantly grow and improve

Thank you for this feedback, and we will definitely be revisiting how we provided information to the player.  We've received similar bug reports and issues in the past, and will be putting a lot of attention to rebuilding and rethinking aspects of the project.  To elaborate on some of your concerns:

1) We apologize for the installer issue.  Unfortunately, as uploads are locked for the duration of the judging period, we ask that players email us at gamespeppermint@gmail.com for a zip file if they are uncomfortable with the installer itself

2) The demon in the tutorial was chosen as a bit of a joke, as the cliche "tutorial enemy" that you often need to fight in RPG games.  Upon feedback from various users, this will be revisited in the future.  Could you please elaborate on what the passability issues are, such as in the lab or hidden areas?

3) Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will revisit this segment of the opening in the future to make things clearer to the player

4) This was chosen so that players are not pressured to quickly navigate through battle or through dialogue, as opposed to an external function that could limit player experience.  In retrospect, we should have limited the play length to compensate, but did not consider this at the time

5) Correct.  The mother being saved (spoilers) was actually a hallucination.  This comes back multiple times throughout the story, and is meant to reflect how Aarn (who is a child) is deeply affected by his loss and self-imposed failure, and so, straight away at the beginning, is already negatively affected by this occurance

6) Correct.  We decided on this, as well as our class selection method, to help reflect that, although this is Aarns story, he's just a participant rather than being some kind of cliche "Chosen One" or such.  Rather than getting to min-max his class or such, the focus was more on experiencing the world and adventure

7) Unfortunately this was a limitation of our experience with the engine.  Attempting to hide the ship party members or keep them separated caused numerous issues with gameplay and other bugs

8) We apologize for the negative experience.  As previously stated, we don't have a lot of experience with the engine, and couldn't find a smoother method to add this functionality.  We also were unable to find a reliable method to have two different formations, although this is high on the list of priorities moving forwards

9) Could you please elaborate on the issues you found? We haven't found anything, but it is very likely we aren't sure what to look for, or how to recreate this

10) The Ores on the Wall are Key Items that are gathered for different Quest Lines in Dargon.  The Gold Ore does not count towards your G count

11) Unfortunately this was another casualty of lack of experience.  We added the light system during the final day for atmosphere, and were unable to optimize before shipping.  This is something that we have already fixed, but, as previously stated, we are unable to upload the new build during the judging period for this Game Jam

12) If you are referring to the King taking your Ore, this is correct.  He's not a good person, and only wants your help for a new personal swimming pool

13) Which of the planets cannot be visited? There are only 3 available planets in this Demo

14) Yes, the prayer quest line is supposed to take the player a long time.  This was intentional, but will be revisited in the future

15) Thank you for raising this issue.  We are definitely planning to revisit how we direct the player around the game, however, this is tricky to do due to the Open nature of this project.  Unfortunately, we had to remove key aspects of the Main Quest that we originally concepted for the Demo, which would have provided more of a focus for the player

Thank you for catching this! We've rebuilt the installer, and will be zipping the game files as a separate download for user preference.  We haven't had an issue like this before, so we're not sure what exactly caused this issue, but will work to avoid it in the future

No pressure! The important part is enjoying the experience and learning something new

In that case I'm afraid we're not sure what's going on there.  There weren't any reported issues with the installed files themselves causing bugs or issues, so it should be fully safe to install it to your C drive.  However, we understand that you may be reluctant to do so from an Indie developer, and would ask you to please email us at:

gamespeppermint@gmail.com

so we can create a new installer for you, or send you the zip file directly, whichever is your preference

Yes, the game was packaged into an installer to provide a smaller download for users, as well as a more reliable method of providing updates.  Unless there is something going on with your computer settings, however, there should be nothing preventing you from changing the installation location to something more of your preference.  We suggest ensuring that the account you are using the computer on has admin access, and, if the problem still continues, please contact us at gamespeppermint@gmail.com, where we can provide a zip file of the game for your convenience

Glad to hear that it seems to be working now! If the issue continues, please email: gamespeppermint@gmail.com, and include what steps and conditions you noticed the bug under, so we can attempt to replicate and resolve the issue

Hi, could you please elaborate what you mean by the spaceship part? Also, we added a 45 minute restriction to attempt to incentivize players to try different approaches, quest paths, and so forth, rather than limiting player choice to just your weapon/armor types

Don't give me hope haha!

I've read the rules and had a couple questions.  Regarding violence, I'm assuming standard combat is okay.  Regarding copyright, is it okay to take inspiration and/or some basic story beats from other media?