PAX East went very well. We had four stations, and they were all filled for the whole duration of the show. I wish we could have had more for the people who waited in line; maybe next time we will get a larger booth. We also had the trailer looping on a large TV, and an explanation of “how to walk through walls using the fourth dimension” running underneath, on a smaller monitor (it will be the next trailer).
I noticed I don’t learn much from playtesting the beginning of the game anymore. It is solid and people just get it eventually. I guess that means all there is left to do is finish the game!
I do still learn a lot from explaining the game to people. Every time I do it the explanation gets more concise, and different people need different explanations. This becomes useful later on when writing for the website, or to explain the game to press. But really sometimes I feel other people are better at explaining the game than I am, as I’m too close to it now. Thanks to Christopher Hart & Colin Hart for helping out at the booth!
The game is looking more beautiful and fascinating with every video you release. I look forward to playing it. I often think documentation is overrated. I remember when Myst came out a billion years ago and there was no explanation except “click on things”. The first browser for the www had just come out so there was almost nothing on the Internet yet, and certainly no help available for the game unless you knew how to find rec.games.myst. You just had to figure the thing out on your own. I think that is one reason it was such a great game. For games where you’re highly dependent on crafting recipes, you do need some sort of guide (e.g. Minecraft) but there is something elegant and absolutely absorbing in game with minimal interfaces and minimal instructions.
I agree. The game itself is very much trying to be minimal in its instructions. But at a booth you sort of have to explain the game to people who may not have the time to sit down and play. There’s also a big difference between what the game is and how to play.
For those of us that couldn’t make it to Pax East this year, is there any expected date for when Miegakure will be available?
I’m pretty sure that there is no release date set, as it has been since the start – apparently Marc doesn’t want to rush the game at all.
If there was a release date, and with such a deep game, I would expect it to be very rushed and incomplete.
Are there any plans for 4D physics in the game? I want to play 4D soccer with your 120-cell. 🙂 I bet that watching an object with 4D angular momentum would be really mind-bending.
Also, is there a reason why there is no public demo of the game yet? The demos you have at these conventions appear to be quite solid, and you’ve been stringing us along for almost four years now. I’m not sure how much more hyped I can get for this game – I really want to find out if I can play the game as well as I understand the theory behind it.
Yes we have that.
No demo until the game is out! Sorry.
I think extra credits really explains well why demos are not super common.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY