While delays are less fun than having the game you want right now, a good game that's delayed is better than a messy unpolished product that's available on schedule. There are too many examples out there to point to all of them, but pushing a timeframe over a good product doesn't help.
Also, still hoping the game doesn't end up being exclusively locked to Steam. There are various reasons some of us can't or won't use it (in my case, literally can't, it's been a known health risk for 5 years and Valve has openly refused to take appropriate action and behaved abusively in spite of knowing about the problems). At this stage, I'd even advocate in favour of Epic exclusivity (not that they're doing it any more) over releasing a game exclusively on Steam.
There have been multiple discussions about it in a lot of places, including the Steam forums. It's easy enough to Google "Steam client migraine epilepsy" and find a bunch of information about it. Here's where one of the Steam mods decided to bury the issue under the beta forum in spite of it being a problem with the current version of the client. It's got a lot of links to other discussions about the problem too: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/3/2962768084999962... Dozens of people posted publicly there and I know of a good number who avoided public discussion of the issue and just took it up privately with Steam support. There have been several people I know of who have provided direct proof of multiple problems, some more easily tested for and pinned down than others. Valve's response so far has included admitting they're aware of the problem but promising not to fix it, gaslighting users having issues, and violating the privacy rights of people affected by the problem.
You know you're literally quoting the error message listed in the game's description with a fix provided, right? Use the DirectX upgrade link to get it to work.
That's nice for you, but doesn't change anything about the facts surrounding the situation. Some people with epilepsy haven't had the Steam client trigger their issues either. Both conditions are highly variable in their triggers from one individual to the next, so it's normal for some people to have issues while others don't. I have migraines severe enough to have put me in hospital on several occasions, and had a little over a month where I only went 4 days *without* a migraine because of the issues (and those 4 days were the days I didn't launch Steam on my PC) before finding out there were people with concerns about it.
There have been half a dozen potential triggers for both conditions which have been confirmed to be present in the Steam client since the update, none of which had been present in older versions of the client, and all of which have been proven to be present without any room for dispute. Jsut because none of them happens to be a trigger which affects you personally, doesn't negate that they're a problem. I've personally never had issues with any other software on any electronic device at all prior to this, but the Steam client since the update has been the most consistent and most aggressive trigger I've found so far in over 20 years of dealing with migraines.
I'm glad you're not having problems, but don't try and pretend that means anything for the problem as a whole.
I'm "on about" the fact that since an update in 2019, the Steam client has been known to be acting as a trigger for several medical conditions (initially confirmed to be triggering migraines and epilepsy, but later found to be harming people with several other conditions as well). And the fact that Valve's response has at best been to acknowledge the problem exists and say they don't care, and on multiple occasions has included gaslighting affected customers, violating privacy laws, and worse.
Thanks for the confirmation, but to be clear, I don't only mean paid exclusivity deals. A lot of games which start out here or other indie sites end up showing up on Steam and just quietly not getting updated here any more, with the early build on this site becoming a demo version instead of actually being the full game after launch. I'm hoping you don't go that route (and hoping that was what you were answering, but just want to be sure).
Please don't lock the game into being Steam exclusive. After nearly 5 years of Valve knowingly causing harm to some users and crossing the line from negligence to actual abuse on several occasions I know of, I'd even argue that *Epic* exclusivity would be a better idea than locking your game behind a platform that's a literal health hazard for some people.
The game does look cool and the demo is fun, but make sure it shows up here, or somewhere else as well as Steam? Obviously in spite of blatantly abusive behaviour from the company, Steam is still the biggest storefront for PC gaming, so not selling it there would be silly if you have the option. But don't lock your potential fans out of the opportunity to pick the game up.
I've been out of touch for a while now and just picked the game back up with the 1.0 release. So many amazing new things! I installed on a new PC and didn't copy my old save, so i'm starting from nothing. I beat the new final boss after 4 runs, unlocked endless mode and have seen 3 other bosses I'd never seen before. I still feel like I don't really know what I'm doing in a lot of ways but there's a lot of epic and crazy options to play with! Keep being awesome!
Please, PLEASE don't make the early access version Steam exclusive. I won't wishlist on Steam, and I literally *CAN'T* buy there if I want to actually be able to play the game I bought. So making sure the game is available somewhere else (like, for example, here, where the current demo build is already available) is going to be important if you want me to be able to support you.
I do get that Steam has some tools itch.io lacks, so it'll be understandable if you can't do a combined release for early access. If that ends up being the case, I hope you don't remain Steam exclusive forever on the full version of the game. Because, as mentioned, locking a game behind Steam is a guarantee that I'll never be willing or able to touch it. And that would be a shame because I've really enjoyed the demo.
In case you need the backstory: Since 2019, Valve has known the Steam client is causing harm to users with several medical conditions (in my case, migraines, but it's also affecting some users with epilepsy as well as a few less severe conditions). Their response to feedback about the issue has ranged from negligent to abusive depending on how patient the customer is with the company. The more you're willing to keep trying to push for the most basic of competence in providing the service you've been paying them to provide, the more likely they are to go beyond being incompetent and into being actively abusive (including but not limited to conduct which violates privacy laws in most civilised countries and even some US states).
