Moonlight Walks Released

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PyTom
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Moonlight Walks Released

#1 Post by PyTom »

I'm pleased to announce the release of my first completed game, "Moonlight Walks". It can be downloaded from its webpage:

http://www.bishoujo.us/moonlight/

It has 21 paths to 4 endings. It's hard for me to estimate how long it will take others to play it. If I had to guess, I'd say that it will take you about 15 minutes to reach ending 3 or 4. There is a game clock that displays on the credits screen, so if people could post their playtimes, I'd appreciate that.

I started this game on December 28th, 2004, and finished it today, January 25th, 2005. So I think it serves as a demonstration that NaNoRenO projects are feasable, even (especially?) as a one person thing.

I hope that you enjoy playing "Moonlight Walks".

As for me, I'm going to take some time off, play "Milk Swim" (2 games in 24 hours... cool!), and then start on my IntRenAiMo project.

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mikey
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Re: Moonlight Walks Released

#2 Post by mikey »

PyTom wrote:As for me, I'm going to take some time off, play "Milk Swim" (2 games in 24 hours... cool!), and then start on my IntRenAiMo project.
Yeah, I'm downloading it now and taking it home tonight... If you'd just told me we could have released it together! :P

And congratulations on your first completed project!!!

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#3 Post by darkknight »

Ok here we go

Ending 1 3:19

Ending 2 8:56

Ending 4 18:37

Ending 3 15:31

Then i got bored of reading the same thing over sorry for not getting the last ending.

hahahahahahaha
If one man speaks out in a crowd against everyones opinion...Who will be remembered? The one who spoke his mind, or the millions that spoke against him....

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#4 Post by darkknight »

Oh i did not know there was only four endings....
If one man speaks out in a crowd against everyones opinion...Who will be remembered? The one who spoke his mind, or the millions that spoke against him....

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Taleweaver
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#5 Post by Taleweaver »

Oh, what a sweet game... very cozy and romantic, and with a great mood. Not at all as serious as mikey's stuff, much more like a fairy tale. A little short, but I like it anyway.
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
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#6 Post by Sai »

I loved it ^^ Very cute game.
I guessed she was a ghost my first run through but I had a little doubt as I figured maybe she just didn't know about common things due to being in a remote place, nice work
15:40 Ending 2
1:48 Ending 1
14:41 Ending 4
5:41 Ending 3

My favourite is ending 4
The one where you end up happily ever after with mary. Very sweet story. I really throught you wouldn't get to see her again before dieing, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Thank you for an enjoyable game. The backgrounds were really great and the characters were cute.

Did you do the ending music yourself by the way?

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#7 Post by mikey »

Okay, I've switched off the phones, dimmed the lights, opened that Pepsi, played it and got all the endings...

Story:
Structurally, it's not really a one-play game, you have to get all the endings to get the whole picture (which increases play time = a good thing), and with skipping text the story does not take you hostage. As for the content, I would suppose it was just a means to present Mary as a person, so it did not take on any dominant position. But I usually push the story back and look more for the emotional side. As for the endings, both 3 and 4 were very nice and not what I would have expected. Thanks!

Atmosphere:
I thought that the strong contrast of daylight libary and the moonlight shores shifted the atmosphere from mysterious to neutral, and it took me one complete path to get into it. But when I started the game for the second time, I was already familiarized with the set of methods used to express feelings and overall atmosphere and I could start to appreciate it. Then, even the non-Japanese names felt right and the overall American feeling was a refreshing change. Great job.

Characters:
I think a ghost friend has a huge character and emotional conflict potential. When I finally saw Ending 4, I was intrigued and somehow found myself thinking about the potential of a fact that a person practically does not age and you do. So for me, the game brought up much to think about, although in the "what-if" department :) I usually struggle with the same problem - a game of MW or MS length has very little time and place to portray a situation and it sometimes feels like maneuvering a helicopter in your living room, there's just so little space.

I think the game will work differently with different kinds of persons. Normally, I would say a well done game and one of the best-spent 50 minutes in recent months, but it's that touch of genius in Ending 4 that did it for me. :) Excellent.

Ren'Py
Also, you can be proud of Ren'Py, it runs flawlessly, feels fantastic and just imagining the failed attempts to make a working ren'ai engine should make you proud.

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#8 Post by rioka »

Yup, definitely a cute story. I'm all for ending 4 as well. ^_^

Ending 1 - 4:00
Ending 2 - 10:42
Ending 3 - 5:02
Ending 4 - 8:45

It's nice how you made some touches like a different credit pic depending on the ending. My fave background has to be the sunrise (love how you did the ocean). Btw, I'm surprised you didn't obfuscate your images - first thing I looked through... ;D

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#9 Post by Alessio »

Hi Tom,

Really like it so far! But, lucky as I am, the first time around I hit something that might be a bug. Don't want to hand out spoilers, so suffice that I say when I reach the point of saying "I do.", the game stops. It doesn't hang or anything, and rolling back is possible, saving is possible etc., but I can't go on. There is no going forward, only backwards. Shall I send you the Save-game file so that you can check?

Edit: I take it back, I'm sooo stupid! Never overestimate a user! It was a menu with only one choice, so of course I have to click on the words. Just didn't notice it was actually a menu... oh well, it's late... ;)

Cheers,
Alessio

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#10 Post by Xarbia »

PyTom,

That was a nice little story. You have convinced me that American Football is not a game one should try to understand.

