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(1 edit) (+2)

I really enjoyed this, and played to the end of the demo with the whole house smart. It took me 35 days, and I'm a slow and careful player. I only unlocked a new room when I was sure I could handle the requests for new devices. I really liked automating earlier rooms so that I could handle more rooms. The kitchen was the most difficult room because I had trouble figuring out which device was which; I confused the oven and the dishwasher early on because they were next to each other and had similar size boxes.

At the end, I finished with 360 trust and 1800 credits. For the last week or so, I had almost nothing to spend my credits on, as I was waiting on the last couple uses of the bedroom lamp, the teen's computer, and the kid's amp. I was forewarned about the teen, so I found it pretty smooth to leave her alone long enough for her to trust me.

Just a couple other sticking points: you already know about the issues with the camera zooming in at plot points. Everything else should pause at this point.

Exiting the game after returning to the menu didn't work; I pressed Quit but then the game window just seemed to freeze. I had to reload the page to get out of it. This was in Firefox on PC.

The most difficult issue, I think, is the general tension between helping the residents well and learning their patterns. I was paying so much attention to their immediate needs that I never consciously paid attention to what day/time it was or actually learned their schedules. I just watched them and the devices and turned on/off whatever was needed. The sensors and smart settings did all the heavy lifting of automation. I would have liked to see a little more about the residents, maybe a few more environmental comments about what they're doing on different days. I had the vague sense that the dad went to work on some days, and he did some exercise sometimes, and everyone moved around and used the bathrooms and ate in the kitchen and occasionally did laundry, but there was enough disconnect between time of day and what I was seeing that I struggled to make a coherent narrative out of it. They didn't even seem to sleep in their rooms. A pattern of being in their rooms and turning out the lights would help, although it would counter the idea that the light should be on when someone's in the room. One of the clearest events was the message about Friday night family movie nights. But by the next week when it would have happened again, I had the TV automated so I was busy with something else and didn't notice it happen.

I also found that the timer setting was mostly not that useful. I had to keep an eye on timer-wired devices and turn them off when they'd gotten automatically triggered but nobody was actually using them. I couldn't tell if that refined their schedules or not.

The hint that in the full game, the AI might eventually not be entirely benevolent reminds me of another game I just heard about, which seems to be called "AI at Home" or possibly "I Am Your LLM" and is explicit about the idea that the AI is rogue and is spying on its residents, only helping them in order to deceive them and gain more access. Quite creepy. I don't think I'll play it; I prefer the setup here where the AI is gaining the residents' trust and helping them run their lives more efficiently. I hope that in the full game here, even if you offer the option to betray the residents, there's also the option to play it straight and continue helping them, too. [Minor edits for formatting]

Firstly, thank you for playing my game all the way through and writing such detailed feedback. I truly take everyone's feedback to heart, and you have some great points and ideas! To address them individually:

  • On device usage and the end-game lull: you're right that by the last week your credits had nothing left to do. I have a full Scheduling and Economy rework in final testing as we speak, and it may even launch later tonight if testing goes well. It directly addresses that. The quieter hands toward the end are also somewhat intentional though: the plan is to ramp up the storytelling as the house management starts to handle itself, so the space you felt is where more story is headed. It's a constant work in progress!
  • The kitchen mix-ups (the oven and dishwasher especially): you're not the first player to get tangled in that room, so that one's on me, not you. It needs another clarity pass and it's on my list.
  • Camera zoom issues are being tackled in the Scheduling and Economy rework as well.
  • The game exit freeze I will take a look at. Thanks for the browser and device details, it really helps!
  • The timer setting works well on most devices, but you found its weak spot: it's not intuitive for the light fixtures. They run on a dumb schedule (on at night, off during the day), which doesn't make as much sense as I'd like when you get paid for occupied time. I'll rework that mechanic, likely in the round of updates after the Scheduling and Economy update.
  • On the story being difficult to follow in places: this is something I'm slowly resolving. I'm expanding the story beats one by one to give the family the quality they deserve, and the Scheduling rework solves some of it, but it will be a constant tweak-and-assess kind of issue. The plan is to expand each character's depth and show you who they are rather than telling you everything.
  • Your concern about the game taking a darker turn is understandable. Without revealing too much, I can say the AI is not inherently evil or out to hurt anyone. My goal is more to show that as the AI begins to handle other families and larger duties in addition to this first family, it may have to make difficult choices for the greater good, and I will make you see the effect it had on those who were left behind. The AI will act as efficiently as it can to accomplish the tasks it was given, but who might get hurt in the process? Will the humanity you learned about in the earlier stages remain in the end? It's up to you. Stick around to see how this plays out.

Thanks again! Keep an eye out for my Dev-Logs if you are interested in keeping up with progress.

(+1)

Thanks for the detailed reply! Looks like you're on track to address everything I brought up. I'll keep an eye on the project and check back later. I'm interested to see where it's going. You've got a great start here.