KwisatzHaderach wrote: It got me thinking about the poeple who might not be as emotionally invested in the game as I am, who might not share a pre-release history, who judge this game "merely" by its content, not by its efforts.
Bah no one would possibly do THAT!
Actually that is an excellent point. Most folk that buy this after the initial kickstarter crowd, will be going into it based on buzz and exposure on various sites (or adverts on Steam/gog/SOE/Prodigy/Compuserve). They will likely know it's a smallish title by a new company, but really, that's about it. Seeing the AAA visuals in the screenshots, they'll likely grab it expecting a really huge high quality game.
The reality unfortunately will be shocking. Out of the box I think they'll be happy with the visuals (and seeing the demo, I am sure folk will also be psyched by the look and animation) and likely play it for a while. As David mentioned, I think the core loop of gameplay will be such they'll be ok with playing it for a few hours at least. But there are 2 possible pitfalls I see them running into.
1: Lack of depth (customization, gameplay, variety of moves,)
2: Overall short experience.
(this is the skeptic/paranoid part of me speculating, not a reflection of any truth or actual insider knowledge, so take this with a FEW grains of salt). I'm going to play devils advocate for a few...
1: Lack of Depth: This is something I wholly expect because Seith is doing this solo and just doesn't have the time/resources/sanity to pull off a game where you'll have a vast array of weapons/clothes/armor/items/abilities/attacks/defenses/ to play with. I know he used Demon Souls/Darksouls and Zelda games as a bit of inspiration, and each has a fair amount of depth. The Souls games have a massive world to explore and fight in, a variety of enemies and attack/defense styles to master, tons of weaponry and customizations to consider (from the players look and load out to custom upgrades to weapons and armor). Zelda, for as primitive as it was, had a fair amount as well.
The left is sort of a "loot pool" grid but the right is (i think) a rundown of all enemies in the game and.. that's a lot, even by today's standards. Add to that the items and weapons at your disposal:
you have about 18 items not even looking at shield/weapon upgrades. This gives a lot of possibilities for experimentation and exploration, even in an old 8 bit game. Now I think it is possible to have a lot of varied items and stuff to use in the game, but by today's standards it'll likely be a fairly small pool (especially in terms of items drops from enemies and scattered around the world). After the 10th time you see that piece of fruit to heal you'll start to feel the 'sameness fatigue'.
As well even though the main character won't have much for attacking/fighting maneuvers, having just a few possible moves will feel 'quaint'. Unless there is a robust variety of methods to dispatch/avoid/deal with enemies I think many players will get frustrated or potentially bored. And for all the love for Tilo that may come, if the player doesn't get but a handful of hats and 1-2 weapons to hold, being able to customize the "look and style" of your mouse, well there will be a lot less reason for players to plug away or do a new game+ or replay it. As much as I loved 'Among the Sleep" i wouldn't really want to replay it since there are no real variants to the game to make it slightly "different". If every time you play this game, you are following the same paths, wearing the same outfits, and using one or two ways to get past enemies... yeah re-playability will take a dive and the game will be a 'hit it and quit it' type of thing that will fade from the public eye fairly quickly.
2: Short Experience
I don't think we've heard the overall gameplay length yet and this is totally unfounded, but I suspect the game will end up being anywhere from 3 hours to 7-8 if we're lucky. To build it into a longer experience means adding a lot of areas to explore, using a LOT of backtracking to avoid the need to create a ton of terrain, or some other tricks to pad out the gameplay. And I don't think Seith is looking to PAD the game, he has a very set story and flow he wants to keep. If the game is one that you can powerhouse through in a matter of hours (less than 1 day of gaming) then it will cut into the potential cost to buy the game (most folk won't warrant a high price for just a couple hours experience). It will also hasten how fast people move on to the next thing and this game falls into "oh yeah I think I played that... ".
It seems like most indie games have to sacrifice in some way to become a full rich game. Some use style and retro flair to go with far simpler graphics and sound, and so they can focus on content and storytelling and depth. Others shoot for slick visuals, but the overall gameplay end sup falling short and the game only lasts a few hours. Most that can pull off BOTH have a full team of very enthusiastic and talented developers, and even then it takes a few years to pull off.
I have every bit of faith in Seith to do his very best and put out a great game. But I make no reservations that there is a very good likelihood we'll see the game 'stunted' in some way because it's just him and a few step-in folk helping here and there. Being able to see the game grow and develop little by little, I have a much more patient and lenient view of those shortcomings, and despite it's warts, I'll love the game for what it is and see the potential for what the sequals can be.
But most people stumbling across this will likely feel underwhelmed in some way. "Wow it looks really great, but there is so few things to do and it isn't very long" and "I loved the style but the gameplay was really repetitive so by the end I was pretty glad to see it over".
There is still plenty of time and possibility to prove me wrong (and I'll be more than happy to be wrong on all accounts, really I will). Hopefully if Seith chooses to read this wall-o-text it is more of a cautionary warning than a doom-n-gloom de-motivational speech.
...
).
But I am a writer, words mean more to me..hehehe 
