This is gonna make a scandal
aerodis
Member
in Suggestions
Hello everyone. Today I post this because i'm disapointed about this game. I bought it about four years ago and it never evolved since. I like this game like everyone here but i'm not the only one who think like this.
The concept of this game is really interesting. I love it. But it has to be more used. There isn't enough content and features. It's been four years since i bought this game and nothing is new! I bought it in early access, and still has to evolve a lot! This will and is, i'm sure, causing you lots of problems. Everywhere i go, this game has less than 50% of recommended. On steam it only has about 40%! Can you belive that? Not one person is going to buy his game after seeing the comments and reviews just because they're going to see : "This game does NOT evolve" or "This game is bullshit".
Go on steam, you'll see.
When I downloaded this game about 1 month ago, I played a little bit, and I realised that nothing was new but this planks system, and that's all. So I was thinking : let's see every single changelog since the last time I played. And then I realised that when Sauropod Studio adds a content, it's removed two versions later. Then this feature is added again two versions later, then, re-removed ... And that's why this game isn't evolving. But this isn't the only reason. For example, I watched a stream some months ago, and I saw this furnace which was a WIP. I'm still waiting it.
And talking about streams, I don't think they're really useful like they are now (I'm not saying you're useless Shatojon). But if this game was popular, people would do streams on it, and you wouln't have to make streams like this (i say gaming streams) because now this game is known, people knows what kind of game it is, but what kind of streams would be cool, would be a stream held by programmers, 3d modellers, etc, to show you, how it works, and upcomming features (if there were). And even if Sauropod Studio wants to keep the stream like it is, the actual stream content could be like one week on three or something like this.
Then, to make this game finally evolve, Sauropod Studio has to make three things:
- Add in game whatever the community wants (Even if it's a Pink Fluffy Unicorn that is dancing on rainbows, you can add it as an easter egg, you have no excuse (I'm not asking for a Pink Fluffy Unicorn to be implanted)
- STOP REMOVING CONTENT (except outdated features, like when you added the new plank system, you removed the horrizontal logs, but you had NO REASONS to remove ladders for example)
- STOP working on FEATURES THAT WILL NEVER BE IMPLANTED (like the furnace for example).
I made this post because i thing things need to change, because I don't want this game to disapear because I like it, and it would be very sad for Sauropod Studio to disapear with their game.
The concept of this game is really interesting. I love it. But it has to be more used. There isn't enough content and features. It's been four years since i bought this game and nothing is new! I bought it in early access, and still has to evolve a lot! This will and is, i'm sure, causing you lots of problems. Everywhere i go, this game has less than 50% of recommended. On steam it only has about 40%! Can you belive that? Not one person is going to buy his game after seeing the comments and reviews just because they're going to see : "This game does NOT evolve" or "This game is bullshit".
Go on steam, you'll see.
When I downloaded this game about 1 month ago, I played a little bit, and I realised that nothing was new but this planks system, and that's all. So I was thinking : let's see every single changelog since the last time I played. And then I realised that when Sauropod Studio adds a content, it's removed two versions later. Then this feature is added again two versions later, then, re-removed ... And that's why this game isn't evolving. But this isn't the only reason. For example, I watched a stream some months ago, and I saw this furnace which was a WIP. I'm still waiting it.
And talking about streams, I don't think they're really useful like they are now (I'm not saying you're useless Shatojon). But if this game was popular, people would do streams on it, and you wouln't have to make streams like this (i say gaming streams) because now this game is known, people knows what kind of game it is, but what kind of streams would be cool, would be a stream held by programmers, 3d modellers, etc, to show you, how it works, and upcomming features (if there were). And even if Sauropod Studio wants to keep the stream like it is, the actual stream content could be like one week on three or something like this.
Then, to make this game finally evolve, Sauropod Studio has to make three things:
- Add in game whatever the community wants (Even if it's a Pink Fluffy Unicorn that is dancing on rainbows, you can add it as an easter egg, you have no excuse (I'm not asking for a Pink Fluffy Unicorn to be implanted)
- STOP REMOVING CONTENT (except outdated features, like when you added the new plank system, you removed the horrizontal logs, but you had NO REASONS to remove ladders for example)
- STOP working on FEATURES THAT WILL NEVER BE IMPLANTED (like the furnace for example).
