Demo issues, bugs and what not.

[tomimt]

There seems to be bugs in the inventory system, at one point I had several Rooter heads in there as well as I had the key card, but it disappeared somewhere. Also the hotspot indicator doesn't show all the hotspots, which makes wipes in some places difficult.

 

in one point Rooter just completely disappeared on me. As well as his toolbox moved around despite I hadn't whistled him open. Rooter started moving on his own when I clicked him with a hand icon while he was in toolbox mode.

 

And also the wipes aren't very intutive. While I knew that I had to move things, the wipe didn't always seem to register, which in many occasions lead me to believe I was doing something wrong, despite I was right on track.

 

But overall I like the oneclick popup UI. It woeks very well and I really didn't have a need for the upper edge mouse over menu system at all. The art and animation look very nice and the music is just fantastic.

 

System tested:

Windows 8

Intel Celeron 64 bit dual core 1.8GHz

Intel HD graphics adapter

resolution 1600x900

[giselleai]

I had the same issue with the the multiple rooter heads showing in the inventory.

Other bugs:

- Program error message pops up instead of a dialogue when Ace tries to view the door to the tank room.

- Rooter is able to get into the tank room (with Ace following behind) without a card but unable to get out of the tank room.

- After shifting the cart, unable to view the top of the cart (seems like the hotspot for it disappeared)

- When calling Rooter to transform, in the tank room, the transformation sound is there but no graphical change.

- Sometimes Rooter's head does not appear when transformed from a toolbox.

- Unable to open supplies room (is this meant to happen?)

- Ace gets knocked back when encountering the steam, when you play him. However, will walk past it if Rooter is played.

- Save/Restore doesn't work very well. E.g. at one point when Ace got knocked back so had to play Rooter. I decided to load from a previous point so I can play Ace again but the icon to switch back to Ace wasn't available after the restore.

- When cursor is moved to the top of the screen, sometimes the icons cannot be selected as it disappears.

 

Would be good when right-clicking anywhere it rotate to the next cursor. Especially when looking at something, then wanting to touch/interact with it after.

Despite the bugs, I'm liking the game so far and the humour that goes with it :)

[Frede]

Now, I know this is an alpha, and that fixing bugs in the demo might not be a priority, but still, I thought I would confirm that these have happened for me as well:

 

- Program error message pops up instead of a dialogue when Ace tries to view the door to the tank room.

- Rooter is able to get into the tank room (with Ace following behind) without a card but unable to get out of the tank room.

- When calling Rooter to transform, in the tank room, the transformation sound is there but no graphical change.

- Ace gets knocked back when encountering the steam, when you play him. However, will walk past it if Rooter is played.

- Save/Restore doesn't work very well. E.g. at one point when Ace got knocked back so had to play Rooter. I decided to load from a previous point so I can play Ace again but the icon to switch back to Ace wasn't available after the restore.

- When cursor is moved to the top of the screen, sometimes the icons cannot be selected as it disappears.

Also, the initial music never stopped, even though the ending theme started playing. At first, I thought Ken had gone avant garde. It's also worth a note that upon completion, the demo seemingly just sits there and waits for you forcibly kill the process somehow. While I appreciate the nostalgia in the fact that you're almost urged to exit the game by turning off your computer, you might want to make it force quit after a few seconds ;)

 

Of course, I don't mean to be overly pedantic. Playing through this was, most importantly, quite enjoyable. The surprise in the supplies closet put a smile on my face :)

[Xaero]

I was too frustrated with the click and drag controls to finish the demo, but from what I've played of it those bugs seem to hold true for me also. You guys REALLY need to get on fixing the controls though as the box puzzles are insanely frustrating when you know what you have to do but can't do it without smashing around the screen for half an hour hoping it will work if I get it just right. In all honesty I would curb the use of box puzzles anyway, it feels lazy and boring.

[pcj]

Also, the initial music never stopped, even though the ending theme started playing. At first, I thought Ken had gone avant garde. It's also worth a note that upon completion, the demo seemingly just sits there and waits for you forcibly kill the process somehow. While I appreciate the nostalgia in the fact that you're almost urged to exit the game by turning off your computer, you might want to make it force quit after a few seconds ;)

 

I suppose we should note that the ALT+ESC key should exit you from the game.

[Uddasa]

Same experience for me:

• Swipe controls are a pain, moving the crates was extremely difficult. I tried a few time without success and gave up. It's only later after reading on the forum that some people managed to move them that I tried again.
• Hotspots are very small and confusing : like the top of the cart to get the keycard.
• Also Ace is moving very slowly, "double click" to make him run would be nice.
• The font is not very readable on bright background : it needs more contrast. Like a bigger black border.
• And of course a lot of scripting bugs (hotspots disappearing, cart position not saved after entering again the corridor, etc)

Edit:

I couldn't find a way to open the vent panel, so I went through the corridor using Rooter. Then I went to the lab, but got stuck in it.

[Frede]

And also the wipes aren't very intutive. While I knew that I had to move things, the wipe didn't always seem to register, which in many occasions lead me to believe I was doing something wrong, despite I was right on track.

For what it's worth, and before that aspect gets more flak, I rather liked the swiping. Better feedback may be desirable, but the idea is great, though in its current form, it might work better using touch or a touchpad. That's a rarity for adventure games.

