One-man band Justin Jager of studio Extrude made and, on July 27, shipped a video game: zombie survival game The Left Behind. “It did not go as I hoped for,” the dev explains in a Steam post which went up as the game was pelted with user reviews averaging just 17% positive, earning it the dreaded red review text: “Very Negative.”
“It’s clear from your feedback that I didn’t deliver the zombie survival experience you were expecting, as reflected in the 17% review score on Steam,” Jager agrees. “There is a lot of feedback in those reviews that I take with me. I learned a lot yesterday and take all that experience with me.”
The Steam reviews for The Left Behind are an unmitigated takedown, and I say that not to pick on the game, but to highlight one example of the negative extreme for Steam launches – though really, most Steam games don’t get anywhere – and a frankly fascinating design oversight.
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User complaints include inexplicable performance issues, clunky combat, awkward movement, graphical errors, connection problems, flawed AI translations, confusing menus – the works.
Addressing this feedback, Jager says an incoming update will add “important bug fixes,” a proper map, miscellaneous improvements and updates, and, most surprisingly, “save story progression.”
Yes, as many incredulous reviews also pointed out, this “solo and co-op” survival game does not currently have a save function. You just have to start over whenever you boot it up. The map thing I can understand. Sometimes you forget to add salt to your broth. But a save function? Surely that’s like forgetting to add water.
“I’ve made some design choices that in hindsight were not the best choice,” Jager reflects in a Twitter post, explaining that a traditional map was left out to make physical, in-universe maps more valuable for exploration. But clearly that didn’t work for players.
“Same goes for the save system,” he adds. “I was [too] much focused on the horde mode in that case. Which does not need a save system. The story mode does. Also [too] focused on the permadeath feature, which still needs a save system.”
In a Steam discussion response, Jager agrees, “I think it was a better choice to release this in early access. Now it’s time for me to update the game and communicate the journey the right way so people know that updates are coming.”