I made this post because i thing things need to change, because I don't want this game to disapear because I like it, and it would be very sad for Sauropod Studio to disapear with their game.
Comments
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, it's appreciated.
We stream every week to stay in touch with our community, to chat, answer questions and show stuff we're working on. It's not something we "need" to do, it's something we like to do and - from the amount of people that have been watching the streams, it seems others enjoy them too.
We *have* had several streams hosted by developers, programmers, 3D artists, level designers, animators. But we can't have that happen every week because it can distract a developer for two hours and often, they're working on stuff we can't show just yet. It so happens that our 3D modeller, Gab, is hosting today's stream though!
We do take in consideration what the community wants. We actually have a list of "top community complaints and requests" that is sorted by most asked and, often more than not, we go through that when looking at new features to add or which bug to prioritize fixing.
It's not always as easy as adding new content, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the background to get things working properly. Adding content is unfortunately not an on/off switch. Usually, when we remove things in the game, it's because they were replaced by an improvement. Ladders are the only exception I can think of - we had to remove them because we revamped the movement AI (it's tons better now) and the ladders didn't work anymore, that doesn't mean it won't come back. What other features are you thinking of that were removed? I can try to shed some light on them.
The furnace is well into development, actually playtested it yesterday. However, Castle Story is a game in development and sometimes, we develop things, playtest them and realise they don't work, so we never release them. It happens, it's part of an indie game's development cycle. It's sort of like starting to draw something then crumpling your paper up and starting fresh.
Hoping this clears some things up, it's not always obvious what's going on on our side, but I'm happy to answer questions where I can.
Early Access just means you're playing it before the game is complete. A game can take several years to complete - that's the case with Castle Story. It's a very ambitious project for the small team we started as - we're a little bigger now, but it's still a challenging game to develop. We're actively working on it, constantly.
And Minecraft 1.0 was released in November 2011. Just because they keep on adding stuff doesn't mean that it's still in "development".
I really wonder why there are so many people who think that Minecraft is an arguement when it's about developing a game, cause it isn't. This here is about Castle Story and not Minecraft. You can't compare them.
I mean pointing out that Castle story has been in development for about five years and that this is most probably quite a long time is ok and valid, I would say. But it won't speed up things. Sauropod had to struggle alot with their game and as an result with their community in the past, but one has to admit, and so I, that they keep on working on their game, that they were adding content and fixes in acceptable periods for the last two and a half years. (or something like that)
And just for your information, I'm not a so called fanboy. I'm critical as well and not always amused about things, but it's fine.
I see that sauropod studio is doing pretty often, bricktron's AI improvement. For now I think it's ok, and that they should focus on adding new features, that really change the game in a way to add more fun and that makes us less bored of it. Instead of that they are also doing really hard things, that takes whiles to add. This is something that has to be done. But, they could use their advantages of being multiple persons to add frequently little features, that are funny or even super useful, while working on these features that are hard to add. I know. But, when minecraft was in early access, if you played this game in alpha, you'll remember that every single week, there were new feature. That's why it has been developped really fast. This is what i'd like to have with castle story.
Then, you say that minecraft has frequent updates. BUT, it's mainly finished. These new updates are not useful because it has a long gameplay, an end, you know all this stuff, and, you don't always do the same things. Like if you are tired of mining, you go farming ... In castle story, you don't have a really long gameplay. Why? It's because except in conquest, you don't have an end. In invasion mode, when you reach the 10th wave you're like: "ok I know what it is, i don't wanna continue playing, it's always the same thing". So you play one hour and then you stop. Then, you play sandbox. And it's SOOOO passive! You tell your bricktron to do something, then you come back 30 minutes later, they aren't finished. This game is waiting!
What would be cool is to add something that could make you stay in front of your computer, make that you're not lazy there, waiting for things to happen in game.
Heck, I was bored of Castle Story so many times, I can't tell.
But as far as I understand adding these kind of things isn't as easy as it seems to be, for noobs as I am one,heh. And I don't know enough about the team and their tasks to understand how fast things could be done, how fast little features could be added without causing gamebreaking bugs. Dunno.
But also I think that this is the reason why they are not just adding everything to the game what was suggested, most probably it would do more harm than actually help the games scope.
https://twitch.tv/videos/124447896
I'm somewhat excited, a very strange and unfamiliar feeling,lol.