Hydrophobia Dev Wants Your Feedback

[vansau]

Hydrophobia Dev Wants Your Feedback

Dark Energy Digital has realized that listening to customer feedback is a good idea and wants players to provide even more.

Dark Energy Digital is continuing to work on making Hydrophobia a better game in the months after it was first released. While the developer released a <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106293-Hydrophobia-Gets-Massive-Fixes-New-Price>massive update for the game last month, it turns out that Dark Energy Digital has launched a website designed specifically to gather feedback about Hydrophobia.

<a href=http://www.hydrophobia-game.com/listening.php>The Hydrophobia Listening Post gives players the option to rate and comment on just about every aspect of the game.

According to Dark Energy Digital's creative director Pete Jones:

"We launched Hydrophobia Pure after conducting extensive research into the issues players and critics had and the features you wanted to see included.

"We were absolutely blown away by the response you gave us, and the reception Hydrophobia Pure received. We believe there should be a two way relationship between developer and players, and as such we are committed to continuing the philosophy of collecting and acting upon your feedback to our games."

As previously noted, Hydrophobia was met with incredibly mixed reviews when it launched, with many critics faulting clunky gameplay and a number of other issues. When Hydrophobia Pure was released, it was hailed by many as a vast improvement over the original version.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-26-hydrophobia-listening-post-launched>Eurogamer

Permalink

 

[RA92]

Umm... err... oh yeah.

Congrats vansau on your 1000th post!

 

[Legion]

My feedback is that a demo/trial should contain the more interesting elements of the game if you want to convince people to buy the full one.

The trial consists of walking around for 5 minutes, completing a hack and then swimming for two minutes. There is none of the apparently amazing water physics shown off, no combat and nothing to draw you in at all.

I haven't seen the 'Pure' version but I shall see if they have a trial of it and if my opinion has changed. Before I played the original trial I was actually thinking of buying it.

 

[Sun Flash]

I haven't played the Pure version, but in the original at least, the voice acting was horrendous.

Seriously, fuck Scoot.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I gave my feedback. I like that they really listen to the fans!

Hopefully the next episode will be even higher quality!

 

[V8 Ninja]

Nice to see a developer listening to the community and actually using their input.

 

[genamp]

No kidding. The original, unpatched Hydrophobia had potential. I loved what the game looked like, but the demo really just killed it for me. Really, it was only the water and the associated physics that stood out to me...

 

[Dr. HeatSync]

Demo basically signaled that it was a choppy game with poor gameflow, with the only relatively impressive tidbit being the water physics. At no point was it engaging, immersive or even entertaining.

A demo is supposed to sell the game to those curious enough to tread near, Hydrophobia showed it off as a simplistic and clunky game that uses screamers instead of actual atmosphere. Not one for me.

 

[Bretty]

These Devs sent my friend a hate email after he posted his online review.

Too funny, this game was more than bad.

 

[Arkley]

I bought it on release day and it was fucking horrendous. Trying to aim, move from cover to cover, set off chain reactions etc, it was all horrible. But the worst part was trying to find your way around. The map was the most useless pile of crap ever featured in a video game, there was no guide arrow or waypoint like the systems in Bioshock/Fallout/Dead Space/Borderlands, and to make things worse, every room and corridor looked the damn same. The graphics were murky and bland, and everything about the game was a chore to play.

The "pure" update, however, fixed almost everything. Combat & moving from cover to cover still isn't as smooth as Gears of War & Mass Effect 2, but everything else is just peachy now. The game's plot isn't quite the "subtle but hard-hitting" political web that it clearly wants to be, but the game is pretty darn good now.

My advice for the devs: Get a new voice actor for the lead, take a look at Dead Space's waypoint system, shake up the plot a lot, and for god's sake, weapon variety.