Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

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saguaro
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#31 Post by saguaro »

Sounds like you've gotten some good feedback, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents. I like the GUI, the way the day-timer works (although some of the time gaps are large, perhaps unnecessarily so), and the uses of zoom to break up the scenes. I would love to see you take more advantage of the culinary school setting.

The move in/out transitions are very abrupt; a slower pan might be more effective. Moya mentioned this earlier, but the action descriptions in the narration were distracting. In ADV mode, if you can show it with the sprites on the screen, try that. If not, consider whether the player really needs to be told about it by the narrator. Ideally, the dialogue sets the vibe.

Good luck on this one, it's nice to see a demo with this level of polish.

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#32 Post by netravelr »

KashyaCharsi wrote:The demo is only until the breakup scene, isn't it? Or was it like the Prologue in Ristorante Amore?
The demo is only up to the scenes you've seen. There was another scene from the second game included, but I cut it out due to not having some of the art assets.
saguaro wrote:Sounds like you've gotten some good feedback, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents. I like the GUI, the way the day-timer works (although some of the time gaps are large, perhaps unnecessarily so), and the uses of zoom to break up the scenes. I would love to see you take more advantage of the culinary school setting.

The move in/out transitions are very abrupt; a slower pan might be more effective. Moya mentioned this earlier, but the action descriptions in the narration were distracting. In ADV mode, if you can show it with the sprites on the screen, try that. If not, consider whether the player really needs to be told about it by the narrator. Ideally, the dialogue sets the vibe.

Good luck on this one, it's nice to see a demo with this level of polish.
Thanks for the kind words! Yes, taking advantage of the school setting will be in the next game as there will be scenes in between the time gaps as an interactive tutorial to running your restaurant which will be basically classes that you have in school.

Having slower transitions are indeed a bit quick, I'll slow them down.

Thanks again for the feedback! If anyone else has any comments, I'd love to hear it.
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#33 Post by semewelamb »

The thing that stood out most to me in the game was the art. It was so darn good that I kept getting distracted from the story and just stared at the gorgeous art. Ha ha. Anyway, as for the story part of the game I think it did its job of explaining who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. I am very interested to see what you guys do in the second act.

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#34 Post by netravelr »

semewelamb wrote:The thing that stood out most to me in the game was the art. It was so darn good that I kept getting distracted from the story and just stared at the gorgeous art. Ha ha. Anyway, as for the story part of the game I think it did its job of explaining who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. I am very interested to see what you guys do in the second act.
Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm really glad you liked it! We really wanted to obtain a type of polish that isn't found in most Visual Novels; and I'm actually doing my best to make sure that the second does that and more. Cheers!
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#35 Post by RunicV »

I gave this a shot a while ago, but I kept forgetting to give my opinion on it...

Anyway, it was a pretty sweet game although it was short. It really didn't feel like a proper game at all, I think it might have been better if this were part of Hands in the Kitchen. We didn't actually get to view any of the culinary parts, so we don't get to see whether or not we'd like playing Hands in the Kitchen.

Anyway, things I'd like to point out:
-Cool GUI, graphics and art in general.
The art was easy on the eyes, and quite pleasant. The GUI was cute too, I liked the cursor a lot. I found the backgrounds a bit plain, but the general feel of the art: simple and nice was achieved.
-Music is... awkard?
I didn't really like the music, it had an odd feel to it. It was trying to sound good but it had a weird feeling to it somehow. The quality was also a bit low, although I'm not sure if that's just my speakers or the music itself.

I didn't really feel anything for the characters. I kind of disliked them as they were all rather plain, there wasn't really anything outstanding that drew me to them.
I also felt like the arguing scene at the end where the MC breaks up with Emily(forgot her name) was a bit forced. Most of the time, people break up because they see one negative aspect in someone, and then they start to get annoyed at the little things people do, and it all just piles up into one huge ball of hate. It felt like the two were splitting up just because of one major difference, which made the scene rather flat and 2D.
The time skipping segments were cool, but at the major time skip I was just like "WHAT how much are you gonna skip seriously whut no stop skipping". The whole game felt really rushed, they'd introduce you to a character and be like "okay friends friends are awesome" then "I HATE YOU WE CAN'T WORK TOGETHER GTFO SAD FACE".

I don't really know what to think of this game... It was nice for a short read, but it wasn't quite... eyecatching or interesting. Hands in the Kitchen looks interesting with its system, so I'll still look out for that.

Congratz on your release, though.
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#36 Post by KuroKoneko »

Hi there! My first real post on something is a review. I've played other VNs, but gave yours a spin and thought I'd give some of my feedback on it.

First off -- as many have said before, beautiful artwork and gui. I like the aspect of watching the time go by with the dates. It actually helped in the semester transitions to watch and see how much time was going by, and it made the changes in relationships a more believable.

Some concerns: The scenery did not change between MC living in an apartment and living in a dorm. That tripped with my suspension of disbelief for a second. Maybe even a different coloration of the room would be enough, as not to use up too many art assets, but it seems like an apartment would be a major setting for MC.

Great use of transitions between the different places and character positions. Liked the use of zoom. Same room, but more intimate look. I also liked that I could pick the MCs name. There wasn't a sound effect when someone would knock on a door, but there was one for the text message. Adding this detail would make this game even richer.
I dislike Emily with a fervor. I picked up on this when they first met, and it got worse as things went by. She's too flighty and indecisive (this is just a note about her personality, not on the writer's depiction). Though she was well written and believable -- I don't see that someone who doesn't understand the importance of having a solid menu grounding thinks that somehow the MC's parents are just going to up and drop money in his lap -- she is irksome. I don't understand how they lasted as long as they did. I hope that the MC can have other choices of partners.
In the Thanksgiving scene, there's a typo when the MC is talking about desserts. Should be eat at the end of the sentence, not ate.

