Episode 1: Feedback and Thoughts

[Cez]

And yeah, on the topic of characters, it amazes me because although we were going for stereotypical because of the comic book look, like Katie, I also felt that I was giving them a more complex voice than reviews have made me believe.

I think the root of the problem is Erica herself, because she's a very complex character (probably the most complex character we've written so far), and so when put together with the rest, it shows.

I want to think that this is completely going to turn around in ep3 as we delve into the revelations of the heart of the plot There are some complex characters in this one, I want to think!

[darthkiwi]

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that even the most complex characters are built up out of simpler elements. For example, Erica is pretty complex, but she's also sort of a mixture of

- driven cop
- empowered woman
- person with supernatural powers who is at first frightened/threatened by them but learns to use them for good
- person tormented by death of a family member
- sceptic of the supernatural
- no-nonsense professional

But when you put all that together you end up with a complex character. My point is not to show that Erica is actually shallow (she's not), but to argue that all the characters we think of as complex are often built up out of smaller, less complex bits. So it's ultimately not a bad thing to have a character who comes off an not complex; you just have to do more with them.

[KatieHal]

I think it's kind of like how there "no new stories"--every story is a mix of what's come before it. Likewise there are rarely if ever new characters. But it's all about how you spin it and what touches you can add to make them stand out.

Also kind of a shame is that some characters were going to have more scenes, but we had to cut back on the script. There's actually an entire plotline I had to drop from Episode 2 that was really interesting, but we had to manage the scope better and work within the boundaries or our time, budget, etc. Some pieces of it are getting adapted for use in later episodes, though, so I'll be interested in seeing how it works out there.

[WildmanCAL]

There's actually an entire plotline I had to drop from Episode 2 that was really interesting, but we had to manage the scope better and work within the boundaries or our time, budget, etc.

Care to tell us or could it appear in a "director' cut" version? 

[waltzdancing]

If not can you tell us what the extra plot was? Or will we see it in a future episode?

[KatieHal]

I can't because it relates to future episodes still. But someday, definitely!

[darthkiwi]

Re. the "no new stories" thing - yes, exactly! You put it better than I did.

It's always a shame when stuff has to be cut, especially when it's for budget reasons rather than quality reasons. But at least bits of it will get reused.

[dpolsrod]

I haven't finished episode 1 yet, as I have not had time to play through it yet, but I am working on it as we speak, and I am really liking what I've seen this far. A few animation faults and a couple of glitches here and there, but nothing major.

Something I really like are all of the little "touches" scattered throughout the episode.
For instance, I smiled and laughed so hard when I saw the model names of the spray paint cans at the crime scene.
A great tribute to the greats of old.
I also noticed that the first digit after the letters on almost all the cans are the appropriate sequel number for that particular title.
Good stuff guys.

Now I have to get back to playing the rest of the episode and move on to episode 2.

[Oldbushie]

I'm glad you caught that!

[Guyra]

@Cez: About the pressure pad thing, you are certainly right! For some reason, that just kind of disappeared from my mind while I was playing - probably because of the intensity of the scene.

@darthkiwi: You are certainly right about what you say about characters, just like Katie and the "no new stories" thing. While there may be almost unlimited amounts of characters and stories one can create, there are smaller parts that make them up. And story telling through different mediums has been such a huge thing for the past half millennium or so, so I don't think there really are anyone alive that could come up with a something that is made up of parts that haven't been used before - unless you want to make something that wouldn't make any sense to another human being, that is. Sure, there are creations that are more "original" than others, but mostly that just means it's something that hasn't been seen for some time, so people have forgotten about the old, very similar creations.

@Dan: There you are! And yes, I love small easter eggs like that. Those that aren't, "in your face," if you will. The spray cans were really cool.

[sebarnolds]

Hi.

Sorry for being a bit late to the "party". I just finished episode 1 so I don't know if you got to improve some of these in the other episodes. Anyway, here is my list of annoying things:
- Now and then there are some weird or missing animations transitions
- Animations are very stiff / rough
- Characters seem a bit weird sometimes (graphically speaking), especially when they open their mouth.
- Sometimes voice lines can be skipped but not only. What is the reason for such behaviour ? It is quite annoying to be forced to listen to the whole tape while trying to figure the next move and toying with inventory items.
- Why am I obliged to buy something at the vending machine to hear Robert complain that he wants something sweet and THEN being able to offer him donuts I already tried to give him ? Generaly speaking, I think it is considered bad practice to force the player to follow such strict puzzle sequences without any reasons. I got the same problem at other times where I didn't know what to do and in the end I had to do something I already tried, but not at the "right time".
- Sarah's grave is next to Scott's ? Really ?
- When clicking on Boston main (where the morgue and the HQ are), yet undiscovered locations are shown briefly before disappearing.
- I think we could do without the "popup menu" when clicking on a location on a map (i.e. move directly to it without requiring the extra click).
- Story wa good, so were the dialogs and most of the puzzles. However now and then I was a bit lost as to what I should do next. Don't know how this could be improved though...
- What are all these loading screens ? This is really too long and annoying

Seb

[KatieHal]

Feedback always welcome!

Some of those are indeed things we worked on improving for the later episodes--I know load times improved, and I'm fairly certain we fixed other locations showing up too early on the map for that brief blink. And the animators have definitely been getting better all the time, too.

We also worked on making puzzles fit in better--the food one we heard that same feedback a lot about, for example.

And what? You didn't know there's only one cemetery in all of Boston?

[sebarnolds]

And what? You didn't know there's only one cemetery in all of Boston?

I don't know Boston at all and it doesn't really matter, but, you could have put her grave a little bit further than Scott's one (put 1 or 2 between them). I know it would have been less practical as it would have been smaller. Anyway, that's not really important.

About the other stuff, I though you had made improvement for the next episodes. I'll be sure to install episode 2 soon.

Anything to say about the voice lines that cannot be skipped (e.g. the tape recording) ?

[Jack Stryker]

For instance, I smiled and laughed so hard when I saw the model names of the spray paint cans at the crime scene.
A great tribute to the greats of old.
I also noticed that the first digit after the letters on almost all the cans are the appropriate sequel number for that particular title.

Umm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqyixwqiCag

[KatieHal]

Yeah, I was just teasing about the cemetery. We joke about that on the team sometimes actually--that's the only cemetery, Duffers' the only cop, etc.

Oh--lines that can't be skipped: usually that's animation-related, actually. We try to make them skippable as much as possible, but sometimes doing so does some screwy things, so we have to make them unskippable. It's another work in progress thing, we're trying to cut down on it as much as possible.