gtabro
Member
Hello to the devs and the community,
I've been playing Exanima since 28 July 2015. Decided to come and share my experience with it so far. I will start with the positives - first off, I can't believe something made me stop playing The Witcher 3, as I've been into that universe for the past 2 months, and I mean I was not playing anything else... until I saw Exanima on Twitch by accident. The game is also my first Early Access game, as I am not exactly the biggest fan of this practice, but as Dark Souls is my favourite game, buying this was a no-brainer. And I can say no other game since DS has recreated that mysterious and challenging gameplay, so I cannot be happier to have found this. And yet another first - I rarely play arena/ waves of enemies modes in games, but I think at this point half my time has been spent in Exanima's arena, although I wish the place was a bit brighter, but the supposedly coming outdoor arenas might be what I'm looking for. Great physics on the hair as well btw! So fun to have varied situations where the possibilities are not dependent on the pre-set scenarios, but on moving objects freely. The mechanic of making a room invisible when you close the door to it is actually quite logical and when chased by... the zombies? Undead? ... it creates quite the tension since I don't know if they will still be there. Also - the mobs are not always attacking unless provoked - another new (or at least super rare) thing I'd like to see in more games as it adds some suspense to the experience. All in all I am enjoying the game quite a lot (especially for an unfinished product).
And now a few things I would love to see improved in the near future:
1. Definitely needs way more zoom because the colour of the items is quite similar to the background (shelves, tables). I personally can't play the dungeon for more than an hour because the tiny items searching causes eye-strain and I believe making people have to stop playing your game because they physically can't is probably the last thing you want to do. 1080p is available on many laptops nowadays and in even on a 17" one this makes for super small details. Would love to come closer to my character in the arena too. Did I mention it needs more zoom?
2. The cursor is too dark - the dark red can blend way too well in both arena and the dungeon - and the fact that you have to
1) swing fast to get good timing and actually hit before you get blocked, and
2) constantly move the mouse differently to swing the weapon unless your thumb is glued to the space bar during combat
means that the player is constantly losing precise control and have to go on cursor hunt instead of playing the game, and this is what people partly meant by "wrestling the controls". Giving us the option to choose its colour will be excellent, I know I'll make mine bright yellow or electric green so I can always see it.
3. The controls - please for the love of Exanima hear me out - yes, we understand it is meant to be played without moving the camera too much. I am 12+ hours in and it's still not intuitive and I have been playing games for 15 years now and have NEVER had so much trouble with game controls, so do one very simple thing - Control Schemes! Since you've tried it, just leave the code there. If a stubborn company like Apple can realise that one size doesn't fit all, then so can you. Want people to get the idea of fighting with a static camera? Easy! Make the combat tutorial using your controls - the ones you believe are the best - and I don't mind if you even put a message "Hey player, if you use the alternative controls, you will totally suck. Do you want that you n00b?" in the end of the tutorial, but give the people ways to enjoy this otherwise great game without having them go to university to get a degree in Mastering Different Controls.
Just last night I managed to beat the Novice arena and I tried really hard not to keep pressing the space bar. And then the expert arena came, where I wrestled the tiny and overly dark room("Am I swinging? Where is the other guy? Is my computer even on?" was going through my mind when I was in the top right corner) more than the opponents (I beat the first 3 on my first try so the combat was not the problem), but rather something else...
4. ...The walls in the game - listen, I am not a fan of disappearing walls in games either because usually you can see them well lit from every angle, but in Exanima unless you are seeing the "face" of the wall, it's black. And I would choose (again talking about Exanima specifically) the camera NOT going top-down next to a wall rather than not making the walls disappear when seen isometrically any day of the week, because, you know, unless you are making a flight simulator for the military, you want to let people have some fun, even with simulator-like games.
I will not comment on the current content, I can see you want to get the gameplay right first and then add the details and I cannot support this enough. To sum up - don't get mad at the people that write negative things (except for the ones that played for 50 minutes and asked for a refund, those quite obviously did not get how deep this rabbit hole goes
), but the fact people that are giving you positive reviews on Steam (and this comes from us having played your game for dozens of hours, and not from looking at videos and screenshots) are also mentioning things from the negative feedback should tell you that maybe, juuuuuust maybe there are a few things that can be done slightly differently.
Oh, and good work on the footwork changes since the release, that lead to more believable and tight combat. Good luck and don't be afraid to take a small break from working on your game every once in a while, and then come back with a fresh mind and see if everything feels as right as you want it to be.
