Elven Relations - v1.1 released!

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PyTom
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#16 Post by PyTom »

I saw that too. I think it's part of the game...
maybe, because you're drunk, you don't get to choose?
Rollback is shut down here, and I can't think of a way that would happen without an explicit programmer request.
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#17 Post by PrettySammy09 »

papillon wrote:(Is my computer just going crazy? I seem to be having a lot of repeat-input problems with this game, and I don't remember Ren'Py doing that before, at least not enough to make me eye it suspiciously. Clicking to advance and seeing multiple lines flash instantly by, or pressing spacebar to go forward and have it clear through a dialog line and instantly select a choice off the list of options I hadn't even seen yet...)
Yeah, that's happening to me too. So weird... So, no, it's not just your computer

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#18 Post by papillon »

Ahhhh, that would make sense.

It would be nice if it could be tweaked to not flicker the choices then. :)

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#19 Post by DaFool »

Just started playing this, and I'm having a blast.

When the bombastic music started up, I was like "HELL YEAH" and immediately all the fond memories of rpgs and Record of Lodoss Wars and all that came flooding back.

Sunkitten's art has improved tremendously since When I Ruled the World, this Flash style merges well with the 3DCG backgrounds.

I am going to take my time and savor this one. It seems to be time for me to stop my preaching regarding epic this and epic that... I have found it already :D

Good job!

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#20 Post by chronoluminaire »

Thanks so much for the VisualNews mirror, Misuzu. I've added the download links to the first post.
papillon wrote:Ahhhh, that would make sense.

It would be nice if it could be tweaked to not flicker the choices then. :)
Yep, the explanation is right: your choices for the rest of the evening get selected randomly
if you drink the strong stuff. He does say something like "Ooh, I'm not sure I'm in control of my actions..." <choice>"Choosing randomly, I decide to go talk to X".
This is why I was looking for a way to show a menu without letting the user interact with it, btw. I didn't have time to get a particularly graphically satisfying option in there; that's another bit I hope to rework before the 1.1 release. (That's also why I had to stop rollback for those points, which is also something I don't like doing and something I hope to re-enable in the updated release.)

Many thanks to mokenju and DaFool for the kind words on the game, and kara, monele and musical for the compliments on the graphics - let us know what you think of the game when you play it :)
Last edited by chronoluminaire on Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I released 3 VNs, many moons ago: Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), and Cloud Fairy (the Cute Light & Fluffy Project, 2009).
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#21 Post by Nafai »

Well, that was certainly fun ^_^

Finished it 3 times: the ending with no one, good Yurika and good Tohko.

Here's a list of things I particularly enjoyed:

* The music, without exception, was well done and suited the mood of the scene. I like the change of music within scene to match whats happening;
* I liked the burning hair effects
* The event CGs were all very well done in terms of the general construction of the elements - character placement/poses etc. Nice :)
* The next episode previews were well done, and a nice addition.
* I liked the humor in the dialogue as well. The best one for me was the stick eating joke
* The vocal song was very well done :)
* The description of the sunrise in one of the paths was a very nice as well.
* I liked very much the way you inserted the subtle changes in the main story, depending on which girl was currently 'in favor'

And, while these didn't detract from the enjoyment of the game, here's some constructive criticism:

* I thought for a bit at the start that Yurika was my character avatar... Took me awhile to realize otherwise. Maybe its because the scene created an image in my head of Kei and Takuya side by side, talking to Yurika off screen.
* Some of the background pics looked modified (by some photoshop filter) while others didnt. Having all of them modified might prevent this inconsistent feeling...
* The pic of the elven guards with bows pointed at you looked a bit strange
* The use of the term RSVP was a bit anachronistic

Well that's it for now. If I have time n the future, maybe I'll do some fanart, like I did for G!MB. Thanks for a really nice game chrono and team :)

EDIT: Here's the fanart as promised. I like Yurika best ^_^
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#22 Post by chronoluminaire »

Just because I'm curious, I'd love to hear from anyone who gets ending 1. :)

Thanks for the kind words, Nafai!
Nafai wrote:* I thought for a bit at the start that Yurika was my character avatar... Took me awhile to realize otherwise. Maybe its because the scene created an image in my head of Kei and Takuya side by side, talking to Yurika off screen.
Yeah, my wife thought that as well. I might need to slightly rework that scene for version 1.1.
* Some of the background pics looked modified (by some photoshop filter) while others didnt. Having all of them modified might prevent this inconsistent feeling...
I don't think any of them were modified by a filter. (Originally I did have them all filtered with the GIMP's "Oilify", like the backgrounds in When I Rule The World, but I realised that for many of the pics, unfiltered just looks better.) What you might be noticing is the difference between the rendered 3D scenes and the photos, however. I can't do much about that, as I haven't found any stock photos of elven cities...
* The use of the term RSVP was a bit anachronistic
Heh. True, I suppose, although so much of the English language has come from foreign sources that I'm sure there are many more anachronisms if you take them that strictly... That line was meant to be a bit comic/sarcastic, anyway, so I didn't think it was too much of a problem.
EDIT: Here's the fanart as promised. I like Yurika best ^_^
Awesome! :D Thank you so much - that's so cool!
I released 3 VNs, many moons ago: Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), and Cloud Fairy (the Cute Light & Fluffy Project, 2009).
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#23 Post by PrettySammy09 »

Hey! I just played through and I had a BLAST! A great game, from start to finish. Super fun, and I'm so glad it finally got completed after four years in hibernation.