Game seems like a lot of fun. I hope the full version doesn't end up remaining Steam exclusive. Would be cool to pick it up if it's not locked behind the mess that is almost 5 years of Valve knowingly causing harm to people by turning their (required) installer app into a health risk.
Any more news on getting the online play to work for everyone yet? Given their support of multiplatform multiplayer, I'm almost tempted to encourage an Epic release at this point and replacing the Steam multiplayer code with that, since it would allow interactions across not only other PC versions, but also crossplay with consoles.
I sincerely hope that when the full game launches, it launches on here as well as Steam. Partly so I can actually buy it, and partly so there's a "pay $X minimum but you can add more than that" option for people who have the money to provide more support than just the price of the game.
Just for full disclosure: Haven't heard any claims of daith piercings coming with any risks, other than the high probability of not having any effect. I have preventative medication with very minor side effects (totally ignorable if I have them in the morning and drink lots of water) as well as painkillers which the preventatives mean I only need maybe once a month instead of my previous frequency being comparable to your pre-piercing results.
I've heard of claims that it's a placebo, but been told it probably isn't, and that in the cases where it works, there's good reason to believe it's making a real difference, not just a psychological effect. Glad you've found something that works for you, and I do think it's worth recommending/considering for others with migraines, even if I don't think it's a good choice for me personally :) so, again, thank you!
1. A 90% failure rate (and yes, I looked into it in the past and that's the number quoted by multiple professionals who can cite research on the topic) isn't a good enough chance to be worth getting a piercing I don't want in the hope that it might help.
2. Partly untrue, and partly irrelevant to the reasons why it wouldn't help most people with migraines, and yes I've tried it and it doesn't help me.
3. That's nice. When I was still testing things, I found less than 2% of my library was safe to launch without the client, and it's a demonstrable fact that there are more recent games which can't be run without the Steam client than ones which can. It's entirely possible for someone not affected by the issues I've had to deal with to not notice when it opens as a background app, while someone whose condition(s) get(s) triggered by the client will noticed because they end up in pain/needing medication/getting an ambulance called to take them to hospital shortly after opening the game.
I've done plenty of testing of lots of possibilities which haven't stopped Steam from being harmful, and plenty of investigating of many more which I didn't feel were reasonably-priced or unintrusive enough to be worth testing personally. But, again, I do appreciate that you're approaching this with the intent to be helpful. It's not helpful, unfortunately, but I can tell that you want to help, so thank you for that much at least.
2. Not a good workaround *AND* only works for certain types of photosensitive trigger, and rarely works for the ones setting off migraines.
3. Objectively false, it works on about 80% (and dropping) of games on Steam, but more reliably with much older games than anything in the past 5 years, with games from the past decade being more like 80% chance they won't run without the client.
4. The issues don't only affect people with migraines.
Mouse movement and attack on PC is atrocious. Animations are great, but controls need a lot of work for the non-mobile version. Seems like it has potential but... definitely not properly playable on PC.
*VERY* fun game! Would love a downloadable version too! I'd recommend having a "current facing" marker on the dash circle to show where your dash will be pointing at when you initiate it, and possibly a keybind for the dash ability. Mostly because binding it to mouse click works great on an actual mouse, but is hilariously awkward for a touchpad xD definitely better on gamepad but I had to try it lol.
Still hoping this doesn't end up being exclusively on Steam. I get why it's important to put games there, in spite of things it's still the biggest storefront in PC gaming. But it's got growing numbers of problems for various people, including having been a known health risk for some users since late 2019. Well worth making sure the game doesn't end up locked behind that as the only option to play the full version.
Great fun so far though, keep up the awesome work!
Looking forward to the itch.io release! Makes sense why it's not happening at the same time, and Steam is the bigger audience, but it sucks that has to be the deciding factor, not "Valve has been knowingly abusive for more than 4 years and keeps getting worse".
Very cool trailer, looking forward to the game! Hope it doesn't take too long to make it to somewhere that isn't Steam (whether here or elsewhere... preferably here though).
Still hoping that when the full game is ready, it's NOT released exclusively on Steam, and is available here, or on other PC storefronts which haven't spent the past 4 years knowingly causing harm to some users.
I do all of those things regularly. But I am also a gamer.
And surprisingly, given the question I'm asking, I DON'T use Steam. Because it's a literal health risk and I don't want to put myself in hospital with another migraine because of it.
Or did you not consider that asking for the game to be made available somewhere other than Steam was a part of my "not using it" process? Because yeah, asking devs to make sure their games are available elsewhere is a really useful way to still get to play games while not using Steam.
"My cpu begs to differ" seems like a common theme with this game. For such a low-spec game, it's a very high-spec game... lol
The fact that the game lets you push things to such extremes is part of the fun, even if it can get rough on even a moderately capable system (I'm lucky to have very recently updated my PC so haven't been finding many things that impact performance yet).