Lemma Soft Forums

Hi everyone,

We are happy to bring you Embraced By Green, one of our low-budget titles. It's a short story, around 20 minutes of play, one girl, two endings (good and bad) and nothing fancy in between.

It was an idea that I had I think it was a month after we released O3 and we just did a small game from it on a relatively short notice in the past one/two months. Those who have played a certain other ATP game will probably spot a reference, but even if you don't - enjoy your time with it.

I'd like to thank our in-house team (more or less counting PyTom into it as well, if he doesn't mind) for the uncomplicated development, I had a really nice time making this game.

There isn't an incredible lot more to say. You can get the game here:
http://atp.manga.sk/games/ebg/ebg.htm
I suppose dedicated mac and linux builds should come out shortly, on renai.us.

It's safe to say now, that this is it as far as ATP's year 2006 is concerned, hopefully we can continue making games some more. Enjoy.

Linux and mac versions are up at http://www.bishoujo.us/tmp/ebg/ , for the time being, until we get to add them to renai.us.

I have to apologize to the group a little, as I was very busy for the last few weeks, and I think I held up the release by about a week.

OMG ATP's 11th release.
You should write a book or something called "How to pump out Ren'ai Games like crazy".

Hmmm, widescreen with subtitles, hehehe...

This wasn't really anything big, you'll notice. For a small game like this, I think one-two months is a comfortable timeframe.

DaFool wrote:Hmmm, widescreen with subtitles, hehehe...

Well, low-budget is low-budget. And actually, the BGs were scaled out of necessity, because the angle at which their source photos were taken somehow didn't work with the sprite, and it had to be adjusted as well.

PyTom >> On the contrary, I liked your comments and suggestions, IMO it helped the game a lot. And it's not like we were on any deadlines.

You keep surprising us with releases XD... Usually you have to wait for years with lots of anticipation, and often cancelations... but with ATP, it just keeps coming. I'll give it a try later ^^

EDIT : Darn, bad end XD... I just can't get a first time success ^^;. In any case, I love it!
Ok, I'll try again X3

EDIT/PostScriptum : too many "waiting cursors" ^^;...

EDIT 3!! : Argh! Just can't get the good ending ;o;...

One thing - a typo, by the looks of it: "There are buildings, houses around, even though they can't be seen >from inside the park."

[EDIT: Another thing - "Wonder what Yumiko was a child" - seems like it probably ought to be "Wonder what Yumiko was like as a child"?]

And man, are you sure there's more than one ending? I've tried three different thematic approaches to choices, and still only got 'bad end'. On one hand, I like the mechanic of having choices that aren't directly and immediately linked to branching, it gives the whole production a more concrete feel, not to mention helping playability and replayability... but in this case I suspect that I'm going to run out of time or patience before I get a good ending because of it. Whatever I choose I don't notice any difference at all in events or dialogue, so after a few goes it ends up feeling more like a ten-minute questionnaire than a game or a story. [EDIT EDIT: OK, finished it. ]

Thanks for playing!

As for the whole design of the gameplay, we intended to structure it for two playthroughs. If the first one fails, there's a relatively clear indication so that the second playthrough people basically know what to aim for. Of course this doesn't guarantee success, even though there is room for errors (3 and 2 bad choices, IIRC). So while some choices may be pretty clear, some of them are admittedly not. Well, we tried to strike a good balance, but it can't always work for everyone. The last couple of choices are final ones and they're a bit differently structured, if only to indicate the story is ending - they are not really ultimate ones, or different in terms of points. Generally, if you need to replay EBG more, it will inevitably become a quick q&a round, but I suppose this can happen to just about any multichoice VN. It's always a worry.

Jake >> Thanks for the comments and pointing out the typos. Noted down in case of a re-release.

monele wrote: Usually you have to wait for years with lots of anticipation, and often cancelations... but with ATP, it just keeps coming.

The drawback is of course that a lot of the time concessions need to be made and the stories are often shorter, as well as being less polished. An example you mentioned are the characters, they are bitmaps, no antialias possible for now. One day, one filter, perhaps - but I didn't want to push it, as it would cost Kathryn a lot of time in the current situation. It's not like I deliberately want to make it look cheap or unpolished, in fact we try to do as much as we can at that moment, but when given the choice to wait & improve or take what I have, I will always take what I have, and I usually want to move on.

monele wrote: So actually, what's the thing you don't like in other games?

The conclusion is right, no sci-fi or fantasy for me. But I do like to put in something unusual, if only to highlight the usual. So I guess the point is, with all these weird settings of fantasy and sci-fi, you can't really make simple isolated strange things stand out well. In the world of Agaroth where Elves fight the Urkonian Empire under the command of sorcerer Garmoth, a weakness barrier is nothing special. You need to go spectacular - and in the end, it's always about the whole universe. So I can't zoom in on something specific quite as well as I can with a very normal setting. Sure there are numerous advantages to a completely different world, but I usually want to show something simple and it never really works for me with those.

