I really like this game but it seems to me that the dev is unfortunately 'learning on the hoof' - introducing new game functionality and new variables with each update, without any introduction and not providing guidance on how to use the new functions whose operation is not self evident. I would have expected that for any good game the (more or less) complete story-line and functionality would have all been in place before writing any code or rendering any images.
That's what it is. The game was conceived from the start to the end since the first release: I made a plan that I'm following. The first chapters were released intentionally with a simple "straightforward approach" because they were there to introduce the characters and the main story.
After that, as planned, the new "map" feature was introduced because the story is too much complex, with different paths for different characters (each one with relates to others). It would be impossible to fully understand the story for the player without the "storylines/steps" concept and the possibility to reread short abstracts of what happened in the past chapters.
What was not planned but introduced, only after seeing players difficulties, is the "Great Picture" feature (accessible clicking on the "Storylines" title above the map), which summarizes the complete story exposing to the player all the steps.
I understand the desire to explore and try new things out, but it would be helpful to the users of your product that 1) a change(s) have happened, 2) why the change(s) have happened (for instance added benefit or enabling options/functionality),
A beta release of Chapter 6 was released with no new content but only to present and show the new "storylines/steps" approach.
I also described why the new mechanics were introduced (see my
You must be registered to see the links
).
3) thorough testing of the new features should occur before release (fine tuning by the users is acceptable), and most important
That's the sad part. You're right and I agree 100% about the need to deep testing the game. But when you're alone... well that's really difficult. Software development literature teaches that the tests should be done by someone different from the programmer, since the programmer is "biased" in his tests. That's why it's very difficult for me to find all the bugs although I spend many hours testing the game. Plus, out there, there are so many different PC and OS configurations that it would be impossible for me to test all of them.
That's why I try my best to follow the forums and my patrons, grab any constructive indication of bugs/difficulties from the players and produce fast fixes ASAP.
4) provide some guidance on how to use the new functionality (notes or document or whatever).
Along with the release of the new mechanics a PDF introduction to them has been released also (
see OP).
You must be registered to see the links
I attempted to use the new functionality deployed during the picnic of ch 7 a few times but each time the game to exited catastrophically, so I will wait until a patch or the next update.
That's sound strange. CH7 release was quite stable with regard to playability and bugs. If you can argue more which problem you encountered, I'll be happy to fix any eventual bug still present.
Happy Gaming!