A letter of apology from LIO's creator to all our users
Author: Fili,
published 1 month ago,
Hello everyone, Fili here.
I would have loved for this update and message to come out earlier, but unfortunately, I'm a full-time engineering student, and my days are rarely packed with much time to spare.
[h1]Introduction[/h1]
First of all, I would like to thank all the people who have taken an interest in LIO since its release on Steam roughly 4 months ago. Even though it’s heavily based on a mobile game I made in 2022, it’s still my first official release on PC, and as we all know, first times are rarely the charm.
That is why I would like to start this post by sincerely apologizing to everyone who had an unpleasant experience with LIO, especially due to the movement system and the “Quite The Attention Span” achievement.
These are the main two issues raised in the negative reviews we have received, for which we are extremely thankful, as they helped us to understand where we went wrong.
As I always say, failing pushes us forward, and I will make the most out of all the feedback (both negative and positive) I have received.
Over the next few days, I’ll make sure to take some time to answer every single negative review to extend my apologies to every single one of you, and moving on, to all the others that may come in the future, but for now, here are the four steps we’ve taken:
[h1]1 - Adding a new movement system[/h1]
As for the movement system, I’ve been developing LIO exclusively on mobile platforms for over a year, and when I decided to port it on PC, the current movement system (based on dragging around to move) felt like the most consistent choice to me, as it gave back a similar feeling to interfacing with the original version of the game.
I however did not take into account that people who played for the first time on PC could have found this choice confusing, and the movement clunky and annoying.
Again, I take full responsibility for this and I’m sorry you had to experience it.
I just wasn’t experienced enough to notice what I was doing.
With update v1.1 I have addressed this issue by adding a WASD movement system and by adding the possibility to both walk and sprint with the SHIFT key, allowing for more precise movement and hopefully, fewer random deaths.
[h1]2 - Removing the Achievement[/h1]
For what concerns the achievement, me and M.Q. (my assistant during LIO’s porting to PC) thought it could have been a fun addition to stand out from other games and a way to push players into not giving up on the first level.
Our intentions, I assure you, were not malicious as some of you rightfully pointed out.
However, after getting your feedback, we have decided to remove the achievement from the game and your Steam accounts altogether.
It clearly didn’t have the effect we had wished for, and we are extremely sorry if any of you felt insulted.
Again, I swear it wasn’t what we were looking for.
[h1]3 - Addressing Communication[/h1]
Our communication regarding what the game was hasn’t been super effective either.
LIO is an extremely personal project, about an extremely personal story.
It talks about what I went through when I lost my own father at the age of 19, and due to the story being so specific and not very prone to connecting with you, it may be easier to dislike it than to like it.
However, my intention wasn’t to “snob” anyone, nor sound aggressive, exclusive, or try to make you feel “not smart enough to understand” if you didn’t like my work.
I just wanted to point out that this is a niche product and it was okay to have strong feelings about it since it was focused on delicate and personal themes, with a slow pace and A LOT of unconventional elements for a videogame nowadays.
We are sorry if our statements on the store page or anywhere else made you feel like we were acting “superior” in some way, it was not our intention.
LIO is a product that focuses a lot on art, but this isn’t an excuse we used to hide its weak points, as some of you felt the need to point out.
I’m fully aware that this game is nowhere near perfect, and I never ever actively tried to hide that by diverting focus on its artistic side.
If that’s what reached you, it wasn’t my intention.
[h1]4 - Addressing The “Porting” Matter[/h1]
Some of you felt somewhat offended by the fact that this game is a porting, suggesting I should have focused on making a game specifically for PC.
However, I would like to state once again that this game isn’t a simple porting, since it contains an extremely superior amount of content both in quality and quantity compared to its mobile version.
If anything, it’s that game that is a porting of this one!
You can check this by yourself by downloading the Android version and seeing all the differences, I’m sure you’ll understand.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
We’ve worked very hard to make this PC version possible, and I’m very sorry to see that my mistakes and lacks as a project leader have led to a mixed launch on PC.
I was a first-timer, 20-year-old with no prior experience, and did 99% of the work alone.
I’m not trying to justify myself, but please allow me some room for mistakes.
LIO is important to me, it has been my very first step into the world of game development, and even though I made some mistakes and didn’t treat you all with the respect you deserved, I hope you will be able to forgive my inexperience, give LIO a second chance with update 1.1 and see what I have in store for you in the future, since my first full-PC game should release sometime in 2025 and I can’t wait to show you more.
[i]Thank you all for playing, and (for now) sorry for disappointing you.
- Fili
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