Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

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Elze
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#76 Post by Elze »

Ehh. I don't think that's actually what she meant. I think what she meant is that with PM, there is a random chance of how much you get to increase in a random stat, but PM always makes it such that it is ensured that you will have an increase in every possible stat attributed to that activity. Whereas in Always Remember Me, there is a random chance of how much you get to increase in a random stat. I could intend to increase 'romance' by writing poems for the whole week, but end up only having increased creativity and morale. That means even with the best of planning, if you have bad luck, it's not going to be easy to get the best ending. It's the randomness of the stat that gets increased that's the problem. *A*

It's not that bad though. Like I said, it's not a hard game. But I definitely wouldn't say it's an easy one, even for the easy mode.
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#77 Post by jack_norton »

Ah ok, thanks now I understood what she meant :)
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#78 Post by Muse »

jack_norton wrote:
Muse wrote:That reminds me; I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I noticed when I read to Aaron, it said with fail you still get the relationship boost, but I never saw it during the fail scenes. I am guessing that is random chance based as well, so that is why?
I don't understand exactly what are you saying: if you get the failure, even with the books you don't get any relationship improvement (I just checked the code).
Sorry. What I meant is that, if you buy a book and go to the hospital with it, you see the choice box to read to Aaron, right? If you read the failure description for "Read a book" it says "Failure: Aaron relationship up" but the relationship never goes up for a failure, as you said. (In other words the description for Failure is incorrect). I am sorry for being unclear and hope I clarified it this time.

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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#79 Post by jack_norton »

Ahh ok! thanks, going to check it. This weekend I plan to check and rewrite correctly all those text buttons anyway :)
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#80 Post by jack_norton »

Update: those who follow my blog/twitter already know, but in practice Friday my Vista decided had enough and I had to do the infamous "reinstall Windows" process, which basically kept me busy for the whole day. Today going home for my mother's birthday so... the new button texts update will be done somewhere this week sorry :D
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#81 Post by jack_norton »

/embarrassed mode
Ehm, I am not sure I will make the "percentage update" - today was about to, but I realized that the way I coded the simulation part, there's no easy way to display these values without rewriting it completely... and I really think my time would be better spent working on new stuff (like the Spirited Heart expansion or other games).
I can promise though that future life/dating sim will rely much less on randomness and will clearly explain what are effects of each action! :oops:
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#82 Post by jack_norton »

Sooo the 3 winners for the karaoke competition have been picked! In next days Cristina Vee will make an official announcement, not sure when yet since she is very busy lately :) I have to say that the winners have really lot of talent.
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#83 Post by Camille »

jack_norton wrote:Sooo the 3 winners for the karaoke competition have been picked! In next days Cristina Vee will make an official announcement, not sure when yet since she is very busy lately :) I have to say that the winners have really lot of talent.
Oh gosh, how nerve-wracking, haha. I hope we get to see the results soon! There were a lot of talented singers that sent in their covers. :D

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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#84 Post by Nebi »

Played the demo and I liked it a lot. To me the overall system seemed to work much better than Spirited Heart - maybe it has to do with the additional sprites used to complement actions. Seeing the main character smile when they succeed or look abashed when they fail evokes a much stronger response than just seeing a bunch of stats go up or down, in my opinion. I have no complaints with the story - it is not my usual cup of tea and so I was concentrating more on the experience rather than aiming for any particular character. The artist(s) did a really good job; he/she/they deserve a pat on the back. Winter Wolves games are really coming along nicely and things can only go uphill from here.

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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#85 Post by jack_norton »

Thanks a lot for your compliments. Yes it's better than Spirited Heart but I think also because of the map and different actions at different times. When I'll finally start working on Spirited Heart 2 will try to use this system.
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#86 Post by jack_norton »

Probably some of you already saw this on my Facebook page or blog, but thought to post karaoke competition winners here too. Check the vids, some really great voices :)

Matt Myers and Cristina Vee said - Here are what we've picked as the 3 winning contest entries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx0bw-M4T3w
For masterful singing and mixing, especially impressive use of transposition and harmony. A natural and credible rendition from a male vocalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai-5-FEV ... e=youtu.be
For vocal creativity, spot-on harmony, and dynamic mixing. We especially loved her "lalala" melody during the introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdD7fSqnYB8
For an endearing and youthful vocal presence. Bringing earnestness and a beautiful vibrato, this emerging talent shows a lot of promise.
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#87 Post by The Monkey Ninja »

I forgot to review >>; *facepalm* I really need to make sure I do what I say, haha XD
Haven't gone on Lawrence's path yet, and I still need to get Aaron's best ending, so I can't comment on them yet XD
This won't be a proper review (more just a fangirl response XD) so...yes:
Went after Hugh first. Why? I don't know I just love Hugh so much XD His path made me gigge X\\\D Honestly, loved his personality and everything XD his best ending was so romantic X3 X3 X3 <3
I enjoyed his path alot, it really made my day X3 X3 (Happiness level reached max, haha)
I won't lie, I failed the first time I went on his path and only got his best ending on the fourth try, but it was worth it! :D

Eddy surprised me, I didn't think I'd like him so much XD I must say he battles for the top with Hugh on my favourite guys list in this game XD (new location on map - BONUS XD) His sweetness made my day <3
Not sure if it was mentioned before (haven't read other comments) but I notice that on his path when a poem is written about him a part of it is cut off O.O But that's the only downside I can really say on his path XD Loved him so much XD

Abigail...I really hated her when she first came on (no one can lie about that, that's the impression anyone would get I imagine XD) but so far from the two paths I've played and what I've seen, she's actually quite nice, just jealous XD
The extras where you could got Aaron's father as the guy you marry...that entertained me, you have no idea how much I laughed XD

