Bay 12 Games Forum

/the first episode WAS FREAKING SHAREWARE.  "Here!  Have the first one!/

...and the next ones had more of pretty much the same. Not the same case here, it's not like first year was produced during one month and four more can be cooked during a week. BCS was formed in 2008, so the game took something like 3 year to finish. Multiple it by 5... You get the idea.


/If you're totally willing to not release a demo, then finish it first/

*shrugs* I don't know what, if and when will be done with demo. What about finishing - I'll proabably update this thread as soon as I feel the game is finally polished (probably will take a month or two), and then everyone could decide, whether or not take my word for it.


/t's bad enough they don't know how to run a business, but they have a link to a place where you can donate money to their commercial venture right underneath the 'Buy Me' button
...
I call scam on this./

Sure, since that's what all scammers do.


/asking people to pay for something that is this expensive because it might be worth it down the line is a giant reach. If the dev's wont sort out some way for people to try before they buy, then people are just going to wait and see. Regardless of how much content you get, one year isn't satisfactory for me/

You can donate less, if you are willing to care.
And there is a sandbox mode planned, which would be a free update and extends the time of play.
I agree that the game is overpriced, and, as I said before, it's probably a good idea to write devs about it. I remember mentions on a forum it was an idea brought by the digital distribution sites (Impulse and GG), so I guess the initial idea was to price lower.


/scripting 800 events (which, if they are like I'm thinking, are all variations on the same thing: +/- skill/relation/item and a bit of accompanying text./

That is a single item I have to disagree upon. However rough the game is, writing is actually top-notch. You can ask the Forsaken1111, he actually played the thing.


/it seems more like you're trying to sell the game rather than just being a "fan" of it/

Actually, both statements are correct. I've already stated that I do not want the game to fail and that I am biased.


/You address every point you can, leaving out other, more specific ones. /

Precisely because I'm not a man from the team. I have no control over how the resources are spent. I have no idea who decides the pricing policy or how exactly, et cetera. I understand that most probably I sound like one of developers, and you are free to believe it. I don't think that changes much, since I don't state I am completely objective and unbiased. I am not.

Actually, the real guy from the team is not coming back as much :-P

Basically it is a meaningless 15 hour sit through that ultimately doesn't mean anything because they havn't added "Meaning" yet.

Totally depends on your definition of "Meaning". You aren't saving universe just yet. Bet if you delve deep enough (Exploration & Adventuring), you'll start uncovering the story-arc of the game. And you can pursuit any goal you've set up for yourself - you've got enough tools at your disposals. First and foremost it's a sandbox.

Not for $25.

As I've said previously, you can donate whatever you see fit.

I got burned by games like Kudos.  So I'll talk about other games, in hopes that it will explain why I need a demo before I buy any game in this genre again.

Excellently written post, thank you. The only correction I'd like to make: alas, the game is not "mine", I'm merely a fan who is afraid the game will fail. The game which is similar to what I personally attempted years ago - and failed. As simple as that.

And I'll be honest. At this point I do not think it is better than Kudos. It certainly is a much more rewarding and rich experience, but also, frankly, more annoying than Kudos - not by design, but because of this and that and the next thing. I believe it is getting better. In my original post, I wanted to share the original creativity, the glimpse of genius which is obvious in this project; not the amount of polish, which, as was stated more than once, is certainly lacking at this moment.

It's just that I am afraid that if we all sit and wait till things become right, they won't.

I know that it only partially answers your question. I actually played both the Kudos and the old Alter Ego (mostly recent remake), although have no idea what horrible Kudos-like game you could play.

So I'll give you a shot...

1) In Academagia you can choose your own method of dealing with problems, unlike Kudos, which was pretty much straightword in most cases - bathe when you are dirty, eat when you are hungry. In Academagia you can learn Running to escape being caught, learn Diplomacy to settle the conflict gracefully, or Glamour magic to try an actual magic solution. And since there are actually 800 fully-written events, aalmost all skills (and there are a lot) are fully fleshed-out. In Kudos there are lots of "blank" skills needed only for jobs.

2) In Academagia the most important "resource" you have to take care of is your studies. You need not to eat or bathe, you only have to attend lessons and study to pass the exams. You get tired and beaten, but only when there is a reason for that. In Kudos there are lots of constantly reducing needs that must be fulfilled for the hell of it.

3) In Academagia, your familiar is a bit more han an additional item (unlike the pet in Kudos). You get additional stories, depending on the familiar you have, in which they participate actively. You can train your familiar however you see fit.

4) In Academagia, there are lots of options "what to do next". You can explore surrounding in search of new places, improve skills or go adventuring, with new events happening all the time. In Kudos, generally nothing new happens and you perform the same repeating actions.

But Kudos still has the better interface. Stylish, responsive, informative.

Is that enough or should I continue?

