[XP]Sin Unsullied (Full game released!)

Started by legacyblade, June 08, 2014, 10:02:07 pm

Previous topic - Next topic

Zexion

Yeah i'm aiming for like tomorrow actually lol

legacyblade

Oh perfect :P Tomorrow is the day I've set apart to play all the games I've been keeping track of during the contest lol.

Neoend

Ok. So. Two Things. From my time playing so far. =|
Are you ready? Are you sure you can handle this?

1. The Music is so well done! =D
2. The Spriting really helps bring it alive and I can't help but notice how the art and music compliment each other!

I'm going to continue playing through tomorrow, but really so far, I think it is ridiculously well executed.
Hey! if you like webcomics and other fun distractions check out my site:
www.laforix.com

legacyblade

Glad you like the music ^.^ About a third of it is done by a composer who I've been working with since before she went to collage (now she has a masters in musical composition theory I think XD). The rest, aside from three from the RMW Music Pack, were done by a guy I found in the classifieds on RMW. I'm really impressed with his work!

And hehe. You know what my secret was? I listened to their music the whole time I was doing the sprite work :P Helped me keep the feel consistent.

It makes me happy to hear that you think it's well executed :3 I was worried the cutsceney bits were a tad too long before you got a chance at fighting stuff.

Blizzard

July 01, 2014, 01:31:34 pm #44 Last Edit: July 01, 2014, 03:51:16 pm by Blizzard
I got the "True End" first (if there are other endings). I'll write up some more feedback and thoughts, but I wanted to let you know that I can open the menu after Fayte's done talking. o.o

EDIT: Alright, here it goes. For anybody reading this, IT CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS!

Spoiler: ShowHide

I liked the fact that it started out relatively casually, but with intrigue. You are thrown into a somewhat emotionally charged situation, but it's not forced. The player is simply thrown right into the story. There is no need for big exposition, it still draws you in. At first I thought Fayte was the main character until I actually got control over Lee.
I felt that the exposition by Lee's father about his grandfather was forced, but Lee himself was aware of that very fact ("I've heard the story a hundred times") so I can forgive that, lol! Even though it's still a lazy way to feed some information to the player, I understand that there wasn't really a better way to do this considering the length of the game.

I don't like Lee. Not because he's a bad character, quite the opposite. He is such a convincing personality that I don't like him as a person. He has a bad grasp on his emotions and I totally agree with his father that he's a child. But I do think that forcing him into a marriage is going too far. Just because Lee is a "child", doesn't mean he won't learn in time. I think nobody was focused on trying to help Lee, instead they were all just being judgmental. The irony is that this is exactly what would happen "in the real world". Nobody would fix him. Everybody would just be pointing fingers and point out his flaws.

I don't know what caused his deep resolve, but it didn't feel to me that it was Fayte or at least not just Fayte. The mere fact that the player was given control what to do once Lee became a Reaper reflects that very clearly. Sure, he became a Reaper to see Fayte again, but his resolve was far too strong to be just that. I don't even think he was aware of it himself. Maybe his father's words were echoing somewhere in his mind and he wanted to learn and understand.

Fayte as a character... I'm not sure what to think. Yes, she became a Reaper to save Lee's life and she is his love interest, but she didn't feel like she had any real depth to her. She wasn't 2-dimensional or anything, but it felt more that she was just along the way rather than part of the story. Maybe just the so-called inciting event for the story. I do understand that she had a reason for doing what she did, but it felt like the game was trying too hard to get me to find it out. As if her entire purpose in the game was that reason, a simple plot device. Or maybe "I" just got over Fayte and moved on much faster than Lee, lol!
Of course, I stopped being interested in her after I got her essence so maybe she has depth that I simply haven't seen yet.
But I did like the fact that other people were trying to make her look bad, like she's just been toying with Lee. This does make her character more complicated. (BTW, there's a spelling mistake somewhere where Lee's father says "toted" instead of "toyed".)

Ember feels a bit shallow, too. But not in the same way as Fayte. I actually think there is some hidden depth to her that I want to explore. She may seem like a cheerful person, but something is off. It just feels like she is hiding something. Maybe it's some sort of emotional pain. The mere fact that she's being so casual about her apparent relationship with Fayte hints at her maybe having problems to emotionally bond well. Maybe this is also part of the reason Fayte wasn't responding THAT well to her advances: She has problems opening up emotionally. But if I want to find out, I'll have to replay it.

(Before I continue with Aiden, I just wanted to say that the female characters are still portrayed alright. It's not easy for a man to create a very realistic female character after all. Considering that fact, I think that you did a good job regardless, LB.)

After that first nightmare killed that girl, Aiden got to me. I saw how he was very, very dedicated to this cause so I started being very interested in his story which is basically why I blew off the other chicks just to hang out with Aiden. So not gay. Apropos gay, I think I may not have responded the best way when talking to him about that subject. The main reason was that Lee already had an established personality and I didn't know how my choices would affect the situation. I totally would have answered "aw man" when he said he wasn't gay just for the lulz, but it didn't feel like something Lee would say. Funnily enough, this was exactly the response Aiden was hoping for. He commented on the fact that I should have totally said "aw man" just for the lulz. I don't even think I got everything from him. The last one was where he accused me of not taking things seriously. I wonder if there's more.

As for the final choice, I think it was great and sucked at the same time. First off, when I was presented with that choice, I actually thought about it for 5 minutes or so. Absorbing the power was a risk. I wouldn't know what would happen. Chances are that I would become like Edmund. But there might be a hidden solution to the problem. The other solution was hinted at during the game and suddenly I was also presented with the option to destroy the link. The thing was that this wouldn't really help people, now would it? I came to the conclusion that severing it would stop the nightmares from coming in at all, but there had to be a heavy downside to it. If we were stranded there, it means that we couldn't protect the people anymore if things changed in the future. Edmund himself was talking about dark thoughts just below the surface. What did it mean? Did it mean that we would doom the humans and leave them to themselves if we destroy the link? I tried to think outside the box, that destroying the link wouldn't ultimately destroy the humans. Maybe they would live on peacefully as if nothing happened, just without nightmares.
But it didn't feel right. It felt like a lazy solution. It felt like running away from the nightmares. So I decided to absorb the nightmare essence, because if fighting them for eternity is what has to be done, then I will do that. In life there are struggles that are eternal (at least as long as you are alive) and it's not really possible to "win", just to go on and keep fighting. This is why I made this decision. If destroying the link is just the "easy way out", fuck that. I'll keep on fighting for all eternity if I have to.

