I watched a bit of a playthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGsXZ1wC4E

It seems too mobile-style for me with very simple tasks. It looks like the game pauses briefly after you complete each minor task? The gameplay doesn't seem nearly as nice as A Short Hike to me and it is more expensive. I wonder how long it is?

Thank you for the review and looks like it's going to be a good game aside from the mouse cursor thing but it's not a deal breaker. This is why a design lesson for gaming is always needed. A little thing about mouse cursor design can cause so much trouble sometimes.

You are welcome! If you aren't opposed you could play it with controller, which is the recommended way, you could still consider getting it. :-)

You are welcome!

It is exactly as you're saying! The mouse cursor color is such a minor thing yet still important but by no means a deal breaker! The only other thing I found playing it further is that when getting to close to a building you see what's below and/or behind it. Looks weird when it happens which isn't often since you are more out and about in the wild than close to one. Still could need a fix.

An hour in it is still fun though its getting somewhat repetitive to take out the camera, identify or take a snapshot and save. Could be improved in that pictures taken should automatically be saved and the only other action identifying animals not encountered before.

Dialogs are not very special and nothing to write home about. What with: "Hey dude!" and such. I will try the other languages to see whether they are better written.

Again, such a cute game, that it is easy to look past those very minor points.

I say don't bother releasing on PC if you can't make the game playable on the system. You wouldn't ask a console gamer to buy a new device to play your game right?

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Sorry for spamming I had trouble posting ... So please ignore this and/or report it so that it can be deleted! :-)

To answer your question first - no, never would. I don't support sloppy ports which Alba isn't because it's no port in that sense. Meaning to say if a game has been developed exclusively for consoles and later on ported to PC. Those are probably the worst because at best maybe you are able to configure input options but 99% you can't. I don't buy ports for PC anymore but get a copy of the game for console has native input and runs just fine. :-)

I like PC games to use keyboard and mouse. What I couldn't care less about it cross-platform games offering both options but aren't able or willing to optimize control-scheme for native input devices on PC. I pay attention to and don't buy games to support this lazy effort approach. This is why I first asked before buying Creaks which also states on their sales page that using controller is strongly advised. Turned out that it works very well with keyboard so I bought it.

With that said this isn't a question about releasing games on PC/console/mobile/tablet. Allow me to explain what I mean using Alba as an example. It isn't about porting to a platform or developing for one or the other. They chose to use Unity and all they done is implementing keyboard/mouse control plus controller support, compiling it for several different platforms, which I suspect beside PC is XBOX and PS4 as well as likely Switch and Apple.

This is why some developers don't even care to optimize input for PC in particular when they release it for several different platforms. Unity is nasty in that input is predefined and not many games made with this framework do offer remapping as an option. This is clearly something that is possible where developers simply decide that they turn it off and don't allow it for whatever reason. My guess is that controls are hard-coded and numerous functions bound to a single key on keyboards as would be the case with controllers. One button several actions mapped to it.

Something developers big and small should pay more attention to as it shuts out impaired customers. A huge market, actually, for which remapping is a huge thing as it makes a game accessible to them, neglected for the most part. This is why if a game released on PC offers full support and allows remapping among other things should be the norm rather than the exception.

Most important though is that when there is no option to change input that this works without flaws, slow input or what have you. A great example would be Blacksad which I couldn't go past executing the very first action in a fight because the stupid keyboard input didn't work. Most Telltale games with QTE and keyboard plus mouse had the same issue. QTE just didn't work. Yet another reason not to buy such games because support of native input is inferior at best ... It was a lesson learned and so is why I, while not opposed to using controllers to play a game, I don't support and/or buy such games.

Back to Alba? Well, there are exceptions, and this is one. Keyboard and mouse work, control scheme is simple, that's all that matters to me. So maybe I shouldn't stress the fact that Controller is the preferred input method as it got nothing to do with ports to reiterate my argument. ;-)

Go ahead, play fighting games with your keyboard.

Wait?! This is a FIGHTING game?!

NO! It isn't! It is a totally innocent, cute, my little pony world level sweet and almost innocent, game! No fighting no violence!

All RedRagan was saying is that with your attitude towards using controllers on PC you should go try a fighting game with keyboard to see that this isn't much fun.

Jump&Runs aren't much fun either without using a controller. I can't think of ever playing titles like Giana Sisters the remake or Rogue Legacy without. So to make exceptions in some cases where it just screams for certain types of input device is okay. Wouldn't be much fun to really enjoy a racer without wheel I guess or some sports games which would also be candidates for controller or joystick input. Neither of which are genres I play.

Action/Adventure games, RPG, Strategy, Shooter, Simulation etc. on the other hand? If they don't offer full native keyboard and mouse support they can go rot on digital store shelves for all I care. I don't buy them! Not even when they work perfect with controller. Period! Laziness or disregard/ignorance of developers doesn't open my pockets. ;-)

------> the point
You

Sorry, I don't get it ... would you please explain? :-)

I missed this post of your at first.

I quickly scanned through it and I see no argument against my post.

What's the point of releasing a game on PC that will be litterally unplayable with a mouse
+kb?

What about c, y, o and g for movement?

Also about Unity yes I do blame them for removing the launcher where you could rebind the controls, even though devs rarely bothered to NOT hardcode them making the feature utterly useless (devs of superhot finally fixed this YEARS after release for instance).

But this simply won't cut it with me anymore, countless of games allow for key rebinds: Observer (although they hardcoded wasd to move between dialogue lines, which is silly), call to the sea for the most recent...

I don't care it's hard for devs to implement that: it is an utter BASIC feature!

They don't want to bother making the most basic work? Then they shouldn't bother with a pc version and I shouldn't support them by giving them money for such a piss poor job.

I wish this missing feature would be advertised more, I'm fed up of buying games and having to refund them.
Bringing fighting games into the mix is null and void as this isn't a fighting game.

Also, fighting games on pc MUST have keyboard (re)bindings.

What if you bought a ps4 game and you had to buy a controller to play it because the game isn't compatible with the one coming with the console?!

And that's it, I'm not going further on this, I'm fighting windmills here.

This was by no means an argument against you! Here's the gist of it: Some games, native PC games, fighting games, Jump&Run, no one seriously expects to be able to play those with keyboard and mouse and get much fun out of it. That's what I get was what RedRagan was getting at and I tried to explain.

To say it again: I'm totally with you in all that you're saying. If a game is released on PC, no matter whether it was developed for PC plus several consoles, it has to support keyboard and mouse. Not only support but has to work perfect. Console users would complain to no end if controller support doesn't work in a game. Strange that the other way round in multi-platform titles in combination with lazy developers or those who couldn't care less about PC, controller works but keyboard mouse is beyond useless.

Key rebinding is a thing a many games and yes there should always be a way to allow customization as I also already stated. There are quite a number of impaired people out there and this is a real issue. If developers don't manage that well that's something hard to tolerate in some games. Prominently in Cyberpunk where this is also an issue. Not so much in small time Indie games where there is a set of 5 keys and some functions are mapped to mouse. It's no big deal to assign a macro on my keyboard to remap it the way I want it.

So there is always some small space where it is worth it for me to compromise, Rôki, Mutazione, and maybe some others. Whereas I don't compromise when it's big studios with multi-million dollar budgets. I expect that it offers full native support, allows the free assignment of keys, period. So you see sometimes it's worth it sometimes it isn't. ;-)

Got it! True. Just to clear up one thing, fighting games as in Virtua Fighter or Street Fighter, which both do offer keyboard input for instance, or something else? Where I would think it impossible to perform combos with a keyboard in such games. Which I don't play, just saying.