This is turning out longer than I expected and it really is just fangirling but yes, all in all I enjoyed this and it was money well spent, haha XD Loved the main screen as well! Art = <3 (enough said XD fantastic XD) and the story, while depressing when you fail at keeping Aaron (well I kind of just said "Bye~" when on Hugh's path because I was too fangirl over him to notice Aaron at that point XD) the other guys pull their weight in the romance XD (if you know wat I mean =3). Points system is challenging, which is good because a game need to be challenging in order to be truly fun, do definate thumbs up from me!! :D :D :D
You can basically sum that up as "The Monkey Ninja approves" XD
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#88 Post by GeminiStar00 »

I feel like I'm a little late to the party and a lot of what I could say about this game has already been said (especially the praise because it totally deserves the praise and I did enjoy the game...) but I wanted to throw my two cents in about one particular thing, because it's really kind of bothering me.

Having played Flower Shop, Always Remember Me, and Spirited Heart all within a few months of each other, I've come away from the collection of them with a distinct feeling of disconnect between the story of the game and the gameplay mechanics. What I mean is that the mechanics of all three games - the farming/week planner, the map system, and the detailed stat-raising - were all unique, well-conceived, and well-realized, but the story didn't match. All of the storylines in these three games, at least the individual romantic ones, strike me as under-written and under-realized.

This realization struck me in this game most of all because I didn't really feel like any of the date-pursuing-paths had a particularly coherent story. They all had great moments and adorable characters and good scenes, but (with the exception of the beginning and very end of Aaron's string) each scene with an individual guy only kind of connected with anything of the other scenes with that guy, and the endings would tie in to maybe one of the scenes, but can't really resolve anything because there aren't enough strong themes to play off of in any given path.

I'm really no expert at this, but I think it might be that you're relying on the mechanics too much, particularly the value of the stats. A lot of the endings - especially the best endings in this game - seemed to infer things from the statistics that aren't mentioned in the actual theme of the storyline, and maybe it's just me, but I always just see statistics as numbers to get me to my goal, not part of the story itself. I guess I just want to see the effects of the stat-raising mechanic have more of a visible effect on the writing of the story. I think it would make the narratives a lot stronger and, in turn, make your games much more engaging.

So yeah...that's my two cents. >///<

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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#89 Post by jack_norton »

GeminiStar00 wrote:This realization struck me in this game most of all because I didn't really feel like any of the date-pursuing-paths had a particularly coherent story. They all had great moments and adorable characters and good scenes, but (with the exception of the beginning and very end of Aaron's string) each scene with an individual guy only kind of connected with anything of the other scenes with that guy, and the endings would tie in to maybe one of the scenes, but can't really resolve anything because there aren't enough strong themes to play off of in any given path.
Hmm the fun thing is that the three games you mention were written by 3 different people (me, Ayu and an external writer). So uhm... not sure what else might try :D
I tried to give to each character his own distinct personality, in case of ARM Eddy is the always busy doctor who didn't have time for love in his life, Hugh is the classic adult who behaves like a child, always joking, very creative, and Lawrence the classic shy guy.
If I understood correctly (forgive me since I'm not native English speaker) you mean that I should try more original personalities? OK then I agree. But saying that the scenes/dialogues are disconnected (like if Eddy looks another person in each scene) in this case I don't agree :)
GeminiStar00 wrote:I guess I just want to see the effects of the stat-raising mechanic have more of a visible effect on the writing of the story. I think it would make the narratives a lot stronger and, in turn, make your games much more engaging.
You mean that, for example, if you raise Romance a lot you should unlock extra scenes or have extra choices available in dialogues to reflect this?
If it's so, it can be surely done but it's a *lot* of extra effort :) In Spirited Heart the choices and dialogues change based on the race you have picked at the beginning, and some scenes have different outcome based on your stats (some options are unavailable) but this has increased production time/costs by a lot :(

That said I have to admit that the scenes of the Spirited Heart Expansion are much more interesting and intriguing than most games I've done in the past (thanks to Aleema and also maybe I was more inspired, don't know), so even if probably the setting/theme doesn't attract you, once is released give the demo a try and let me know if that's what you intended :)
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Re: Always Remember Me (VN/Life sim, commercial)

#90 Post by applegirl »

Recently played through Aaron's path and still really enjoying the game: I thought I'd stop by and say a few things.

First of all: this is really an excellent VN. I recall reading an interview you gave that mentioned how this was one of the best selling games you've had, and I can see why. Terrific art, a great story, and a cast of characters you really care about. Plus, I always appreciate the great customer service you have (and please forget all the haters who complain about the one time activation. I think those people are in the minority who have no desire to show their support for indie game developers. It is ridiculously easy to activate through our e-mail and I appreciate this move, both to help the actual paying customers who downloaded the demo and to help the company making these great games). I really hope this continues in the future because I really hate having those people ruin it for the rest of us paying customers.

Personally, I felt like these stories were very well realized and written. Having played quite a lot of winter wolves games, I feel like the changing mechanics offer a great variety. There were a lot of moments in this VN that made me smile (I won't spoil it for people who haven't bought this game yet, but if there are still people who haven't...you're missing out, so go buy it already :lol:). The only thing that bugged me was that I seem to have terrible luck in raising my stats, but dedication and a good save button has saved me in many occasions :D. I still sadly got a bad ending though... :| But I appreciate the ending list, it really helped me know what to target for each guy (which is really appreciated).

Also, I totally fangirled over you getting Cristina Vee to do the opening song :lol: I hope to see more games like this in the future!

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