Tracks of Thought

*Refund requested* Was so excited for the game that I got it despite mixed reviews now that it was reported most of the bugs were fixed. Pros - Extremely cute aesthetic - Excellent visual character design - Interesting "combat" mechanics Cons - Couldn't bring myself to finish the game - full disclosure - For a personality-assessment game, offers very little control over your bug's personality - Socioeconomic commentary lacks necessary depth, deeply disappointing and frustrating - For a game pretty explicitly about emotional intelligence, it's absent. - Frustrating bugs and glitches around quest progression still exist - Visual glitches periodically (like my bug friend's face disappearing) - Combat is never explained in any depth, which isn't the end of the world, but it also gets tired pretty quick. Since I didn't finish the game and requested a refund, please keep that in mind with my review. I followed this game for a long time in its development and was SO excited for it, played the demo, etc, so perhaps my disappointment is impacting my perception.

Welp. This is my first ever steam review, and I'm about to say those oh-so-familiar words that everyone is always disappointed to hear: I wanted to like this game so badly. I've been waiting for it for ages, I bought it the second it came out, and I played it as soon as I could - which would have been sooner if it worked on steam deck, but unfortunately not working on steam deck is the least of its current issues. But let's start with the good stuff! First, as another reviewer mentioned, the game oozes charm. The art is adorable, the writing is just the right amount of silly and irreverent without feeling like it's trying too hard or subtracting from its own emotional moments, and if the minuscule size of the team weren't already indicator enough, it's clear that buckets of love went into it from start to... well, I can't really say finish, and there's the problem. The game simply isn't finished. I'm leaving my review positive, because I could feel in my attempts at playing it that this game is trying so hard to be everything that I want it to be and everything that it promised. It isn't either of those things yet, so be warned, but the developer responses on other reviews seem sincere, and if they get the game working, and maybe expand some dialogue/content just a wee bit once the poor thing actually runs, it will be a very good game. I could talk about what I feel it might need besides bug fixes, but that will happen in an edited version of this review, if it ever does; because there's so many bugs that quality of life or even plain enjoyability don't even have room to factor into what I imagine the devs need to be focusing on right now. I'd be lying to say that it doesn't bother me a little, from a moral perspective, that the game was released - and not even in EA - in its current state; since I'm not sure browsing the community that it's been playable for anyone, let alone a majority of people who've tried so far. I like to think I understand what pushes indie developers to publish their games before they're ready - when it comes down to it, if you're out of money you're out of money. You can't make a game if people on your team are too busy worrying about eating enough. But still, when you push a game into full release, you are promising the buyers that it's at least playable, and tracks of thought doesn't really seem to work at all yet. Personally, I don't regret the money I spent on the game - I'm happy to help support an indie studio making games that really appeal to me - but I'd have been happier if they had released into EA or outright asked for donations; because that's kind of what buying tracks of thought feels like in its current state: A donation, rewarded by a preview of what the game hopes to offer once it's complete. You might notice that I have 3 and a half hours of playtime in the game. I also have all of the achievements. This is because I was lucky enough not to encounter any of the game breaking glitches mentioned by other reviewers, and knew not to save near a certain character who just... will corrupt your save if you save near her. Very cool of her. (In the story, she is, in fact, a complete gremlin, so if anyone was gonna break your game for saving near her she is the most fitting. I'll also note that me wanting to joke about them shows that the writing and characters really shone, under all the issues.) But weird save corruption glitches aside - I was able to finish the game. Technically. Half the quests I completed just didn't mark themselves off; the game has a cute little character logbook that keeps NPC names, art and information straight for you that remained blank my entire playthrough; and I did encounter what should have been a softlock - but I ALSO had a somewhat hilarious glitch where forward progression wasn't actually tied to quest completion, so not being able to complete key quests didn't matter. The entire game takes place on a train, with your character moving one by one through the train cars in their attempt to reach the conductor at the end. The doors between cars are all locked, and won't open until you complete a train car's main quest - or aren't supposed to. In my case, none of the doors were locked or blocked in any way once I got my partner character. I got out of the starting car, was unable to complete the first real story quest - clearing dirty dishes off of an assortment of tables on behalf of an NPC - because, of 3 dishes to collect, only one collection prompt was willing to trigger, so I just couldn't grab them all. I'm sure the quest had more steps to it than that, but since I got stopped at step one, I'll never know. I didn't realize by that point that I was looking at such a crazy glitch, and walked into the next car thinking maybe I'd find something there that could help me finish the first car's quest. Wound up beating the entire next car before I realized that wasn't going to happen. I got a little ways through the third car before I finally started thinking something might be seriously off, and tried walking through its door - successfully. So then I merrily walked through the rest of the game, picking up completion achievements along the way, having lost my motivation to talk to all of the cute and well-written NPCs because I couldn't complete most of their quests anyway and so all I would hear about was how troubled they were without being able to help them. There were a lot of smaller bugs and issues too. For the sake of the devs I'm going to try to list the ones I can remember. Left click still triggers interactions in the world when it shouldn't: I picked up items while clicking to advance dialogue and I talked to an NPC while trying to save my game because his speech bubble was underneath my save button. Items are interactable when they shouldn't be: I kept picking up items so far in the foreground that I couldn't see them when all I was trying to do was click the screen to advance some text. In the final section of the game, you need to find several items to advance to the next area, and I would always click on them right away because I am a crow and they looked shiny, which would instantly add them to my bag. However, when I walked past the area where they used to be, I triggered small cutscenes of my character commenting on them before picking them up, despite there being nothing left there to comment on or grab. I suspect that I shouldn't have been able to get back into the first car after leaving it, as the door I emerged from after leaving had a washroom sign on it. But walking back into this 'washroom' took me back to the first car. I also suspect several key features didn't trigger for me - there's a part in the trailer where an NPC seems to be giving you a deck of cards - definitely didn't happen for me. If I was supposed to be able to expand my deck, that also didn't happen. I beat the game with the same deck I had in the tutorial fight versus my partner. (Also raises some questions about general game balance, since I did fight the last boss, but getting the doors working probably comes first.) Sometimes (but not always) a little ding played after I made certain dialogue choices - I suspect those might have been supposed to reward me in some way, perhaps with more cards, but all it did was make a noise. Text in the quest log would get garbled in longer quests, repeating text from previous steps in subsequent steps. I'm sad to say that I'm sure I'm missing some, but those are the ones I was able to remember. If anyone is still reading this review at this point, thank you for sticking with my verbose self. If you're thinking of buying, I would only recommend it if you consider it support for the devs and an investment in what we all hope for this game to be. If one of the devs is reading this, I'm sorry that I had to be so harsh. There's a lot here to love. I look forward to playing the game properly once I can.

This game looked so up my ally, I bought it and barely 19 minutes in I was talking with an npc & got caught in an loop of buy this or buy that and no matter what I tried I couldn't get out of it. I asked for a refund. Game looks cute, even on sale I'd say to maybe wait for an update for this. Also having controller support would have been nice, but that's me.

this is one of the cutest, most representative games i have ever played. 10/10 and i don't say that lightly 🐜 the quirky dialogue is so charming and the character designs are delightful for those browsing and wondering, most of the glitches talked about in early negative reviews have been resolved! there was recently a patch and i have not run into any since i started playing 💖

I'm sad that I can't recommend this game because it oozes charm. Unfortunately, in its current state it is broken. Car 2 does not work, with disappearing quest items and missing prompts. For some reason, the game propelled my character into the final car then broke. I try not to refund indie games, but until some serious fixes are made this game is unplayable.

When this game was first announced, I was really excited for it, so naturally I picked it up the moment it released. And while I still love the concept and the aesthetic of the game, I'm a bit let down by the execution. I wouldn't call it outright broken, but it's definitely unpolished. The text formatting breaks sometimes, graphics sometimes mess up like characters clipping into objects or important visual information being obscured by the camera angle, the prompts for interacting with things don't always appear or when they do they are in odd and disjointed spots, the conflict mechanics seem at once disappointingly shallow and also confusing and poorly explained. I want to love this game, and I do love the things that are done well- the art style is excessively charming, the writing is witty and enjoyable, the music slaps and I like how your stats and abilities in conflicts are tailored to the decisions you make. But as the game stands, there's just too much that takes me out of it. I trust it will be a great game in the future after they fix these issues, but at the moment it's not. Giving it a thumbs down feels harsh, but I wouldn't recommend it in it's current state either, so chalk that up to the lack of nuance in steam's review system

It is a fun game with a cool concept behind it, but the game is just so buggy and completely soft locked me personally in my save. The dev team has also gone completely radio silent.

super cute bug game that my girlfriend made!!! i think everyone should play it (but i am very biased!) hope you all enjoy!

I really wanted to like this game because it looks so cute, but it is broken in its current state so I asked for a refund. I hope this game gets fixed soon because I wouldn't mind giving it another try!

I was eagerly awaiting the release of this game because it seemed incredible! Beautiful characters, captivating graphics, and solid gameplay. However, the game initially had numerous bugs. If someone experiences frequent issues with saving the game, they might, like me, lose hours of progress due to a silly bug. The game crashed at various points, and despite the gorgeous graphics and style, I cannot recommend it with these issues.