The game is mediocre at best; only found out about it a couple of months ago so i'll not go into the debate about the kickstarter campaign and the amount of money raised (and 2 yers development), i didn't have huge expectations about it just thought it might come out as a giood game. The gameplay is very simplistic and gets boring fast, the token system is supposed to add some tension during battle but it's more stupid than clever; lag at the last levels and the occasional bug here and there; customization is almost not existant and also from a tactical point of view the game is not very deep (and i'm not considering the possible exploit of the "all in a red room" tactic). I saw people compalining about the difficulty of the game but i honestly found it not difficult at all; died only once as my captain got sucked out from a breach in the wall; i guess the comments must come from people not used to difficulty of the videogames in the 80's and early 90's. On top of that the game is very short. I hope they improve it with future patches but at the moment i can't give it more than a 6 or 7/10 (depending if i feel generous today or not)
This review was the top rated review on itunes until today. Last night, my rating had been changed from 1 star to 5 stars in itunes. After I tried to change it back to 1 star, my review was deleted.
I rated them a 3 star and gave them reasons for my rating with suggestions to improve the game on the Malaysian app store. It was never published. It's clearly filtered, all I see are 4 and 5 star ratings/reviews.
Only for profanity and so forth. I imagine its a server issue. It's not uncommon for a review to take a day or two to appear.
Did the developer have any body of previous work on display on Kickstarter? If not, whoever supported it is just as bad as the developer. This all reeks of a project that turned into a scam after these 'developers' (first timers?) realized they were in over their heads. Lack of professionalism does not go unnoticed in the long run. Let's see what they'll produce next (if anything) now that they'll be supporting themselves off of these sales. Oh, and FTL rules. Thanks, forum. First non iOS game I've bought in well over a year.
A week in, here's my 2 cents: Re: Kickstarter stuff - This is irrelevant to a polynomial exponential. Kickstarter is simply a crowd sourced fuzzy logic funding scheme. Assuming the project complies with the terms of KS and delivers a final product, that's it, no whining, no crying. You paid for something far ahead of time sight unseen - if you were expecting a video game that perfectly matched their promises and your imagination, this is a good life's lesson for you. Judge the game they delivered, not the game you imagined 18 months ago as you "invested" your $5 on a $3 iOS game. Re: the game they delivered - Meh. I'm not sure what possessed them to go with this particular combination of features and mechanics, but a solid vision of what they wanted the game to be was clearly not it. No wonder this went on for two years, and no wonder they wound up scrapping ~70% of their intentions along the way. I think the non-sequitur of combining high-res space backgrounds with bitmap style pixel graphics says it all as to the cohesiveness of this project. You have an awkward timer and token based waiting game crossed with reaction based "rhythm game" style mini games for ship to ship battles (is this supposed to be fun? to make me feel like the commander of an interstellar warship?). Sped up and separated from the other stuff, it could be decent, but it gets complicated by the real time, zilch AI personnel fighting that is taking place on a grid based system clearly intended for tactical turn based combat but scrapped because they couldn't figure out how to mesh the turn based X-Com style combat the on-board fighting desperately needs with ship combat. Then, no matter what the next mission is, you have as much time as you want to mess around at the end of fights, or even before you click on the comm button to initiate the next phase. You have this vomit guolash of a game combining rhythm mini games, timer presses, token queuing, crew movement and combat (which makes little sense in terms of abilities, give me an X-Com type load out any day of the week vs this sad little attempt at strategy gaming), and ship repair, that just progresses on like flesh eating bacteria until you win or lose, and then you gain infinite time before initiating the next battle... Exploits aside, the game's biggest problem is no final vision. It's not a bad game, it's not a good game, it's just a game you can play or not, but outside of the added drama from the pre-release hype, you'd barely remember it one way or the other.