This made me very curious about the other choice. So I reloaded my save, beat the boss again and picked the other choice. And this is exactly why I think it sucked. There was no choice to begin with. What I did, didn't matter. Lee would just absorb the energy anyway. And that made me feel very disappointed. I've spent 5 minutes really thinking this through, because I wanted to do the right thing. But it was just a fluke.
Of course I could be very wrong here. Maybe if I had worked on my relationship with Fayte and/or Ember instead of Aiden, this option would have played out differently. But regardless of that, I like the fact that I learned a little bit about myself by making this choice.

Now, there is also another minor problem with this. I didn't expect Lee to take his own life to save everyone. But I can't really criticize this, because I took control over Lee in the second half of the game. I guess I was supposed to grow with him as a person to come to that conclusion myself (which I did a little bit since I said to Aiden initially that I hate his guts) and then see him execute on that decision as a result of the growth he has experienced. The thing is that I wasn't able to connect with him, because I was controlling him. I wasn't able to see him grow, because the choices I made didn't feel like he was growing or learning anything. They were my choices and as a person I think that I am far ahead of Lee already. So there was nothing for me to be learned. This is why I think that his suicide came as a surprise and was a bit off. But this is just the result of how everything is structured, not really something that can be fixed. If I was younger and were able to connect to Lee (instead of dislike him), things would probably be different.

A minor problem with the plot I noticed is that the game started counting down from 7 days until the end of the world, but Lee became a Reaper 2 days later and it was explained that he was basically responsible for conjuring up his grandfather's nightmarish soul. So if Lee hadn't become a Reaper, what about the countdown? It's really minor, but I just wanted to mention it since it really irked me. It implied that this was going to happen regardless of Lee's decision after all.

While I enjoyed the story very much, I think that the game has a problem with the ratio of story telling to battle. I know it's possible in the second half to just go on rampage after rampage against nightmares, but doesn't that completely undermine the story then? Or maybe it was intentional this way since "killing nightmares" would reflect Lee's dedication that I talked about earlier. The early battles felt like (and were) tutorials (which were neatly executed, BTW) and I had only 6 fights altogether (first nightmare encounter, 3 times training, the battle before the final boss and the final boss). Of almost 90 minutes of play, I spent maybe only 10 minutes fighting. I wouldn't have minded more mandatory battles (that don't eat away my days D: ) between the story elements.

The battles themselves usually started out "nicely", but turned very quickly into a clusterfuck of attacks and skills. Having said that, I have to admit that it was actually half the fun. It's an ABS after all. I just would have loved a party HUD to see where my party members are at with their HP/SP since they kinda kept dying (mostly Fayte, the others usually stayed alive until the final boss battles).

The upgrade system was nice. You had to be careful what to upgrade since you didn't have an endless supply of Nightmare Essence. The great thing about it is how scalable it is. It would have worked for a 5-hour game just as well as for this 1-hour game.
While I think that Lee being able to copy the others' weapons was kinda cool, it felt a bit useless. If I wanted to use another weapon, I could use another character in battle. I don't think it was addressed much further in the plot either (but seemed somehow important in my first conversation with Ember) except for making you able to fight with Lee, but using somebody else's weapon. But this is also really just a minor irk.

I didn't get any additional skills so I'm not sure if an entire skill menu was needed.
I also never even opened the stats menu. I don't think the complicated RMXP stats are really needed in such a short and compact game. I think that this submenu could have been left out completely. You can see the HP/SP in the main menu and the attack/defense in the equipment menu. The other values didn't feel important, especially in a short, fast-paced ABS game.

I loved the N function. Especially when given the entire estate to explore, this made it a lot easier to get back on track at any point. I was also a bit disappointed to not find any "secrets" in the house. Or maybe there were and I wasn't looking hard enough. It was also nice since I didn't have to remember the directions (e.g. to Lee's father's office) and could just follow the arrow.
I did notice the man who looked like Edmund and was asking for Lee's father, though. I actually tried to find his father. Before the final battle I recognized Edmund so I was a bit puzzled what happened back in the mansion and who that guy was. IDK if it was foreshadowing, but I liked it.

The fact that you had to make choices with your time is limited was definitely a nice feat since it makes the game replayable. But I don't want to sit through the 30 minutes before Lee becomes a Reaper again (30 minutes with reading, I know, but still). Some sort of gigantic skip button would be a cool feature. Maybe unlock it after beating the game at least once or something and let me jump back right into the action as Reaper. IDK, just a suggestion. Or maybe I should have been smart and made a save at that point.

The mapping is lovely. It's compact, but not crowed and it's pretty, but not trying too hard. It's also very detailed and well used since you basically go through just a few maps over and over, but it never feels like you are repeating them, because of the ever-changing story elements. And the fact that they are relatively small, lol!

The sprite animations were really good. They gave every scene a lot more life and it was easier to connect with the characters and immerse in the story.

I didn't like the sound effects since they were goofy, but there's only so much you can do with RMXP's stock sound effects. It was still nice to have them since they also breathed a bit more life into the scenes.

Keep in mind that all of this is my opinion after beating the game only once. So I may actually have missed a lot of content, answers and plot because of that. And looking at how much text here is focused on the plot and characters, it's obvious that it was intended to be more of a story-driven game rather than battle-based one. So my argument about 10 minutes of fighting only may be invalid.

What I would have loved to see more is the exploration of the concept of everybody just being their thoughts.


Anyway, that's it. I don't think I forgot anything. I can definitely recommend the game. It's short, but might get you thinking.

EDIT: Holy shit, I've spent more time writing this than playing the game.

EDIT: I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this and how you actually intended things to be. Whether I was right or wrong with some assumptions and so on or whether I'm just seeing imaginary depth in something simple.

EDIT: Oh, I did forget something!

Spoiler: ShowHide

The music? Good stuff. Very atmospheric, but not intrusive. Really gives the game its feel. You understand that the game is a bit dark, but also fantastic.

I also forgot to comment on Lee's alternative costume. I don't mind how he looks, I was just very surprised myself to see him wear something that was clearly out of character for him. I don't think that this was explained much either. And the suicide is just not good enough a reason to have your soul come up with a fabulous outfit like that to display your inner self.
Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
Drinking Game for Android      Never have I ever for Android
Drinking Game for iOS      Never have I ever for iOS


Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

legacyblade

Holy crap! Giant response!!!

I will respond with an equally giant response, kept in spoiler tags because I'm responding to your discussion of spoilers XD

Spoiler: ShowHide

I'm glad Lee's reaction, and how everyone reacted to his reaction, rung true with you :D I know that young boy going through heartbreak and being angry about it isn't something most of us who have had experience sympathize with. I just remembered how that felt from when I was seventeen (how everyone is just like "just freaking get over her!" on day two , but then pretending to feel sorry for you in the same breath :P), so I drew on that when writing Lee's reactions.

