Brilliant. I'm off to upvote it on Steam Greenlight right now. Multi-player pvp be damned, but I would love to see a online PvE co-op so I can share the laughs real time with a friend or two! Great find Liam!

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I played this in co-op with a friend a couple years ago during a free-weekend promo. In the beginning we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The AI was challenging; the visuals were impressive; the animations were spot-on. But after an hour of play our enjoyment began to wear thin, and after two hours it had simply worn out. Though technically solid, the game lacked imagination --- it was all MARINE and no INTERSTELLAR.

There were two available weapons (the only two available weapons) --- a generic assault rifle and an smg. --- could have been plucked from almost any FPS that featured modern weapons. All the maps were little more than re-arrangements of the same pieces: plants, fiery bits, and buildings that looked the same in all but configuration and size. Maybe there were some glowing blue plants or weird flowers, I honestly don't remember. What I do remember is all the exterior maps were variations on the theme "generic tropical setting", hardly more otherworldly (let alone "interstellar" than the set of Gilligan's Island, except the huts were bigger and made of identical, pre-fabricated, metal panels.

If I'm going to be an Interstellar Marine, I expect to see interstellar things: wall-climbing, acid-spitting xenomorphs; runaway war-mechs; alien weapons shooting deadly colored lights; alien ruins; exploding tribbles --- anything. But there was none of that. The closest it got was the same model of android fighting us on every map.

I wanted to like IM. I still do. It breaks my heart to see devs as inspired as Zero Point software floundering, but until they (now he) finds ways to inspire the player, the game will go nowhere.

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Quoting: liamdaweWell do make sure you report issues, they do fix them.

Indeed, they do. (For example, my complaint here about the endlessly cycling "checking for updates" has been patched as of this morning, and I only yet mentioned it on GoL.)

The only issue I've ever contacted them about was the one I mentioned above, the very small font size that's default in the itch client. I also suggested two possible fixes that came to mind: Adding a "zoom in/out" feature as is available on browsers, or adding a means for users to directly adjust font size via a percentage setting."

I was let down when the the response I received [External Link] said that there were more important issues to be addressed before making the "itch app better for use on a TV . . . . [though,] TV+controller-friendly mode would be interesting!" I didn't ask for an entire TV/controller-friendly mode. In fact I specifically said, "I don't think a Steam Big Picture Mode solution is even remotely necessary for itch." I just asked for means to enlarge the font a bit.

Given the browser-based/browser-like nature of the itch.app, I just can't imagine it would be too difficult or time consuming to accomplish a preference setting allowing the user to adjust the font size. Hell, just make the default font a bit larger, surely that would entail nothing more sophisticated than changing a single number in the code?

Lol! Ok, clearly I'm a bit overly frustrated by not being able to make use of the itch app. But not being able to use it because the font is just a wee bit too small is actually very frustrating.

I'll get off my soapbox and give somebody else a turn. ;)

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I still find the online itch.io much less of a headache --- literally. The hyperbolically microscopic font chosen for the client is an unnecessary and poor UI design decision.

For me, the newest client checks for updates, fails to contact its server, and if the notice dialogue is clicked, searches endlessly for updates.

But nevertheless, past bugs have been fixed: games download into my chosen default location, and I can now refine searches/browsing games by more than one filter at a time, for example. So while I remain underwhelmed by the itch client, I remain hopeful for its future.

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These are my fingers: II
They are crossed: X

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Good to know that Planet Explorers isn't done baking. I'll continue waiting to play it.

I've been waiting to play it for years, and I've no problem waiting a bit longer for the devs to complete their polishing. These guys have been regularly posting and patching since early on, and they've not slowed down since the game came out of Beta, and I have every confidence these bugs too will be squashed.

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I wish more games did this. I don't mind insanely difficult games being available as an option, just not the only option. (I'd also like to see more rogue-like/light games get over themselves and offer alternative save/checkpoint systems.

And a magic pony that shits gold nugget.

And World Peace, while I'm wishing for things.)

;D

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I rarely allow myself to appear as the cynical, heartless asshole that I actually am (my soul is pure jade). But when people's personal problems are presented as a sales point, yellow flags blanket the field of my mind.

So when I read that the developers

"... are on the autistic spectrum, and wanted to get the message across that having a condition like Asperger’s doesn't prevent you from making your dreams and ambitions come true."

I instantly recast that sentence as:

"[They] are very dexterous, tall people with and wanted to get the message across that having a condition like being very tall and well coordinated doesn't prevent you from making your dreams and ambitions come true to become professional basketball players."

It's not that Aspies don't have their own sets of challenges and problems, because they do, and I can empathize with them because I've my own cognitive disorder to deal with. And it would be great if Best Buds were raising public awareness about what Asperger's is and what it means to be an Aspie, but it's not doing that. It's the same message shucked by the Media every day (in America, anyway): Follow your dreams, by gosh! And maybe if this were about an Aspie who was a street magician or a stand-up comedian who specialised in crowd comedy, or a game-show host, then this might be a good example of a exceptional accomplishment. But it's about a couple of computer programmers who have Aspergers.

Aspergers traits "are ideal for people such as computer programmers, who need to be able to focus on sometimes highly repetitive tasks with a very small margin for error." [External Link] Indeed "Research from Harvard Business School shows the strengths of people with Asperger's and high-functioning autism make them especially well-suited for software development and testing." [External Link].

It doesn't feel like a "special message," it feels like simple, insensitive marketing.

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Kickstarter 101: Promise the World, deliver a stone.

(Do please note that they are offering actual weapons as pledge rewards. If they make a modern shooter next, can we get hand-engraved Glocks?)

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2D games are like retirees: they generally don't make me all hot and bothered, but there are exceptions. Perhaps this will be one of them. :)

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