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Walter is a teenage boy who enjoys a popular fighting game. There is one particular character, a swordsman named Cadfael, who he is most skilled with. He even notes he feels a certain connection to the character, as controlling him has become so natural.

However, he does not know that Cadfael, and many others, actually exist in their own reality, which is quickly descending into chaos. Several have somehow managed to forge a connection with "our" world, being controlled by a "partner" who has a knowledge and perspective they don't, in order to get the advantage they need to survive.

But Cadfael is becoming weary and desperate to overthrow the evil instead of simply fighting for his life, and tries to contact Walter. He succeeds, and forms a much more literal connection between them.

Now with Walter able to control Cadfael in battle, their lives have become deeply entangled, and Walter finds himself involved in a fight to save this secret world.

This is where their adventure begins.

Characters:



Cadfael
(cad-fai-el)
Age: 19
A mysterious swordsman originating from a popular fighting game in-universe. Little is known about Cadfael's past. His rough appearance and reaction to Walter suggests he was a peasant, and still may not be well-to-do. Normally quiet, but can be quite rash and endlessly inquisitive and curious. Though experienced in battle, he sometimes does not immediately realize his own limitations. Acts as a foil to Walter, in that while both are very soft-spoken, Cadfael is open to the world and makes friends easily. He also acts as his guide initially, exposing him to the parts of the world the game did not show.


Walter
Age: 17
A young man from “our” world. A shut-in for the most part, Walter is at a distance from everyone, but does not consciously acknowledge it. He is considered an “outsider” in the group, and communicates mostly to/through Cadfael.


Lucille
Age: 15
A young, inexperienced magic user. She is quiet and apologetic, but eager to learn and serve. Much more overtly emotional than the rest of the cast, and easily worried. Strongly implied to have been failing at her craft for several years, which may account for her inferiority complex and eagerness to prove herself. She seems to have known Cadfael from when they where both younger, but hasn't seen him in years.


Kuruk
(koo-rook)
Age: mid-30's ish?
A large bear-man that relies mainly on physical attacks. Acts as the “voice of reason” in the younger, more impulsive group. He tends to be overly protective of his group, especially Lucille, which is reflected in his combat position as a damage sponge.

-
DUÆL uses a combination of visual novel gameplay and turn-based battle mechanics (courtesy of Jake's wonderful battle engine). It will have 3 endings.

The game will also utilize full voice acting and an original score.

Demo's are available for the first chapter.
Windows
Mac
Linux

2nd chapter Demo
Windows
Mac
Linux

Progress:
Script: Complete (Total of 6 chapters)
Art (CG's): Core CG's completed
Character sprites: Complete
Battle sprites: Complete
Main programming: Complete
RPG Programming: Complete
OST: Complete
<<Waiting for voice assets>>

Screenshots:






At this point, I have everything organized, and am just looking to expose the project a bit more.

Please tell me what you think!

I have to say, the story interests me, and the IRL protagonist is actually something nice to see amongst the generally thin protagonists of BL games.

EDIT:
Played the demo. I was surised by the voice acting. Wasn't expecting that, really. Walter's VA was good at times, but sometimes couldn't convey the "feeling" of a few of his lines. Overall, I liked the demo, and are hoping to see more from this.

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MESI Games/Personal Twitter/Death Rule: lost code Demo

Thank you! ^^

Yeah, Walter's VA is a bit new at it. But I'm hoping it's not too noticeable.

If you don't mind my asking, what lines in particular sounded off to you? I may be able to get a re-record if I know which ones need improving.

Alright, in order:
"What's going on..?1 Do they really not see him?"
"Why is this happening to me?! Am I going insane..?!"

Those are the two lines that really felt odd voice-wise.

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MESI Games/Personal Twitter/Death Rule: lost code Demo

Thank you! I'll see if I can get another pass at those.

At the moment, his VA is unable to record. But I will definitely keep your critique in mind.

Holy crap. You put a lot of work into this!!!

Ok, let me start by saying I'd never really be interested in this particular scifi/fantasy/game-style category, but it was a BxB so of course I had to give it a look!

I was really impressed! I was very engaged in the story. Walter seemed believable to me, as was everything that was happening to him. Some observations:

1) Story flows nicely
2) I usually skip through voice acting, but I really enjoyed the voice acting this time. The acting isn't perfect (it sounded at times the actors were reading instead of saying stuff naturally) but it's still a nice touch.

Some minor things:
3) The lack of centering of the text in the text box bothered me a little
4) The lack of centering of the text in the name box bothered me a little
5) I don't understand why the text box is horizontally split between a lighter area and a darker area

Other stuff:
6) Nice movement and scenes. The art felt very dynamic and fluid.
7) It would be nice if the art wasn't so "grey". The colors all look a bit greyed-over.
I'm not sure what those "patches" are beneath Walter's eyes? It reminds me of a football player?

Overall, I think this is an excellent demo. You successfully put a lot of elements together to make an engaging story. Really interested to see how the relationship between the two mains work out. It's a nice pairing of personalities.

Keep up the great work!

I'm a little worried you're going to get fewer reviews because of the fact it's a B/B, which is a shame because your game, judging by the demo, has a LOT to offer to people who wouldn't normally play B/B's! But I wish you total success!