(BTW, toted is actually a word. It means to carry around, it's generally used to talk about something you're carrying around to show off as a prize.)

I agree that Fayte feels underdeveloped. I didn't have as much time to throw in non-optional cutscenes with her to give her depth, or put in any flashbacks. I'm glad I was able to keep her from being two dimensional though.

I feel I succeeded with Ember a bit more, at least if you go through her route anyways. Though again, she falls victim to me having to do all her cutscenes in one sitting.

I'm glad you liked Aiden though! I had a ton of fun writing him, and he became my favorite character after I decided that he is really serious about being a Reaper and why. (I think he had two more cutscenes after the one you saw. Though it might just be one.) So I'm glad you clicked with him :D All my friends ignore his route and focus on ember :P

As for the endings, I'm glad that you spent so long thinking about it :D It makes me feel really cool knowing you were invested enough in the game to care so much. And it wasn't originally going to just be like "NUUU, U GOTTA DO THE RIGHT ENDING!" Lee was just going to whip out the pistol and shoot the heart. Then you'd get an ending showing you the aftermath. It would just pan over whole cities with everyone laying on the ground, drooling. There was also going to be an ending you got if you didn't level up enough (Edmund would just kill you straight out, and you'd see the world with everyone running around like beasts.) The game would tell you on day four if you were on track for this ending, so you'd have time to level up.

I didn't think about the disconnect with Lee killing himself though o.o Maybe I should make that a choice too. It'd give me an extra ending lol.

As for the seven days starting then, it was more because I needed to remind people that serious business is gonna happen :P Some people might not find the situation as interesting, so since you can't make any choices to NOT become a Reaper, I figured might as well start the countdown at that point. But if it gives the impression that it wasn't actually Lee becoming a Reaper that triggered the events, I should prolly take that bit out lol.

And you didn't get any extra skills? o.o did you beat the boss as a level 1 then? XD I didn't have time to get any sort of "YOU GOT A SKILL" notification. By the time you're max level (10), Lee has about...9 or so skills to choose from. But I guess I need to make it clearer when you get skills.

Also, the status menu didn't list all the RMXP stats >.> It showed you your relationship level with whatever character you selected, in addition to your HP and progress towards your next level. No one opened it though, so I guess I better put in a better tutorial about the menu somewhere >.> Maybe after whichever social link cutscene you do second.

And as for not having more manditory battles that don't eat time, I'm planning on adding a bit more content to the game. So I'll keep that in mind when crafting the extra bits of narrative. Maybe I'll make use of blizzABS's alignment group feature and have an optional character you only get if you save him during another Reaper attack.

There's also a lot about the Tromuli that I want to get in there. But I didn't have the time to put in their cutscenes XD

The weapon system was basically to allow you to have two versions of whichever fighter you found most useful. But I've sen that most people just swap to that fighter instead :/ I'm debating changing it so that either: upgrading one instance of a weapon upgrades every other instance, or that you can only control Lee. Which do you think would be best?

As for the HUD, gameus is working on a version of the zHUD that shows party members off :D

I'm glad you liked the N button too. One of my friends spent about an hour looking for the office, so I figured I should add something. Seems that he wasn't the only one XD Also, I'm not sure what kinda secrets I should put in the mansion :/ I could put juice and dew in random spots, or maybe a painting of Aiden and Edmund together you can find. As for that guy looking like Edmund, that was a total accident o.o I forgot I had a sprite with that same head already >.>

And I wholeheartedly agree with you about being able to skip Lee's non-reaper section! That should be pretty easy to do with a script. I oftentimes have wanted to replay Knights of the Old Republic 2, but the introductory section is just...waaaay too long.So I only played it once. Thanks for the suggestion :D I hadn't thought of it.

And to respond to your last edit question, your reaction to Lee was what I was hoping for :D I'm also glad you saw Aiden as more than just an annoying dork character and delved into him. Your reaction to the ending choice was great! Though I wish I'd had time to implement the other endings so you could have not felt as cheated upon a reload :P

P.S. I came up with the idea for what Edmund was going to be after I wrote that long scene with Lee's father. Edmund was just sorta a way to inform the player of why William was such an angry man and obsessed with his house. But I seized upon the idea of Aiden wanting Lee to become a reaper because Edmund was special somehow. Originally, it was just going to be a giant Nightmare. It was just going to eat the Link. That was the ending :P

P.P.S. A big portion of Lee's resolve to become a Reaper, even though he didn't know it, was as a final "screw you" to his father. His father had just been going on about how much shame Edmund becoming a Reaper brought their family. So When the option presented itself, it was more than a little tempting even though he didn't quite get why. I'm glad the sense that Lee had a strong resolve for some reason he wasn't aware of came through :D That was the whole original point of the talk with William :P


Thanks for putting so much time into both playing and responding to my game o.o Even though I'm pretty sure I didn't address every point you brought up in my response, such a detailed account of your experience really helps me know what ways to change and improve the game in the coming month or so :D

I appreciate it blizz.

Also, glad you liked the cluster-eff feel of the level grinding segments XD I'm thinking of replacing them with short little dungeons with a miniboss at the end. What you think?

Blizzard


Spoiler: ShowHide

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
I'm glad Lee's reaction, and how everyone reacted to his reaction, rung true with you :D I know that young boy going through heartbreak and being angry about it isn't something most of us who have had experience sympathize with. I just remembered how that felt from when I was seventeen (how everyone is just like "just freaking get over her!" on day two , but then pretending to feel sorry for you in the same breath :P), so I drew on that when writing Lee's reactions.


On the contrary. I went through a similar experience. And I really had to get over that shit. xD This is one of the reasons why I didn't like him as a person. In a way he reminded me of my own mistakes which I had casted off myself a long time ago.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
(BTW, toted is actually a word. It means to carry around, it's generally used to talk about something you're carrying around to show off as a prize.)


Ah, ok then. I thought you misspelled "toyed" since T and Y are close on a QUERTY keyboard. xD

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
I'm glad you liked Aiden though! I had a ton of fun writing him, and he became my favorite character after I decided that he is really serious about being a Reaper and why. (I think he had two more cutscenes after the one you saw. Though it might just be one.) So I'm glad you clicked with him :D All my friends ignore his route and focus on ember :P


I guess it shows that you put the most effort into him. When he asked who I thought was the sexiest, I picked him, lol! Bros gotta stick together. xD

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
As for the endings, I'm glad that you spent so long thinking about it :D It makes me feel really cool knowing you were invested enough in the game to care so much. And it wasn't originally going to just be like "NUUU, U GOTTA DO THE RIGHT ENDING!" Lee was just going to whip out the pistol and shoot the heart. Then you'd get an ending showing you the aftermath. It would just pan over whole cities with everyone laying on the ground, drooling. There was also going to be an ending you got if you didn't level up enough (Edmund would just kill you straight out, and you'd see the world with everyone running around like beasts.) The game would tell you on day four if you were on track for this ending, so you'd have time to level up.

