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Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars

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Got this yesterday but could only put in about an hour.  Early impressions - it looks and sounds (music) great, I like the characters and the setting/story are immediately engaging.  I love the way the camera sweeps around as we move from scene to scene.

The keyboard controls are clunky though and I see that gamepad is a possibility but it doesn’t seem very smoothly implemented?  I’ve got the analogue stick moving fine but the other buttons don’t seem to work.  Is it just a matter of messing with the configuration?

It has all the makings of a classic with a good interface and I’ll play on regardless but streamlining this would probably help it gain traction.

     
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dumbeur - 12 August 2018 08:13 PM

Got this yesterday but could only put in about an hour.  Early impressions - it looks and sounds (music) great, I like the characters and the setting/story are immediately engaging.  I love the way the camera sweeps around as we move from scene to scene.

The keyboard controls are clunky though and I see that gamepad is a possibility but it doesn’t seem very smoothly implemented?  I’ve got the analogue stick moving fine but the other buttons don’t seem to work.  Is it just a matter of messing with the configuration?

It has all the makings of a classic with a good interface and I’ll play on regardless but streamlining this would probably help it gain traction.

Thank you so much for the initial impressions, dumbeur, I really appreciate the feedback!

Gamepad support isn’t fully mature just yet.  It’s something that I’m going to start going down the rabbit hole more seriously along with a Linux port (I hope…I need to do more research on that first).  I’ve been getting quite a bit of feedback that the controls take time to get used to, so I definitely want to hit that as soon as possible!

Would love to hear your continued thoughts as you continue to play!

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Yeah, you’ve probably been told this but I think the problem is that a lot of the scenes are isometric(?) view while the character moves at 90­° angles (though pressing multiple cursor keys at once/using the analogue stick helps) so we end up getting a little “stuck” on scenery and have to wiggle back and forth.

Is there a reason you went away from point and click navigation?  I felt like it might be related to the camera changes.

I’ll mess around with the controller a little more to see if I can get everything other than the mouse clicks moved to that as I think Unity should handle most of it?

Looking forward to playing more and will keep you updated!

     
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dumbeur - 13 August 2018 12:58 AM

Yeah, you’ve probably been told this but I think the problem is that a lot of the scenes are isometric(?) view while the character moves at 90­° angles (though pressing multiple cursor keys at once/using the analogue stick helps) so we end up getting a little “stuck” on scenery and have to wiggle back and forth.

Is there a reason you went away from point and click navigation?  I felt like it might be related to the camera changes.

I’ll mess around with the controller a little more to see if I can get everything other than the mouse clicks moved to that as I think Unity should handle most of it?

Looking forward to playing more and will keep you updated!

Thanks, dumbeur!

Yeah, I moved away from point & click navigation due to how it was interacting with stairs in Adventure Creator.  You build out a bunch of navigation meshes and it was wigging out pretty hard anytime the player had to go up and down stairs, so once you combined that with the camera changes, it became pretty unpredictable.  It might be something that I revisit down the road or it might be something to file away for our next project.  We’ll see!

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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I used a thing called reWASD to keymap to my gamepad and I’m much preferring the experience!  Some minor(?) tweaks to the UI would make it even smoother but right now I’ve happily mapped the cursor to right slick and have foregone the mouse altogether.

I had to stop playing last night though because I was getting seriously creeped out.Grin Such a great atmosphere and for some reason controlling Gabrielle kicks that fear up a notch.

     
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dumbeur - 14 August 2018 10:26 AM

I used a thing called reWASD to keymap to my gamepad and I’m much preferring the experience!  Some minor(?) tweaks to the UI would make it even smoother but right now I’ve happily mapped the cursor to right slick and have foregone the mouse altogether.

I had to stop playing last night though because I was getting seriously creeped out.Grin Such a great atmosphere and for some reason controlling Gabrielle kicks that fear up a notch.

That’s great!  I’ll take a look at reWASD and see if I can get some easy wins with controller support.  Thanks for that!

And I am absolutely tickled that you got so creeped out!  :-D :-D :-D

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Hey y’alls -

Just so you know, Arkhangel is now available on itch.io!

https://winternightgames.itch.io/arkhangel-the-house-of-the-seven-stars

-z

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Likewise, if you’d like to listen to the soundtrack on Spotify, take a listen here (although I do recommend buying it since it’s higher quality on Steam/iTunes/Amazon, etc…plus it gives our composer Chad Seiter a little more cash):

https://open.spotify.com/album/1rRE3M47RpwlhcKuzY6McQ?si=iiZkGO2eR96jcFCcRcoKgg

Enjoy!
-z

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Just a heads up that we’ve been tweaking player control settings, adding game controller support, and an option to let the player run. An update will be coming in a couple of weeks.

