#Is coral island worth nominating for any steam awards?

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gusty field
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Personally, I've nominated it for the "Sit Back and Relax Award", however I'm hesitant to do so, as the game is clearly incomplete.

As the title question implied, I'm not sure if I think the game is worth being nominated, as there are many other games up for nomination, but coral is very clearly incomplete, from "TBD" to clearly missing textures, to unreleased features. I want so badly for this game to be good, hell, I bought two copies during the second round of the campaign, but for the game to be released in such an incomplete state... It's a disservice to the player base, had it been released to the public under "early access", I would be slightly less disappointed, but for it to be pushed as v1.0? Absurd.

For that reason, I can't find it in myself to nominate the game for any awards, it is simply an incomplete product, and pushing it for any award after its... lacking, release would be disingenuous to the awards.

However, I would like to know if anyone else has opposing opinions, and if anyone would be nice enough to indulge any discussion, it would be the cherry on top

royal jetty
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I was wanting to do the same. I seriously enjoyed this game when I played early access but since the 1.0 release I feel like I’m doing everything again to hit the same brick wall but with even more bugs than before! I’ve stopped playing for the time being because my excitement to play this game has diminished which is so disappointing:(

night dagger
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I will be honest, no matter the bugs and incompletion. This IS my game to sit back and relax, so I nominated it for that category. love

gusty field
night dagger
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I think these days no game is truly finished, and I hear you about people discovering it in this state.

But we ought to not forget that multiple unfinished things in the game where actually a stretch goal where they noted that this will probably not be finished on 1.0 launch. (Like pets, Merfolk, and more dating options They also actually FINISHED some Kickstarter stretchgoals like the seasonal clothes and even a big part of the Merfolk kingdom, which honestly show their hard work and dedication.

They are fast in fixing bug (imo) and I think Coral island deserves a little spotlight for their work. I think honestly, there will always be a few people who dislike the state of any game whether it is completely finished or still has some kinks in it. But these are my 2 cents on it, anyone is of course free to vote for any game!

rancid moon
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i really love coral island. but i think its unfinished. I was and am disappointed, when reading about Roadmap for 2024. We have some quests WIP since the beta. I have my time at sandrock at mind - this game is completly finished & they are adding new side missions etc. So I will go for my time at sandrock at the votes.

gusty field
# night dagger I think these days no game is truly finished, and I hear you about people discov...

I think these days no game is truly finished
On that, I would raise the question, do those games not also get labelled for being released in a rush, and thus worse than games that do get released in finished state? Should we not keep the bar for entry at a finished product? I will concede, however that

But we ought to not forget that multiple unfinished things in the game where actually a stretch goal where they noted that this will probably not be finished on 1.0 launch. (Like pets, Merfolk, more dating options and pets)
you are right. After going back to look at the campaign goals, coral has technically fulfilled the goals they had set, so I guess I ought to have adjusted my expectations. Thanks for the reminder.

But... well, I guess I should've known the product i'd backed. Still, i maintain my reservations for the state of the game currently. Given the games i've played recently though, probably would still just leave coral nominated for r&r

gusty field
night dagger
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I completely agree with the whole unfinished game shouldn't be promoted as a finished game! I won't fully defend this but I think there are a few things going on.

BIG companies with a big big budget have the manpower and money to stress-test every corner of a games code. (I seriously shun AAA games that are unfinished and full of bugs) Coral Island is a small indie game, it was highly dependent on Alpha testers and has a small group of people behind the screens making this game a reality.

I see a big part of bugs come from the consoles. The devs/mods have been on top of those as they have been trying to push the bug fixes, but Microsoft pushes them to the end of the waiting line, because they are a small company. Even though it is not their fault that the bug fixes are not being delivered on console, they have never blamed Microsoft, or even mentioned that it is not their fault. (As far as I have seen) This makes the people thinks the Coral Island devs are simply not doing the bug fixes, which is honestly a real shame.

Even though the Kickstarter was a huge success, I can see how fleshing the game out in the quality they have been doing is probably more expensive than we could ever imagine. This brings me to my last point. Black Friday, Steam sale (and Steam awards) and Christmas. I can fully understand how they would NOT want to miss the biggest sales month(s) of the whole year where they can also get a bit of spotlight. I would say, it is well worth a few bad reviews due to bugs and such.

After all this, I understand the frustration from the playerbase, BUT I also understand the Coral Island teams decision. Butter_Saranghae_Emoji

cinder badger
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I wouldn't say it's worth a "few" bad reviews as such things tend to stick to the title for a long time (which would be a shame, cause they put a lot of work in it). Also I can't speak for the PC version but Xbox one give the impression as it has not even been tested... constant crashes, mini freezes after any location change or opening the menu or sound bugs after each visit in the ocean is a real pain. Not to mention broken events like Harvest festival, which entirely stop you from playing as it has a crash each time I finish the mini game.