I didn't think about the disconnect with Lee killing himself though o.o Maybe I should make that a choice too. It'd give me an extra ending lol.


So originally there was going to be an ending with destroying the heart, but you changed it to be just the same ending? As I said, I didn't expect everybody to be dead if I shoot the heart. I expected a plot twist there. Like a bit of a melancholic ending. Something in the lines of "they lived on, but things would never be the same". Not all endings have to be either good or bad. xD

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
As for the seven days starting then, it was more because I needed to remind people that serious business is gonna happen :P Some people might not find the situation as interesting, so since you can't make any choices to NOT become a Reaper, I figured might as well start the countdown at that point. But if it gives the impression that it wasn't actually Lee becoming a Reaper that triggered the events, I should prolly take that bit out lol.


Either that or maybe switch things around a bit. You could make it so that Fayte triggered it, because she was in contact with Lee, but without Lee it wouldn't have worked.
Or that the process of transformation starts earlier than actually agreeing to do it. That people make up their mind way before they are presented with the actual choice. That would also fuck with the concept of choice and free will which is a bit of a theme in the game and give players even more food for thought.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
And you didn't get any extra skills? o.o did you beat the boss as a level 1 then? XD I didn't have time to get any sort of "YOU GOT A SKILL" notification. By the time you're max level (10), Lee has about...9 or so skills to choose from. But I guess I need to make it clearer when you get skills.


O_o I just checked. Level 9 and I have 6 of them. I had no idea. xD Yeah, a "new skill learned" notification would have cleared that up. Though, I think that I did once make the skill menu appear later in the game with SHIFT+O and there was only one (level 3 or 4 maybe?).

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
Also, the status menu didn't list all the RMXP stats >.> It showed you your relationship level with whatever character you selected, in addition to your HP and progress towards your next level. No one opened it though, so I guess I better put in a better tutorial about the menu somewhere >.> Maybe after whichever social link cutscene you do second.


Ooooh, that's actually a pretty good idea. Yeah, maybe you should have mentioned that somewhere. xD I don't think any other besides status needs explaining since you kinda already did explain all of them.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
There's also a lot about the Tromuli that I want to get in there. But I didn't have the time to put in their cutscenes XD


They actually didn't interest me that much. I'm more interested in this whole "everything is thoughts" thing. But that's just me. I'm sure other people would appreciate it.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
The weapon system was basically to allow you to have two versions of whichever fighter you found most useful. But I've sen that most people just swap to that fighter instead :/ I'm debating changing it so that either: upgrading one instance of a weapon upgrades every other instance, or that you can only control Lee. Which do you think would be best?


Actually upgrading the original to upgrade the copy sound like a pretty good idea. It also makes a lot of sense since it's supposed to be a mental copy.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
As for the HUD, gameus is working on a version of the zHUD that shows party members off :D


<3

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
I'm glad you liked the N button too. One of my friends spent about an hour looking for the office, so I figured I should add something. Seems that he wasn't the only one XD Also, I'm not sure what kinda secrets I should put in the mansion :/ I could put juice and dew in random spots, or maybe a painting of Aiden and Edmund together you can find. As for that guy looking like Edmund, that was a total accident o.o I forgot I had a sprite with that same head already >.>


Or maybe some little plot extras or foreshadowing as well. Or just general lore.
Yeah, I'd recognize "Endout's head" anywhere. xD

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
And to respond to your last edit question, your reaction to Lee was what I was hoping for :D I'm also glad you saw Aiden as more than just an annoying dork character and delved into him. Your reaction to the ending choice was great! Though I wish I'd had time to implement the other endings so you could have not felt as cheated upon a reload :P


If you were just out of time to implement them, then I forgive you. xD

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
P.P.S. A big portion of Lee's resolve to become a Reaper, even though he didn't know it, was as a final "screw you" to his father. His father had just been going on about how much shame Edmund becoming a Reaper brought their family. So When the option presented itself, it was more than a little tempting even though he didn't quite get why. I'm glad the sense that Lee had a strong resolve for some reason he wasn't aware of came through :D That was the whole original point of the talk with William :P


<3


Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
Thanks for putting so much time into both playing and responding to my game o.o Even though I'm pretty sure I didn't address every point you brought up in my response, such a detailed account of your experience really helps me know what ways to change and improve the game in the coming month or so :D

I appreciate it blizz.


No problem, man. I enjoyed the game so that's the least I can do. I'm glad you found my feedback useful. :)

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 04:27:28 pm
Also, glad you liked the cluster-eff feel of the level grinding segments XD I'm thinking of replacing them with short little dungeons with a miniboss at the end. What you think?


It would definitely make it more interesting. 3-4 maps should be enough.




BTW, as for plotholes, you know why I noticed them? I've watched a bunch of "Everything wrong with XYZ movie" on Youtube this weekend so I started seeing patterns. xD You should check them out. They're funny, entertaining and help you recognize plot holes in your own works. And they're not too serious either (e.g. lots of time you hear "scene does not contain a lap dance" as a movie sin xD).
Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
Drinking Game for Android      Never have I ever for Android
Drinking Game for iOS      Never have I ever for iOS


Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

legacyblade

Spoiler: ShowHide

QuoteOn the contrary. I went through a similar experience. And I really had to get over that shit. xD This is one of the reasons why I didn't like him as a person. In a way he reminded me of my own mistakes which I had casted off myself a long time ago.


Ok, so you dislike him for the same reason I do XD Because I didn't have time to come up with a personality for him, I just wrote a slightly exaggerated version of myself from a few years ago. So seeing what a little brat I was after I got dumped ticks me off a bit :P At the time, it felt totally justified. But now it's just like "GAH! Stop it! You're not the only one that matters, idiot!" :P

QuoteAh, ok then. I thought you misspelled "toyed" since T and Y are close on a QUERTY keyboard. xD

I see how you see that lol. I DID write yold instead of told once, so I see why you'd think that (Especially when toyed works in context) BTW, what did you think of his father? I tried not to make him a total douche. I was just going for...I dunno, stern? It's not a huge deal, because his only role in the plot is as a catalyst to get Lee to become a Reaper. I just wonder how he came off to people. I watched all of Tyrion Lannister's talks with his children to get inspiration on how to write that kinda character XD


QuoteI guess it shows that you put the most effort into him. When he asked who I thought was the sexiest, I picked him, lol! Bros gotta stick together. xD

You picked the best option XD Whenever visual novels give me that option, I ALWAYS pick the guy :P Gives the best reactions. And i'm still debating whether or not Aiden is actually gay or not. Because particularly with how he reacts to Edmund at the end makes me wonder. I'm leaning towards more of him being desperate for someone he can connect with (as he hasn't had much real human bonding), but I'm not sure XD Guess I'll leave it up to the player what they think he is.