UGH! This is perhaps the most frustrating part about this whole kick starter debacle. Just because these guys weren't able to deliver on their original idea, that DOES NOT mean that this project became a "scam" in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely a lesson here for both developers AND the donators, but calling the development and crowd funding for this game a "scam" is just about far as we can get from the truth. From what I understand, I do believe the developers for this game were first timers. And you're right, at some point during the game's development, they probably did realize they were in over their heads. Hell, I'd say they probably realized that several times throughout the project, at the very least. You're also right about the supporters of the game, though. It sure seems like a lot of people threw money at kick starter after hearing the pitch for the game, thinking only of how awesome that game would be instead of how POSSIBLE a game like that would be for these guys to achieve. The real lessons are clear. For kickstarter supporters: THIS SHIT IS NOT A RETAIL STORE. Set your expectations appropriately or you will find you are only perpetuating your own disappointment. Some times a game will come out great. Sometimes it will come out okay. Sometimes, it might not even come out at all! This is the reality of game development. This is the hard truth that comes with such transparency. You're not going to just see the highlights of the development, a few adverts, and then have the game in your hands. You're going to see every setback and failure, you're going to see the mistakes, and you're going to see direction change. For developers: As irresistible as it may be to be completely forward with your dreams and visions for the game you're going to make, perhaps it's NOT a good idea to be so open about that. At least not until people begin to truly understand that vision and product are rarely as close as you want them to be. On top of that, PLAN THIS SHIIIIIIT! Indie developers are going to have to learn the importance of reigning themselves in on these design concepts. It's one thing to have a If these hard truths are too much, then perhaps folks who can't handle it should learn to stick with game stop and the AAA. But for the rest of us, although games WILL vary in quality, we'll still get to be a very real part of the present and future of game development. These guys may have bitten off more then they can chew this time, but Star Command is still a great game to have under your belt, especially as their first effort. You can bet they learned a lot of lessons off this game, and personally, I can't wait to see how they apply it to their next endeavor. If not for things like kickstarter, these guys may have never even gotten the chance to attempt this. And at the end of the day, isn't that the best part of this system? Giving indies a chance to make games we might not ever get otherwise? Games they might not ever get the chance to try making? Maybe it doesn't always turn out solid, but if not for crowdfunding, they'd never get to try at all.
Not to veer too far off topic, but this is why I try to mainly support independent devs that do their development on the side of working a real paying job. So they are just making a game at their own pace with their own ideas without anyone to answer to. Most often those are the games that come out of nowhere and surprise me with creative new stuff. Heck often they surprise the dev at how well they are received by a community such as the one here. I think that's a really solid way to get in the business. If it fails then you still had fun making something and no one is really mad at you for not living up to the idea you sold them on investing in. IF it hits, then you build a good rep towards your next game. The funding behind this game was pretty crazy. Investing in someone that hasn't made games before is a bad idea. The DoubleFine kickstarter though was something a little more safe to support. Those guys have track records that go back many years. So, to those that put money into SC... live and learn.
I have to say I'm really disappointed with the end of the game and how you have to play the same missions over again. I love the new ships and the tactical change that comes with a bigger ship. Feels like a lot of thing were pulled from the game last moment looking at the entire game and its options.
I agree with you there airwalk. I didn't even realize I had won the game. I thought I was just getting a better ship and was going to continue onward. When the missions seemed Deja-Vu I realized the game flipped during the zombies.
My experience was pure crash buggs and invulnarable mobs, needing various restarts. For me it was extremely linear, below par experience.
This game seriously needs better descriptions, and a quick save feature. - How exactly do you dodge incoming attacks? I tap the enemy's hit target but nothing happens? My ship still gets hit? - What exactly does "ammo" do? I produce a unit of ammo, then tap the icon with the 3 targets, then nothing happens??
I thought I'd pop in to the thread to see what was new. I haven't thought of this game since the day after it came out.
You need to press the dodge button (bottom left, I think) when you see a target on your ship. The target tells you an attack is incoming. Hit dodge and you will evade the attack. Any ammo/tokens are needed to replenish shields, dodge or use the plasma cannon. Without tokens you can't use those even if they are charged. Alternatively if you have tokens you can't use the skills until they charge.
