Lifeline was engaging. And like most here it seems, it felt like a real person doing real things in realtime. This does not engage or feel real. But after reading some of the comments, I'll keep playing it a bit more to see if I change my mind. Overall so far: feel like this is the handsome, and boring cousin of Lifeline.
That comment is the farthest thing from shilling. I'd expect that sort of reaction from someone who hasn't experienced any of the other games in the genre. I've played them all, literally, and One Button Travel is still fresh to me. Plus, the cancellation thing in-game is brand new and indeed mysterious (as well as the screenshots hinting a second character).
Second character? Where do you get that idea? I'm curious about the trip cancellation, too. Makes it feel like a bit of a puzzle. But my guy just went to sleep when I woke up. :/
I forgot we're also a One Button Travel user, so the "Another" in the last screenshot may have misled me. >_>
@metalcasket @candykiller exactly what I am feeling right now. I feel guilty for comparing this too much to Lifeline, but I think the delay time is a bit annoying..maybe because I was expecting it to be like lifeline? I want to go through one scene at a time and then wait for another hours, not play-wait-play-wait-play-wait. Yesterday I missed one message chain and I go to sleep, only to find in the morning a short message and then he goes off for another hours. I already spent some time and here's my current review: - Story is interesting! Concept is quite unique and I'm really interested to see where this is going! - GORGEOUS image and UI, I really loved the main UI on my small screen - Image message implementation: nice! Great to see some visuals after text. And then some cons: - Time delay..as mentioned before, quite frustrating (for me) - Story: at first I thought it was about him helping me, but after story goes on it suddenly turns into me helping him? I get a bit confused on where should I positioned myself - but this may be changing after playing a lot more! Still crossing my finger in excitement - loading a bit too long, I was hoping to get straight to the game after tapping. The "new message screen" I think is a bit useless, why don't we go straight to the message? - chat UI design - I'm not too comfortable when my chat choice get positioned at the top of the screen and become some kind of "title bar", it feels less like a message app..also, why can't i just see the chat before? Why should I go to chat history? Some usual message chat will just implement "pull to load more" I was expecting high and waiting for so long for this game - so maybe that what makes me criticize so much because I love this game and I really want this game to be great. Sorry if the dev feels attacked, but my purpose is just to help give as much feedback for the game's future. I actually met one of the dev in an event some weeks ago and I feel bad about all of my comments-but I guess this would be better than sugar-coating everything.
Hyuei, it's funny you mention how he was supposed to be helping us and now we're helping him. That's another thing I've been finding really confusing. Why is he trusting us/me to make every decision for him if I couldn't even make the right decision not to press the button? The game doesn't make me out to be all that smart, so why is he asking me what to do every step of the way? Again, I haven't played Lifeline or The Martian, but I assume you're supposed to be some sort of expert in those? Still giving it a chance in case it blows my mind.
So, I figured out the code, entered it in the cancellation thingy and that was it. Game over. Maybe there was a lot more to go if I hadn't done that, but I have no inclination to start over again to find out. Hmm... deleted.
@appunwrapper I'm only finished lifeline 1, and now I'm plying the martian thanks to the comments - and martian was on discount thankfully. So not really an expert haha. But yeah, in lifeline, from the first dialogue, it is clear that Taylor is the person who desperately need helps and we are the only one who can get him stay alive. From that point, I already got the feeling "he needs me!" I just played the martian for a few days but it gave me the same feeling that he needs me. I have this sense of duty to help him to survive. But here in OBT, I feel like "you say you're gonna help me to find a way, where is it now?" And "what are you running from?" @candykiller just curious, are saving him and cancelling our trip have any deep connection? Up until now I was feeling that those two are entirely different things. Do you save yourself before finishing his story? (Mark spoiler maybe if it's something spoily)
One more thing: I found this major thing that's been bugging me a bit: He could contact me through time travel, why should we wait for him doing something? Why don't he just talk to me, do his thing in 3 minutes and then chat the me of the 3 minutes before so I shouldn't have to wait? Anyone has explanation for this? I'm afraid I missed some text before.
You could say that, yes. ^_^ Just came to the end of it, here. I'm going to miss those messages appearing now and then..
It's interesting to me that so many people jumped on the bandwagon for this game. It's length is about 55,000 words, which isn't a lot to create a significant experience. At the same time, 'A Study in Cyberpunk' was released which, while lacking the sexy interface of OBT, seems to be quite deep and well-written and clocks in with over 5 times as many words. The cost? Identical.
Whoah nice, I'm still in the middle so I'm looking forward that! A Study in Steampunk seems more like a gamebook I think, while OBT is more similar to Lifeline, because in gamebook we read stories and became the chara, like rpg, while in OBT we communicate with the main chara. All dialogue with no narrative. It gives different feeling, but I was also curious with A Study in Steampunk. Maybe I'll try it after this
Finished the game, love the story concept! But it all finished so suddenly...I don't know whether the story is already finished or not Spoiler because there are some "connection lost", I thought he won't contact me again and I managed to guess the code from the given clue. I still prefer Lifeline though, but I'd love to see more from TheCodingMonkey if they're gonna make another game like this!
The first update will add a slightly extended ending Spoiler and also prevent players from accidentally ending the story prematurely.
Unclear about what just happened OK, my game just ended, but I think it might have been premature. Spoiler I got to the point where the transfer for the Stranded guy to get a new identity was 77% done, and the connection between he and I was lost. "Disconnected," I think. I guessed the code to cancel the trip and entered it. The game asked me if I wanted to cancel, and I said yes. Then the game just ended. I'm thinking that is a mistake, but I'm sure not going to be taking the time to play through it all over again. Too bad.
Im near the end (it's dragging on) and I want to say that this game could have befitted from a lot of editing and a tighter script. I'm not feeling the suspense every time he disappears now, so much as just wanting to see the end already.
I finally finished the game and got my thoughts down on paper if anyone's interested: http://www.appunwrapper.com/2015/12/01/one-button-travel-review/