QuoteSo originally there was going to be an ending with destroying the heart, but you changed it to be just the same ending? As I said, I didn't expect everybody to be dead if I shoot the heart. I expected a plot twist there. Like a bit of a melancholic ending. Something in the lines of "they lived on, but things would never be the same". Not all endings have to be either good or bad. xD

Well if shooting the heart fixes everything AND is the easy way out, then it just makes Lee an idiot rather than a hero if he sacrifices himself for the world :P But man, do you know how much of a shift it is for me letting people choose what they do? I'm used to writing novels. It already makes me cringe to leave the ending to the end user :P (reference your awesome gif to see why XD)

QuoteEither that or maybe switch things around a bit. You could make it so that Fayte triggered it, because she was in contact with Lee, but without Lee it wouldn't have worked.
Or that the process of transformation starts earlier than actually agreeing to do it. That people make up their mind way before they are presented with the actual choice. That would also fuck with the concept of choice and free will which is a bit of a theme in the game and give players even more food for thought.

Those are some good ideas. I'm gonna have to mull over them when revising the script. (which I need to write down somewhere so I can revise it outside the textboxes :P It's hard to read through the event window)

QuoteO_o I just checked. Level 9 and I have 6 of them. I had no idea. xD Yeah, a "new skill learned" notification would have cleared that up. Though, I think that I did once make the skill menu appear later in the game with SHIFT+O and there was only one (level 3 or 4 maybe?).

I think at level three, you learn "refresh" (weak cure). It's green, so it probably blended into the background a bit XD I'll make sure to have a bit more fanfare when you learn a new skill. In the final version of the game, you'll get to choose what to put your points into (increase HP by 20,increase SP by 20, increase HP regen rate, increase SP regen rate), so I think I'll have the level up not do anything until the player is out of battle (killed all the enemies on screen). Then it will bring up a little box that says "one or more members of your party are ready to level up. Are you ready to allocate their skill points?" or something, after which it takes you to a level up result screen that tells you who leveled up, what they learned, etc. Then it takes you to the point allocation screen (which will be layed out similarly to the upgrade screen)


QuoteOoooh, that's actually a pretty good idea. Yeah, maybe you should have mentioned that somewhere. xD I don't think any other besides status needs explaining since you kinda already did explain all of them.

lol, glad you like it. The idea came from when I was playing persona. It bugged me that I had to go to the "time will pass if you hang out with them" to check my relationship status. :P I wanted to be able to see a quick overview in the menu.

QuoteThey actually didn't interest me that much. I'm more interested in this whole "everything is thoughts" thing. But that's just me. I'm sure other people would appreciate it.

Finding out about them would be part of "investigating the world" option. They're a bit less bland if you know more about them, XD What makes them interesting is a certain implication of how everything in Reverie is basically the same thing.


QuoteActually upgrading the original to upgrade the copy sound like a pretty good idea. It also makes a lot of sense since it's supposed to be a mental copy.

Alright sweet! That shouldn't even be very hard to do.


QuoteOr maybe some little plot extras or foreshadowing as well. Or just general lore.
Yeah, I'd recognize "Endout's head" anywhere. xD


Ah, so that's why it stuck out to you XD I forgot you used that sprite in CP :P And ok. I was going to have you able to examine the stained glass windows to get little bits of trivia about each Reaper (aside from the one on the bottom left, as that's actually a magical girl from my favorite anime >.> I was just going to have it make a little reference to the show, or have him be like "I've never been quite sure who this is. But she looks...familiar somehow.") So I guess my plans were in line with what you were hoping for XD If only I'd just had more time, eh?

QuoteIf you were just out of time to implement them, then I forgive you. xD

<3



QuoteNo problem, man. I enjoyed the game so that's the least I can do. I'm glad you found my feedback useful. Happy


That you enjoyed the game makes this month of two hours of sleep a night all worth it XD

QuoteIt would definitely make it more interesting. 3-4 maps should be enough.

KK. Glad you thought so. I figured it would help with the story-gameplay ratio, as aside from the mandatory battles, you can spend a maximum of ELEVEN MINUTES battling :P I went with the system I did, because the game isn't supposed to be much longer than an hour. That and the fact that I didn't have time to do much else (I was REALLY strapped for time at the end). Having a dungeon with only a few enemies on each screen will definitely help the battles be more interesting. It usually ended up with me switching to Aiden, cueing up tremor and dew, and spamming the spell while refreshing my SP. MAN you can get a lot of nightmare essence that way :P

QuoteBTW, as for plotholes, you know why I noticed them? I've watched a bunch of "Everything wrong with XYZ movie" on Youtube this weekend so I started seeing patterns. xD You should check them out. They're funny, entertaining and help you recognize plot holes in your own works. And they're not too serious either (e.g. lots of time you hear "scene does not contain a lap dance" as a movie sin xD).

Well I'm glad that you did :P As much as I like hearing praise for my game, hearing the things you didn't like is infinitely more valuable. Having both is best, because you know which parts are working and shouldn't be touched much XD So This has been super helpful. And I'll check out  everything wrong with ___. I've been meaning to look at them anyways :P

Neoend

July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm #48 Last Edit: July 01, 2014, 10:36:07 pm by Neoend
I played the Game! And I got the true ending!  Here are my thoughts on the game.

One thing first:
Ok like I said before, great music. This is not going to be questioned.
And in regards to the cutscene bits at the beginning, yeah, I felt they were long and I did want to get to the battles. But they were well executed and as a whole I can see they are extremely important and valuable to the game. The real world segment is also the strongest part presentation wise. It makes a powerful impression that I would think would keep other players interested and invested.
Now for the other specifics.
Spoiler: ShowHide

Lee's Characterization
I was getting very annoyed at him. So good job! You know, love or hate, if you're getting an emotional response you're doing a good job with the character. Also, I could sympathize with him and his rationale. I think the only thing that was kind of weird to me was how long it seems he was holding on to it as according to the people of the house. But then again, Lee managed to maintain some amount of this anger all the way through the game, so not too big a deal. Also, the speed in which he jumps ahead to conclusions without much thought does give the impression that he is just a child in a sense. Overall, I don't like the way he behaves at some points, but it's all consistent with his characterization.
I also like the decision he came to. That was very much in line and although I thought  that Fayte leaving him a letter was awkward, the message
itself was a great motivating factor. It was also very astute as I could see myself agreeing with Fayte's opinion.


Fayte

She's a fundamental drama factor in this game, and I think that ends up being the problem. I know that you had to make sacrifices in the story telling so in terms of the Game it works; it's not really a fault. The way I'm thinking of it, it seems like a necessary evil.
To me it felt like there was a disconnect between the Fayte herself, the Fayte presented through Lee and the Fayte presented through Ember. It was like all the puzzle pieces were there but I didn't know how to fit them together. I think a lot of it has to do with the tone in which I read and interpreted the dialogues. There were just a lot of little clues when the about Fayte's personality whenever the other characters were talking about her but then there's Fayte's own scenes and how she is presented and a lot of it seems like it doesn't add up neatly. I'm sorry if I'm not being clear, I'm also struggling putting this feeling into words. I think I would have really enjoyed to see Fayte outside of her drama with Lee because then I'm sure you would have pulled it of nicely. Still on Fayte, I felt that a lot of her actions were awkward. Like leaving the letter (seems kind of passive aggressive lol) and her blowing up at Lee saying it's his fault right when the big bad is in front of them. But here's the thing, those actions make sense in the scope of the game, and I could tell your hands were tied when it came to presenting their drama. So yeah awkward, but justified. My overall feeling is that I didn't like Fayte as much just because a big chunk of her character was the drama. Her explanations in the ending however does kind of help clear up her previous dialogues though. I think you executed her very well during the ending sequence although the Fayte at the ending still felt kind of disconnected. But again that's just because of the nature of the game.

Other Characters

I really liked Ember and Aiden. On Aiden, thanks to the way you framed and portrayed him through Lee at the beginning (showing how they met and Lee's general opinion of him) I was led to believe that I was going to dislike him, but I'm so happy that wasn't the case. Good job on that. I really like Aiden's character. I was sad I didn't speak with him more during the first playthrough. His execution during the ending sequence was perfect. I liked what he had to say, and his motives made sense. I felt that he was the only one who had a right to spill about their motives and feelings during that last sequence even lol! Very well done, I totally understood Aiden's drive.
Ember was fun, and I think one of her selling points is how aware of herself and her thoughts she is. I don't have much else to say about her because it is hard to put good feels into words . =]

The Grandfather
Thank you so much for making him the threat. It made so much sense, brought the story together, I didn't see him coming, and you presented a unique perspective through him. Really, it's great that it wasn't just some nightmare because it added more to Lee.
I understood his thought process, if I had to sum it up, he was a man that stared into the abyss and came out with a half-truth. What do you think about him and his motive?

The World
Your explanation of how the worlds work made sense. I thought it was really clever. And it is a statement of how powerful a person's concept of reality can be. Sucks for the Nightmares. Overall, it reminded me of some writing from an eastern school of thought.

Other Misc.
I can't comment on battles reliably, because my computer can not handle lots of things happening at once. One thing though, I had a glitch where Lee got stuck on an enemy. Then when he got knocked out, two enemies were locked on top of two knocked out allies. They were pretty much sitting ducks and I proceeded to brutalize them.
Error wise, I think I might have seen only one spelling error. I think it was 'soemthing'.
Oh also this might just be me, but it was tough to read the tutorial dialogues when you have the pink tiles behind it. Just kind of blends together when I'm reading it.

Final Thoughts
I liked this. It was really well put together. I personally enjoyed the characters the most. I'm looking forward to any additions you might make.

Hey! if you like webcomics and other fun distractions check out my site:
www.laforix.com

legacyblade

Hey! Your reply is segmented! This is going to be super easy to respond to ^.^

I'm glad you like the music. Both my composers will be happy to hear that :D Any particular track you liked? (just curious, lol)

As for the presentation value in the beginning, that was just more of me not realizing how much time I was sinking into sprite poses and custom tileset bits. lol. When I started on the second half, I realized I'd have to pull back a bit on that front. But I'm glad the beginning was able to hold your interest even if you waiting for the battle parts :)

Spoiler: ShowHide

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
Lee's Characterization
I was getting very annoyed at him. So good job! You know, love or hate, if you're getting an emotional response you're doing a good job with the character. Also, I could sympathize with him and his rationale. I think the only thing that was kind of weird to me was how long it seems he was holding on to it as according to the people of the house. But then again, Lee managed to maintain some amount of this anger all the way through the game, so not too big a deal. Also, the speed in which he jumps ahead to conclusions without much thought does give the impression that he is just a child in a sense. Overall, I don't like the way he behaves at some points, but it's all consistent with his characterization.
I also like the decision he came to. That was very much in line and although I thought  that Fayte leaving him a letter was awkward, the message
itself was a great motivating factor. It was also very astute as I could see myself agreeing with Fayte's opinion.


I can see why you dislike him, lol. I figured I should try and make a main character with enough of a personality that he could at least drive some decent drama. It seemed I achieved that, along with making him understandable and consistent. I tried to show, through the staff's reactions, that not everyone in this world thinks a breakup is licence to act like a total douche to everyone around you. But I wanted to also let the player see through the eyes of that sort of person. I remember what my first bad breakup was like, so I drew on that a lot :P Makes me glad I've grown up a bit since then. No one likes Lee. No one must have liked me when I was like that o.o Also glad you agree with what Fayte said. I was worried it would come off as her being insensitive and judgmental.


Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
Fayte
She's a fundamental drama factor in this game, and I think that ends up being the problem. I know that you had to make sacrifices in the story telling so in terms of the Game it works; it's not really a fault. The way I'm thinking of it, it seems like a necessary evil.
To me it felt like there was a disconnect between the Fayte herself, the Fayte presented through Lee and the Fayte presented through Ember. It was like all the puzzle pieces were there but I didn't know how to fit them together. I think a lot of it has to do with the tone in which I read and interpreted the dialogues. There were just a lot of little clues when the about Fayte's personality whenever the other characters were talking about her but then there's Fayte's own scenes and how she is presented and a lot of it seems like it doesn't add up neatly. I'm sorry if I'm not being clear, I'm also struggling putting this feeling into words. I think I would have really enjoyed to see Fayte outside of her drama with Lee because then I'm sure you would have pulled it of nicely. Still on Fayte, I felt that a lot of her actions were awkward. Like leaving the letter (seems kind of passive aggressive lol) and her blowing up at Lee saying it's his fault right when the big bad is in front of them. But here's the thing, those actions make sense in the scope of the game, and I could tell your hands were tied when it came to presenting their drama. So yeah awkward, but justified. My overall feeling is that I didn't like Fayte as much just because a big chunk of her character was the drama. Her explanations in the ending however does kind of help clear up her previous dialogues though. I think you executed her very well during the ending sequence although the Fayte at the ending still felt kind of disconnected. But again that's just because of the nature of the game.


I totally agree with what you said! I wanted to have some more cutscenes showing how she was outside of all this drama. But I wasn't able to squeeze in the time. So all in all, she comes off more as fragmented than complex. That's something I'm hoping to fix as I polish up the game. I also agree with you that her blowing up at Lee during the final confrontation feels outta place, but I didn't know where else to stick it at the time. I was doing the final cutscene, and realized "oh crap! We don't know why Fayte became a Reaper yet. That's kind of important!" And I didn't have much time left, so I stuck it in there.

Also, in the scene after the credits, I was going to have Aiden and Ember come in and offer a less dramatic perspective on Lee's motivation ("That's how some see it anyways, but those who know better understand that he figured out she didn't hate him." and she'll be like "I appreciate the sentiment, but you did just kinda ruin the ending." or something :P It was going to show that Aiden realized that the best way to get more Reapers is for them to have a hero. For the Reapers to be seen. So they spend more time in the real world now.)

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
Other Characters
I really liked Ember and Aiden. On Aiden, thanks to the way you framed and portrayed him through Lee at the beginning (showing how they met and Lee's general opinion of him) I was led to believe that I was going to dislike him, but I'm so happy that wasn't the case. Good job on that. I really like Aiden's character. I was sad I didn't speak with him more during the first playthrough. His execution during the ending sequence was perfect. I liked what he had to say, and his motives made sense. I felt that he was the only one who had a right to spill about their motives and feelings during that last sequence even lol! Very well done, I totally understood Aiden's drive.
Ember was fun, and I think one of her selling points is how aware of herself and her thoughts she is. I don't have much else to say about her because it is hard to put good feels into words . =]


I'm glad you liked Aiden :D He's my favorite character, and I had the most fun writing him. I also figured that Ember was needed so we could have at least one sane/well adjusted person in the story (even if she has her own baggage that she hasn't managed to deal with yet). So I'm glad she fullfilled her purpose :3

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
The Grandfather
Thank you so much for making him the threat. It made so much sense, brought the story together, I didn't see him coming, and you presented a unique perspective through him. Really, it's great that it wasn't just some nightmare because it added more to Lee.
I understood his thought process, if I had to sum it up, he was a man that stared into the abyss and came out with a half-truth. What do you think about him and his motive?

I'm really glad you liked it! I came up with it a few days after I finished writing that scene where Lee's father is like "I hate this painting.". I was struggling to come up with a decent reason for there to suddenly be a super powerful Nightmare outta nowhere. And I thought that if Lee has special powers that let him harness the energy of Nightmares, maybe his grandfather did too. And then I wondered what sorts of things it would do to a person to have absorbed hundreds of other minds into your own. And the idea just kinda fell into place :3

I'm still worried that it feels a bit contrived, but contrived is better than disconnected eh? And I actually kind of agree with Edmund. They live in a universe where ideas have actual power over reality. Humans are slowly developing powers (though they currently only manifest when certain people become Reapers), so I think the threat to the world is very real if the human mind continues to grow in power in reaction to continued exposure to Reverie. But I still think lobotomizing the human race is a bit of a...ill conceived plan.

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
The World
Your explanation of how the worlds work made sense. I thought it was really clever. And it is a statement of how powerful a person's concept of reality can be. Sucks for the Nightmares. Overall, it reminded me of some writing from an eastern school of thought.

Guess all the years I studied Buddhism shows, eh? I think western ideas in fantasy are well and good, but we need to draw inspiration from other cultures too. Though that was all unconscious :P A lot of how the world works came from me trying to explain to a friend (who doesn't play a lot of video games or read fantasy) how "stabbing a nightmare in the face kills it." :P Either way, glad you thought it was clever :3 I should probably have just came up with some sort of vague response that makes me seem brilliant, but that's no fun :P

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
Other Misc.
I can't comment on battles reliably, because my computer can not handle lots of things happening at once. One thing though, I had a glitch where Lee got stuck on an enemy. Then when he got knocked out, two enemies were locked on top of two knocked out allies. They were pretty much sitting ducks and I proceeded to brutalize them.
Error wise, I think I might have seen only one spelling error. I think it was 'soemthing'.
Oh also this might just be me, but it was tough to read the tutorial dialogues when you have the pink tiles behind it. Just kind of blends together when I'm reading it.

Yeah, I need to go back through and have it change the tutorial dialog to black. That was more a lack of time thing. And wow o.o I've never had that happen with the battles XD The glitches I run into usually are when all the AI just...stop for some reason. They all just go on holiday for about 5 seconds every once in awhile, then get back to fighting :P Makes it easy to kill of those freaking swords in the final boss. I hate them :P

Quote from: Neoend on July 01, 2014, 10:34:50 pm
Final Thoughts
I liked this. It was really well put together. I personally enjoyed the characters the most. I'm looking forward to any additions you might make.

Glad you liked the characters :D Since my game is basically a glorified dating sim, it would kind of suck for me if you didn't end up liking the characters XD



Thanks for commenting :D These long posts really help me know which parts work and don't. I especially appreciate your feedback about which parts of the characters seemed off or awkward to you, as that will help me know which parts to tweak or show in a different light when adding in a bit more story content (along with putting a bit more combat into the game to help the gameplay-story ratio be a bit more even).

Blizzard

Spoiler: ShowHide

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 05:53:46 pm
BTW, what did you think of his father? I tried not to make him a total douche. I was just going for...I dunno, stern? It's not a huge deal, because his only role in the plot is as a catalyst to get Lee to become a Reaper. I just wonder how he came off to people. I watched all of Tyrion Lannister's talks with his children to get inspiration on how to write that kinda character XD


He felt like a solid character even though he didn't have much screen time. I feel that it was a bit unjustified how Lee saw him as heartless and Edmund as cowardly. But that is exactly what makes all of them good characters. Each one of them has their own image of the others and William seems to be the only one who keeps a clear head. I agree with him that helping people doesn't have to include being close to your subjects. While it does help, it's not necessary. And Lee uses this closeness as a justification for his actions. He thinks that being close and helping others is enough to make him a good person rather than the actual intention being the thing that makes it count. There is a really complex relationship between all those things going on and depth is portrayed in a simple but effective manner.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 05:53:46 pm
And i'm still debating whether or not Aiden is actually gay or not. Because particularly with how he reacts to Edmund at the end makes me wonder. I'm leaning towards more of him being desperate for someone he can connect with (as he hasn't had much real human bonding), but I'm not sure XD Guess I'll leave it up to the player what they think he is.