I only played throuh te game one time and got ending 2. This gave me 38 minutes and 5 seconds of enjoyment. I have to add to this that I usually read in a rather modest pace.

Thanks,

-- Xarbia
My website now also in English!

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PyTom
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#11 Post by PyTom »

Okay, responding to people in the order that they posted in:

darknight: Thanks for sending in the timings. It's about what I expected.

Taleweaver: I agree that the game is a little short. Early versions were even shorter. But I think that this was the length that this combination of my skills and this story could bear.

Sai: I'm glad you had some doubt. Even late drafts left it fairly obvious, but I went in this morning and removed a line or two to leave some doubt in the players mind. I'm glad it worked.

Are your times with skipping read text, or with saving? It would seem the former, because the path to ending 2 is shorter than the one to ending 4. (Any amateur composers out there?)

As to the music, the answer is: Sorta. I used a program called ACS (IIRC, for automatic composing system) to generate the ending music using a lagrange polynomial. I'm terrible at music, so that was the next best thing.

mikey: I don't think I'm nearly as good at expressing emotion and atmosphere as you are, so I think that left me trying to tell as much as I could with story. But be warned... I'll get better. :-)

An interesting thing is that ending 3 was a fairly late addition to the game. It came from taking a look at many of the actions the player could take and asking "What would happen if he made a different choice"?

Although this isn't a hard and fast rule, I plan to in general set my games in a sort of generic America, rather than a generic Japan. It's what I know... and I think expanding the locations of games can only help to spread the form. Or something. What do I know?

I don't see a generic anime character as particularly Japanese, unless they're doing particularly Japanese things. (I could probably elaborate more on this, but that'll have to wait for later.)

I think another problem with a game of such a short length is there isn't much time for minor conflict to happen, especially when you limit the locations and such.

Thanks for the kind words about Ren'Py.

eclipse: Same question about skipping.

The sunrise is also my favorite. Notice how I snuck it into the background of ending 3? :-)

Alessio: I kept going back and forth about that. In the end, I decided that making it a menu makes people commit more to a decision, and I thought I wanted that. It may not have been the best of ideas.

Xarbia: I've actually come to like football over the past few years, since the TV stations started overlaying a yellow first down line on the field using augmented reality technology. But it's hard to explain to someone who isn't watching a game.


Anyway, thanks to everyone for commenting on the game.
Last edited by PyTom on Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#12 Post by rioka »

Yup, I noticed it. Nice touch, PyTom. =)

Personally, I like the idea of characters being non-Japanese or at least not solely from Japan. I'm all for the non-traditional, innovative, and unique. You'll see that in a lot of my games... when they're done that is... ;D

Anywhoo, as for your question, I played straight from the beginning on all endings. I got endings in the order of #1, #2, #4, and #3. I believe number two took a bit longer since I chose choices that were longer such as the moon, her parents, and so forth. If I talked about football and dropped the conversation - then it would've been shorter but I didn't and hence the long time. The last two endings, I kinda wized through the beginning dialogue and stopped when it got to the new parts.

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#13 Post by Sai »

I think I did what eclipse did.

I'd play through to one ending. Then I would return to the main menu and start from the beginning again. And just click like a maniac past text I had already seen before until I got back to a decision I knew would lead me down a different path or offer new dialogue. Then continue until the end and repeat.
I didn't pay much attention to any skip feature and I never saved either (if the game was longer, I probably would of made better use of the save function and noticed any skipping functions more)

I liked the music at the end so I think the results were surprisingly good then for something made with automatic generation.
I'm not musically inclined either so I can sympathise ^^

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Timings

#14 Post by mrsulu »

Nifty game.

Like them short like that; can enjoy after long day at work.

In order:

Ending 1: 1:47
Ending 3: 10:30
Ending 2: 1:05
Ending 4: 2:06

And I read like a maniac and used the skip function.

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#15 Post by mikey »

PyTom wrote: I don't think I'm nearly as good at expressing emotion and atmosphere as you are, so I think that left me trying to tell as much as I could with story..
I don't think that dwelling in thoughts would suit the game though. Atmosphere does not always mean despair or sadness and as I said I like the American feel, it just took me a second to get into it, blame those MS finalizing sessions until 5 a.m. I'm happy to have it off my chest to tell the truth and looking forward to a more funny project in NaNoRenO (though that's already off topic)

Oh, one more thing! Mary's watery eyes! I kind of felt she was a little different, something was wrong, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It took me a while to see that subtle blue in her eyes... great touch!
Sai wrote: As to the music, the answer is: Sorta. I used a program called ACS (IIRC, for automatic composing system) to generate the ending music using a lagrange polynomial. I'm terrible at music, so that was the next best thing...
I was about to ask you, hehe. I used the same thing and probaly would have used it, but then we found out how to use FT modules. You could get good results though, if you played around long enough - I did not realize that was generated until the middle or so, where I heard the familiar sounds :D
eclipse wrote: Personally, I like the idea of characters being non-Japanese or at least not solely from Japan. I'm all for the non-traditional, innovative, and unique..
I was just thinking about it because I noticed two of my very favorite b-games (Desire and Phantom) both have several Western protagonists. So as I said, I like this aspect of PyTom's game.

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