Das Geisterschiff, a Turn-Based Adventure (in development)

OK, I grabbed the demo. It looks really good. What's are your results on trying to get this on Steam. This looks really polished.

The wireframe style will put some people off unfortunately I think. The music is great.

(The following comes across as too critical but its not meant to be. Please take it in the spirit its meant to be. I know how difficult it is to make a game and hats off you for dealing with the Unity engine.)

The controls throw me off. The first thing I did was reach for my mouse, which of course, doesn't do anything. Then I started using my arrow keys which turned out to cycle through the always on menu instead of moving my character. I'm in the "Controls Sheet" and I see you can't remap the keys. I prefer to turn than to strafe (which since Doom people have done the opposite) but if I could get the arrows to remap to turn that make it more enjoyable for me.

Not only can't I remap the keys I can't figure out how to exit Controls Sheet. Intuitively I pound the ESC keep but it keeps not working the 5th and 6th time I hit it. Normally I use ESC to pause the game and toggle the menu and only then I am ok with using the arrows to scroll through them

There's a little too much German for English speaking audiences I think. And by "too much" I mean "any". So far the translations are great but there are things like "Controls Sheet" instead of "Control Sheet" (or more simply, "Controls") and area names in German which are noticeable.

Again, this thing has a lot of polish and I think you can make a few bucks. These are just recommendations. I think it could be the difference for you whether some kid in the middle of Nova Scotia punches in his dad's credit card number and transfers his cash to you then tells all his friends what a great game this is.

I know non-native English speakers have had to put up with a lot but for the same reasons English speakers are spoiled. If I were to recommend a game named "Das Geisterschiff" to a few of my friends, 100% chance they won't buy it. If I saw it on Itchio and not here the first thing that would popup in my mind is "obscure German game" then move on. "The Ghost Ship" is a really catchy name in English and native speakers would definitely look twice when they saw it.

I hope I don't come across as too critical. I do realize its probably too late to add mouse controls at this point and it may be too late for some language localization.

 
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OK, I grabbed the demo. It looks really good. What's are your results on trying to get this on Steam. This looks really polished.

The wireframe style will put some people off unfortunately I think. The music is great.

(The following comes across as too critical but its not meant to be. Please take it in the spirit its meant to be. I know how difficult it is to make a game and hats off you for dealing with the Unity engine.)

The controls throw me off. The first thing I did was reach for my mouse, which of course, doesn't do anything. Then I started using my arrow keys which turned out to cycle through the always on menu instead of moving my character. I'm in the "Controls Sheet" and I see you can't remap the keys. I prefer to turn than to strafe (which since Doom people have done the opposite) but if I could get the arrows to remap to turn that make it more enjoyable for me.

Not only can't I remap the keys I can't figure out how to exit Controls Sheet. Intuitively I pound the ESC keep but it keeps not working the 5th and 6th time I hit it. Normally I use ESC to pause the game and toggle the menu and only then I am ok with using the arrows to scroll through them

There's a little too much German for English speaking audiences I think. And by "too much" I mean "any". So far the translations are great but there are things like "Controls Sheet" instead of "Control Sheet" (or more simply, "Controls") and area names in German which are noticeable.

Again, this thing has a lot of polish and I think you can make a few bucks. These are just recommendations. I think it could be the difference for you whether some kid in the middle of Nova Scotia punches in his dad's credit card number and transfers his cash to you then tells all his friends what a great game this is.

I know non-native English speakers have had to put up with a lot but for the same reasons English speakers are spoiled. If I were to recommend a game named "Das Geisterschiff" to a few of my friends, 100% chance they won't buy it. If I saw it on Itchio and not here the first thing that would popup in my mind is "obscure German game" then move on. "The Ghost Ship" is a really catchy name in English and native speakers would definitely look twice when they saw it.

I hope I don't come across as too critical. I do realize its probably too late to add mouse controls at this point and it may be too late for some language localization.


Thanks for trying the demo and comments. You didn't come across as too critical. :)

We're currently working to get it on Steam with the target release date in December. By that time the game will have an additional layer of polish too, which is a plus.

Remappable keys would indeed be a good addition, but I they kinda fell off my radar during the development -- I'll consider adding these in the next project I have in mind, which is a similar game and might benefit from this.

As for the ability to turn off the control sheet with ESC -- that's a good idea. Added to my TODO list. :)

The languages used in the signs are not limited to German -- there are some signs in Japanese (in the tutorial) and English (in certain parts of the game). This may be a strange decision, but I believe it adds a lot to the feeling of being in a foreign and potentially hostile environment.
 
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It does give it some color for sure - I'm mostly thinking the game's name is going to throw off English speaking audiences at launch.

Even giving it a subtitle "Das Geisterschiff, The Ghost Ship" I think would work wonders. Getting past "obscure German game", too, I think would really help sales.

I know people who wouldn't buy Divine Divinity because its such a dumb name in English.
 
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It does give it some color for sure - I'm mostly thinking the game's name is going to throw off English speaking audiences at launch.

Even giving it a subtitle "Das Geisterschiff, The Ghost Ship" I think would work wonders. Getting past "obscure German game", too, I think would really help sales.

I know people who wouldn't buy Divine Divinity because its such a dumb name in English.

A subtitle... is an interesting suggestion. I'm thinking more of changing the store page title to Das Geisterschiff / The Ghost Ship, which is close enough. :)
 
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