Leave everything as it is. Just because you care deeply for another man, it doesn't make you gay. And I actually like this kind of portrayal of male bonding which obviously involves emotion, but doesn't have to be sexual.

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 05:53:46 pm
Well if shooting the heart fixes everything AND is the easy way out, then it just makes Lee an idiot rather than a hero if he sacrifices himself for the world :P But man, do you know how much of a shift it is for me letting people choose what they do? I'm used to writing novels. It already makes me cringe to leave the ending to the end user :P (reference your awesome gif to see why XD)


No, no, not "fix" everything. I was thinking about an ending that portrays some sort of "good ending", but something is off. Imagine if Matrix ended in a completely different way. Imagine that they thought they destroyed the Matrix and everybody's happy, but something's off. And in the last few frames of the movie you see the dark backgrounds from the real world, as if maybe nobody woke up after all. (This is a popular fan theory, BTW, that they never left the Matrix.)

Quote from: legacyblade on July 01, 2014, 05:53:46 pm
I think at level three, you learn "refresh" (weak cure). It's green, so it probably blended into the background a bit XD I'll make sure to have a bit more fanfare when you learn a new skill. In the final version of the game, you'll get to choose what to put your points into (increase HP by 20,increase SP by 20, increase HP regen rate, increase SP regen rate), so I think I'll have the level up not do anything until the player is out of battle (killed all the enemies on screen). Then it will bring up a little box that says "one or more members of your party are ready to level up. Are you ready to allocate their skill points?" or something, after which it takes you to a level up result screen that tells you who leveled up, what they learned, etc. Then it takes you to the point allocation screen (which will be layed out similarly to the upgrade screen)


I think that it breaks the pacing and immersion if there is a result screen after an ABS battle. But you could display some icon somewhere that indicates that you can upgrade your stuff.

Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
Drinking Game for Android      Never have I ever for Android
Drinking Game for iOS      Never have I ever for iOS


Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

G_G

QuoteBut you could display some icon somewhere that indicates that you can upgrade your stuff.


You can blame me. I think I was supposed to have done this for him. Though, I can't remember if he asked me to do this before or after the contest deadline. I know he's got some work laid out for me to help polish the game.

legacyblade

@gameus, if I remembered to ask you, it was in that long rambley list of stuff I wanted to be done in the coming weeks lol. I was just happy to get the upgrade system and the skill/item ring menus in place before the deadline.

Spoiler: ShowHide

QuoteHe felt like a solid character even though he didn't have much screen time. I feel that it was a bit unjustified how Lee saw him as heartless and Edmund as cowardly. But that is exactly what makes all of them good characters. Each one of them has their own image of the others and William seems to be the only one who keeps a clear head. I agree with him that helping people doesn't have to include being close to your subjects. While it does help, it's not necessary. And Lee uses this closeness as a justification for his actions. He thinks that being close and helping others is enough to make him a good person rather than the actual intention being the thing that makes it count. There is a really complex relationship between all those things going on and depth is portrayed in a simple but effective manner.


:D I'm glad you thought so. And I'm glad all of that came through. I wanted to spend a bit more time on the family relationship, but only had that one cutscene to do it. I'm especially glad that Lee seeing him as an evil heartless dictator was unjustified, as when most of my friends played it there were completely siding with Lee there :P


QuoteLeave everything as it is. Just because you care deeply for another man, it doesn't make you gay. And I actually like this kind of portrayal of male bonding which obviously involves emotion, but doesn't have to be sexual.

Oh, I wasn't planning on changing it. Lee is definitely straight. And I honestly don't know about Aiden. Of all the scenes in the game, his are the ones I think I'll touch the least (just add some more sprite poses, and make the dialog flow a bit better). I just wonder about him is all (he's the only character that wrote himself rather than me having to think about it)

Quote
No, no, not "fix" everything. I was thinking about an ending that portrays some sort of "good ending", but something is off. Imagine if Matrix ended in a completely different way. Imagine that they thought they destroyed the Matrix and everybody's happy, but something's off. And in the last few frames of the movie you see the dark backgrounds from the real world, as if maybe nobody woke up after all. (This is a popular fan theory, BTW, that they never left the Matrix.)

Ah ok. I kind of like that idea. Maybe the tree killing ending will leave it ambiguous as to whether or not humanity is now braindead. After all, none of the characters can go back to our world to find out. So the ending could be them sitting around a campfire wondering about what happened. I wonder if Edmund would be chilling with them, or if he'd be off doing other Edmund things.


QuoteI think that it breaks the pacing and immersion if there is a result screen after an ABS battle. But you could display some icon somewhere that indicates that you can upgrade your stuff.

Alright. I'll trust your instincts on that one. I remember the interface for CP being really intuitive, and you've got some sort of masters degree with computer stuff, so you must have taken design or UI classes at some point XD


Blizzard

Spoiler: ShowHide

Quote from: legacyblade on July 02, 2014, 04:09:53 am
Ah ok. I kind of like that idea. Maybe the tree killing ending will leave it ambiguous as to whether or not humanity is now braindead. After all, none of the characters can go back to our world to find out. So the ending could be them sitting around a campfire wondering about what happened. I wonder if Edmund would be chilling with them, or if he'd be off doing other Edmund things.


Yes, that's exactly what I meant. :)

Quote from: legacyblade on July 02, 2014, 04:09:53 am
Alright. I'll trust your instincts on that one. I remember the interface for CP being really intuitive, and you've got some sort of masters degree with computer stuff, so you must have taken design or UI classes at some point XD


Among other things, yes. xD

Check out Daygames and our games:

King of Booze 2      King of Booze: Never Ever
Drinking Game for Android      Never have I ever for Android
Drinking Game for iOS      Never have I ever for iOS


Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

ArcaneAlchemy

Aw, after reading I realized why you kindly put the comment in spoiler tags Blizzard!  :facepalm:
"Wait? Do I look like a waiter?" -Kefka

legacyblade

Awe, that sucks x.x Hope it wasn't spoiled too badly, Arcane.

ArcaneAlchemy

nah, I tried to close my eyes the fastest I could. And because of the alternate branching I'm sure there are plenty of surprises left. :)
"Wait? Do I look like a waiter?" -Kefka