GO! Magical Boy [new release including source files]

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Alessio
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#16 Post by Alessio »

mikey: Thanks a lot for your first feedback - I should have guessed you would aim for the bad ending first! :) Well, honestly speaking, the story is not supposed to be scary nor too serious. It is mostly a fun and enjoyment story, which is also why I steered clear of the "DIVI-DEAD" kind of atmosphere.
mikey wrote:I was surprised to find that it's actually a magical boy game... but I guess if I had read the NAME of the game 8)
You're killing me!!! :)))))))))))))


monele: Thanks! Well, yes, one month would have been quite an achievement with this one. But! In my opinion, the technical part was the hardest one and took longest. If I'd have to make up a new story from scratch using the same graphics and framework, I'm sure one month could bring quite a nice result. Hm, a sequel maybe? GMB II: The Return. Nah, just kidding. :)

RedSlash: I cheated with the blinking eyes. Only the two main girls do. And I recycled the eyes' animation phases for other expressions as well, such as winking and the -unpublished- Very Annoyed Look (TM). And yes, I did sing the closing song as well, but that is definitely not the one performance I'm most proud of. ;)


Because of one issue mentioned by quite a few of you (papillon, RedSlash, PyTom... and I admit I missed it, the blame's on me), I have posted an updated version (release 003). For details about the changes, please see the spoiler box in the release announcement (the first message in this chain).

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#17 Post by Kikered »

Congrats on finishing a very well-made game! I really enjoyed it, and there were a many moments where I had a chuckle at Matt's expense. Poor guy. :P

Regarding sound: I think this is the first game that used the low-level sound playing features. Nicely done! On the first playthrough, I found it odd when the song didn't seem to change much. It wasn't until later that I realized different parts of the song cut in and out depending on the situation. And it was done very seamlessly! The little stops at the beginning of each day is also pretty nice, reminding me of the commercial break clips that play in the middle of some anime. Also as someone mentioned earlier, that ending song is a nice touch.

There still seem to be a couple typos in the this third release - one in the bathroom scene, I think. There's also a bug towards the end:
If you end up deciding to work on your own as the magical girl and then choose the option to wait until tomorrow, it uses "None" as the name of the successor.
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

Alessio
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#18 Post by Alessio »

Kikered: Thanks a lot for catching that bug, it's fixed in release 004 (uploading now). Also the bathroom typo is eliminated. I guess there will be others, I'll correct them as I find them. Cheers!

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#19 Post by Taleweaver »

I must say that of all Ren'Py games I've played so far, this one has had the most professional feel. Good art, a very neat soundtrack (if maybe a little to light-hearted for some scenes), and the CG gallery was a nice bonus. Also, not that many endings, but quite a bit of diversity in gameplay. Liked it!

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Alessio
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#20 Post by Alessio »

The "professional" is a big compliment, thanks! I'm not 100% happy with the artwork, but it was the best I could do. I think I'm not really a manga artist (although buying two books on the subject helped some). The CG gallery was mostly an afterthought, I added it when PyTom posted some code on how to make an unlockable one.
Last edited by Alessio on Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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#21 Post by ShiraiJunichi »

Ending 3, 85 minutes

"Professional" was also the word running through my mind as I was thinking about how to describe this game. I am very impressed, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game.

Others have commented on the fact that the game isn't very scary or serious. I didn't see this as a deficiency, as I thought it complimented the lighthearted dialogue (which was remarkably real and humorous) very well. To me, the game was everything it wanted to be.

Everything was so... complimentary and complete. The sound effects, bg music, and ending song were so perfectly cohesive; it was astounding.
Ren'Py customization was great. The menu images, button backgrounds, and color choices were perfect. Usage of Ren'Py was transparent, and it definitely showed that this game was far from manufactured.

Art was very good, IMO. If that's you're best, you're just fine!

Choices were very compelling. This contributed to making the game a whole lot of fun. I haven't done much replaying, so I don't know exactly how different choices affect the game, but I always had the distinct impression that my choices dictated the flow of the game- which is a very good thing, IMO.

I am completely blown away that you created a vocal ending theme. To me that shouts QUALITY! ...amazing... Do you do this kind of thing professionally? It's hard to imagine this just being a hobby for you...

I am probably the first Original English Language Bishoujo Game Maker groupie. You are my idol.

I look forward with great anticipation for your next work.

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#22 Post by Alessio »

Thanks a lot for the compliments, I'm glad you liked it. It's very gratifying to get such positive feedback (but criticism is fine, too)!
The vocal ending theme is nothing to write home about IMHO, but I thought it's a nice feature, so I left it in. No, I'm not a professional, but music has always been my hobby; you can <shameless plug> find my latest songs at http://www.mikseri.net/leadingmotive </shameless plug>.
Don't look forward for my next VN too soon - looking at the time I needed for G!MB, my next one will probably be published for IntRenAiMo 2007. Oh well, at least the concept is already being worked on.

