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TalkBack / Re: Outbuddies DX (Switch eShop) Review
« on: July 02, 2020, 05:28:19 AM »
Hey Guys,
I'm the developer of Outbuddies and want to comment on some points in this review. I had already discussed some of them with Zachary on Twitter and I also got a lot of good takeaways of what may need iteration for future updates. Anyway, I also feel I need to take a stance and comment on some of the game's core concepts that are dismissed in this review. Outbuddies is a polarizing game with review scores for the Switch ranging from 50 – 95; this is the lowest score a MC-relevant site has ever given to the game though.
Sub-par tutorials: A patch is on the way for the Switch to provide a more hands-on approach to the Buddy controls as well as object-interactions. Possible inputs will now be overlayed in-game to support the tutorial texts. We'll also have an in-game manual to quickly display all possible inputs and provide some orientation what the map symbols mean.
Bad Map: Yeah, the map, my nemesis. I know it is not as good as in other games, but I personally think it still gets the job done. Check marks for each room are displayed in a rasterized way, meaning they'll always appear at a room's top left corner.
CoOp: On CoOp, Buddy will be granted offensive options to support the player and can also build blocks for the player to walk on. This fundamentally changes the way the game can be played, allowing for a huge number of sequence breaks as Buddy can basically design new level structures on the fly. I fell CoOp was not really tested in this review. Few people tried CoOp but I got really positive Feedback from the ones who did.
Slow/ unsatisfying movement and combat: It's a point I cannot really understand myself. There's a run button that allows for very fast movement and there's no stamina limit. You've a steam-powered Dodge-Roll that maintains horizontal control during i-frames, so basically any attack pattern can be dodged. The character feels quite heavy, that's intended as we're talking about a guy in a Steam-powered pressure suit. Underwater movement allows strafing and Steam-dashing, which is essential for having a good experience underwater; we found that Zachary missed the tutorial explaining this, this is also my fault and needs improvement. A huge part of the satisfaction the game provides comes from movement upgrades that allow traversal on a completely different level, but it's a 15-20 hour game, so you'll need to stick with it for a while to have this experience.
Anyway, even the early-game move set can be exploited to have some pretty erratic runs. Here's a video of one of my best players, who also helped to shape the game for the speed runner community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqspzhvSjOA&t=296s
Way finding is tedious/ too difficult: While the early game is rather linear it becomes an open experience once you reach the central HUB area. There’s always multiple paths to go but all of them are viable options to progress. The teleporter system which got improved for DX and the map design is constructed in loops - no matter where you go you'll always find something. Outbuddies fully commits to non-linearity. The game does no hand-holding when it comes to progression, that's fully intended. There was a point in Zachary's play through where he abandoned the run cuz a boss seemed to take no damage. That's my fault, I had forgotten to implement a pixel shader indicating the damage. It will be fixed soon. I've worked with my Steam community for over 6 months since the PC release to make sure there are no soft-locks in the game, no matter how crazy you sequence-break.
Thank you for your review and our chat, Zachary. I, of course, respect your opinion on the game and you for sure helped me pinpoint some more downfalls I can fix for the future.
Wish you all the best,
Julian
I'm the developer of Outbuddies and want to comment on some points in this review. I had already discussed some of them with Zachary on Twitter and I also got a lot of good takeaways of what may need iteration for future updates. Anyway, I also feel I need to take a stance and comment on some of the game's core concepts that are dismissed in this review. Outbuddies is a polarizing game with review scores for the Switch ranging from 50 – 95; this is the lowest score a MC-relevant site has ever given to the game though.
Sub-par tutorials: A patch is on the way for the Switch to provide a more hands-on approach to the Buddy controls as well as object-interactions. Possible inputs will now be overlayed in-game to support the tutorial texts. We'll also have an in-game manual to quickly display all possible inputs and provide some orientation what the map symbols mean.
Bad Map: Yeah, the map, my nemesis. I know it is not as good as in other games, but I personally think it still gets the job done. Check marks for each room are displayed in a rasterized way, meaning they'll always appear at a room's top left corner.
CoOp: On CoOp, Buddy will be granted offensive options to support the player and can also build blocks for the player to walk on. This fundamentally changes the way the game can be played, allowing for a huge number of sequence breaks as Buddy can basically design new level structures on the fly. I fell CoOp was not really tested in this review. Few people tried CoOp but I got really positive Feedback from the ones who did.
Slow/ unsatisfying movement and combat: It's a point I cannot really understand myself. There's a run button that allows for very fast movement and there's no stamina limit. You've a steam-powered Dodge-Roll that maintains horizontal control during i-frames, so basically any attack pattern can be dodged. The character feels quite heavy, that's intended as we're talking about a guy in a Steam-powered pressure suit. Underwater movement allows strafing and Steam-dashing, which is essential for having a good experience underwater; we found that Zachary missed the tutorial explaining this, this is also my fault and needs improvement. A huge part of the satisfaction the game provides comes from movement upgrades that allow traversal on a completely different level, but it's a 15-20 hour game, so you'll need to stick with it for a while to have this experience.
Anyway, even the early-game move set can be exploited to have some pretty erratic runs. Here's a video of one of my best players, who also helped to shape the game for the speed runner community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqspzhvSjOA&t=296s
Way finding is tedious/ too difficult: While the early game is rather linear it becomes an open experience once you reach the central HUB area. There’s always multiple paths to go but all of them are viable options to progress. The teleporter system which got improved for DX and the map design is constructed in loops - no matter where you go you'll always find something. Outbuddies fully commits to non-linearity. The game does no hand-holding when it comes to progression, that's fully intended. There was a point in Zachary's play through where he abandoned the run cuz a boss seemed to take no damage. That's my fault, I had forgotten to implement a pixel shader indicating the damage. It will be fixed soon. I've worked with my Steam community for over 6 months since the PC release to make sure there are no soft-locks in the game, no matter how crazy you sequence-break.
Thank you for your review and our chat, Zachary. I, of course, respect your opinion on the game and you for sure helped me pinpoint some more downfalls I can fix for the future.
Wish you all the best,
Julian
