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Hey Exit!

I have not heard of Elebits. I will certainly go check it out, thank you for the recommendation. 

I do actually have a Prologue the player will play before they reach the house that will provide a similar purpose to what you describe. The prologue sets up a few items the demo already hints at: 

What happened last spring? Why does the mom keep checking the freezer? Why is the dad paranoid about the breaker box? etc.

I plan to set up the story in a quick prologue while introducing the game mechanics. Think of it like a story rich short tutorial level.

Your version of "starting with a single object" was actually part of my original design and I plan to use some form of that idea in the prologue.

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.

Thanks for the kind words! I am still tweaking the UI to be easier to understand. I will adjust the tutorial to include operating the menu as well. Thank you for playing! Come back soon to see more!

I really appreciate the detailed feedback! There are some excellent ideas in here I will implement very soon.

• The house pausing on story beat camera actions is high priority on my list --expect this very soon.
• The visiting pedestrian is a story beat I am still working out, I have some changes coming to most of the story to make it more coherent and flow with the game pace coming in my next series of polish updates.
• The family member Queueing I have only really noticed for the shower. I will run some testing on this and see what I can find.
• The double-click action for the circuits was originally you wire the receptacle first and then the receptacle to the device. I will likely change this to a single click action as you suggest as that would make more sense and be a better experience for the player.
• Learning for most devices is based on call/serve counts. For example the Washer may say "Learn 0/2" which would mean you need to serve the washer when it is called twice to progress. The light fixtures are slightly different and learn based on "wanted" power time (wanted being someone is in the room and requires light). I will see if I can explain these mechanics more clearly through the UI to avoid confusion.
• The Teen light and computer issues you mention are also actually part of the story beats. I am trying to make this clearer in future updates, but to quickly explain the teen is rebellious against the AI and insists on doing things herself (without your help). She turns the computer on and off by herself, she turns off the light if you activate it for her, etc. If you leave her alone for about a day she starts to let you help her, and eventually becomes one of the most prolific users.
• I reduced the laundry to once or twice a week to try and be more realistic. To compensate I reduced the amount of uses needed for the AI to "learn" and progress to the next automation level. I am still tuning the device usage and learning rates and I will spend some extra attention to the laundry devices.
• The assistant messing with the house and having the residents respond is a great idea! I already have planned for some hidden interactions based on "unusual" actions a player may decide to take. Keep an eye out and experiment in future updates.

Thank you so much for playing my game and giving me such great feedback! If you are so inclined, I update daily and I post Dev-Logs at every major update. I will be posting a community Discord soon, along with a Steam page.

You are reading my mind. I am working on several of these hidden interactions. Some already are implemented and I will continue to add more to make the family and house feel more alive and responsive to the player. I'm glad you are picking up on the "something sinister", because I have big plans and our helpful AI may not be as helpful as it first appears. I won't say more for fear of spoilers. I will release a roadmap soon that will go over some of the scope increases of the game.

Thank you for the feedback. I am working to bring more life into the late-stage of the house. I am also about to push a UI/UX rework that includes much of this device balancing to make it feel better. Thanks for playing my game!

Thank you for playing my game! I will see if I can adjust the camera movements to be less intrusive while still getting the story beats across. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for playing! I am working on a fix for the computer and the teen room. The teen room is actually part of the story but it does not translate well at the moment. The teen resists the AI forcing itself on her, if you leave her alone for a while she eventually allows you to help her. I will make this clearer in the next build.

Thank you for this. "Delightful and surprisingly engaging" next to "terrible performance" is exactly the honesty an alpha needs, and it sent me straight to work.

Good news: you were half right. The procedural art turned out not to be the expensive part. The real problem was that the game was redrawing everything constantly, even things sitting perfectly still. That's fixed now: still things cost nothing, and only what's actually moving does any work. 

The optimization update is live right *NOW* thanks to your feedback. I was able to recover 42% more frame time and 45% lower renderer loads.

The microwave-versus-oven confusion: already addressed in the latest build, so that should be gone. The tags pointing at the wrong device: great catch, and it's going into the next build.

Thanks for playing and for writing it all down. Fair warning: this comment may end up quoted in the next devlog.

I appreciate you playing my game!

Ha! It’s a tough one. I’ll adjust the schedules to send someone in there more often. Thank you for playing!