Just been thinking that it might be a good idea to produce a play guide for Astro Ranch. A few of the reviewers are struggling to find everything... done want to spoil the trial and error and exploration aspect of the game though. Anyone got any great ideas of how to handle this? Maybe release the FAQ a few weeks after launch??? Cheers P
Yeah releasing an FAQ after the release would be nice. I would suggest you to release it on the website before though. People could view it before they even get the game
I would love for you guys to do a guide, maybe after you release the game. That would be very nice. I am waiting on this game Thank you so much.
Man, I can't wait for this game, I am sure this will be my new obsession because I find myself going to Tag games twitter every 15 minutes to check if there is any updates on the review process.
I can't wait for this game to be released!! I am waiting anxiously, especially after watching TA's preview!
Great to see the video from Eli, although I am a little confused... I clearly saw him enter his name (as the character) and then the name of his farm... but, in the following dialogue, I saw the character referred to as Max... ...is this the way it's supposed to be or am I missing something?
Question about time. Now that I think about it, how does time work in the game? I noticed in the video that the vendor alien said they were only open during a certain time. Does it use real time or in game time, and are there different seasons with weather changes and seasonal crops, Or does the alien planet stay one condition forever?
If you make a guide you give away everything there is to discover. You could have a point system where you can buy clues (if you have earned a given amount of money) but that would need to be programmed into the game... If you have difficulty finding stuff, you just need to dig to earn: digging for victory!
please tell me your planning on adding a joystick controller because i really dont like tap to move games!
It looks like you can just leave your finger on the screen to move in that direction instead of constantly tapping.
Evening all! Good to see from the movie that Eli managed to find his way around the intro tutorial ok! I'll try my best to answer some of the questions but if I miss anything they can always go in the FAQ ;-) first of all the game runs in astro time. One day is about ten minutes of earth time! Makes playing a day per commute or bus ride 'just' right. 7 days is one season and just like earth there are 4 seasons in year. Control is by tapping where you want to go but as Eli shows it's better to just keep your finger on the screen and kind of drag your character around. A couple of beta testers suggested a virtual Dpad and we tried this but it took loads of the screen space and didn't play very well. Might add it as an option in future updates if enough people want it. There is different weather including rain and snow in the obvious seasons. Seasons also affect crop growth times and their sell value. You are right that you play as either Sindy or Max. The name you enter is your scoreloop identifier. If you are already on scoreloop the game skips this name entry stage. Ok think that's it for now. Goodnight! Oh and ps the game isn't really all that like animal crossing except for the visual style being similar!
All I can say is, this game is amazing. You all certainly won't be disappointed when it arrives. Paul, I think you should tell all of us to MAKE SURE to restart our devices before playing - I tested this and if I didn't restart, it crashed around 30% of the time. I restarted, and it's been silky smooth since then. Great job.
Looking good As a beta tester I found the controls for walking Max or Sindy to be very natural. I just touched the screen in the direction I wanted them to walk and only lifted my finger off the screen once they got there. Watching the video it was interesting to see the "tap, tap, tap" of the finger on the screen because I hadn't controlled Max or Sindy that way since the very first time I played the game. When I first played I was exploring the nooks and crannies of the whole crater but of course once you know your way around you don't need to tap and look and tap and look. Instead you know where everything is and can just hold your finger on the screen to move your character around and it feels very natural. It was interesting to watch the completed tutorial. I learnt something too! I read how to do something that had been bugging me to death during the last beta . Doh! Paul will know what it was and all I'll say about it is that I'm off to remove unwanted silly thoughts from my head by hitting it with the hammer!! Given that I learnt something from watching the completed tutorial, maybe an FAQ section on the website is a good idea? There is a lot to discover in this game and that is half the fun of playing. But then again there is nothing worse than being frustrated that you can't do something or can't work something out. Sending a few playing tips to players mailboxes might also be a good idea. And let's be honest, in this day and age where the internet is the go to place for information, it won't be long before many tips, secrets, etc of the game are posted on a forum or website anyway. One element of the game that I really like (aside from the quirky humor) is that you can pick it up and play for a short period of time or a longer period of time. If you want to be a super rancher you can play and play and play and earn enough coins to deck out your ranch with all the latest whiz bang tools and time saving devices and so on. But if you just want to get your Astro Ranch fix you can pick it up and play and then stop when you've had enough, the bus has reached your stop, your favorite program is on TV, etc. I'm getting excited now! I can't wait to play the release version of Astro Ranch. Being a beta tester was fun but also hard work. And as I said in an earlier post, it will be good to be able to build up one ranch and not have to delete it and start again to do some further testing!
It's a shame it isn't that "Animal Crossing clone" we've all been waiting for but will probably still be picking this up, looks truly amazing.