If it were a full, working beta, maybe, or if it were on the scale of S2Games' Heroes of Newerth (preordered there, played beta). Not for an unestablished dev's pet project without even a demo, though. Looks like the single person equivalent of "King of Dragon Pass," to be perfectly honest.

It's a full, working, release version. To be followed with sequels. And it's not a single person effort, far from it. AFAIR, there was a rather latrge amount of people contracted specifically for content creation - hence the vast amount of high-quality writing.

For those complaining it being too short - extended sandbox mode is already under consideration.

OK, hope devs will get from this topic that people need demo badly. Font size alteration was already taken in consideration and I've seen it in to-do list.

It's slow. Not just the game, the entire program. I have over twice the recommended system requirements and the game is still slow. Which is saying something for a turn based game. It takes a good 5-10 seconds for the game to proceed to the next bunch of text. Validating orders, proceeding, and even just loading the goddamn inventory screen takes longer than it ever should. Even when I don't do anything it eats up 90+% of my processing power. This shouldn't be happening in a turn-based game as graphically simple as this.

I've noticed a few bugs: Unequipping an item that boosts an ability doesn't remove the boost. Merit rewards still appear on the ability screen despite already getting them(Why do we have to waste an action to get the reward anyway?) The post-action exchange screen sometimes refuses to let me pick up items. Worst of all, I've had saves breaking because they stop appearing on the load game screen and the game refuses to make more; and yes, the files are still there in the save folder and I've sent them for analysis.

The game does have some form of tutorial in the letters you receive at the beginning, but while it glances over the concepts, it doesn't go over all the basics or controls. I have a book that I received at the beginning that says I should read it to improve my skills. I haven't been able to figure out how to read the damn thing. And yes, the "Use item" part of the menu is empty, the item is identified, and no relevant abilities appear on the action options.

The interface is a nightmare, even Incursion wasn't this bad. If you want to perform any action, you must scroll through ALL your actions and choose the correct one. In the beginning this isn't too much of a problem, but as time passes and you acquire more options it takes more and more time to just get through a single day. Let's say you want to train a skill. First choose the "Train" option from all of your available options, then choose your location from all of your available locations, then choose the skill you want to improve from all your available skills then repeat for every day you want to do this. Let's say you want to cast a spell, first choose which spell you want to cast from all your available spells, then choose which phemes to add from all your available phemes. Don't know which phemes do what? Don't worry, you just have to exit all the way back to the character screen, search for the pheme within all your available phemes, and then go back to your action menu and start over. Don't worry, there's only a hundred or so phemes to memorize.

Now couple the interface nightmare with slow load times and tiny text and the game is practically made to screw over your vision. The game is quite good, but there are times when I find it almost unplayable. And I'm unsure if the game is entirely worth the $25 price tag, but your mileage may vary.

1) Yes, it's a known thing. I've already reported weird slowness with opening the Familiar and Inventory screen, something might be done with them. Processing and reviewing day events takes some time simply due to huge amount of data the game has to chew through; on my 3 core Phenom it takes ~3 seconds. CPU consumption while idling is an interesting one, I'll try to reproduce it, and if I get it, I'll report it to devs. Any other places of particular slowdowns?

2) Known bug related to display only, most probably will be fixed in the patch which is promised today.

3) "The post-action exchange screen sometimes refuses to let me pick up items" - never heard of this one before. If you don't mind, please post with more details on support board:
http://academagia.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=6

4) "The game does have some form of tutorial in the letters you receive at the beginning, but while it glances over the concepts, it doesn't go over all the basics or controls"

Read the manual:
http://academagia.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=514

5)  "I have a book that I received at the beginning that says I should read it to improve my skills"

I think it's just an "in-character" explanation for the Study\Train activities you take.

6)  "If you want to perform any action, you must scroll through ALL your actions"

Uh-oh, I know EXACTLY what do you mean. Devs promised to do something about this issue; if we are lucky, we'll get the hotkey-binded schedule save-load soon which should help.

7) "Let's say you want to cast a spell"

Guess we should nag devs about this one too. What do you think could help? Additional pheme info displayed during spell composition? Save\load of composed spells?

"The game is quite good, but there are times when I find it almost unplayable"

Yes, the interface is quite broken at the moment. I hold high hopes for today's patch actually, and I really hope developers will continue to improve our experience - but they need our support; not only financial, but they need to hear what our needs are. Come join the forums and voice your concerns .

Sounds like a Princess Maker in Hogwarts.

Yeah, that one's pretty close, excluding the railroaded structure of PM.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like demo is coming (quote the devs: "We do not have any plans for a demo, although we may consider it in the future").

You can wait for some "Let's play" video or in-depth review - current ones are laughable at best (one somehow thinks it's a childish game and then complains it "has too many choices", another one compare it to Starcraft II - aw, c'mon).

If there are some specific parts of gameplay that interest you, I can provide some additional information, although I'm still in my early phases of getting acquainted with game...