[pcj]

For what it's worth, and before that aspect gets more flak, I rather liked the swiping. Better feedback may be desirable, but the idea is great, though in its current form, it might work better using touch or a touchpad. That's a rarity for adventure games.

 

Yeah, we are definitely going to target giving better feedback for the drag event.

[Uddasa]

On lower resolutions, the UI is not scaled. I tried running in 800x600 :

• The "Space Quest" logo is cropped.
• The arrows to navigate through the inventory are out of the screen.
• The walk icon (top of the screen) is cropped.

[sndwv]

First impressions after only a short play session:

 

Likes:

- That was one hell of a nostalgic space backdrop. :)

- While some scenes and objects show their 3D-model origins, the game still does have a very pretty and coherent syle.

- The music is great and parodies along wonderfully by taking itself seriously and referencing exisisting scores.

- The humor is still there.

 

Meh:

- In the airlock scene Ace's model really stands out due to (I think) low poly count, floaty feet and lack of drop shadow.

- Some effects like the lights and engine trails in the opening look like 'stock' particle effects and somewhat break immersion for me.

 

Issues:

- The demo expects a widescreen resolution and cuts off the sides on other aspect ratios. Had to select 1600x900 on my 1600x1200 monitor.

- Like others I don't mind the click&drag puzzles, but the interface should be optimized imo: maybe show a different cursor when an object is 'grabbed' by click-holding it and/or show the actual in-game object in a grabbed state.

- I would like to be able to cycle through the icons (mouse wheel?) just like right click did in the old Sierra games. The pop-up menu works, but is somewhat cumbersome.

[pcj]

On lower resolutions, the UI is not scaled. I tried running in 800x600 :

• The "Space Quest" logo is cropped.
• The arrows to navigate through the inventory are out of the screen.
• The walk icon (top of the screen) is cropped.

Yeah, I haven't reviewed that with the team but I don't think 800x600 will be supported.

[giselleai]

- Sometimes Rooter's head does not appear when transformed from a toolbox.

- Unable to open supplies room (is this meant to happen?)

 

Ignore the above ones I initially mentioned. Figured out what happened for both. Not bugs, just dumbarsery on my part. Thanks :)

[Uddasa]

Yeah, I haven't reviewed that with the team but I don't think 800x600 will be supported.

 

This is in fact a screen ratio issue as "sndwv" mentionned just above.

I tried in 1600x1200 and the issues still remain.

 

You should also note that the Janitor room's door is out of the screen, as a result the game is broken with a 4:3 ratio because you can't even use the keycard.

[pcj]

This is in fact a screen ratio issue as "sndwv" mentionned just above.

I tried in 1600x1200 and the issues still remain.

 

You should also note that the Janitor room is out of the screen, as a result the game is broken with a 4:3 ratio.

 

We have an implementation in place to solve that for the iPad. I will try to get that working for everyone (who still uses 4:3) in the final game.

[giselleai]

Where do we send crash reports to?

[pcj]

Send them to me, pcj@andromedanpost.com

 

Thanks!

[giselleai]

Will do. Thanks!

[TogaMario]

Also, if you could take a screenshot of any error messages you receive, that would be helpful as well. Detailed information on what process you followed to produce the crash/bug is appreciated so we can try to reproduce things on our end. Thanks!

[filipst]

Can't say I particularly like the swiping thing. Feels more like a minigame gimmick thing than adventure puzzles. And moving crates puzzles?

[Jarikith]

I suppose we should note that the ALT+ESC key should exit you from the game.

 

True and false. Before you're actually playing the demo and afterwards that combo may be required to exit. But while you're actively playing (as in you're Ace or Rooter and can move around freely and such) the ESC key all by itself will cause the demo to close out, which is a not good thing, a single key press by itself should never close a game on you.

[tomimt]

It seems that if you save the game after the airlock and do a restore from the starting point Rooter won't be always visible on the saved game.

[tomimt]

Navigation seems to be a bit problematic for Ace. For an example if he stands in the red corridor and I click behind him to leave the corridor, he can start walking forward. On the hallway if Ace is standing on the enterance to the red corridor and I click on the janitor closet in order to walk there, Ace does the same and turns around in order to walk in the red corridor.

[FM80]

Played through it on OS X this morning and didn't run into any show-stopping bugs. Glad to see the humor and music are intact, and lots of little touches (like Ace's space van coming in a little too fast at the beginning) seemed like classic Two Guys material.

 

Having said that, the click-drag puzzles seem unnecessary ("hey, it's 2013 ... we should add swiping!") and didn't work well. The old man in me also wishes that right-clicking would just cycle through the cursors rather than bringing up a menu.

 

Overall, the least polished areas of the demo felt like ... well, a Unity game. The best areas felt like a shiny new Space Quest. Keep working on it till it's done, fellas.

 

Thanks for the demo.

[Travis]

I'm using the Linux version. The window does not scale down to my display size. It's too big. It gets cut off after the U in Space Venture, and the W in Hardware.

[pcj]

I'm using the Linux version. The window does not scale down to my display size. It's too big. It gets cut off after the U in Space Venture, and the W in Hardware.

 

Sorry about that - it appears that Unity doesn't implement the screen resolution dialog for Linux yet. Can you try using the -screen-width and -screen-height command line parameters as described on http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/CommandLineArguments.html? Thank you.