Hello everybody
I emailed the creator to find out if he was aware of these huge inconveniences and bugs, and I think it's useful to know the answer:
I know the gameplay is a bit annoying right now. Even I think that way too lol. I'm currently remaking the game entirely in a new engine (Godot) to enable more fun gameplay in general.
As for inventory, I'll probably go with slot-based limited inventory, kinda like in Stardew Valley etc.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed feedback, I'll try to read it carefully when I'm in the remaking process. I honestly don't care if the game demo is downloaded illegally (since it's just a demo). Currently leaving it Patreon-locked until I'm done with the new demo though, since I plan to remake it entirely and don't want even more players to play the current lacking demo.
I explained him in detail all the inconveniences and bugs around the gameplay, specifically:
- bugs on the bridge that makes the materials disappear, on the access to the woods, on the bear that cannot be killed and on the bird that interacts like a bat. there is also a bug that allows the same item (such as a weapon) to be used on both characters.;
- the gameplay too penalized by the limited inventory and with a huge number of resources that are useless in the early stages of the game and cannot be accumulated;
- the enormous difficulty in playing around objects that you do not want to collect such as twigs, mushrooms and flowers. This creates the feel of a "maze-simulator" rather than smooth gameplay;
- the terrible management of extractable resources in the rocks (too many stones and minerals even outside the caves) and the incomprehensibility of where to find certain missing objects for crafting. it is absolutely necessary to write some pop-ups, for example "maybe you can find this item on the beach", if I need a shell;
- Manage your time in the game much better: a speed of exploration time is absolutely necessary if we want to advance the days quickly. the same goes for the respawn of resources on the island, too slow during the many days;
- I built a bridge simply by having some wood in the inventory, but to start the fire in the cave I didn't realize that I had to manually place three twigs in my hand to be able to use them.This difference creates a lot of confusion in the experience of what was learned before and what to do next, as well as making it unnecessary to make it too necessary to manually select what you have in hand for everything (including a bottle of water to fill);
- take advantage of the sexual factor in the game immediately: have I filled my heart bar to the maximum? creates situations of sexual frustration to be vented with the partner or with masturbation. Create more dialogue with partner from the start, for now it's too nasty and quiet, and the amount of interactions is limited to the maximum;
We can only wait, but I think the real mistake he's making (and I told him) is that someone have paid for this really bad demo in previous months. All the criticisms that have been made here and elsewhere are absolutely legitimate. I do a lot of interaction design, and he told me that he will take these and other detailed feedbacks in consideration for the new game engine. I want to trust its next release, because I believe that the idea of the project has enormous narrative and graphic potential. But he has to make the most of them right away or he just risks creating a lot of bad publicity around the title. At least not to disfigure those who deal with narration or art (the same as the excellent Coming Out on Top), they do not deserve to be undermined by bad programming.
I will wait, and if this trust is deserved it will return as a decent game. If not, let's go back to not having a potential nice Gay game. I hope you are at least "hopeful" for what this game could give as me.