It's Showtime - Showcasing the Alpha

An Early look - Curator and the Floods Alpha v0.0.1

The Curator and the Flood was showcased in late May of this year, giving me an opportunity to connect with future fans and other devs alike. Some of you might be reading this now, so hello there!

While I've been working on ground work for the game in the background to give myself a time and a structure to continue development, it has given me time to process initial reaction to the gameplay.

Teething problems

Connecting and showcasing to my fellow industry professionals and gamers alike ensured I saw a lot of issues float to the surface. Thank you to my fellow experts in QA who swung by and broke the game in a few ways as well as checking the collision on every wall. It's a hard graft, but thankfully no issues found there. They did find a good few soft locks with the accept and reject system, so appreciate that one team.

Some issues were simply from the WIP state, the need for a tutorial, a bit more direction for the player when stuck. However, some great points were made to me that gave me reminders especially for my UI/UX design. Although nowhere near the final state, some users did struggle to find the accept and reject buttons on screen due to their size and how they blended in. Something definitely to be noted.

Positive reaction

Even with the issues above, the game was a hit with a lot of the players who came across. A lot of the reaction surrounded the unique mix of the Animal Crossing Museum and Galleries with the Papers Please gameplay. The ability to watch the exhibits fill in, although not implemented yet, had the players excited to watch visible progression happen in real time for the player.

Going forward

Hearing from players was fantastic and extremely valuable, especially at the stage where only the key features were in a functionable state for the players. Key mechanics will remain but will be expanded on, a tutorial will be a top priority along with opening cutscene to establish the premise more and a more robust UI system is in the works already.

More updates soon!