Secretary Of Death

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mikey
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Secretary Of Death

#1 Post by mikey »

Hi everyone,

To be honest, it's a bit late and I haven't really prepared a cool announcement, so enjoy our new game that's a bit on the low-budget side (one character graphic, BW, no music), but then again, we did it in one week + one more for various technicalities. Special thanks in this respect to PyTom for a lot of quick responses during the last few days. :wink:

So, have fun with... death.
http://atp.manga.sk/games/secretary/secretary.htm

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#2 Post by Ayato Vu »

well, I got game over so many times it not even funny.

But other than that, its a cute story in my eyes. I liked it, though there should have been more than one "good ending" But perfect for the time limit u did it in. ^.^

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#3 Post by Mark Thern »

That was charming. Normally I wouldn't like the "make the wrong choice and you die" style of gameplay, but it's perfectly appropriate for a game about death. Good job.

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#4 Post by mikey »

I made the "wrong turns" pretty short because of this. I wanted to make it easy to just rollback once you see the game over. So in theory, you don't have to save at all.

EDIT: You can also add SoD to the RAA page whenever there will be an update. Didn't want to push though, just trying to save you the permission asking.

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#5 Post by monele »

Just finished it ^.^. Well even if I was had a hard time with the negative side of the story (I'm just sensitive ^^; ), the positive one was really cute :).
It doesn't really feel like a game since there's only one ending and only wrong choices except for the unique path ;). But I can see this as a kinetic novel letting you see how much the protagonist escapes death. I mean that getting all the right choices in the first playthrough would almost be pointless.
At some point it also gave me the feeling that, after all, it was logical that I didn't have any real choice to make. Kind of a "fate" thing. But given the ending, it doesn't really work with this... impending doom I had in mind.

Bah, all that aside, it was still a nice little game ^.^

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#6 Post by Watercolorheart »

I'm downloading it.

Character graphic preview made me cringe - I guess I'm still an artist at heart ...

I'll review the game on its story merits later after I play it.

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#7 Post by mikey »

I guess Glu is really a beginning artist, but everyone has to start somewhere. What's more I don't really want to stick to the "the newer game is always bigger/better" rule. And every now and then, (remembering M3, TT), an unconventional game is a change (at least for us).

I actually did expect very mixed responses, which is fair enough as this isn't everyone's game (or approach). So we'll be happy for those who like it. Have fun and take it easy with this one.

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#8 Post by lordcloudx »

just played through it mikey.

A nice, light, well-structured ren'ai story. The character art could use some improvement (even just some minor alterations on Aleksandra's face. Did I get her name right?) but since the game is very text-intensive, I found myself not even looking at the artwork most of the time.

The use of death as a plot device for ren'ai is nicely executed.

I believe it could also use some mood-music. Even if it only plays quietly in the more emotional scenes.

The story was also a bit too predictable for me, but I found myself wanting the predictable events to happen anyway.
How do you make your games? I see. Thank you for the prompt replies, but it is my considered opinion that you're doing it wrong inefficiently because I am a perfushenal professional. Do it my way this way and we can all ascend VN Nirvana together while allowing me to stroke my ego you will improve much faster. Also, please don't forget to thank me for this constructive critique or I will cry and bore you to death respond appropriately with a tl;dr rant discourse of epic adequately lengthy proportions. - Sarcasm Veiled in Euphemism: Secrets of Forum Civility by lordcloudx (Coming soon to an online ebook near you.)

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#9 Post by Alessio »

Very nice. It was maybe a bit slow in places (not a bad thing, mind you!) and a bit predictable, but definitely a fresh idea. And some parts were extremely funny. It seems someone knows very well how to describe the little things that make up a relationship. :) Well done!

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#10 Post by Watercolorheart »

Okay, I played it ...

*shrug* I'm not really sure what to say about. I'm happy that it wasn't kinetic (my god, what's a branch again? I forgot what that was ...) and that I got that good ending on my very first try (I usually don't).

I found it easy to play and understand, but ... it didn't really impact me. Oh, well. It was entertaining for about 20-25 minutes it took me to read through it and play it.

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#11 Post by mikey »

Thanks for playing everyone. :)

BCS (kinetic novels) >>
You said it. But actually, G!MB and Quine are even better therapy for kinenosis than SoD. Our game really only does the very minimum. BUT... it's not a KN. And I seriously doubt that you'll ever see an ATP kinetic novel again. And congrats on making it all the way to the end on your first try!

Alessio (original) >>
I'm afraid it's not really original to have a personified death. Before I actually had this idea, I saw Joe Black and I think there was a female death in FiguresOH (which I haven't played yet). Glad you liked the relationship part ^_^.

lordcloudx (music) >>
At one time I was considering it, but it (it's the truth) was sort of clashing with the cheap feel I always wanted this to have.

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#12 Post by RedSlash »

Okay, I finally got around to this one.
I thoguht it was a nice story.. quite funny sometimes.
While most ppl didn't quite like the character art, I found it quite decent, though could've had more expressions and poses. Other the other hand, the bg's were a bit rough on the eyes.. but overall I really liked the game.

Ren

#13 Post by Ren »

I played it today and really liked the story!
I expecially like how the characters talk and act and how everything is so well portrayed(if this can be the right thing to say it) with your writing.
Sometimes i find myself skipping text in this kind of game, when it gets too verbouse or descriptive..XD yeah, kill me for this, on the other hand, even if i died twice i never skipped hereO_O

Actually, the art could have probably been better but i thought it was ok, some more steadyness in the hand while inking and less thick lines and it would gain a lot of points^_^
We all started somewhere, ne?

Watercolorheart
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#14 Post by Watercolorheart »

Ren wrote:I played it today and really liked the story!
I expecially like how the characters talk and act and how everything is so well portrayed(if this can be the right thing to say it) with your writing.
Sometimes i find myself skipping text in this kind of game, when it gets too verbouse or descriptive..XD yeah, kill me for this, on the other hand, even if i died twice i never skipped hereO_O

Actually, the art could have probably been better but i thought it was ok, some more steadyness in the hand while inking and less thick lines and it would gain a lot of points^_^
We all started somewhere, ne?
Wow, you're the opposite of me. I linger on long, descriptive passages and tend to skip inane chatter (e.g. "Hey, Kenji do you like lemons or orange?" "Oh ... I dunno ...." "Lemons are sour and I like sour ... " "But oranges are sweet ..." "It's too hard to decide!!" etc.)

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#15 Post by Wolfrider »

As always, good writing... The ending was overkill, I was not expecting it.
Fantasy setting but realistic characters, with realistic lines of dialogue that makes you feel part of the story. Graphics are strange (and with this type of story, it's a good thing) the darkness of the screen all the time was really good. Also, i was missing 640x480 games.

feeling a bit of Red Shift here? the part where she says: "men want more than a schoolgirl" reminded me of the death character on Red Shift the personified death and all that?

The music was errr... inexistent. OK, I know it's a hard task, but since Gakuen Redux... well, you get the idea. (I think It's only me, I like music while reading VNs, It's like part of the atmosphere)

Keep the good work.

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