Stormwater - Complete Edition + Demo

FransisKransis · Tue 31/12/2024 17:47:55

Hey folks. It's that time of the year again for me, and this time around I finished* Stormwater.

What is Stormwater? It's an adventure game. And it has some shoot em' up action levels in it. And there are social sim mechanics too. Also you can customize your house, and there are a few RPG elements, also a time management system...

Anyway, it makes more sense when you play it.

The game is available to purchase on Itch and Steam for 11.99, and there's a free demo on Itch.io, if you just want to see what the heck I'm talking about.

*On the topic of 'finished', there are a few more small content updates I'm going to be rolling out over the next month, first on steam and then on Itch. But the main story campaign is totally done.

Stormwater Links:

On Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3349770/Stormwater__Complete_Edition/

On Itch.io: https://thinking-of-cremation.itch.io/stormwater

On AGS: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2812-stormwater-complete-edition/

Cheers, and Happy New Year,
Fransis

heltenjon · Tue 31/12/2024 18:04:02

It has become a tradition now that you release something on the last day of the year. Congratulations on the release and happy new year! I wonder what you have cooked up for us this time around.

FransisKransis · Tue 31/12/2024 23:58:45

Thanks heltenjon, and a happy new year to you. Honestly without my end of the year deadline, I think I'd end up working on one game forever, lol!

heltenjon · Fri 31/01/2025 02:38:07

I've been playing this tonight. When I played the demo a year back, I think I never got through it, so I guess I have my work cut out for me here. Have you turned the difficulty level up? I cannot recall it was this hard.

Anyway, music and eerie atmosphere is great. The action sequences work well, although I'm sure there are more skillful ways of dealing with the enemies than what I did. After dying several times, and also having trouble with saving the game (Bug report delivered on Itch.io), I finally managed to get through level 0. I got the grade C- on the first level of the tutorial. Oh my.

As for what genre one should call this, I would say that the adventure parts are not dominating. It is clearly a hybrid, although the shooting and action parts are dominant in gameplay.

I haven't got to where all the other genres appear yet, except when I tried skipping the intro and started at level four, after the tutorial levels. I got to finish those first...

Is there an option for quitting to the menu? I couldn't find it and had to quit and restart the entire game if I wanted to start over, like when accidentally skipping the intro.

I doubt I have the skills to beat this game, but I'll try and see if I can at least reach the place where the demo had me stopped.

FransisKransis · Mon 03/02/2025 02:49:27

I appreciate the thoughts here heltonjon, gives me some more things to think about as I continue to finish patching and tweaking things.

On the subject of difficulty- I did not make things harder! However with that said, perhaps because the gameplay style is unusual, I actually get quite a bit of varied feedback in testing from testers saying 'way too hard' to 'way too easy', even on the same exact build, so I'm often just trying to find a kind of middle ground! Also, and you may have tried this, but there is an 'Assist Mode' when you start a new game, or in the menu during a game (TAB> Options> Gameplay). That assist option plainly lowers the amount of damage taken, among a few other details.

There is a button for returning to the menu too, but it's in the options (TAB> Options> 'Main menu' is in the lower left.)

I hope that info makes things a little clearer, but if you do end up with any suggestions for gameplay balancing, or anything else- I'm all ears!

heltenjon · Mon 03/02/2025 12:32:33

Quote from: FransisKransis on Mon 03/02/2025 02:49:27On the subject of difficulty- I did not make things harder! However with that said, perhaps because the gameplay style is unusual, I actually get quite a bit of varied feedback in testing from testers saying 'way too hard' to 'way too easy', even on the same exact build, so I'm often just trying to find a kind of middle ground! Also, and you may have tried this, but there is an 'Assist Mode' when you start a new game, or in the menu during a game (TAB> Options> Gameplay). That assist option plainly lowers the amount of damage taken, among a few other details.

Ouch! Then I have gotten even older and slower... I think I played "normal mode" with the demo a year back, so this time I clicked the white circle that will "give me a fighting chance". (This is assist mode, right?) Anyway, my problem mainly is running out of ammo. (I believe there may have been a bug back in the demo where ammo respawned somewhere.

I think the main problem is that I'm not very good at this type of game, not that there's anything wrong with the design on your end. Different difficulty levels probably is the answer to much.