Hiveswap (Homestuck adventure game)

Against all odds, Hiveswap Act 1 (of four) is being released on steam in two days. Previews have been pretty positive. I'm excited!

In case anyone was worried, the game is not connected to the main Homestuck plot, so reading the webcomic beforehand is unnecessary.

Sorry, but this looks like a link-discuss thread. That's no bueno.

We actually discussed starting a new thread for the game in the regular MSPA thread, so it's not like Moth just posted a link that no one else but him cared about - I don't know how else we could start it.

edited 12th Sep '17 6:38:01 PM by KarkatTheDalek

It's not a link-discuss thread because there's info in the main post.

OK. Sorry. My bad.

It's cool.

Oh, look, that thread was created. I've been wondering when it would happen.

So, what are these previews mentioned? I've been pretty out of loop on Homestuck stuff. Is there any links for me to check?

It was playable at PAX recently, so I'm mostly going off twitter impressions. I did find this video though.

Thanks.

Looks pretty nice.

I'm honestly surprised this thread didn't exist already.

Haven't watched the demo video, but I did watch the new trailer. It feels... surprisingly grounded for a Hussie production. Closer to early Homestuck (my favorite part!) in tone than the tangled madness that Act 6 ended up as.

It'd be hard to make a game as nucking futs as Homestuck ended up, because the multiple intertwined narratives and temporal shenanigans are harder to do in this medium. That said, I would expect it to get pretty crazy and complex by the end.

Well, we've only seen the beginning. Time will tell if tangled madness is what happens later on.

..... (I kind of liked the tangled madness.)

Apparently one of the main reasons it took so long is because they coded interactions for pretty much every combination you can think of.

edited 13th Sep '17 1:26:44 AM by MetaflarePrime

Combination of what?

well its an adventure game so presumably "use (object x) on (object y)"

Does this mean ANY interactions no matter how stupid, or just the ones that you'd logically think to try out?

I didn't realize this was coming out so soon, by the by. Haven't seen any trailers since the first one that showed off the final artstyle for the game, maybe I should fix that...

Yep, any interaction no matter how stupid. Text responses of course, not actual unique mechanical interactions between each and every single item.

Also... 13 hours left 'til release.

edited 13th Sep '17 10:06:26 PM by RenegadeShroom

First review out(at last first I could find). Never heard of this site but, hey, it is something.

So far what I could expect. The writing is good, but the gameplay is a bit wonky. At last the puzzles seem good.

EDIT:Found another review. This one a lot more negative.

edited 14th Sep '17 7:43:20 AM by Heatth

At least from the gameplay video, it doesn't look annoyingly slow like Sandra and Woo In The Cursed Adventure...

Sandra and Woo got a game? Geez. You drop a webcomic for a while and all kinds of things happen.

I'd rather not read the negative review (I don't want to have a negative impression of the game going in), but I'm still curious - why didn't they like it?

From their summary:

• Tonal imbalance in art, music
• Puzzles are humdrum
• No cohesive vision
• Lack of autosave, keyboard support

They overall found a bit unpolished, with contrasting art and music that didn't really fit together. He mentioned the music of each room doesn't always create the right mood, for example. He also mentioned a few technical issues, such as animation that didn't quite work and the lack of autosave. A few of his complaints is stuff mspa fans wouldn't complain, like the fact the protagonists looks bland compared to the background or the random change of art style for a few objects. He mentioned that some things are pixalated 8-bit stuff, which he found jarring, but which I imagine most mspa veterans would find normal.

edited 14th Sep '17 9:16:50 AM by Heatth

My secret hope is that we can find the sord.