Since the launch of Knee Deep Act 1 in July 2015, we’ve appreciated feedback from players - including reviewers and streamers. The early comments after the first act led directly to two critical developments:
- We dropped the price, shifting to a model that raises the cost of the game as each new act is released.
- We invested in voice acting for all the characters with dialogue, with a retrofit for Act 1.
We take your input seriously. Your thoughts about our swamp noir adventure absolutely matter. Keep talking to us. We're a small indie team, but we're always interested in finding ways to improve where we can.
Now, we’d like to share some of our favorite thoughts that reviewers have posted since July:
“Knee Deep is surprisingly absorbing, its cast of eccentric characters and shady narrative lending a pleasant ‘Twin Peaks’ vibe to the whole affair.” - Jim Sterling, the jimquisition.com
“For interactive storytelling that’s unsettling, sinister and surreal, it’s hard to do better than Knee Deep.” - Neilie Johnson, justadventure.com
“Knee Deep presents its tale as an actual theater production, complete with rotating stage and clever, fold-away prop buildings. On an aesthetic level, this is an interesting approach that I’ve not really seen used before.” - Peter Parrish, pcinvasion.com
“The microverse of Cypress Knee is positively vibrant and full of life. Not in the sense that there are a lot of characters, but rather in the sense that the characters present are so colorful and fleshed out that after just a few conversations you feel like a local.” - Paul Policarp, pressa2join.com
“The noir-style storyline is paired with an awesome, shadow-heavy aesthetic.” - Marcus Estrada, hardcoregamer.com
Act 2: Festival “lives up to its noir styling in the way that murder begets even more murder.” It’s “another top notch addition to this excellently written noir adventure.” - Jason Purdy, wegotthiscovered.com
“The end of Act 1 had a nice plot twist that had me definitely interested in playing through the rest of the game once released. This pleased me, because normally I wouldn’t find much worth in a game that doesn’t include upgrading weapons.” - indiegamers.co.uk
“You won’t be juggling inventory items or hunting hotspots for clues to uncover the truth. Instead, the story is shaped through the conversations you have and the way you interact with people.” - gameramble.com
Knee Deep’s got a “fantastic presentation which masterfully uses graphical effects and music to provide a strong sense of place.” - freedomcgc.com
“The world of Knee Deep feels incredibly similar to ‘Twin Peaks.’ Each character has their own weird personality quirks and watching them interact is a major part of playing the game.” - Addam Kearney, pixelrelated.net
“Cypress Knee came across as a suitably bizarre setting - creating a layer of intrigue in itself via the good old fashioned ‘all is not as it seems’ locale.” - Rob McGregor, wearethelolocaust.wordpress.com
“The stronger part of this game is definitely the swampy and visibly deteriorating set of Cypress Knee, along with its hazy, folk guitar-based soundtrack. The combination of the two paints the picture of a murky, once lively town that lost its footing somewhere along the way of the industrial boom.” - Rebeccah Bassell, analogaddiction.org
“The excellent decision to finally include voice acting...truly helps to immerse players in the shoes of this peculiar trio of characters, and the rewards you gain for going with each protagonist’s unique response translates into entertaining and amusing conversation paths.” - Martin Segarra, gamersftw.co.uk
“Give it a shot if you’re into conversation-heavy adventure games or visual novels. It’s something different for its genre, and I am interested to see how the story plays out with the final act’s release next year.” - John Bridgman, indiegames.com