Agreed, the default zoom is actually straining the hell out of my eyes..

As someone who suffers from chronic migraines, that's not great.

The game being zoomed out slightly would work wonders for that.

The game was designed around and is meant to be in the original view (it's a retro pixel art game). The owl zooming out was added recently because of similar complaints from some players as an early way to zoom out and see further, but I won't make it the default.

There is a mod on aground.mod.io called "Zoom" that does allow you to be zoomed out like what is desired.

Originally posted by squirleybob:

There is a mod on aground.mod.io called "Zoom" that does allow you to be zoomed out like what is desired.

I'll check this out, thank you!

A message for future googlers: the mod in question does exist, it's called "Zoom Out".
It integrates a Book of the Owl spell at the spellcrafter, but that appears to be broken right now.
If it's broken for you too, or you just started a new game and don't have the spellcrafter, open the console
(shift+ctrl+D)
then type in, exactly
player.addItem("owl_book")

capitalization matters, note that Item's first letter is capitalized

enjoy!

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand that point of view.

The eye strain from the massive zoom-in in this case could potentially damage people's eyesight (most people's in fact), and the option already exists, but instead of allowing folks to avoid the eye strain from the word "go" by making it a checkbox on the menu, you tell them they have to - for lack of a better term - permanently lock their Familiar slot and only ever use the Owl, which they still have to unlock on a per-save basis to use?

I'm not trying to rag on you, but wow.

I would understand if this were an option that wasn't already in-game and would be too expensive to add, but the code's already there..

All we were asking is if you could make it into a menu checkbox instead of a Familiar.

EDIT: Please don't take the above the wrong way, I'm not trying to attack you or anything, just trying to understand the reasoning behind the decision.

Eh. He's shielded from a lot of this criticism because he took the time and effort to make his game mod friendly.

The zoom out mod popped right in and worked with no problem (except having to console in the item).

The fact is that devtime is finite, and he has to choose where to allocate it. Would I like to see a zoom checkbox? Absolutely. But the solution I have right now works for now.

Aground is a pixel art game. It was meant to be low res/pixelated. There are more pixelated games than Aground, so if it's giving you eye strain you might want to check with a doctor or not play Aground. Aground is not damaging most people's eyesight, and that's a pretty horrible accusation.

My reason for not making it an option is because zooming out is a pretty big boon as it lets you see further. It's not meant to be an accessibility mode if the default view of the game hurts your eyes, but a neat feature of the owl for players who want to see further or like how the game looks zoomed out better (personally, I like how it looks zoomed in better, as it's harder to see all the details zoomed out and I'm a fan of pixel art games).

Again, if Aground is literally hurting your eyes and you're not exaggerating/insulting the art style, then you should not play Aground.

Originally posted by David Maletz:

I like how it looks zoomed in better, as it's harder to see all the details zoomed out and I'm a fan of pixel art games).

Like.. for real bro? Are you playing on a 17" monitor?

Maybe I'm a special case, but I'm playing on a 39" at 1080p and I don't know how else to describe the owl view other than suddenly, violently transitioning from Bad to Good. (I'd like to stress that I am also a fan of pixel art games.)

If you're developing on a smaller monitor and making aesthetic choices from that perspective, I respectfully suggest you try to take a "wider view" (no pun intended) about how your player base may be literally seeing your game differently.

For the record, I wasn't accusing you or your game of anything. It's a well-established medical fact that excessive eye strain can damage one's sight.. Seriously, check with your opthalmologist, if you have one.

I'm able to play games like Starbound, Stardew Valley, Terraria, Dungeon of the Endless, Dead Cells, etc. just fine, because they're not super zoomed in, or offer the option to zoom out, and those are also pixel art styled games.

I think you may be reading way too much into my comments if you think I'm trying to attack you or insult the art style of your game.. I'm not.

I have tried to get used to the zoom on your game, and while the eye strain did lessen after a while, it was still a constant issue that required me to take breaks, and eventually ended up triggering a migraine.

I have also tried the mod that Riff here suggested, and the zoom out being constantly applied alleviated that issue entirely for me. My point however is that people shouldn't have to download mods to fix an issue with the game.

And on the other hand, there may be people who have legitimate eyesight problems that may end up buying your game, and then refunding when they find out they can't play it because of the extreme zoom-in.