Meanwile I'll be keeping an eye on everything Exanima/Sui Generis-related while spreading the word
I've been playing Exanima since 28 July 2015. Decided to come and share my experience with it so far. I will start with the positives - first off, I can't believe something made me stop playing The Witcher 3, as I've been into that universe for the past 2 months, and I mean I was not playing anything else... until I saw Exanima on Twitch by accident. The game is also my first Early Access game, as I am not exactly the biggest fan of this practice, but as Dark Souls is my favourite game, buying this was a no-brainer. And I can say no other game since DS has recreated that mysterious and challenging gameplay, so I cannot be happier to have found this. And yet another first - I rarely play arena/ waves of enemies modes in games, but I think at this point half my time has been spent in Exanima's arena, although I wish the place was a bit brighter, but the supposedly coming outdoor arenas might be what I'm looking for. Great physics on the hair as well btw! So fun to have varied situations where the possibilities are not dependent on the pre-set scenarios, but on moving objects freely. The mechanic of making a room invisible when you close the door to it is actually quite logical and when chased by... the zombies? Undead? ... it creates quite the tension since I don't know if they will still be there. Also - the mobs are not always attacking unless provoked - another new (or at least super rare) thing I'd like to see in more games as it adds some suspense to the experience. All in all I am enjoying the game quite a lot (especially for an unfinished product).
And now a few things I would love to see improved in the near future:
1. Definitely needs way more zoom because the colour of the items is quite similar to the background (shelves, tables). I personally can't play the dungeon for more than an hour because the tiny items searching causes eye-strain and I believe making people have to stop playing your game because they physically can't is probably the last thing you want to do. 1080p is available on many laptops nowadays and in even on a 17" one this makes for super small details. Would love to come closer to my character in the arena too. Did I mention it needs more zoom?
2. The cursor is too dark - the dark red can blend way too well in both arena and the dungeon - and the fact that you have to
1) swing fast to get good timing and actually hit before you get blocked, and
2) constantly move the mouse differently to swing the weapon unless your thumb is glued to the space bar during combat
means that the player is constantly losing precise control and have to go on cursor hunt instead of playing the game, and this is what people partly meant by "wrestling the controls". Giving us the option to choose its colour will be excellent, I know I'll make mine bright yellow or electric green so I can always see it.
3. The controls - please for the love of Exanima hear me out - yes, we understand it is meant to be played without moving the camera too much. I am 12+ hours in and it's still not intuitive and I have been playing games for 15 years now and have NEVER had so much trouble with game controls, so do one very simple thing - Control Schemes! Since you've tried it, just leave the code there. If a stubborn company like Apple can realise that one size doesn't fit all, then so can you. Want people to get the idea of fighting with a static camera? Easy! Make the combat tutorial using your controls - the ones you believe are the best - and I don't mind if you even put a message "Hey player, if you use the alternative controls, you will totally suck. Do you want that you n00b?" in the end of the tutorial, but give the people ways to enjoy this otherwise great game without having them go to university to get a degree in Mastering Different Controls.
Just last night I managed to beat the Novice arena and I tried really hard not to keep pressing the space bar. And then the expert arena came, where I wrestled the tiny and overly dark room("Am I swinging? Where is the other guy? Is my computer even on?" was going through my mind when I was in the top right corner) more than the opponents (I beat the first 3 on my first try so the combat was not the problem), but rather something else...
4. ...The walls in the game - listen, I am not a fan of disappearing walls in games either because usually you can see them well lit from every angle, but in Exanima unless you are seeing the "face" of the wall, it's black. And I would choose (again talking about Exanima specifically) the camera NOT going top-down next to a wall rather than not making the walls disappear when seen isometrically any day of the week, because, you know, unless you are making a flight simulator for the military, you want to let people have some fun, even with simulator-like games.
I will not comment on the current content, I can see you want to get the gameplay right first and then add the details and I cannot support this enough. To sum up - don't get mad at the people that write negative things (except for the ones that played for 50 minutes and asked for a refund, those quite obviously did not get how deep this rabbit hole goes
), but the fact people that are giving you positive reviews on Steam (and this comes from us having played your game for dozens of hours, and not from looking at videos and screenshots) are also mentioning things from the negative feedback should tell you that maybe, juuuuuust maybe there are a few things that can be done slightly differently.Oh, and good work on the footwork changes since the release, that lead to more believable and tight combat. Good luck and don't be afraid to take a small break from working on your game every once in a while, and then come back with a fresh mind and see if everything feels as right as you want it to be.
Meanwile I'll be keeping an eye on everything Exanima/Sui Generis-related while spreading the word
