KickStarter STASIS 2: BONE TOTEM - new isometric adventure in Stasis universe set in deep sea installation

[Pyke]

You can email any bug stuff to studio@thebrotherhoodgames.com as well!

Hey man, a few oddities with resolution handling. For win10 multi-monitor setup with no DPI scaling (aka scaling is 100%), the game launched in the lowest possible resolution rather than desktop/native. No problem, but FYI. Also the options of "Fullscreen, Windowed, Borderless" seem to a bit off. The Fullscreen option behaves like borderless while Borderless behaves like fullscreen. When set to fullscreen, you can move the mouse to a secondary monitor and interact with it without the game minimizing, while setting the game to borderless and doing the same causes the game to minimize.

The amount of options are good so far, but a few suggestions: give us some granularity in the bloom options between ON/OFF, like OFF/25/50/75/FULL or something. Also, please consider an option to lock the cursor to the game window for those of us playing borderless with multiple monitors. It's easy to pan the mouse out of the game window.

Ill pass that on to Nic and see what we can do! Thanks man - really appreciate it!

 

[CyberWhale]

Spoiler

Ah - You need to open the garage door.

Pull on the chain to open it. You can then go back to the junction box, and remove the sparking controller. Controlling Charlie now, combine the control unit with the spark plug (taken from the battery charger) - and replace it back into the junction box. This will open the garage door.

Spoiler

Stuck at the same place, and I literally have no idea what you are talking about. The garage door was slightly opened, but I can't enter it with the Kurosawa guy and the Lezbo is on another side (with the broken window) that can't be crossed. No spark, no interactive point where the straightened bar can be used, nothing. :/

Anyway, some feedback (even if it was already brought up):

- no subtitles in videos, need an option to enable them (should be On by default)
- intro video has SFX/background audio set too low
- default gameplay audio is also not calibrated right, but increasing voice audio improves it by a lot (improve default settings to fix it)
- as noted by other members and my feedback on pics, bloom should be turned down (or even better, provide us with settings like agris recommended)
- white text is obviously easier to read, but green one would better fit the mood and UI consistency. Tough decision to make. (having color text option would, again, be the best of both worlds)
- you need to make the cursor more feedback-y - hovering over an interactable spot (item that can be picked up and things that you can press/push) should change the cursor from the regular one to a modified one (a hand or a highlighted regular one)

That's pretty much it for improvement. I'm not yet sure about some of the design decisions, and I don't think you need much positive feedback on the games overall visuals, beautiful UI design (even loading!) and a wide array of settings (even quicksave/quickload!) you have in the options.

P.S. disregard the spoiler, was able to figure it out. Again, modifying the cursor would have helped (highlighting the usable item once it's hovered over an interactable spot as well).

P.P.S. Okay, this is embarrassing, I see that the cursor does get highlighted now (black inside lights with blue). I was expecting something more obvious. :/

 

[agris]

Pyke is the left side of the PDA supposed to run off the screen like this, or is this one of the joy's of 2D art and a non-16:9 display?

PDA image

 

[Pyke]

Hey man - no its not supposed to do that. :D

I'll have to see how best to resize the PDA UI - if its something we can do dynamically.

We do have safe zones where we've made sure anything interactable would be inside that space - but obviously when it comes to come of the full screen UI rendering the graphics are 'set' in their sizes!

 

[agris]

Hey man - no its not supposed to do that. :D

I'll have to see how best to resize the PDA UI - if its something we can do dynamically.

We do have safe zones where we've made sure anything interactable would be inside that space - but obviously when it comes to come of the full screen UI rendering the graphics are 'set' in their sizes!

I think the easy way to do it is to detect when a non-16:9 resolution is being used and pillar/letter-box the 2D art like that. Depending on how you coded hotspots for mouse interaction, you/Nic may have a lot of algebra homework to do :D

Also, return of the scrollwheel bitchiing (sorry). That PDA message log list on the left hand side does scroll with the mouse wheel, but it scrolls by pixels not lines. Meaning it moves like a snail through molasses.

edit: an even easier (but I don't like this) way to do it is to restrict the game's resolution to 16:9 offerings and just make sure you keep everything aspect ratio correct. My 16:10's native is 2560x1600, which I'm playing in, but I noticed there was no 16:9 version of it, i.e. 2560x1440. Your resolution handling did let me select 1920x1200 (16:10) or 1920x1080 (16:9).