Even assuming you're someone who thinks that's what they should be doing, I can't see how that helps you in the slightest. If I'm remembering correctly, refunds come out of your earnings, not Valve's, and there's enough indie devs out there being subject to that sort of thing already.

I'd rather not see another otherwise fun and unique game potentially get hit with the same issue.

I really don't understand why you seem to be so defensive when it comes to the accessibility of your game, even to the point of saying people are accusing you or your game of things..

Accessibility benefits everyone, it's not (usually) a thing people hide behind to attack developers.

Whether you are intending to or not, it strongly feels like you two are ganging up on me, insulting both me and my game, and I'm getting a headache just reading/responding to this thread. Use the mod if you want.

There's also this code (in the dev console - Ctrl+Shift+D) which lets you zoom out without requiring any mods:
If neither of those work for you, just refund the game. You are correct that I lose money if people refund the game, but the benefit to me is for my health/sanity - it is very challenging/stressful to have to deal with everyone's complaints/issues, and sometimes it just makes more sense to let some people refund the game than to fulfill all their demands.

Adding an option at this point, even though it seems like a simple thing and the code for zooming out already exists, would require translating the new option text to all supported languages and sending an update to the console port devs which would further delay the console port. Unless it's a huge issue for a large percent of the players, I'm not adding it.

I regret this is a big issue for you, but this is my final decision and I will no longer be replying to this thread.

Originally posted by David Maletz:

the benefit to me is for my health/sanity - it is very challenging/stressful to have to deal with everyone's complaints/issues, and sometimes it just makes more sense to let some people refund the game than to fulfill all their demands.

I'm sorry; but if a thread where people ask for a feature (not demand) - and then turn to trying to have a legitimate discussion with you about why you're saying no in the hopes of politely convincing you otherwise - is so stressful that you have to take an hour-long break away from the thread before replying, I would strongly suggest you find a different field to work in, for your physical and mental health.

We've been nothing but polite this entire time, the only hostility or demands I can see have come from you, telling us that we need to stop playing and refund if we have bad eyesight, and saying that excessive eyestrain having the potential to damage one's eyesight is an accusation against you and your game (which it is not, it is again medical fact that any eye doctor will back up), and accusing us of attacking you and your game. (which we were not)

Refunding is not an option at this point, as I'm far past the terms set by the refund policy for Steam.

It honestly surprises me that you feel the need to have such thinly-veiled hostility towards people who simply want to see your game become more accessible, and thus open to a wider range of people, possibly resulting in more sales for you, and you continuing to be able to do what - I'm assuming - you love, videogame development.

And finally, nowhere was it stated that the option had to be delivered "here and now". That is the assumption that you are making.

It's a shame that such a fun and unique game seemingly has a developer that is so against criticism that they feel the need to call it an attack. I hope that I turn out to be wrong about that.

Criticism isn't your enemy unless you want it to be.

Edeon, you came off way too aggressive in this thread.

David, I'm sorry it appeared we were ganging up on you. I like your game a lot, and I've reviewed it positively and have been recommending it to my friends.

I wish you well in the future.

Thank you Riff - I apologize for saying you were ganging up on me, I was mostly reacting to Edeon and I was getting defensive and you were chiming in at the wrong time.

Edeon, I was just trying to explain to you how I felt attacked and hostility from you (whether you intended it or not), and you hit me with that? I don't know how to interpret that other than "you're a terrible game developer and you should stop making games." I'm not sure you even understand how hurtful your words are.

I thought about defending myself more - explaining how what you said didn't sound polite, all the edits you had to make and how much criticism and feedback I've already taken to improve the game, and all the hard years of work I've put into it, but I know it never does any good. I probably would've been smarter to not respond at all as I said in my last comment.

But you are right, if I can't put up with this, then I probably shouldn't be a game developer. There are many things I love about being a game developer and why I've stuck with it for so long, but this is not one of them. In any case, you can request a refund even if you exceed auto-refund limit - you just need to give valve a reason and they manually have to approve it.

As a kind of compromise, I created a mod called Always Zoom Out: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2159953215

If you install it, it will always show the game zoomed out with or without the owl or special items. This will make it so you don't have to cheat in the owl spellbook and should be more convenient, and also doesn't give any missing mod/missing item warnings in multiplayer. You can enable/disable it from the mods menu if you want to return to the zoomed in view.