Utsukushii Planet - 2nd french demo released

[DaFool]

Wow, awesome surprise! Can't wait till I get to work to download this. I don't read French, but I've played a few totally untranslated VNs.

[quote="monele]Just a reminder : this is still just a demo ! But this time it's totally playable from start to finish. Nothing is missing gameplay/story-wise.
Except about 2 hours of content for a single run-through.
[/quote]

Does it mean the demo is at least 2 hours long? Or that the demo is missing 2 hours worth of content which would be in the final?

[monele]

Oops ! This was supposed to be "expect" !... Expect 2 hours of content . Blame me posting this after a coding+drawing marathon, at 1am @_@.

I'm really curious about your coming experience ô_o. Will it be like playing a japanese VN while not speaking japanese ? I'm sad that the game isn't as graphic as most VNs (no real event CG). You'll tell me how much you understand/guess ^.^

[Watercolorheart]

Well, at least you've got all your sprites. I still need to draw quite a few of mine, along with expressions ... I've been putting it off ...

Argh, I was so sad that the second demo is in French! I can't read French! ):

Please make an english demo soon ... I'm that 1 person that can't run the first demo, and have been hanging on a thread for a while, looking through all the art and wondering about it ...

[monele]

I don't have all my sprites . Let me count... 3 characters and one whole group sprite are lacking ^^;. Of course they're not the most important ^^;.
Also, I only have one sprite per character. You have many with expressions (and you have event CGs...).

Sorry about the frenchiness of the demo but of course, translation is on its way (after a short pause... I need some rest ^^;...).

As I said in the description, you could technically get this version and play in english. You'll see more than what was offered in the very first demo. But I guess you'd rather wait for the completed english version ^.^;

[Watercolorheart]

I don't have that many event CG, just a few ... what I really need to do is backgrounds, and doing things like cityscapes makes me cry.

Ah, so the french demo also is a working copy of the first demo in english?

Okay, I'll play it ... seeing as how your rapidshare link was down, anyway ...

*boggle*

54 MB!? Geez ...

I think I managed 30 MB at my worst, and that was including voice-acting ...

What did you include, huge music files or something?

[monele]

I'd cry with cityscapes too @_@...

The french demo includes the first demo and a little more. 30 minutes more technically XD.

Let's see, a run down of filesize total by category :

Scripts : 571kb
Fonts : ~100kb
Image : 19.9mb
Music and sounds : 35.4mb

My working directory is up to 700mb ^^; (PSD files and all that stuff)

[Watercolorheart]

It just .... surprised me, that's all.

Here's your review.

Are those facial icons yours in the intro? If so, they're really good ... and add a lot of character to the game ...

I really liked Arissa ... (laugh) ...

Oooh, that coordinate effect was awesome. I rollbacked it, and watched it about 4 times ... I'm so easily amused ... the syncing of the sound effects was spot-on.

I think I felt my jaw slowly drop open at the warp effect as I choose Urbania ... damn, that looked good. How did you do that? o_o;; I need to know ...

"He's now in charge of quite a few warehouse around here [...]" ... probably needs to be "He's now in charge of quite a few warehouses around here [...]"

The music for the attack is pretty cool. I hope you keep it for the release. I also can see now, by looking at the sprite compared to the facial icon, that you did not draw the little icons in the corner yourself ^^;

LOL at Amy's huge smile for the cannon bit. Oh, that's hilarious ...

I was also impressed with the animation for the cannon firing, but the voice-acting is confusing ... is that from an anime or did you find a Japanese voiceactor or something?

....Oi, it switched to French. I guess this is the end of my short review for this path.

So I loaded up my saved game, and picked Arena this time. The catgirl popping up scared me a little, I'm such a wuss ...

You know the special scene where the catgirl has Marl by the throat? I think that you should draw a seperate picture for it. Just moving the sprites closer together ... eh.

Ah, I really like Amy's design ... if I had more time, monele, I think I would really enjoy doing some sprites for you with less Eastern-style and more Western-style (like what you've used with your facial icons) but it just takes so long ;_;

....