The game, even as a short bit, seemed to drag in some places, though it might be the characters the MC interacted with (parents + Emily). Paul seemed more interesting.

The hidden stats from your decisions seems like a good idea. However, since most of my choices were for "avoid Emily like the plague", I wonder how they affected my abilities in the kitchen.

Thanks for letting us test this out -- I look forward to your next installment!

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#37 Post by KuroKoneko »

I forgot to mention : YAY FOR USING BASSOON IN YOUR SCORE!

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#38 Post by KashyaCharsi »

Emily was rather bossy, like she wanted to henpeck the MC.

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#39 Post by netravelr »

RunicV wrote:I gave this a shot a while ago, but I kept forgetting to give my opinion on it...

Anyway, it was a pretty sweet game although it was short. It really didn't feel like a proper game at all, I think it might have been better if this were part of Hands in the spam-preparation-room. We didn't actually get to view any of the culinary parts, so we don't get to see whether or not we'd like playing Hands in the spam-preparation-room.
That's actually the intention. This will be in place in the beginning of the full game, with tutorials inbetween each of the current cuts teaching how to play the cooking game part, which is where most of the culinary parts.
RunicV wrote: -Music is... awkard?
I didn't really like the music, it had an odd feel to it. It was trying to sound good but it had a weird feeling to it somehow. The quality was also a bit low, although I'm not sure if that's just my speakers or the music itself.
I'm sorry to hear you say that; if you have any ideas in particular to fix that I'd love to hear them.
KuroKoneko wrote:Hi there! My first real post on something is a review. I've played other VNs, but gave yours a spin and thought I'd give some of my feedback on it.
I feel honored!
Some concerns: The scenery did not change between MC living in an apartment and living in a dorm. That tripped with my suspension of disbelief for a second. Maybe even a different coloration of the room would be enough, as not to use up too many art assets, but it seems like an apartment would be a major setting for MC.
Yeah, I understand where you are coming from. I tried to keep the background count as low as possible while not sacrificing quality. I guess I'll look into that.
Great use of transitions between the different places and character positions. Liked the use of zoom. Same room, but more intimate look. I also liked that I could pick the MCs name. There wasn't a sound effect when someone would knock on a door, but there was one for the text message. Adding this detail would make this game even richer.
Oooh... I thought I put one in. I'll double check and get that fixed up.
I dislike Emily with a fervor. I picked up on this when they first met, and it got worse as things went by. She's too flighty and indecisive (this is just a note about her personality, not on the writer's depiction). Though she was well written and believable -- I don't see that someone who doesn't understand the importance of having a solid menu grounding thinks that somehow the MC's parents are just going to up and drop money in his lap -- she is irksome. I don't understand how they lasted as long as they did. I hope that the MC can have other choices of partners.
Well, Emily is a character that people either seem to love or love to hate. This is really good, as her involvement in the story later kinda plays with that.
In the Thanksgiving scene, there's a typo when the MC is talking about desserts. Should be eat at the end of the sentence, not ate.
Noted!

The game, even as a short bit, seemed to drag in some places, though it might be the characters the MC interacted with (parents + Emily). Paul seemed more interesting.
In the game we give you a brief introduction to all of the characters and in the second part you decide who you want to spend your time with, so you don't have to interact with people that you don't like (Aside from main plot points)

Thanks so much for the feedback guys, it's really making the next game that much better!
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#40 Post by Surufe »

Le do you care it's BxG? I don't because it's Cooking VN.

Anyway, I'll funish the game and give the review later.
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#41 Post by ixWishing »

Even though I don't really like playing BxG visual novels, I will play it because I love the art! And because it's a Cooking VN! c:
It looks so amazing, that I can't help but download it!
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#42 Post by netravelr »

Surufe wrote:Le do you care it's BxG? I don't because it's Cooking VN.

Anyway, I'll funish the game and give the review later.
ixWishing wrote:Even though I don't really like playing BxG visual novels, I will play it because I love the art! And because it's a Cooking VN! c:
It looks so amazing, that I can't help but download it!
I'm so glad to hear you guys are going to give the game a shot. We've been listening to your feedback, and I think it's safe to say that in the next title you'll have a lot more choice when it comes to who you want to be.

That being said, your reviews and feedback will make the next game better (or at least, that's the plan) so please continue to let us know what we're doing well on and what could be improved.

Cheers!
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#43 Post by KuroKoneko »

Bump! Are there any updates on this?
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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#44 Post by Miyuki »

KuroKoneko wrote:Bump! Are there any updates on this?
Well, the biggest one I guess is that I'm not the writer any more for the project. I work too slowly for the deadline netravlr would like to have (I am a very slow writer so it's totally understandable). I'm not quite sure if he's found a new writer or not. But when he/she is getting settled things, I doubt there'll be too much on that front to report.

I do know that most of the background art is done. Culina is slowly but surely chugging along! :D

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Re: Culina: The Spirit of Cooking [BxG][Modern Day]

#45 Post by netravelr »

Yes,

There has been a ton of progress on Culina over the past month or so, I've just gotten all of my backgrounds in and as soon as I have the new GUI and writing in the game I'll be releasing a gameplay demo of the new game. There's also the news that now Culina will be released as a Moustachio game and a new writer. It's quite exciting, but I want to wait til I have more to show before I release. I'll be releasing a new thread for the sequel as soon as it's ready.

Cheers!
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