Hey Pishtech / VRS devs,
I ran across your game's name on youtube, so I tried the demo. I like supporting indie game devs when possible. While I like the direction and effort so far, I think some more focus and polish is still needed. Here are the main areas that I had issues/concerns with:
1) NO MULTIPLAYER?! - (Im going to rant, so I appologize.) Huge opportunity lost and a big factor why I didnt buy. I cant find a single semi-realistic fishing game for pc/xbox 360 released (Rapala or Bass Pro Shops) thats capitalized on true multiplayer. What a shame! I think multiplayer tournaments would keep me playing a fish game beyond single player. Other benefit is Multiplayer builds up the community and if you get some online tournements going on, that means potential for community websites pointing at your game. (More eyes on website = more potential sales).
2) Graphics / performance - This didnt affect my decision to buy, mainly because I know my computer sucks, BUT it did turn me off and Im very lienent. Performance wise, I turned down the graphics so low that it basically made me question if its worth the bother to play it. If I have to turn down to 640x480 with almost everything on low/off for 20fps, yeah my computer sucks but theres something wrong with unoptimzed ai/physics, rendering pipeline, or resource management - find your bottleneck on lowend computers and improve it as a majority of computers are using integrated graphics! Graphically, I could deal with a lot of details turned off, but one area I think your really hurting yourself is with the quality of the boat/fisherman/rod. Those are closest in view and relate most to gamer, so those items should have the highest amount of detail possible in animations, polygons and textures. For the boat, textures are rather bland and the wake is a weird 3d polgyon instead of spray particles and textures of white water; the fishermen are stiff, and very low poly for even last gen.
3) Limited Input/control - First, I was very surprised I wasnt able to move pole left/right, but only up/down, so this lack of control of rod felt unfinished. Second, wheres the other casting methods: side cast and pitching? If they are available, then make it easier to find out how, otherwise more unfinished work. Third, for mouse controlling camera/first person view, my main beef is with holding down rt mouse button for looking around. ARGH! Change this so mouse click will "toggle" menu navigation on/off. Finally, for input support, Im not interested in VR (and not sure how many buyers are), but Id like to see input support for generic controllers, like supporting a 2 stick gamepad. 1 stick for controlling rod/driving, 1 stick for camera view, with triggers & buttons for casting and boat functions. Everything just feels very limited and not something you want when core mechanic of entire game is controlling a rod!
4) AI - First surpise was in free fishing mode, I couldnt fish within 200ft of another ai? Its not a tourney, what does it matter? Second, it seemed like ai spent more time driving around then actually fishing. Next, please add some animations to ai, as they stand stiff as a board - bend the knees, arch the back once in a while, etc. Finally, how about if ai actually showed/voiced emotion and actually got excited when they catch a fish, or even yell if they lost one? I can appreciate quite fishing, but the ai just seem lifeless.
5) Community Involvement - Most games im interested in for pc are racing games. One thing that really gets community involvement is customizing either tracks or cars. In racing its creating new textures for vehicles, or if creating tracks is an option, then user made objects is opened up. What Im saying is theres probably some very talented guys out there that could create better boat textures, like for tourney bass boats or textures for the characters in game. Can the game handle user made objects in the lake editor? How about new boat, character, or terrain textures? If you cant afford for an artist, then maybe getting your community involved is the answer. You've started on the right foot with the lake creator, so huge props for that addition, but theres a lot of other areas that can benefit access to gamer creations.
Give your core mechanics some tlc and capitalize on what isnt offered by the big published games. Truth is, if the game had multiplayer, I would have bought it day 1 and looked no further. Without multiplayer, it just doesnt give me enough incentive over what I can buy for my xbox playing on the couch. If you open up the community in terms of customizing boats/characters AND add multiplayer, you could have some awesome flw/bassmaster like tourneys that a lot of gamers would dig. If I cant be a real champ in fishing, next best thing is an online one! Hope theres something usefull in this novel. Cya.