(covers mouth with hand) Um, the mouse scene ... how can I say this ... nevermind, you probably don't want to know what I'm thinking. But my first impression was ... not pure. Forgive me ...

Oops, I guess that's the end of my long-winded and entirely subjective review, please don't take anything too personally ....

[monele]

Are those facial icons yours in the intro?

Nope ^^;... Just so it's clear. They come from the Gloria game. I added that in the demo post. The faces I did are all in black and white, with a colored exception (Fabellia's neutral face). I'll replace everything with original faces that fit with the displayed characters, obviously, but I don't feel in a hurry.

(oops, not enough time to reply to everything right now. I'll add more in about one hour ^^)

EDIT : Uuu, I'm late ^^;... Sorry. Resuming...

"I really liked Arissa ... (laugh) ... "

The one-face character. Definitely a special one ^.^.

"Oooh, that coordinate effect was awesome. I rollbacked it, and watched it about 4 times ... I'm so easily amused ... the syncing of the sound effects was spot-on. "

Fufu ^.^. I suppose you mean the "appearing" animation more than the "point&click" part ?

"I think I felt my jaw slowly drop open at the warp effect as I choose Urbania ... damn, that looked good. How did you do that? o_o;; I need to know ..."

Wow, thanks ^^;... And I kept thinking it wasn't that great ^^;... No great magic in it though : frame by frame animation, 10 frames loop I think. The whole thing was done in 3D though. So yea... mini CG movie ô_o...

" "He's now in charge of quite a few warehouse around here [...]" ... probably needs to be "He's now in charge of quite a few warehouses around here [...]" "

Yagh ^^;... You can tell I haven't checked the english version in a while ^^;... Thanks for spotting it

"The music for the attack is pretty cool. I hope you keep it for the release. I also can see now, by looking at the sprite compared to the facial icon, that you did not draw the little icons in the corner yourself ^^; "

Aw... you'd also read that I didn't do the musics and that they come from games ^^;... This means I can't keep this music, unfortunately.... I've tested the scene with many rocky tunes and it's the only one that fit ... I'll be very sad to part with it...

"LOL at Amy's huge smile for the cannon bit. Oh, that's hilarious ..."

You don't know how glad I am that you think some parts are funny ^^. I have absolutely no idea how fun I can make things... and I wanted it to be fun ! So ya... This is reassuring ^^

"I was also impressed with the animation for the cannon firing"

I plan to do muuuuch better though. It's so static right now, it hurts ^^;... (I plan to have all those "arms" move in first, then have energy beaming through them before it concentrates in the center).
"but the voice-acting is confusing ... is that from an anime or did you find a Japanese voiceactor or something?"

Quoting myself : "That single voice clip is by me". ^.^
You can tell I love robot/fighting animes :3

"....Oi, it switched to French. I guess this is the end of my short review for this path.

So I loaded up my saved game, and picked Arena this time. The catgirl popping up scared me a little, I'm such a wuss ..."

Aww XD... I really didn't intend this ^^;

"You know the special scene where the catgirl has Marl by the throat? I think that you should draw a seperate picture for it. Just moving the sprites closer together ... eh. "

When you see the full version, you'll notice that at times, things are more detailed (even simple things such as moving characters around... as in this scene) and sometimes not. I've been rather unequal in that domain :/... But yea, I agree, the scene needs more shinies, even if just a small framed picture of her holding him ^^.
To be honest, this was one of the first scenes ever, so... the whole moving around thing felt very "woah" at the time XD...

"Ah, I really like Amy's design ... if I had more time, monele, I think I would really enjoy doing some sprites for you with less Eastern-style and more Western-style (like what you've used with your facial icons) but it just takes so long ;_; "

Facial icons are western style ?... Mmm... Never saw them that way ^.^
On the sprite topic, I know I asked for help at the beginning of this project, but now I think it'd feel strange to me. Even if the quality isn't the best, I like drawing my characters ^.^. More on this in a few moments though o_o.

