Hello everyone!
Well… this hurt a lot. The game launched with good reviews, and within just a couple of days dropped to 62% positive. Honestly, over these last few days I went through every stage possible — from arguing with players (“my game is good, you just didn’t understand it”) to fully agreeing with the feedback. If a product fails to justify itself on its own, then that’s reality.
I read everything players wrote — every review and every discussion thread. I replied wherever I felt it was appropriate. Sometimes I argued, sometimes I acknowledged problems, sometimes I gave advice and promised fixes. My tone changed over time because, as I kept reading more and more feedback, I gradually came back to my senses and started recognizing where the criticism was fair. So I apologize for the moments where I was too harsh.
Right now, I’m fully focused and ready to continue working on the game.
In the near future, I’ll release a patch that fixes the main technical problems currently breaking the game in certain situations:
the “broken logistics” system (there are several issues there: strange delivery tasks, poor spatial distribution, refusal to pick resources from the ground, etc.)
issues with multiple recipes inside production buildings
inability to remove the last T1 chassis when transitioning to T2 chassis
incorrect timing for resource updates on the right-side UI panel
After that, I’ll gather my thoughts and publish a roadmap. It won’t just contain new content, but also QoL improvements and maybe even reworks of weaker systems. I’d really like to discuss it with players and figure out together what should come first — new mechanics and content, or focusing on technical improvements.
Please continue sharing feedback and ideas in the Steam discussions. It genuinely matters to me that the game becomes community-driven. In many ways it already was — I just now need to move my focus outside the small Discord bubble.
I also think it’s important to explain myself a little. This is my first game, and I managed to collect basically every stupid mistake possible:
I didn’t pay enough attention to Steam news posts because I thought nobody really cared about development updates between the playtest, demo, and release (unless they were already in Discord, where I assumed the “core audience” was)
I personally broke the game shortly before release by trying to improve an already tested logistics system with combined task batching for better cart efficiency — which caused a chain of side effects that broke the game in ways I didn’t foresee
due to my own stupidity (and partly lack of time), I didn’t give the final release build to testers, because I believed I’d be able to catch all the bugs myself
it’s obvious now that if the game had launched in Early Access, people probably would’ve forgiven some of these problems and the rating might’ve stayed around 80–85%+, but I got greedy because I didn’t want to lose the Steam release visibility boost of a “full release” (and because EA has a bad reputation that I wanted to avoid)
I thought the quality of the game and the amount of content would be enough to justify the $15 price tag, but the level of player expectations turned out to be much higher than I imagined. I believed my explanation that this was the “base version of the game” was enough, and that future updates would expand it with new scenarios, stories, and mechanics like trading, combat systems, etc. But I never properly communicated any of that, and honestly I’m still not even sure whether that’s the right direction for the game
I tried not to overpromise, but under emotional pressure I still made promises I failed to fulfill by release. The biggest one was trading — I promised it during the demo phase and, to my shame, failed to deliver it. And somehow I thought nobody would remember (haha… incredibly naive, like a child pretending they weren’t the one who broke the vase)
I also think the game was fundamentally mispositioned. I originally wanted it to be seen as a hardcore simulation with philosophical ideas about realism, capitalism, disobedient “subordinates,” chaos, and crowd management. Something inspired by Snowpiercer — a mix of economic simulation and city mayor simulator where the citizens are selfish and difficult. A political satire wrapped inside survival systems. But this wasn’t communicated clearly enough. From the outside, the game looks like a cozy city-builder (probably because of the visual style), while in reality it’s a brutal test of patience, planning, nerves, and adaptability. That mismatch became a major shock for new players who did not expect THAT level of difficulty
the game’s midgame falls apart. Not only because the difficulty ramps up and previous planning mistakes begin surfacing, but also because the previously mentioned bugs start appearing there too. It becomes a triple hit at once — a pleasant beginning colliding with crushing difficulty spikes and sudden technical problems
And still, I want to end this on a positive note.
I managed to release the game. People found positive things in it. Some genuinely enjoy it. Bugs can be fixed. Systems can be improved. Content can grow. Ratings can recover over time. Updates can happen. And maybe, eventually, I can still turn this into a game I’ll truly be proud of.
I’ll find the strength not to disappoint people again.
Thank you for reading my whining.