It looks like the game is handling the main menu, movies, and gameplay screens well with no obvious cropping - although the viewport of the first two maps is very very zoomed in. I checked other resolutions and it didn't change, so I'm assuming you set the amount of zoom relative to the map size and it's resolution independent.

 

[agris]

actually, i take it back. the cropping from using 16:10 does impact the main game screen. it's pretty hard to click on.. Mac? in the bottom-left because the show/hide interface bar's interaction zone mostly overlaps with him.

viewport

 

[lightbane]

Pyke is the left side of the PDA supposed to run off the screen like this, or is this one of the joy's of 2D art and a non-16:9 display?

That reminds me about more feedback: You should have the current PDA message you're reading highlighted and/or of a different color, as right now they all look the same, even the read ones. It's optional, but it would be cool if the characters react to what you read just like CAYNE, although this time put an artificial delay so that it doesn't seem they have super-reading skills.


Lastly, I'm not sure if it's not implemented or a bug, but the "Classic Camera" key doesn't seem to do anything.

 

[agris]

the UNICODE-like blocks next to the "Corrupted entry" would make good markers indicating what entry you're currently reading. I was confused at first because I thought that's what they were.

 

[Pyke]

All solid stuff gents! I'm gonna write these all in our database and go through them with Nic tomorrow!

Thanks so much for taking the time to go through the game and help us out. It's always a little daunting to put things like this out into the world.

BTW - if you do get stuck at any point, here is a walkthrough:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qznKSPBw1ctvmkzkryhp-THYf7r7eNymXqEXBzdlDdU

 

[lightbane]

Alright, played the (new) demo. My impressions/comments/rant/spoilers:

Spoiler

-The game looks too dark now. Despite everyone having flashlights, it's too dark to see shit.
-It would be cool if you could edit graphic options ingame to check what exactly these do, as I didn't notice much change despite fiddling with the options.
-The girl's new portrait pic is REALLY horrendous. I don't know why you changed it, or why the "insufferable feminist" type still exists in the far future.
-The bear is disturbing in a way it's hard to place, perhaps the combination of the uncanny valley effect of looking too realistic and being child-like in personality, contrasting heavily in what seems to be the movie stage of the average slasher movie. If that's an old toy, I worry what future toys are supposed to be trending in this Dark Future (TM). Legit slave companion androids? Also, why does a robot bear pant while running as if it could breathe?
-The PDAs have interesting writing as expected, but I hope there are actual conversations as well. As expected, with corporate dystopias come a new feudal system of sorts with Corpos being the new nobles of said system.
-The new puzzles are a bit confusing as you can't tell what can be interact with or not on a first glance, as mentioned before.
-I may be misremembering from the first demo, but I swear it was possible to have the turret shoot the bear, which doesn't seem to be the case here. A missed opportunity for an horrifying death scene.
-It wold be cool, if perhaps quite expensive and time-consuming, to have for each character unique descriptions of their surroundings. You already do that with inventory items, but it would be an extra nice touch if for example the bear-toy used child-like descriptions upon examining stuff. It already does that to some degree with the "dialogue" it has upon seeing a corpse.
-At first, I thought the man was a coward years ago, but now, after considering he lives in a corporate horror future, he fought in an unexplained war, and suffered loss, I can understand his caution.
-Ten bucks the girl and/or the bear suffer an horrible and disturbing fate (TM) in the finale or before that. At least it won't be "but it was just a loop and your efforts are pointless!" ending.
-CAYNE continues to be extra-extravagant in everything, except for the sea platform which is oddly low-tech, so to speak. Cutting corners I guess?
-CRT Monitors somehow still exist in this future, which means things are really dark and bleak. I hope that at least social networks didn't make it to the Dark Future.
-In before undersea mummies with extra bone put into them.

 

[Pyke]

We updated the demo with the 'quality of life' things - resolution adjustments, some UI stuff - adjustable bloom, green/high contrast text options, PDA selection UI, etc.
Still working on some of the mouse options (getting the borderless/constrained mouse stuff working, etc).