My first ending was Asilana's good ending. None of the girls really appealed to me (probably because I am a girl! XD), but none the less, the characters were fun and well though out. They each had a nice, distinct personality too.

I thought the writing was a lot of fun, and had a fairy-tailish style to it, without adding in that flowery forced language that I had so much. Sometimes, when writing a medieval-style romantic story, people force that kind of Shakesperian language and it comes out horrible. This language, however, was fun and fast-paced, easy to keep up with too. (Even Makoto's!)

The art was lovely. I <3 Sunkitten's designs. :) They were super fun, and I loved the CGs. They're rare in a fan-made game, but I love collecting them, so I was happy to see them.

Music get an A-, simply because of Asilana's ending music. I hated it...a lot. >_< It was just so bouncy and out of place. And loud. But that's pretty much it. The rest was super.

My only complaint is this, and it has to do with storytelling:
I was waiting for something epic to happen towards the end of the game. They returned to the castle, and a bunch of rogue elves or something attacked the castle, or monsters or evil creatures. I was expecting the chosen girl and the hero to bravely save both the Elven land and the land of the humans. Instead, the medieval adventure part kinda fell short. You got Asilana to go as an ambassador and...well...that was kinda the end of the adventure. Sure, you saved a couple of kids on the way, but that was pretty much it. The romance portion was fulfilled beautifully, but the adventure story fell short at the end. I would have loved to have seen both fulfilled. (Of course, this might only be in Asilana's ending)
Eletis cameo for the win!! :D Don't think I didn't notice Asilana's "brother who teaches history"! >D I love "When I Rule the World!"

Speaking of things I love. I may not be a lesbian, and therefore I don't find myself attracted to any of the lovely ladies in this game, but I did find one gentleman particularly smokin'.

Makoto is AMAZING. He's my absolute favorite in this game. Everything from his snotty nature to his purple shirt makes me go all squiggly with joy. I want to marry Makoto! I was secretely hoping there was a shonen-ai Makoto ending, but you said only three capturable characters so... *weeps*

Anyway, super great game! Thanks again!

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#24 Post by papillon »

... personally I wanted to hit on the Caller. Hot Elf Dudes! :)

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#25 Post by chronoluminaire »

Great to hear you enjoyed the game, PrettySammy, papillon! Many thanks for the kind words :)
PrettySammy09 wrote:My only complaint is this, and it has to do with storytelling:
I was waiting for something epic to happen towards the end of the game. They returned to the castle, and a bunch of rogue elves or something attacked the castle, or monsters or evil creatures. I was expecting the chosen girl and the hero to bravely save both the Elven land and the land of the humans. Instead, the medieval adventure part kinda fell short. You got Asilana to go as an ambassador and...well...that was kinda the end of the adventure. Sure, you saved a couple of kids on the way, but that was pretty much it. The romance portion was fulfilled beautifully, but the adventure story fell short at the end. I would have loved to have seen both fulfilled. (Of course, this might only be in Asilana's ending)
Interesting point. mokenju said something similar back on the first page. The short answer is that this was always supposed to be a small game, and I hadn't planned for it to have much complexity (I certainly hadn't planned for it to take four years! :roll: ) So some aspects of the plot may be rather simplistic. As you say, the adventure story is secondary to the romance.

A lot of the things I write are similar, in that
they don't really have "baddies". This was the case with WIRTW and my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel as well. Even in my 2006 NaNoWriMo novel, in which I really wanted to have an RPG-style "bad guy", he ended up being distinctly ambiguous. It's a pity, because a well-written villain can be immensely satisfying. I shall have to make something with a good - er - evil, honest-to-badness villain next :)
Eletis cameo for the win!! :D Don't think I didn't notice Asilana's "brother who teaches history"! >D I love "When I Rule the World!"
Yay! So glad you spotted that! Well, I did promise in the WIRTW omake, so I had to make good on that. I originally conceived Eletis (at least his name) for Elven Relations, and borrowed him into WIRTW :)
Makoto is AMAZING. He's my absolute favorite in this game. Everything from his snotty nature to his purple shirt makes me go all squiggly with joy. I want to marry Makoto! I was secretely hoping there was a shonen-ai Makoto ending, but you said only three capturable characters so... *weeps*
Bwahahaha! The amount of people who've suggested there should have been a shounen-ai ending is just scary :shock: No, I'm afraid I'll have to leave that pairing to the realms of fanfic... (But I'll admit, I do love Makoto's outfit. I want an outfit like his. :P)
papillon wrote:... personally I wanted to hit on the Caller. Hot Elf Dudes! :)
Hehehe. When SunKitten showed me the character sketch for him, she prefixed it by saying "You asked for a male elf: this automatically means "bish". This is okay, right?" :D But yeah, the Caller came out looking absolutely perfect for his role. Hope you enjoy the bonus scene with him in ending 3 :)
I released 3 VNs, many moons ago: Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), and Cloud Fairy (the Cute Light & Fluffy Project, 2009).
More recently I designed the board game Steam Works (published in 2015), available from a local gaming store near you!

