Twenty years ago I found my preferred game genre in a floppy disk labeled 'moo1'. A handful of years later that floppy was replaced with a cd of moo2. In that second rendition I found a game that has stood up to the tests of time like no other. (Evidenced by the fact that two friends from my youth that lasted into adulthood will still click and drink a Saturday away playing a hotseat moo2 game. )
This continued love of moo2 has provided me more than countless hours of challenge, entertainment and bonding... love is only one side of the coin. The other side being an obsession to find the "next, great, moo2". In my obsession I have easily spent a couple of hundred dollars on less-than-stellar would-be heirs to the 4x crown.
As I'm sure so many others have, in this has also been wasted hundreds if not thousands of hours into modding, experimenting and trying to shape said failed heirs into something acceptable. From moo3 to the latest (last couple years) rash of half-finished or critically flawed steam releases... I'd been left thinking it was a genre that would never find it's way back home. Doomed to RTS approximations and broken, uninspired clones.
And now I find myself here;
25hours logged into Horizon spread across roughly a weeks' time.
Have I found the next leg of my life's 4x adventures?
Or will I find yet another dead-end street?
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First Impressions:
If you had asked me a week ago? I'd have been leaning heavily towards dead-end street (I almost uninstalled it)
Today? I'm (very) cautiously optimistic, and it is for this reason I write this today.
-Firstly, you've nailed the concept in a way no one has even come close to yet. You've stayed true and focused to the core ingredients. Kudos for that.
Some do it prettier. Horizon seems more like a low budget labor-of-love indy movie compared to the latest multi-million $ box office hit. However, I personally (as well as many others) will happily trade bleeding edge graphics if the rest of the game has it where it counts.
-Secondly, just your work in chasing bugs this last week took me from an uninstaller to a fan.
You're making real improvements and have turned this game around from a failed launch to a working work-in-progress.
Overall, I feel like I'm looking at the first draft of what might be a masterpiece.
As you've at least appeared interested in engaging the community and continuing to accept input on the game, I've decided to take the time to write you this soliloquy.
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My Critique
Visual experience:
Image, scenery and graphics are lackluster. As I stated earlier, this is basically a non-issue for me. The first thing I let slide in a game of this genre. (mechanics and long-term / end-game re-playability are my primary concerns). Should this game enjoy further development, I would try to
-cut scenes. I know I said graphics don't matter much, but it looks a notch or two below what it probably should for 2014.
-The launcher looks like someone spent about 5 minutes on it, as it's the first impression you get starting the game, I'd polish that a bit.
-colors!!! This isn't 1990. Mute some of the louder pinks and greens. Going a bit easier on the eyes can go a long way on user perception of the game.
Mechanics are solid, but I get the feeling I'm going to find some serious end-game economy and fleet balance issues on larger galaxies/longer games? Outside of some equation tweeks and the bugs you're still chasing down I don't have a whole lot to criticize here. I (in the minority?) even like the fundamentals behind the combat system. (again, more tweeks needed of course)
Complexity: (ship design, colony development and technology)
All seem very generic. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, for colonies it's probably preferred (lacking a more fluid and comprehensive overview for colonies).
Though were it easier to manage colonies as they begin to number in the dozens... it would be nice to have some more building options. Perhaps technology could let you choose from different building upgrade options?
As for ship design, perhaps making the different armors/guns/etc more unique and niche? This would obviously need to go hand in hand with more complex combat mechanics/options.
Most technology concerns get fleshed out in the above. But what if not all your tech was researched automatically or simultaneously? Or if you had to sacrifice one option for another? If there was a field of special techs that could change fundamentals of race picks or other global variables? Optional, not without drawbacks.
I could be way off here. The simplicity I label generic could be crucial to the overall experience of this game. Take with a pinch of salt.
A.I. :
You look like you have a ways to go on this one too, but not as far as I thought after reading other reviews. I've noticed some terrible decisions in combat (both by NPC and my own fleet on 'auto') and races behaviors while ok (wow, they actually surrender sometimes when losing) there are areas that leave something to be desired.
U.I.:
I could write a book here, I'll try not to.
-Windows that overlap others on the screen can be acceptable... me needing to move them around or manually closing them after making a selection in them is not.
-Some of your 'highlighted' bars (selecting a planet on system bar) don't line up with the element they are meant to highlight.
-Mouse scrolling capabilities to some windows would be nice.
-make some of your buttons bigger ('buyout' coin, others)
-How about some 'rapid clicking' protection? What is that? For example: when I'm trying to click through all my turn (tech) updates and then accidentally click next turn.
Identify areas of the game where someone may be regularly clicking through an action(s). Adding a pause after the last of a series of linked tasks or screens... or a reset that places my mouse cursor in the middle of the screen could be huge.
-Hotkeys!! You did pretty good here, without me writing a book I would say get a good UI guy to give you some second opinions on tweaks you can make. Between this and window layout you could evolve this UI into a far more smooth experience.
Features:
-Single player only!? I understand, you had a model and you stuck with it.
*Do not underestimate how many people may pass this game by because of no multiplayer option*
Hotseat and network play at a minimum would go a long way.
A long way to what?
I'm glad I asked...
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Long term success of your brand:
I hope you've been profitable thus far.
If that's all the suits want and once this product is "good enough" you lose resources for development... then go knowing you've made the closest attempt many of us have been waiting for on a heir to the 4x empire.
However, I think you have something that given time could be seen as a THE go-to game in the genre.
To draw parallels to the moo series, this is moo1. A great game on it's own.. (I don't want to take away from that)
but you are so close to achieving all the things that make us look back at moo2 fondly.
I used to think I was the only person out there that even played moo2 after the year 2000. Come to find there is a sizable community out there that has been nothing but disappointed going on 20 years now.
It's my suspicion that the genre has gone so long without a proper installment no one can accurately measure the potential of a game should it prove to provide these fans with the installment they've probably stopped looking for.
(Mostly adults with jobs that would gladly shell out $$ hand over fist to feed an entity interested in making a full and well-rounded game such as what Horizon approaches)
As I've said multiple times, you've got a great thing here. With a bit more development and encouragement I think this goose could lay you more golden eggs in the future. If Horizon receives further development it's more than capable of achieving its full potential (something you're already very close to achieving)
However, if it's as I suspect and the core programming of the game just isn't going to play nice with a slapped-on multiplayer... or that the complexity of the project inevitably leaves behind balance issues that will always be noticeable in one way or another... I hope that the success of this game is enough to allow you to take all of these lessons and provide us a Horizon 2 in a couple years that fills in the gaps and provides me with the next "20+ year shelf-life 4x " of my life.
Thank you for all your hard work, past and continued.
You've managed to not just create a very specific and true iteration of game play I thought was to be lost to the ages; but you've also managed to reawaken my love for the genre;
(a love which had admittedly been reduced to an echo of itself. Living only through half-hearted dedication to a game long-since mastered, and jaded pessimism viewing every new title as doomed-to-be-failware.
)Cheers,
MurphyMurphy
ps: I have to ask, did they do any advertising for this game leading up to the steam release?
It seems to have largely gone unnoticed by large swaths of gaming sites and communities. I wonder if a large chunk of your popularity (and profits) lay waiting, unrealized and yet to be discovered.