 

[CyberWhale]

We updated the demo with the 'quality of life' things - resolution adjustments, some UI stuff - adjustable bloom, green/high contrast text options, PDA selection UI, etc.
Still working on some of the mouse options (getting the borderless/constrained mouse stuff working, etc).

Game looks even better with Bloom set to Low, but green/high contrast texts doesn't seem to be working (or is it applied only partially?). You still haven't explained what the classic camera view is (or maybe I've missed it?) and I don't seen an option that indicates whether a particular text was read or not. Also, the read logs should be accessible from the menu the same way previous convos are. Also noticed the Video subtitles option was added, but didn't test that one yet.

 

[Pyke]

We updated the demo with the 'quality of life' things - resolution adjustments, some UI stuff - adjustable bloom, green/high contrast text options, PDA selection UI, etc.
Still working on some of the mouse options (getting the borderless/constrained mouse stuff working, etc).

Game looks even better with Bloom set to Low, but green/high contrast texts doesn't seem to be working (or is it applied only partially?). You still haven't explained what the classic camera view is (or maybe I've missed it?) and I don't seen an option that indicates whether a particular text was read or not. Also, the read logs should be accessible from the menu the same way previous convos are. Also noticed the Video subtitles option was added, but didn't test that one yet.

The high contrast text will only be visible in the PDA's (Without that its green). The ingame text we have to keep as the white.

Classic Camera is disabled for now - we still have some bug testing to do with it (mainly in terms of exits and safe frames that it alters - so it probably should be greyed out at the moment - but I'll see if Nic wants to enable it when we do another update).

I haven't taken a look at the video subtitles - but Nic may have done them with the new video. I'm plowing along with puzzle graphics for the last chapter of the game at the moment - so I've been quite 'hands off' with the demo and steamfest stuff... and wow do I feel guilty about it! But thanks for checking it out!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

This looks very, very promising. I have already loved Stasis, and Cayne.
Now I tried the demo for BT thanks to the recommendations.
Took me a while to finish this. Until I figured out how it works.
The "green" interact spots are only for flavor text? It's a lot of clutter when 'ping'.
Items exist and are used only on the "puzzle screens" that the blue interact spots bring up? I always have to click around frantically to figure out if I can do anything there at all.

Lastly : Passing items between characters is super convenient. Works anywhere, any time, even in puzzle screens.
But that makes me wonder why there isn't just a shared inventory to begin with? It would save a lot of clicks over the course of the game, for no tradeoff that I can see. Except the different characters "abilities", but they too could be consolidated into one interface.

Hope it releases soon, pls take my money!

Deep sea horror is the best! (To eat)

 

[Pyke]

This looks very, very promising. I have already loved Stasis, and Cayne.
Now I tried the demo for BT thanks to the recommendations.
Took me a while to finish this. Until I figured out how it works.
The "green" interact spots are only for flavor text? It's a lot of clutter when 'ping'.
Items exist and are used only on the "puzzle screens" that the blue interact spots bring up? I always have to click around frantically to figure out if I can do anything there at all.

Lastly : Passing items between characters is super convenient. Works anywhere, any time, even in puzzle screens.
But that makes me wonder why there isn't just a shared inventory to begin with? It would save a lot of clicks over the course of the game, for no tradeoff that I can see. Except the different characters "abilities", but they too could be consolidated into one interface.

Hope it releases soon, pls take my money!

Deep sea horror is the best! (To eat)

Thanks! We added in some tutorial prompts into the early part of the game to explain a little more how to play it. It's always a battle between keeping that organic, and having big arrows show up! But I think we have it pretty well. It is something we noticed while watching people play - that as soon as they 'get' how the puzzles work the game becomes more enjoyable - so we want to cut down that initial learning curve.

The new ping removes a lot of the clutter. It just highlights the interactable spots - but still shows the descriptors without the lines. I think it's a good compromise!

Yeah - Items are only usable in the puzzle screens. I think we may have to add in a tooltip to explain that - good catch!