I don't think it's fair towards the console backers that the game was released in such state without proper testing. Although I love the game, and I believe it has a great potential I feel frustrated that I am not able to play a fully released game. It would be more understandable if it was an early access.

At this point I would at least expect some honest communication about the console problem and some time frames in which we can expect fixes - if it's few months so be it, just be honest about it and don't keep people in suspense.

But going back to the main question - I think that it should be nominated, but just not yet.

wide mantle
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about the coral island experience, I've been waiting for the 1.0 release since november 2021 and Im glad I actually waited since everything is new for me (I just saw some sneak peeks on dev blogs), but I can understand why the game feels the same for everyone who played the game during early access or even before that

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I also feel like they rushed the 1.0 release maybe to be able to be nominated for the relaxing game thing... because from what I heard the game was supposedly lauching into 1.0 during Q1 2024 or something like that, and it would make more sense tbh

latent bramble
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Maybe next year, def not in its current state.

tender crag
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I nominated it in 2 categories, relaxation and visual because despite its flaws, I do use it to relax and it is visually stunning to me. But I don't get out much, lol. Several people have mentioned My Time at Portia, which I found virtually unplayable. But that's just me.

solemn quail
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I'd also agree that I'd probably nominate it when it doesn't feel incomplete. I'm having a lot of fun but that doesn't mean I'd recommend it in its current state, especially after they increased the price and made this a 1.0 release 😭 taking the cake out of the oven way too early doesn't help anyone

rare wasp
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I'm newish to coral island I got day 1 xbox release, I wouldn't hold the TBD against the game because they are actually adding content at a good pace. However the amount of bugs is why I would hold off nomination there will be a wave of trolling no xbox beta test was done before throwing it at it and any PC to platform always has issues. Also yes indie game but look at the game titles under them. The budget is there someone dropped the ball because coral island has the potential to be great.

latent bramble
wide mantle
wide mantle
rare wasp
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That's the whole point of what I said. Xbox the game is all but unplayable because of the save crash and other issues but the save crash being top now that some ppl are completely losing there saves so to nominate game that's half broken would upset people.

night dagger
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Just to note it is STEAM awards tho, so the PC release.

tender crag
night dagger
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As I mentioned earlier as well. The game they promised is done for 99% I'd say. The UNFINISHED parts are the kickstarter stretchgoal they actually SAID will be added after the main game release as they are add-ons to the main game. I do no think it is fair to downvote their steam release for the steam awards because of the Xbox version either.

rare wasp
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I commented on the game as a whole not single platform n that nomination of a game full of bugs would draw out trolls. I am not 1 of them am big fan in fact.

night dagger
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I understand your frustration, but as you mentioned the Xbox release only. The Steam PC version has barely any bugs to my knowledge. Just a few kinks to iron out, which is normal for a small indie release who was almost entirely depending on Alpha testers for its bugs.

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The Steam version is neither full of bugs, nor completely unfinished.

rare wasp
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Sorry to say but even looking on the bug reports PC has just as many bugs as xbox

night dagger
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Ok let me reword that. There are not a lot big game breaking bug that are in the main part (non stretchgoal thus tested), like for the xbox.

tough oyster
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As it is right now I wouldn’t personally nominate it for anything I can’t even recommend it to anyone that’s not on PC at the moment because of the issues with consoles and I don’t know anyone who would want to wait possibly deep into 2024 for the game to be “complete”. Once they finish/fix things it’ll definitely be deserving of nominations.

wide mantle
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if we were talking about GOTY I'd get it lol

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however if the game isn't good enough on PC for u too then u can vote for another game its your choice anyway

cosmic python
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They clearly have to take a season off just for polish and fixes. The game is far from being considered ready, they were rushed into releasing it as is.

And those who take much of the blame are the community itself, which keeps demanding the delivery of the game, as they understand nothing about the process of developing a game and this takes time. The company lacked maturity to say no and launch a more polished game.

I voted for him at the awards, but not because of the quality of the game.

tough oyster
rancid moon
# gusty field ooh, I'd scrolled over the steam page awhile ago, from what I understand there's...

sorry have seen it just now. My time at portia plays at a green city named porita and sandrock in a desert "city". They are indeed conntected in the main story, but you don't have to play portia first, its just, that you see characters from portia in sandrock. Sandrock has a better gaming mechanic, bigger story and i think more depth in it. I really enjoyed it and think its worth a try. portia was also good, i played it first and sandrock since they got to early access. now they are making a new game - project me. if you like to fight, have a big, long and well written story, many characters, or just chill with doing commissions and talk to people - i think you will do good with my time at sandrock. you can also have "farm" animals and you can grow crops - but it is different. make look at a review video - graphics are cute and I just like the style, but everyones differnt here. If you want to start: have fun 🙂

gusty field
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I think i'm starting to realise my problem, it's not that the game is "unfinished" that i'm coming to realise my problem may be, but rather that the game was released with unfinished content. If the underwater part of the game isn't done yet, why was it released? Why not have it as an update feature when it's complete?

