First and foremost, this is a solid basis for a game, some might say short but sweet, I say good enough to show what's present, and what's missing.
The good: The movement, the weapons, the stealth, all feel fairly good to play. The code-based locks as opposed to lockpicking is an interesting alternative, but not my favorite. (I'll explain shortly.) Being able to customize your Kobold is good, but I feel that's something that a beginning of game character creation system would be better to implement, than doing so in the menu.
The bad: The darkness is too dark. It turns using a water arrow into a gamble as to whether or not you'll be able to navigate the area after a torch is doused. The lack of a blackjack or other weapon of unconsciousness feels like it stands out, since the only way to dispose of a guard is to kill them. The use of codes as opposed to lockpicking simplifies how you approach the level, but also makes it harder to choose another approach. That, and the lack of explanation of what things do made it confusing as to how to use the combination, and the lack of direct feedback made me question if the lock system was broken, or if I'd input the code wrong. (I input the code wrong.)
Naturally, the game is very rough, but it has good potential. Having an ability to adjust the gamma so you can see in the dark better (or going with the idea of Kobolds having colorblind Darkvision) would make the game more navigable in the dark. I would like to see this made into a full-fledged game with gameplay to rival the original Thief games and its imitators.
Thank you so much for the extensive feedback! I have made a TON of progress since this demo and I really hope you'll love what I'm cookin up next
More immediately, expect something that's not exactly a continuation of this in the upcoming weeks, but longterm promises:
There is indeed a new nightvision mode that this demo does not include, modeled after splinter cell. The character creation menu will be kept at the very start, it's only accessible from the pause for debug purposes currently. Lockpicking is something I'm still exploring approaches to, and do have proper keys (pickpocketed or found in the world) implemented in my dev builds.
Honestly, I'm stuck in eternal debate with myself over the necessity of the blackjack. I feel it limits the scope of stealth engagements in Thief a bit... because I lack the strength of will and character to avoid relying on it all the time. But honestly, the way the sword works in Bold is pretty similar to the blackjack in classic thief (which, like Deus Ex 1, did not program dead and unconcious bodies differently, guards react identically to both and unconcious bodies cannot be raised awake). I might honestly just keep the stats of the sword intact and reskin it to a blackjack, as the fantasy of being a thief is ultimately more important than whether or not knocking someone out "really is or isn't non-lethal"
Consider lowering the settings in Scalability. With scalability set to all high with Resolution scale set to Quality, I get a stable 60fps on my Ryzen 5 3600 + GTX 1660ti system. Setting Global Illumination to Medium, and Reflections & Shadows to Low will disable Lumen as well as volumetric fog (which are some of the biggest contributors to high Draw Thread ms). Setting Effects to Medium will also disable Volumetric Clouds, replacing the skybox with a simpler model. Future updates will also add FSR 3 Framegen and DLSS.
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This is a very cool game, i completely love it man. Wish you finish it soon
expect the multiplayer to be finished sometime this year. expect the singleplayer on steam in 2028
but at least are we going to keep getting more updates to test the game
is there any reason of why doesn't the game open?
Works on my machine
ok
I have feedback.
First and foremost, this is a solid basis for a game, some might say short but sweet, I say good enough to show what's present, and what's missing.
The good: The movement, the weapons, the stealth, all feel fairly good to play. The code-based locks as opposed to lockpicking is an interesting alternative, but not my favorite. (I'll explain shortly.) Being able to customize your Kobold is good, but I feel that's something that a beginning of game character creation system would be better to implement, than doing so in the menu.
The bad: The darkness is too dark. It turns using a water arrow into a gamble as to whether or not you'll be able to navigate the area after a torch is doused. The lack of a blackjack or other weapon of unconsciousness feels like it stands out, since the only way to dispose of a guard is to kill them. The use of codes as opposed to lockpicking simplifies how you approach the level, but also makes it harder to choose another approach. That, and the lack of explanation of what things do made it confusing as to how to use the combination, and the lack of direct feedback made me question if the lock system was broken, or if I'd input the code wrong. (I input the code wrong.)
Naturally, the game is very rough, but it has good potential. Having an ability to adjust the gamma so you can see in the dark better (or going with the idea of Kobolds having colorblind Darkvision) would make the game more navigable in the dark. I would like to see this made into a full-fledged game with gameplay to rival the original Thief games and its imitators.
Thank you so much for the extensive feedback! I have made a TON of progress since this demo and I really hope you'll love what I'm cookin up next
More immediately, expect something that's not exactly a continuation of this in the upcoming weeks, but longterm promises:
There is indeed a new nightvision mode that this demo does not include, modeled after splinter cell. The character creation menu will be kept at the very start, it's only accessible from the pause for debug purposes currently. Lockpicking is something I'm still exploring approaches to, and do have proper keys (pickpocketed or found in the world) implemented in my dev builds.
Honestly, I'm stuck in eternal debate with myself over the necessity of the blackjack. I feel it limits the scope of stealth engagements in Thief a bit... because I lack the strength of will and character to avoid relying on it all the time. But honestly, the way the sword works in Bold is pretty similar to the blackjack in classic thief (which, like Deus Ex 1, did not program dead and unconcious bodies differently, guards react identically to both and unconcious bodies cannot be raised awake). I might honestly just keep the stats of the sword intact and reskin it to a blackjack, as the fantasy of being a thief is ultimately more important than whether or not knocking someone out "really is or isn't non-lethal"
I would love to see that in the future, dont give up never, youre so cool!
this seems to have some performance issues for me
Consider lowering the settings in Scalability. With scalability set to all high with Resolution scale set to Quality, I get a stable 60fps on my Ryzen 5 3600 + GTX 1660ti system. Setting Global Illumination to Medium, and Reflections & Shadows to Low will disable Lumen as well as volumetric fog (which are some of the biggest contributors to high Draw Thread ms). Setting Effects to Medium will also disable Volumetric Clouds, replacing the skybox with a simpler model. Future updates will also add FSR 3 Framegen and DLSS.