OK, having played it, some initial feedback:
Big #1: NO STUPID LIVE/DIE CHOICES! Instant bad ends with no hint whatsoever that such things are even POSSIBLE is just the worst of bad game design. I went into the forest with Meryl, she messed with the jar, the black smoke came after me, I chose to try and untangle the vines that had snagged my foot instead of trying to grab a weapon (since trying to fight a cloud of black fog struck me as a REALLY dumb thing to do), it didn't work, slash, INSTANT DEAD. No warning, no explanation, just DEAD. I simply couldn't believe something so STUPID could happen! It's not like I did anything wrong (choosing to try and free a trapped foot rather than scramble for a weapon that might not be there and probably won't be any good is NOT "doing something wrong") so punishing me with an instant game over is simply rage-inducing and it's a good thing I'd saved recently. It's bad enough when a game offers you the option of making really dumb choices that nobody would ever reasonably make that lead to an instant game over (such as "Stick your head in a cauldron of boiling oil? Y/N?") because they're already wasted design space; disguising such choices as PERFECTLY REASONABLE ONES is unforgivable. Take that kind of crap OUT of the game. This is not a suggestion; that shit is a deal-breaker. I don't play games with invisible "you instantly lose" buttons.
Phew, glad I got that off my chest.
OK, with that out of the way, the game is certainly interesting-looking and ambitious. There's a lot of scope for interesting development. Problem is that while the game is decently tutorialised already, I still don't really get an impression of what I should actually be doing to make progress. I mean I EVENTUALLY found out that talking to certain characters can bring up story advancement (get map for Meryl, meet her in the woods at night, get instantly killed), but I'm not entirely sure what the most-productive use of my time is. There are also a lot of systems I just don't understand- all the other characters are building up Tension, but what does Tension actually DO? Why does it say Resting restores Health and Tension when your stats are Health and Libido, not Tension ? How do I restore the HP of other characters as it slowly drifts downwards? Also, what do Survival, Condition, Escape and Habitat actually do? Not only are the descriptions vague, Condition and Escape BOTH say they "Measures your health conditioning" (which I assume is a bug). Finally, the building system just seems to be completely broken- after building Cookware, I tried to build Hygiene, but it seemed to replace the Cookware, then when I tried again by building it in a different construction slot (at least I THINK that's what those are) I couldn't actually complete it at all (working on it didn't reduce the completion number) and the Cookware simply vanished.
There are also a number of fundamental balance issues I have issue with. Having to spend AP just to move around when you only get 3-4 AP per day segment is too limiting, especially as you need a tier 2 skill to be able to know where people are before you move (which I didn't start with), making finding anyone specific a total crapshoot. Also, on the second day it started raining and never bloody stopped, penalising me every time I spoke to anyone (until it started thundering, which penalised me every time I moved instead). I'm also not a fan of the hunting minigame.
Interaction so far has been minimal- the closest thing I've uncovered to a "scene" is walking in on Senna while she was in her underwear, followed by the scene after you shoot the smoke monster and fall underground. I don't know what triggered that aside from clicking on her while she had the ? on her icon (is Senna just the "default" starting girl?). I find myself wondering how developing relationships with the girls is going to pan out. Honestly, the genre standard of "you start fucking all of them in turn" would actually be a bit out of place here, particularly as you're not the only male on the island (and judging from the look of Jack, you're not even the most appealing). I think you have the potential for a quite in-depth system where girls can actually develop relationships with characters other than you (Jack, Adam, even each other) if you don't play a perfect "gotta catch 'em all" run, and there's potential for jealousy mechanics if they find out you're banging more than one of them (part and parcel of being on a closed circle environment like an island), requiring you to juggle relationships and resulting in other people commenting on what you're doing. But that could be a bit too overambitious and more effort than you feel like going to, which I could understand.
There's a few points I have to make about the pacing too. Starting the gameplay several days after you arrive on the island is weird and feels like you've missed out on a lot of actual gameplay time already by the time the actual game starts. The stereotypical "unconscious for 3 days" thing after the monster encounter is odd for a game where time is your primary resource- I woke up supposedly 3 days later to find that not a thing seemed to have changed since I was knocked out- including my health and our supply levels. Honestly, why does it ALWAYS have to be "unconscious for 3 days" (except when it's "unconscious for five days")? Is there ANY reason you can't simply wake up the morning after?
I'm still interested in the next version. Just don't put in any more "WHOOPS, YOU CHOSE POORLY, GAME OVER SUCKER!" decisions in there.
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