night dagger
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Pretty sure due to player pressure. People wanting the new updates asap, and inexperienced devs who tried to please their backers. At least, that would be my guess.

hallow void
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The underwater stuff being inaccessible at all would be a massive portion of the game (and the main thing that makes it stand out from other farm sims). Personally I feel like the underwater content feels more "complete" than the mines. Yes, the mine maps are done, but the combat, the resources you get (or rather, lack thereof), the fact monsters constantly drop the wrong items/nothing, the fact that crates drop nothing 80% of the time, how clunky combat is, the animations (why does the hammer have the same animation as the sword?) It all makes the mines feel incomplete and that it had little investment beyond making the maps and plopping monsters in them.

I've run into monsters stuck in walls and the ground a lot, flying ones are a pain, hit boxes are a pain. I'm not one to turn off combat but I'm very close to doing so.

Underwater content feels much more rewarding, from coffers, to the things you can find to get a boost of stamina for the early game. Catching stuff for the museum. Etc. Mines just feels like it's pointless to do beyond getting the ores but the fact that you barely get any ores makes the whole experience frustrating. Then they reduced what ores are worth, making you lose money if you use explosives in the earth and water tunnels. You need to wait for the wind and fire ones to use explosives in earnest. I dont feel like I need the vortex thingies to progress in underwater. But i feel like you need explosives for the mines because the spawn rate on the ladder down is so low.

tender crag
gusty field
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i kind of disagree? well, when talking about underwater content being more "complete" than mines. On one hand, both mining and clearing trash from the ocean floor reward... similarly? in that you can get coffers/geodes for meuseum completion, different tiers of ores/kelp, and a base resource in stone/trash. But in the ocean, you unlock different areas, for mining you unlock different levels and mines. So when I say "unfinished content", I mean content accessible to the player. So while yes, I agree that combat - which is heavily related to mining - is really not even worth the time, it is at least complete, if not just extremely rough. The ocean, in contrast... from fish npcs not even having map icons, to - and I just might not have hit the point where i'm able to? I didn't exactly ask around - not being able to even interact with merfolk as you would townies

hallow void
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Coffer drop rates like 4x that of geode drop rate for me. Kelp spawn rate is like x2 or more of ore spawn rate. Ocean feels more rewarding.

If you took the combat out of the mines it would still feel worse. Crates drop nothing 90% of the time and when they do drop something, it's not useful unless a wild seed. Mines dont even seem to have special fish in their waters. No foragables aside the ridiculously rare ginger. (I saw one in all of the earth shaft floors)

Again, monsters getting stuck in the floor/wall and being unable to be killed.

Npc icons are honestly inconsequential to the gameplay. Stuff like that can be one of the last things you do. When you free them they give you rewards which again, makes the ocean more valuable.

The merfolk kingdom was a stretch reward so i didn't expect it to be 100% finished on 1.0 release. But the ocean should still be accessible. It's like 1/3rd of the whole game. What gives the game its own, unique identity, it's called CORAL island. You may as well be asking animal crossing to get rid of its animal villagers.

They completed the maps because maps are one of the first things you finish in game dev. You need the skeleton before you can have the meat and the meat will come.

night dagger
# hallow void Coffer drop rates like 4x that of geode drop rate for me. Kelp spawn rate is lik...

May I just point a few things here.

In mines you have coffers AND geodes, in the ocean ONLY coffer (chests). Crates have been dropping stone, wood and ores. I don't call that useless, it take less than half a second to destroy them.
Mines do have mine specific fish. (Ginger is not a mine foragable, but it does spawn there just like the mushrooms mushrooms)

NPC icons have been one of the highest and most requested features in Alpha by the testerbase. This is by far not a fault of the devs, they simply listened to feedback.

The name Coral Island actually comes from the Major late wife who's name was Coral. Yes the underwater part is a bit part of the game, but it wasn't even ever ment to be this big of a part. It is a tropical island which puts emphasis on the real life natural disaster of corals dying by the hand of humans. This was the original intent of the game, it simply evolved over time and with the stretchgoal.

The ocean is accessible and you can go trough all parts of it. Just like the whole island map, everything is accessible.

tough oyster
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Why do people keep saying it was just a stretch goal I’m confused when I looked at the kickstarter which everyone keeps mentioning and if we’re only going off that the only thing that was supposed to be after 1.0 is island hopping the merfolk kingdom was a stretch goal that was reached and supposed to be implemented completely before 1.0 along with pretty much the entirety of their 2024 roadmap.

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