Initial Feedback + Proposed Hotfix

Initial Feedback

So after a day of folks trying the game, I got quite a bit of feedback, mostly positive, but there were a few issues that popped up. 

Frustrating Controls

Players frequently identified basic aspects of gameplay as leading to a sluggish gaming experience. Here were the most common critiques:

• Text scroll speed is too slow
• Player moves too slow, should hustle when double clicking
• Fast Travel option would be nice
• Player shouldn't have to go to the Living Room Couch or MC Bedroom in order to Rest

Unclear Direction

Many players couldn't figure out what to do at the start of the game and in some cases didn't discover that the HUD appears when you move the mouse up to the top of the screen.

• The Heads Up display in the upper left and upper right of the screen are hidden until you mouse over them. Because this is not obvious, some players didn't discover these functions were available until after several frustrating minutes of head scratching.
• The most immediate quest available upon starting the actual game gave players some trouble. You are told in your Journal that you must clean your room, but there are a total of six things you have to pick up. If you only pick up five, you can get the impression you DID clean your room and be missing the sixth item, often the trash can at the far right of the screen. This quest is made further confusing by the fact that the bed has a Make Bed option on it, which isn't one of the six things.
• Many players have had trouble with the Courage quest for the basement. This puzzle was conceived to unlock a Bonus Character, so it was made extra hard. In retrospect, this puzzle should be either made easier or built-in hints should better guide the player toward what they're supposed to do.

Game Crashes/Serious Bugs

• Using the Newspaper anywhere other than MC bedroom locks up the game.
• A debug hotspot was left in during the closeup of Meredith sitting at the edge of the trunk that activates a random "penis" camera zoom.
• Using more squarish aspect ratios, such as 3/4, the design decision to put Exit hotspots on the left and right of the screen makes the game unplayable, because the exit hotspots on closeups cannot be exited, maybe the game essentially unplayable.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but I can comb through the thread and find them.

Proposed Hotfix

The game-crashing or game-locking bugs really warrant a hotfix to be built. This proposed hotfix would be based off of build 0.9.3a and changes would be limited to what can be reasonably fixed without the risk of corruption of existing Saved Games. I have identified the following to be fixed, which should not jeopardize existing saves.

Required

1. Add a slider to increase text scroll speed.
2. Enable double-click to have the player move at double speed.
3. Fix the Newspaper lockup when not in MC bedroom.
4. Remove debug hotspot in Meredith sitting scene that zooms into a random d***
5. Fix side Exit hotspots so the game is playable on less rectangular aspect ratios

Maybe

1. Add Quest Progress update banners when cleaning your bedroom [x of 6 items picked up].
2. I will look into making the HUD (Map, Inventory, Journal, Settings) onscreen at all times, not just when you hover over them. I just need to make sure doing that won't introduce new problems.

I've already completed some of these and will continue working down the list. Thanks for playing Five of a Kind!

-Jorogr