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#23 Post by mikey »

Cool, I finally got the Lara ending, gallery access, everything! This time I paid attentin to the music and how it seemlessly changes, it's very very well done. Although the fact that I didn't really notice it the first time around may also be a positive thing - music should really work with the other elemets in a game, rather than be standalone. Anyway, the game continued along the same lines as in the bad ending, with some well-placed remarks (I really liked those), kind of... "Save the world in 1 Week - NaNoSaveMo". Also, I was surprised by the gallery, there weren't that many backgrounds, actually, so nice work with the filters/night scenes - it felt like there was much more than that. Economists would call this good "resource management".

Congrats once again. Well done.

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#24 Post by Alessio »

Cheers, mikey! NaNoSaveMo is a good one. (Or should it actually be National World Saving Week NaWoSaWe?)
Well, I'm glad the music is not too noticeable. Otherwise it would get too tiring since it's 3:30 of music in total which need to be stretched over 60-80 minutes...
It was a deliberate decision to use only few backgrounds, since I noticed it made the game look much more consistent than if every scene had occurred in a different location. The original script had the events happening in many different locations (Aina's flat, a forest, city streets etc.), but I rewrote those to fit the park, school, and the main character's room. As a nice side-effect, the download size is pretty small.

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#25 Post by Wolfrider »

Ending with Lara, 64 min. aprox

That phrase in the bathroom (and someone hearing...) made me laugh hard...

This work make oneself re-think about quality standards. The borders of alpha channels are perfect, the background combine photos and drawings, but one didn't notice it; the music was good -a bit repetitive but it does the job nicely- and the vocal theme at ending was a good surprise.

On the writing side, it's good, but I had some troubles with the duality of a "ME" talking (when is talking out loud) and simple thoughts without name at random (probably it's only me, My native languaje is spanish, so maybe it's only my bad english skills)

<self pity mode>
So, I now must enhance my abilities at drawing and music composing; if only for not feeling bad... <mode off>

Congratulations! and if a new VN takes time, OK, Better Quality than Quantity

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#26 Post by Alessio »

Thanks! Actually, the background consisted only of processed photographs, there were no drawings at all (unless I count masking of some photographs as drawing).

Edit:
Wolfrider wrote:I had some troubles with the duality of a "ME" talking (when is talking out loud) and simple thoughts without name at random
This point made me think. Did you mean that it was hard to tell apart when the main character is talking and when he is thinking? Some Visual Novels put the thoughts of the main character in brackets () to make it clearer that he is not talking. Are you referring to this, or is it rather the word "Me" that looks odd and should be replaced by the player's name?

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Oops, I forgot to check this thread

#27 Post by Wolfrider »

Sorry for the delay.

It's not matter of the word "Me", it was only that some times I thought the protagonist was talking (saying it loud) and then, some moments later, it was obvious that he was only thinking. That broke some of the 'naturality' of the gameplay for me (having to re-play the scene in my mind, and making a rollback one or two times)

As I said, it may be only product of my still incomplete use of english. And it's not really a big trouble.

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#28 Post by PyTom »

It's fairly common to not indicate that the main character is thinking, and to only give his name when he's talking. The idea is that all narration is done as internal monologue by the main character, so there's no difference between narration and thoughts.

I also like to put quotes around things characters say out loud, and keep them out of narration/thoughts. (That's what the what_prefix and what_suffix parameters to the Character object are for.)
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#29 Post by kara24601 »

Hmm , I had mixed feelings about this game , yes..the graphics and effects were cool...but "shadows" for beings that look like they are made of light or something ...you could've called them something that would've been better suited to them...like "controllers" or something since they could take control over a person's body until they are defeated by the magical girl. That's another thing , I never got to see the magical girl. I was really annoyed by that. I also dislike "darkness bad light good" type stories. I don't have any speakers hooked up to my new computer yet so I haven't been commenting on anyone's music / sound effects in their games. I'm sure with all the effort you put into the graphics and stuff though , that this game probably has a really nice sound. I hope I'm not wrong in assuming that.

:wink:

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#30 Post by Alessio »

Thanks for the feedback and for being honest, I appreciate that. You have a valid point with the "good/light vs. bad/dark" story type (I'm not a fan of that either), but in this case I felt it would fit the mood, very much like it does in, say, Sailor Moon, Star Wars, your average action flick, etc. Not that I'm comparing G!MB to those though! :)
kara24601 wrote:but "shadows" for beings that look like they are made of light or something ...you could've called them something that would've been better suited to them
Actually, that contradiction is pointed out in the game (and made fun of) when Lara is mentioning the same thing, and the main character is puzzled, too. The background to the name is that,
as the woman said, Shadows are manifestations of Evil. Figuratively speaking, Evil is casting a shadow, which manifests itself as... the Shadows. Okay, that's enough trivia for this thread! :)
Edit: I'm sorry you felt cheated by the non-appearance of the magical girl. Actually it did not even occur to me this could be an issue, since I wanted the reader to imagine the situation instead of drawing it. But I realize that may have been a wrong decision for some.

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