Got the Bad End first time through. Which is totally normal for me.

I really like the way the backgrounds are done in this and the music is atmosphereic too. I loved the title screen. Some reason it really stood out to me.

The story has me because I have to find out what the heck is happening in this game but honestly I think I'll just be stabbing in the dark, trying different combinations until success where I hope its all explained. Though I think the game gave me a 'hint' so I'll try that.

Cool stuff though. I love these "fan" games and this one was defiantly one of my favorites I've played.

Wow, yet another ATP release (not that I'm complaining). A nice little story. I managed to get the good ending on my second play through, so it's not that incredibly difficult, unlike O3, don't remember how many times I failed before reaching Part II. The graphics and music were nice as always, really provided an atmosphere to the story (which to me, is a story that really is about the atmosphere).
The only bad thing I have to say is that I didn't like Yumiko that much. Not that I hated her. I didn't have a reason to. But I didn't have a reason to like her either. I just really didn't feel anything at all, which leaves me a little dissatisfied. Not that I'd purposely want to, but I think it would've been better even if I DID hate her... at least that way, she would've left an impression...

mikey wrote:As for the whole design of the gameplay, we intended to structure it for two playthroughs. If the first one fails, there's a relatively clear indication so that the second playthrough people basically know what to aim for.

I think that the thing that irritated me was that it turned out when I finally did finish it that I'd been taking the right approach in my first game, I just obviously made a few too many 'wrong' decisions. So the hint at the end threw me, I started wondering if it was actually a total lie (especially since it was so obvious) and played against it, thus failing again... Anyway, I don't mean to complain too much. As usual, the writing was immersive and compelling, the premise, while bizarre, relatively interesting and nicely executed. I did enjoy the first play through, and most of the second, it was only after I didn't feel I was getting anywhere with it that the frustration set in!

mikey wrote: The conclusion is right, no sci-fi or fantasy for me. But I do like to put in something unusual, if only to highlight the usual. So I guess the point is, with all these weird settings of fantasy and sci-fi, you can't really make simple isolated strange things stand out well.

From those of your projects that I've played - most notably the last two, perhaps 'cause of a combination of freshness in memory and accessible style - your storytelling reminds me a lot of that set of writers who sit between sci-fi and contemporary fiction; Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Iain Banks and Haruki Murakami being particularly infamous practitioners of the style. I'd still call all of it - from Deadeye Dick to Radio Free Albemuth to The Bridge to Wind-up Bird Chronicle science fiction at heart, as I would Embraced by Green, but most of it is set in a contemporary world with 'normal' rules, just with a few things out of place or a twist - often of perception - that makes the mundane seem bizarre or vice versa.

As you say, an unusual element can highlight and examine the usual; a lot of the good end of sci-fi is really just the same old examination of the human condition, the spaceships and robots are really just there to pull out that one facet that the author is interested in for easy viewing.

Nice job, mikey!

Gah! I can't get it. I just can't get it. Played it eight times through already.

Any clues as to what the problem is?

-Dizzy-

Okay, this one is for dizzcity, others don't look, okay?

mikey wrote:Okay, this one is for dizzcity, others don't look, okay?

For some quick assistance, press Shift+K while in the game.
Also, when in doubt, choose Yumi (over science/work).
The science choices only count when there's a non-scientific option.
Hope it helps.

-Dizzy-

Jake >> I figured you had probably taken the correct approach, but it never added up, I'm sorry for that. Some of the questions may even be a matter of luck under certain circumstances, but that's why we had "error" tolerances and such - although that can only help so much.
As for the style, I don't mind being categorized, even though I've never heard of the authors you mentioned, though Haruki Murakami does ring a bell, but I'm afraid it's probably an ice hockey player, the Murakami I know. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with sci-fi rather than fantasy, as many such works indeed have an interesting conflict in mind.

DrakeNavarone >> Thanks, I'm glad this one is a bit more accessible. I didn't want to be incredibly obvious about it, but it's a smaller game, and as I said earlier, two good playthroughs is more or less all that we can expect the players to do. So I'm glad it worked. As for Yumiko, you're probably right in that she doesn't have a significant personality, but... Choark >> Thanks for sharing the comments, glad you like it, the game is a lot about the atmosphere of the situation, so I'm happy when people just let it work on them (even the insecurity and all). I enjoyed writing that part a lot, so it's nice to see it could have the effect. The title screen probably stands out because of the purple color, as the rest of the game is pretty much, ummm... green.

SolarSnake >> Thanks for your remarks as well, actually it's a good observation... Dizzy >> OMG, first Sailoromoon and now it's us... Well, I guess there's nothing else to do than this now: