So, I downloaded the game solely because of the dev's great interaction on the forums. And liked Reigns a lot, as well. About an hour into the game, I must say I really don't like it. I'm eager to provide constructive criticism and I'm sorry if I come across too harsh, that's not my intention at all. - I've worked in creative industries, primarily advertising and I'm fairly accustomed to the quirks of the 'scene' and the 'startup culture' but humour in the game is really not for me. I found it to be rather banal. - Typography. For being a game that's mainly played by reading texts, it has some really lousy typography, truly makes it look unpolished for me. - What's with slow animations? I thought my phone was acting up and began to show its age (the original iPhone 6) but nope, it's the game: it feels like things in the game happen underwater. - I thought the game was only similar to Reigns in terms of mechanics. But I can really see some scenario patterns that are way too similar and in my eyes it makes ASL a clone, rather than a game that builds on a new genre. It's pretty much a reskin in my eyes. And aside from highscores, I don't think it provides much more content, either. Very disappointed by this. - I'm currently on a 3-hour bus ride and instead of playing the game, I'm writing this feedback. That should tell how I feel about it. But the dev sounds like a nice person and I consider my money well-spent by supporting his work.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone's entitled to their opinion. Which slow animations were you referring to? I've tested it all the way down to an iPhone 4s and everything was working fine, so whatever it was I'm guessing it was intentional. Not really sure what to say to your comment that this is just a reskin of Reigns, heh. ASI has a big progression system and a huge story that tracks alongside it. It also has a whole meta-game element with the parallel universes, some of which are unique and/or start interacting with each other down the road. I could go on and on, but I don't think I'm going to change your mind on any of this. Sorry to hear you were disappointed.
Whether or not I disagree with you is moot, but with all due respect, none of your points can be filed under constructive criticism. They're solely your opinions.
That's the only part I'm curious about. Is the 'parallel universe' of ASI deeper than the 'deal with the deal' of Reigns? Calling the game a 'reskin' is a bit harsh and I apologise for that, but the thing is, aren't both mechanics really too similar though? Whilst Organ Trail-esque side-stories spice things up a little bit, I find them to be too much alike. Rereading my original post, you're correct; I didn't provide much valuable feedback. That said, I don't mean my opinions to cause offence; the game is clearly a labour of love and I value that.
For what it's worth, while I love the game and disagree with you, I feel like you did a good job making it clear you weren't crapping on the game. Not everything's gonna be for everyone.
Solid game! I particularly enjoy the ai evolving segments... every time something new works I feel like I've achieved a breakthrough haha. Also thanks for enlightening me to the fact I'm bilingual... I can read pig Latin, who'd have known!! My only minor gripe is that losing because you fill up meters doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. As far as being a necessary gameplay mechanic goes, I get it, but losing because my employees love me too much doesn't feel right. It worked in reigns because you were balancing power, but here I feel like it would have been nicer if topping meters began some sort of potentially manageable event like those meters that tick whenever someone starts blabbing to you. For example, employee love could start costing you over time unless you have the spare government points to spend on a tax audit to kill the fun. It's also quite interesting to see conspiracy theorists getting ripped on in a game where every character is conspiring against someone..! Or that a dialogue tree puts you on a path to say you hate your mother just to complete an event! Cruel!
Yep! I didn't take offense. I disagree, obviously, and it sucks hearing someone's disappointed in something you worked really hard on, but unfortunately not everyone is going to like everything. I just try to make something that I would love to play, write jokes that I would love to read - millions of people love the CARROT apps, but not everyone is going to. Freaking Rush Limbaugh of all people is a big fan, so maybe you aren't wrong to think CARROT is awful and not funny at all
Yeah, I worked really hard on giving CARROT a real sense of progression by basing it all on real-life AI technology. You don't really ever get to see this process of "teaching" an AI from the ground up in fiction, to speak, to recognize objects, to play games. That's all typically skipped over. Like, for example, CARROT doesnt ever turn evil. Instead, her snarky personality develops in the same way that Microsofts Tay chatbot did last year, when internet trolls taught her to repeat insults. Everything in the game uses real-world examples like this, or is otherwise based on forecasts from top AI researchers. We'll see how you do when you have to read Eurasian... Bork bork! That's definitely an interesting idea! I never really thought of ending a universe as "losing", though, just reaching an ending for that particular story. But now that you mention it, the investor one (where your company gets taken over) and the internet one (where you become internet famous) probably work better for that than the employee and government ones. I'll give it some thought!
Eastasia. Eurasia. I see what you're doing here dev. I see it. We have always been at war with them. wait what
Rush Limbaugh has mentioned CARROT Weather at least 4 different times on his radio show. He likes CARROT because "she tells it like it is." *shudder*
I know it's not losing as such, but as a player trying to manage everything it sucks to end a run seemingly premature because I'm doing too good in an area. It's like if it were food... if you've got none you're definitely starving, but if you've got an unlimited supply you're not likely to eat yourself to death. It's not something that needs to change in this title though, I guess I just mentioned it as something to think about if you use this sort of gameplay again as a vehicle in the future. It's best to reward gamers everywhere they expect to be, and only punish them when it's undeniably their fault, otherwise they might jump on a forum and whine at you exactly like this. Thanks for the reply!
Minor point, but for what it's worth, I do not see any problem with the font at all. It would never occur to me as a criticism of this game at all. On the contrary, this game is one of the most aesthetically appealling of all I've played -- after a few days, I'm STILL not certain what I think of the gameplay (I alternately love it and find it tedious), but the graphic design just makes it so nice to dip into for a few minutes. Sometimes I just watch the flying cars go by in the soft rain...
God, designing and implementing that growing city was such a pain, but I think it was worth the trouble. One thing that no one will ever notice is the chess game that's playing when you first load the game is an exact reproduction of Deep Blue's first win over Garry Kasparov. It's worth letting the game play out all the way until the end... (Edit: the chess game only plays out when the game first loads - if you're in the menu between universes, it shows the final board placement of other matches between Deep Blue and Kasparov.)
It was worth it! Growing cities are one of my favorite items in video games, but I have no patience for city management sims. I reject the concept of a technological singularity, but were it to occur, the urban effects would be truly the stuff of sci-fi, which this game captures really well. Look, this is a humorous thought experiment about the evolution of AI, right? That covers a lot of different fields -- engineering, psychology, finance -- and the anthropologic facet of it demands we see the co-evolution of society as well. So the city growth was essential -- and really really pretty!
On a side note, I had never heard of CARROT before this game, and wow -- I'm loving the nutrition app! I'd been looking for a good calorie counter, and this is by FAR the easiest to use, both in entry and in reading results. The game-ness of it is just a bonus, but boy is it weird to have a character be shared by a game I'm playing and a productivity app?
I love putting stuff like that into the different apps! In the to-do list, CARROT gives you a virtual cat that you can feed and pet and dress up. In the weather app, you can unlock a ton of different secret locations, like the Moon and Mount Doom. I guess it was only natural that I'd eventually do a game after all of that