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Here’s the default controller layout for the upcoming patch for “Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars”. You’ll be able to modify it to your liking. The game controller is quickly becoming our preferred way of playing the game!

We’re getting closer and closer to wrapping this patch up. It’s been a big one!

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Looking forward to this patch as I decided to wait until it was done when you announced it. Smile

     
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Hey all!

We are very excited to announce that the long-overdue update for Arkhangel is now available with a limited time special promotion sale at 33% off list price!

So, what all is included with this update?  Let’s get to it, shall we?

—-

UPDATES:
+ Added full game controller support.  This was a full replacement of the Unity Input System!  Yowza!
+ Significant overhaul to Player navigation settings and speed.
+ Added a “Run” option to allow the player to explore at a faster rate.
+ Restructured menus to allow for easier controller navigation.
+ Inventory has been significantly overhauled.  It is now opened/closed by an input key rather than a mouse over. Interaction methodology and presentation has also changed.  This has had cascading effects on multiple other systems that required adjustments.
+ Visual Quality settings, Screen Resolution settings, and Controller Customization are now all handled with in-game menu interactions.
+ Updated multiple camera transitions in the game to be fades rather than movement based.
+ Updated camera positions and control perspective in the Library and Saloon.
+ A ton of small tweaks and adjustments!

KNOWN ISSUES:
+ Use previous saved games at your own risk!  With the sheer amount of changes to the underlying systems of Arkhangel, we cannot 100% guarantee that loading into old save games before this update will be completely reliable.  By all means, give it a shot, but know that there very well could be significant issues with player animation, controls, and menus.
+ We recommend using D-PAD when navigating through menus with a game controller.

—-

This update took significantly longer than we expected.  Being the only Unity developer on our team, I (Zack) vastly underestimated the number of hurdles and cascading effects that such an update was going to introduce.  That being said, we’ve had a lot of great feedback on this update.  Friend of Winter Night Games and game industry veteran, James Goddard gave us some incredibly valuable advice regarding player speed, animation settings, and controller feel.  When the guy that worked on Street Fighter II gives pointers, you LISTEN!

Thanks James!  :-D

As always, continue to give us feedback.  Your thoughts and insights have been incredibly valuable and are the main reason why we pushed so hard on this update.  We knew that the controls needed some love and your guidance made us really want to focus on it with a microscope!  Y’all help us grow!

Okay, with that being said, the update is now live!  If you’ve already played the game, we’d love for you to check out the new control scheme and some of the other bells and whistles.  If you’ve been waiting for this update to take the plunge, the limited time sale at 33% off is a great way to dive in!  :-)

Steam store link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/868580/Arkhangel_The_House_of_the_Seven_Stars/

itch.io store link:
https://winternightgames.itch.io/arkhangel-the-house-of-the-seven-stars

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Joined 2015-11-02

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Hey all - just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve released the final major content update to Arkhangel and it’s a doozy.  Smile

The original AG review for this game has been out for awhile now and I understand AG’s policy of not updating their reviews, but did want to let people know that there have been several patches to Arkhangel since release that address a number of concerns and points of contention that AG originally raised.

As a bullet point list here are the high-level updates:
+ Added traditional point & click navigation - This is now the default and recommended method of navigation.
+ Multiple direct input updates including faster turning and transitions and allowing the player to continue walking in the direction they are facing after a camera change if input is still active. The direction will update when the user actively changes their input direction.
+ Added game controller support.
+ Added a run option.
+ Added a method of fast travel that unlocks at a certain point of the game.
+ Interface updates that include opening the inventory on a hotspot interaction.
+ Updated Menu Flow & Tutorial
+ Inventory redesign.
+ Adjusted and revamped a ton of camera angles/transitions
+ Reconstructed & revamped many areas to better fit point & click navigation (and just general flow improvements)
+ Steam achievements
+ Several bug fixes and bits of polish throughout including changes to dialogue and some characters.

Here’s a nifty video:

We are really proud of the game and have been working incredibly hard to support it.  We’d love for you to check it out:

Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/868580/Arkhangel_The_House_of_the_Seven_Stars/

itch.io - https://winternightgames.itch.io/arkhangel-the-house-of-the-seven-stars

Thanks for reading!
Heart Eyes

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Total Posts: 34

Joined 2015-11-02

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We put together a little video showcasing a lot of the love our players have for the game:

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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Total Posts: 34

Joined 2015-11-02

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Here’s a video we put together about recording the music!

     

Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars - http://www.winternightgames.com

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