The shared inventory was something we went back and forth on! Nic wanted to have a large shared inventory - but I fought for the individual inventories. For me, with the shared inventory it took away the feeling of the characters working together to solve a problem... it felt a little like they were one single entity rather than 3 separate characters. It's a small difference, but the core of the game really was this idea of these 3 'people' in different places having to help each other out. It really did come down to the shared inventory being 'too' streamlined and taking away a bit of the rough edges of the game. That may just be my arty-high-on-my-own-supply thinking!
It would also make the inventory very big on the screen - and I like the inventory being kept to as small a space as possible. By breaking it up into 3, and keeping the abilities also separate, we could have the items be bigger and the inventory smaller.
We also do some cool stuff with the character UI's later on in the game which are a lot of fun - and which wouldn't have had the same impact with a shared inventory.

Glad you enjoyed it! The game is shaping up to be a special one!

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Like the cleaner interface a lot, with lines just to the blue spots, makes it more obvious where I must go, but also I won't miss the wonderful "ambient text"!

I'm also sold now on the inventory as it is, I was mainly scared I might later have a character becoming unavailable while holding an item I need.. But I guess that can't happen, then.

Plus thinking about it some more the most obvious reasons for the separate inventory - all characters have different descriptions of each individual item.
A nice touch, that was not lost on me!

 

[Pyke]

Yeah exactly! And we have a lot of clues for the puzzles hidden in those descriptions. So you may have to pass the items around to each character - and hopefully one of them will give you some insight into what to do.

If you can't access a character directly - hover over their portrait and you can still grab items from their inventory. In a sense - you can still 'technically' access the entire inventory from a single character this way - but it still has the feeling of each character being separate.

Inventory management in the game has been a real challenge. Trying to make sure that items arent 'locked off' from a character before they leave a section has been an exersize in planning!

 

[lightbane]

Hopefully I haven't asked this already.

Random question: I believe I bought the digital key deluxe thing for this game, but I can't check it out in the official webpage for STASIS 2, as the "Rewards" section has disappeared or changed places. I would like to know if I still activated my Steam key correctly or not, just to be sure. Can you guys check?

 

[agris]

Also: Halloween release date?

 

[Pyke]

Hopefully I haven't asked this already.

Random question: I believe I bought the digital key deluxe thing for this game, but I can't check it out in the official webpage for STASIS 2, as the "Rewards" section has disappeared or changed places. I would like to know if I still activated my Steam key correctly or not, just to be sure. Can you guys check?

We can. :D just pop an email to studio at thebrotherhoodgames.com and Nic will check it on the Database!

Also: Halloween release date?

I don't think so. :D
But we are close. The ideal is to get the game 'done' so we can choose our release date based on the best date, rather than 'SHIT WE NEED TO RELEASE IT NOW'.
Nic actually wrote an update here:

https://thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/?pageno=1&pageMax=11&read=7351

Spoiler

WE ARE STILL ALIVE
October 15th, 2022 by brotherhood
Please excuse the lack of monthly updates. Chris and I have been slogging away at the game for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, but we are at the stage of development where we do not have much to show visually without spoiling the game (so to speak).

Chris has moved on to the cinematics, the deaths, and the story-related videos. He has completed all of the character designs and 3D high res models and is currently building the sets for the video production. I think you will be very impressed with our quality level, and it will really make the game POP!

Engine-wise, All puzzles are complete and playable, and I am now linking them all together in the game so that you can progress through each and actually experience the events in the correct order. I am halfway through this process, and the game feels great! I hope to wrap this up shortly. This means I can focus on polishing, sound effects, etc.

We are constantly making little improvements to the UI to make Bone Totem feel as slick as possible.

The diary content and over a thousand descriptions are already written and included in the game.

We have some exciting news to tell soon regarding the voice and script development - but we will keep that for a later update.

Feel free to come to say Hi to the fantastic crew on Discord; we post micro updates and chat daily.

 

[lightbane]

We can. :D just pop an email to studio at thebrotherhoodgames.com and Nic will check it on the Database!

Done.
Let's hope it works.

 

[oasis789]

apparently bone totem was nominated for the Games Industry Africa Awards and its a public vote. codex do your thang

 

[HoboForEternity]

did my brotherly duty

 

[Pyke]

Thanks gents!
And in other news...