Finished playing!
Congrats on releasing.
Here's my sort-of-review of Troubleshooter Tales: Out of the Friend Zone
Writing
The characters' dialogue flows well. They talk like real people, like they use contractions and some slang. It can also be a reflection of their personalities. Makes me able to relate to Kevin to some degree, and I find Cori cool through the dialogue. She's someone I'd probably be friends with, IRL.
Characters were cool. None of them really annoyed me except
Jorgan, who I think was annoying on purpose.
)
Although Cori's reaction at the instant Bad End felt a bit abrupt and OOC... Though it's due to her having zero tolerance at broken promises, it still felt a bit weird because even the choice seemed like Kevin was just joking, or at least it did to me ^^;;
The events leading to the final were okay as well. There was build up, like
the restaurant, park, and shopping before the end
. The events didn't feel abrupt
except the instant bad end. No warning, and very dramatic music.
)
And I think the "Good" ending was a bit...lacking. It kind of lacked closure. The call at the end was an awkward way of ending it. ._.
The story was delivered with lots of dialogue, and character interaction. I could tell by the writing that he can show the readers what happens. He mixes showing and telling, and it manages to liven up the narration. I wasn't bored by the dialogue, which is good.
Art
The art was free resources. What matters though is how they were used, and if they all go well.
The backgrounds, personally, don't clash with the sprites. There's variety in the locations.
Restaurant, park, Kevin's home...
Although I'll also be happy if you decide to make the backgrounds in a style that's more consistent with the sprites, too.
The sprites are also fitting (although some of them have size issues?). Jorgan's size doesn't match much with the others. The server/waiter was also a bit awkwardly short. However, Cori's sprite fit her character. I could easily identify her character, and I think her character stuck onto the sprite. If I saw the sprite in another game, I'd probably go "That's Cori from Troubleshooter Tales!
" (No offense, Kingv ^^;; ).
Although Cori's sprite and some others clashed a bit in style, it's gonna be fixed for v1.1 so I'm anticipating it. I like Selena's character design the most for the glasses, hehe.
Music
The music was contributed well to setting the mood of the scenes. Two tracks stood out for me the most:
the one at the restaurant, and the bad end track. The restaurant track was something I'd likely hear at an actual establishment. The bad ending track was dramatic and improved the impact of the scene, as well as the "I screwed something up" feeling.
The music was taken from free resources, although DarkSpartan chose carefully and made sure they contributed to setting up the mood of the scenes.
*claps*
GUI
I cannot comment a lot on GUI and programming stuff since I myself am not very good at this. ^///^;;
First off, the font is was easy on the eyes, except when it goes to the center of the screen (part with no textbox), the white there was a bit hard to read at times.
However, I felt the title screen's menu and the save/load/preferences menu's color scheme was a bit hard on the eyes. The black, red, and green was a bit hard to read at times... ^^;;
Other Miscellaneous Comments:
I'm glad there's an ALL version. I use Windows, but I especially like that the game's compatible for all OS, and you don't need to go through several download links to find the version for your OS.
I'm also impressed by the amount of time it took to make this. It doesn't look like it was made in just 24 hours.
Go, Spartan Build Team of Polymorphic Games!
Conclusion:
I'm looking forward to version 1.1. Would love to see some improvements for some stated above, and maybe some additional content?
