Good Job Everyone (Hardcore Gamer Review)

[Pepisolo]

Good job everyone, Starward Rogue recently received a great review from Hardcore Gamer, and the community contributions in particular gained a lot of praise.

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2016/02/15/review-starward-rogue/190393/

"The other aspect expanding Starward Rogue‘s lifespan is its community involvement. The game is made to be cracked open and played with, letting you tweak its settings and create new content, and these get regularly incorporated into official game updates. New enemies, bosses, and room layouts have all been added in a string of updates since the game’s launch, and if the updates aren’t quite so numerous as they were before Arcen ran into financial issues they’re still frequent enough to make the game highly replayable. There’s nothing quite like finding a new common enemy that shoots laser-boomerangs, or explodes in giant concentric rings of suicide bullets, to give new life to a familiar setting."

You're all making a big difference to the game. Thanks!

[Misery]

or explodes in giant concentric rings of suicide bullets

What does that?

I cant keep track of half these things at this point.

[Pepisolo]

or explodes in giant concentric rings of suicide bullets

What does that?

I cant keep track of half these things at this point.

Y'know what...I'm not sure. There's probably something in the game that does it, heh. Or something similar.

[Misery]

Actually he may have meant the Bubbles, now that I think about it.  They're the only ones that explode into giant anything.  Which would of course mean I'd forgotten the existence of something I designed myself.  Dont I feel smart.

Most enemies in the game dont really use suicide bullets at all though, now that I think about it.  Maybe I should make some more that do.


Interesting review though.  I'm still just stunned that response to the game in general has been so positive.  Even on Steam the ONE negative review was all about graphics and story rather than gameplay (I really dont see the problem with the graphics...).  Though granted, most of the story IS missing.  Here's hoping the upcoming stuff later can stick that back in!

[crazyroosterman]

Actually he may have meant the Bubbles, now that I think about it.  They're the only ones that explode into giant anything.  Which would of course mean I'd forgotten the existence of something I designed myself.  Dont I feel smart.

Most enemies in the game dont really use suicide bullets at all though, now that I think about it.  Maybe I should make some more that do.


Interesting review though.  I'm still just stunned that response to the game in general has been so positive.  Even on Steam the ONE negative review was all about graphics and story rather than gameplay (I really dont see the problem with the graphics...).  Though granted, most of the story IS missing.  Here's hoping the upcoming stuff later can stick that back in!

just a slight correction there's a second one but its a not my thing but well made kind of review not the hurr durr this sucks kind of review.

[Logorouge]

Even on Steam the ONE negative review was all about graphics and story rather than gameplay (I really dont see the problem with the graphics...).  Though granted, most of the story IS missing.  Here's hoping the upcoming stuff later can stick that back in!

A few things to keep in mind about that one review, to get the proper context:
-It was a review copy he received.
-He couldn't care less about bullethell.
-He would never have bought the game in a hundred years.

I wish he would have specified that in his steam review instead of posting a rant video about it, but whatever. Please, just don't take it to heart, I doubt he put much care into that review to begin with anyway.

[Misery]

Even on Steam the ONE negative review was all about graphics and story rather than gameplay (I really dont see the problem with the graphics...).  Though granted, most of the story IS missing.  Here's hoping the upcoming stuff later can stick that back in!

A few things to keep in mind about that one review, to get the proper context:
-It was a review copy he received.
-He couldn't care less about bullethell.
-He would never have bought the game in a hundred years.

I wish he would have specified that in his steam review instead of posting a rant video about it, but whatever. Please, just don't take it to heart, I doubt he put much care into that review to begin with anyway.

Oh I know all of that.  I found that video later on.

The other negative review doesnt bug me.  The entire thing is literally one line:  "Bullet hell. Not my thing. Well designed, tho."   which.... okay.

I've had thoughts like that on LOTS of games, so... haha.

I'm not one to get bothered by the occaisional negative one anyway though.  To me, the game seems to have come out wonderfully.  Well, mostly wonderfully anyway.  I do get tired of fixing the damn bosses over and over, sigh...  always, ALWAYS I leave typos.  TYPOS. 

No, what bugs the hell out of me (and everyone else) is just the fact that the thing didn't sell.  The game came out so well, and then... that happens.  Ugh.  And then that's followed up by the problems overall for Arcen.  Just.... argh.  One of those things that gives me the "it's just not fair!" feeling.  Wish I could do something to help that, but I really cant.

[Pepisolo]

Oh I know all of that.  I found that video later on.

The other negative review doesnt bug me.  The entire thing is literally one line:  "Bullet hell. Not my thing. Well designed, tho."   which.... okay.

I've had thoughts like that on LOTS of games, so... haha.

I'm not one to get bothered by the occaisional negative one anyway though.  To me, the game seems to have come out wonderfully.  Well, mostly wonderfully anyway.  I do get tired of fixing the damn bosses over and over, sigh...  always, ALWAYS I leave typos.  TYPOS. 

No, what bugs the hell out of me (and everyone else) is just the fact that the thing didn't sell.  The game came out so well, and then... that happens.  Ugh.  And then that's followed up by the problems overall for Arcen.  Just.... argh.  One of those things that gives me the "it's just not fair!" feeling.  Wish I could do something to help that, but I really cant.

Actually, I'm thinking that you already have done a lot to help that. One of the main reasons this game has been so well received is, of course, all the work you've put in. Just the fact that this game has great reviews on Steam should help improve the long-term sales of the game, especially if we were to hit Overwhelmingly Positive, which looks like a possibility -- although I keep expecting things to fall apart on that front, heh. Great game + great reviews + steam sales = decent long-term sales overall? Maybe. Maybe. The game is never going to be big, of course, but I'd say there's a fair chance of the game doing well enough in the long run. That's what I'm hoping, anyway!

[Misery]

More specifically I meant that I wish I could have helped on the advertising side of things, since that seems to have been where the issue was.  Nobody seemed to hear about it, no major Youtubers tried it, GoG wouldnt take it (sigh), among all those other problems.

Granted, with the Youtubers it seems to be getting harder and harder these days to get that sort of thing going.  I dunno if it's the case for all/most of them, but all the ones I follow tend to pick a very few specific games (such as NorthernLion and Isaac, or Sleepcycles and Nuclear Throne) and then just do those over and over and over and over without really trying much new stuff.  Which I can understand, they gotta put out what works after all... but it sure dont make it easy for something new to really get out there.   It's getting kinda frustrating to watch.