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I think he doesn't sleep much, so it's dark under his eyes.

Aaanyway. I think this looks pretty interesting, and I'll probably grab the demo over the weekend to play through

Holy crap. Uh. I wasn't told about this reply. If I come off as ignoring you because of my lateness, I'm sorry! QAQ

Thank you! ;v; as for your individual points...

1) Thank you. QAQ The flow worried me, as pacing is usually a huge problem for me. I'm glad it's not an issue so far.
2) The va for Walter is an amateur with no previous experience. So I hope you can forgive any faults. I'm glad his performance was mostly good. c: The rest of the cast has more experience under their belts, so that should help.

--
3) I did some correcting of the text box, but I can't remember if it was before or after this demo was released. I will definitely keep this in mind, though, and try to tinker with the box further. I will freely admit that GUI customization is not my strong suit when it comes to Ren'py.
4) This seemed fine to me, but I will look into it as well.
5) It's a subtle gradient to make it seem more... interesting, I suppose? It isn't this bad in file, but I suppose Ren'py's way of stretching the frame may cause it to look odd. I'll look into it.
6) ;v; thank you~ I'm glad it feels that way. I was very worried about it being too static.
7) The grey is mostly intentional. It's to reflect how dull and dreary the world feels to the protagonist.
XD Yeah, someone else got to it before me. He's sleep deprived. The patches are supposed to be bags, which I admit I'm not too terribly good at drawing. The stylization may make them seem rather thick, too.

And yeah, probably. I'm hoping not, as the actual B/B elements are..there, but optional. It's actually possible to get the best ending with the male leads having an entirely platonic relationship. But the elements are there, so it felt dishonest not to include the B/B tag. Thank you so much for your well wishes, it means a lot. ;v;

Oh, and for clarification--don't get me wrong. I love that it's a BxB. Not sure if I've ever seen this kind of relationship before, so I'm pretty excited about it.

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XD I definitely got the impression that you did, so it's all good.

Yeah, I'd kinda hope this kind of thing hasn't been done before. and I'm glad you're excited for it. >v<

I love the textbox
RPG and VN hybrid is interesting by itself and it's made even more interesting with the BxB #Iloveboysromance XD

*downloading demo now*

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My not-so-active deviantart account, sapiboong.deviantart.com
There's not much to see, though

thank you ;v; personally I still dislike the look of the UI, so I'm glad you like it.

XDD I'm glad the combination interests you! Obviously I love BxB as well.

So, BL games aren't that popular here isn't it? That's a shame. ):
I enjoyed the story so far, specially the fact that Walter has character. The fact that he is voiced already gives him some deep. <3 I too agree that his voice seemed a bit off sometimes, but it's nothing to worry about.
Is Cadfael going to have a VA too? I was wondering if he would be voiceless since he essentially is Walter's avatar.

As for the user experience, I noticed two black screens that I could swear they would fade at some point but they didn't, it took me a few seconds until I noticed that I needed to click to go forward. This might be weird to people who are not used to ren'py or VNs in general.
I did a lot of clicking too, the text was too slow even when setting the text speed to max. This one is just a matter of preference, but when I was reading your VN (in a dark bedroom) trying to follow the text as it appeared my eyes hurt a bit. I would go to the box margin before a new word popped up and I wasn't reading fast by any means, my reading speed was average at best.

Last but not least, when Walter was talking I heard many sentences that didn't match the text. I'm not sure if this was intentional, I just thought I should let you know in case this is something you want to correct.

Anyway, I hope you can succeed with your project and market it to the right people in case you don't receive much attention here. BL surely is popular so I'm sure you will find your niche.

Yeah, BL games being unpopular surprised me. Generally BL does well enough in most places. Hell, on some webcomic sites they're actually popular to the point of being a problem.
I'm glad you like his VA. c: and yes, the entire cast will be voiced. VA development is going a little slower than the rest of the game, though, so there is a bit of a gap right now. I assure you the final product will be fully voiced.

Really? I assume you mean the monologue scene at the end. I can't remember what other scene used a black screen off the top of my head. I thought this was kind of standard, but I can definitely look into making some sort of dedicated monologue screen if you think this is going to be an issue.

I can see how this'd be an issue, it is a bit on the slow side. I'll look into increasing the text speed.




Yes, this is unintentional, but something I'm aware of and it's on my list of things to do. Basically, the VA got very excited about the project and we ended up recording a substantial amount of his lines before the script was returned from my editor. So there are some bits of dialogue that are a tad off. I'm going to try to get him to re-record those lines. c: Thanks for pointing it out, though~

Thank you so much! >3< I'm not very good at marketing, and have been..really failing at marketing this project so far. But hopefully I can find something.

Please don't do that, I like the classic feel of it. I was talking about two real black screens, no text, purely black screens. After playing it in both auto and skip, and going to back to manual I can see that those screens took longer to fade, but they did eventually





I hope you can make it suitable for non-BL fans too like planned, I can't tell much from the demo but I think you have all the tools necessary right there.


So that's why! You don't really have to re-record them. Several games have shorter audio clips that don't match the text, usually because some words sound good when writing but come off as unnecessary when speaking. So, do as your heart tells you to do.


I'm sure that all those places packed with BL fans will be good starting points.