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#26 Post by gekiganwing »

For some reason, Windows XP thought that your zip file required a password. However, I was able to unzip the file using my OS X Mac, and once I did that, it worked on Windows.

Elven Relations was fascinating. It had no typos, good art, and good pacing. But it seemed a little bit short. Don't worry -- I often like short games. They're often better than games/stories which just go on and on, or games/stories which try to talk about weighty subject matter.

Even so, when the story ended, I started thinking "there's probably more that could happen." Even if the elf ambassador stayed in the relatively safe king's court, her presence alone might start some sort of conflict...

Also, it wasn't clear if Tohko disliked water mages because she was raised to, or because of a personal conflict. If the four types of magicians all have their own allegiances, that could lead to a new conflict.

I got Tohko's good ending my first time through the game. I liked that character, and it wasn't because she fit any stereotype ("childhood friend / osanajimi" and also "emotionally cold but later warm / tsundere"). Or even because I thought she was kind of similar to a character from a well known anime (Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist).
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#27 Post by chronoluminaire »

Thanks for posting, and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!
gekiganwing wrote:For some reason, Windows XP thought that your zip file required a password. However, I was able to unzip the file using my OS X Mac, and once I did that, it worked on Windows.
How strange. I don't think other people have had that problem.
gekiganwing wrote:But it seemed a little bit short. Don't worry -- I often like short games. They're often better than games/stories which just go on and on, or games/stories which try to talk about weighty subject matter.
Fascinating... I've had some people tell me that bits of it are too long. Still, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Given it was being finished in NaNoRenO, there wasn't much chance it could be any bigger! :)
gekiganwing wrote:Even so, when the story ended, I started thinking "there's probably more that could happen."
Even if the elf ambassador stayed in the relatively safe king's court, her presence alone might start some sort of conflict...
Oh, there's so much more that could happen in the world. When I was figuring out the surrounding nations and races, and their historical connections and current political standings with the two nations on which the game focuses, I was really finding myself thinking "There's so much more to this world that I could explore!" I'd love to tell some other stories in that world. But I'd love to tell stories in other worlds too.

Also, any hypothetical sequels in the same universe would probably come chronologically after Elven Relations and make any reference to the game's events (because that's the most fun way to do a sequel). But then they'd almost have to presuppose that one or the other of the game's endings was the "true" ending, and I specifically aimed to avoid writing any of the endings to be a "true" ending.

Your points about conflict tie into mokenju's and PrettySammy's points about expecting more from the common plot. I agree it would have been better to have more intrigue going on there; if I was writing the plot to the game in 2007 rather than 2003, I might well have included some.
gekiganwing wrote:I got Tohko's good ending my first time through the game. I liked that character, and it wasn't because she fit any stereotype ("childhood friend / osanajimi" and also "emotionally cold but later warm / tsundere"). Or even because I thought she was kind of similar to a character from a well known anime (Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist).
Yay, I'm glad you like her! I'm very fond of her as well. I've always liked those character traits you mention, even though I created Tohko's character long before I'd heard the term "tsunderekko" or even "osananajimi".

I'm not sure I'd have said Winry is the character she's most like. There are any number of tsunderekko in popular anime and games, and her original concept may have borrowed traits from a number of them. But Tohko grew into her own character with her reasons for being the way she is, and I'm glad she's likeable on her own merits. :)
I released 3 VNs, many moons ago: Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), and Cloud Fairy (the Cute Light & Fluffy Project, 2009).
More recently I designed the board game Steam Works (published in 2015), available from a local gaming store near you!

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#28 Post by Jake »

gekiganwing wrote:For some reason, Windows XP thought that your zip file required a password. However, I was able to unzip the file using my OS X Mac, and once I did that, it worked on Windows.
Incidentally, I thought nothing of it at the time, but I had trouble with this zip (under WinXP) as well. I first tried dragging the top-level directory out of the zip, which complained that there was already a directory with the same name (lies) and asked if I wanted to overwrite; saying 'yes' resulted in an empty target directory. I then picked each directory out one by one, and had the same problem with the 'WINDOWS' subdir. And then the same problems if I opened that up with the readme file, which I never did get to extract.
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#29 Post by monele »

I've also had that same problem with my own games. I think it's the way Ren'Py creates the ZIP in some particular cases ô_o

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#30 Post by Some Long Haired Guy »

I have a workaround... try using a third party program like winrar to bypass winxp itself... it worked for me...

Man!... I still can't remember my password, and I can't also access my e-mail since password for log-in and e-mail is the same...

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