"(covers mouth with hand) Um, the mouse scene ... how can I say this ... nevermind, you probably don't want to know what I'm thinking. But my first impression was ... not pure. Forgive me ..."

Oh god, it's not just me ?! XDDD... You know, this kept me laughing to myself for my whole bus trip back home ^^;...
Nex : "Wow Katania, so... you really love mice... *that* way ô_o..."
Amy : "My plushie ! ;o;"

XDDD. I'll *really* have to change this ^^;... But I'm not sure how to remove the unpure effect @_@.. I thought of a more realistic animation (this one is simplified) but...... it's even worse! XDD... oh dear...


Well... overall, I'm glad you enjoyed it ^.^. Makes me feel bad for not having the english version ready right now ^^;...
Btw, don't start with :
"Oops, I guess that's the end of my long-winded and entirely subjective review, please don't take anything too personally ...."

when you're planning to be positive about something XD... I expected total bashing ^^;...

"A sketch by hand, the nicer of the 2"

Omeegod eeee~! <3.. You make her look so... fluffy.. and cute ... and... mm o_ô... bustier <3. I'm so keeping this ! *saves*
(it's the first time someone draws one of my characters ;3; *snirfls* thank you!).
This makes it hard to say "I'll do the art myself", really @_@...

Edit : arg, stupid spoiler+quote thing not working @_@

[Watercolorheart]

I don't even respond to games I don't like ... frankly, there's a couple demos on this board that I thought were a complete waste of my time, but they don't deserve a long scathing review telling them that ...

Anyway ...

I hope you do more soon.

[monele]

Thanks a lot for your appreciation ^.^. I hope to do more soon enough too (I'll distract you with Magical Boutique in the mean time ? >.>...)

EDIT : Btw, BCS...

Ever met a priestess ?.... If you go through Arena and make some choice, you should get something more than just a kitty in a box o_O

[Watercolorheart]

Monele, what program did you use to make that nifty blue warping animation loop?

I want to do something sort of like that; I see on music videos and crap all the time, but I have no idea how they make something like that.

I also learned that my weird 3d fractal program Chaoscope can make animations and rotate the models ... I didn't even know that!

I made an animation of the 3d spore, but it looks like crap .... I'm gonna make a little teeny tiny version (a turn-around) with about 15 or 20 frames and stick it up on a monitor somewhere at one point . I was also thinking of using the special wireframe look that Chaoscope can generate.

[monele]

Bryce. A bit old but still neat for sceneries and such... and for warping holes ^^;.

Music videos ?... Hmm... Might be realtime generated then... I mean, Winamp has realtime visuals that look kinda similar actually. But it's not 3D.

I like the idea of the wireframe animation ^.^. So... sci-fi !

Oh, and... *points at above spoiler, just in case you missed it*

[Watercolorheart]

*blush*

I totally missed your spoiler. And, no, I didn't meet her.

Bryce, huh? I don't remember any options like that in Bryce ...

[monele]

Ah . Expect 30 more minutes then ).

Well uh... what option ?... What I did was create a tube.. then another tube, slightly smaller. I intersect both (one is positive, the other negative). I group them so the boolean operations are activated. This gives us an empty tube (instead of two filled ones).
Then it's all about creating the right texture (could probably export it for the example if you want). Oh and animating it. It's just moving the camera through the tube at high speed. I took 10 frames from this and looped them.

[Watercolorheart]

Ah . Expect 30 more minutes then ).

Well uh... what option ?... What I did was create a tube.. then another tube, slightly smaller. I intersect both (one is positive, the other negative). I group them so the boolean operations are activated. This gives us an empty tube (instead of two filled ones).
Then it's all about creating the right texture (could probably export it for the example if you want). Oh and animating it. It's just moving the camera through the tube at high speed. I took 10 frames from this and looped them.

Oh, okay, I sorta know what you're talking about, oddly enough. I tried to make simple objects in Vue once, failed miserably, and gave it up finally.

..... Isn't there some kind of free program out there to do this? >_>; I just don't know what it would be called ...