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The Dolls' Stories (REMOVED)

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:39 am
by fioricca
NOTE: THE FOLLOWING GAMES HAS BEEN REMOVED. Thank you to everyone who played and enjoyed the game -- it's crazy and I'm really moved! I love you all so much!

Please don't kill me /o\

---

The Dolls' Stories is finally ready after a three-month delay!

It's not a perfect game, neither is it something that I can be proud of. Lots of problems happened along the way -- first my writer fell out, which means that fdoll's route is incomplete; then I wasn't able to contact my programmer, which means that fdoll's route further suffered from a lack of coding polish. Personally, I would love to re-do all the art myself, they look utterly hideous to me now. But this game has also received plenty of help from others. Auro-Cyanide had helped me with the design of the title screen; I would not have been able to complete the game itself, and I would have disabled fdoll's route if not for AxemRed; many of you assisted with the very early demo I posted despite its faults and imperfections; many friends and peers, from both my own social circle and the LSF circle (especially #renpy), gave me the much-needed encouragement and support to pull through. Despite input from so many talented and amazing people, this game still fails to answer to them. But knowing these people has been an amazing honour, and I would not trade this priviledge for anything else in the world. For that, this game will always hold a special place in my heart.

To Tir (Anna), TrickWithAKnife, DragoonHP, AxemRed and many others in #renpy, I really want to express my heartfelt thanks. To all those who has waited out the long delays involved with this humble game, I would like to sincerely apologise.

Please enjoy The Dolls' Stories.
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------ TYPE | Kinetic Novel ------ LENGTH | 35 - 45 minutes ------ RATING | E for Everyone ------
EDIT; And for those who would like to see MDoll on your phone...
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------ TYPE | Simulation, Otome Game ------ LENGTH | ??? ------ RATING | E for Everyone ------ FEATURES 12 unlockable outfits, 7 CGs, Sleep Mode ------

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:52 am
by Mimi_Melody
YAY! I really love this game! Downloading it now :D Congrats on the release <3

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:01 am
by 15385bic
the art doesnt looks hideous at all*SLAPS*

ddl it now *_*

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:18 am
by RunicV
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

IT'S OUT IT'S OUT OMG

Okay, congratulations on your release! I'll download it and offer feedback later, really, congrats on releasing this KN!

*showers in confetti*

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:44 am
by CheeryMoya
aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHh YOU'RE HORRIBLE RELEASING THIS RIGHT BEFORE NANO STARTS YOU KNOW

You said 35-45 minutes of gameplay time so I can probably play this during my 1st period (being a teacher's aide has its perks). As long as the game doesn't crash then lack of coding polish shouldn't matter, but if you plan on releasing an updated version I can lend a hand >_> Drop me a PM anytime!

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:01 am
by Starwulfen
First, congrats on the release

Both of the dolls are adorable, and while it's a pity fdoll's route isn't complete, I really enjoyed mdoll's route
Not sure if enjoyed is the right word, it made me cry a little, but then the happy ending cheered me up ^_^
I liked the use of comic panels to tell parts of the story, that was really cool.

and I'm terrible at giving feedback...

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:27 am
by papillon
Haven't played through, just poked at it a little bit, so this is mostly generic concept feedback:
Slightly strange to hear "Congrats, man!" when I hadn't been prompted for gender.

The idea of typing to your doll is interesting, but since there are only specific things it wants me to say rather than choices, it feels cumbersome and time-wasty rather than natural. Quite often what I want to say isn't what the game is prepared to accept, so the illusion of communication is lowered rather than increased.

Obviously being able to pick up on totally different keywords in the typing and have different responses would be a tricky programming project, but as it is, I find myself resorting to just typing the exact keyword listed and feeling like it's a bother.

I wonder if this would work better for me if there were an audio-recognition pickup? Which is, of course, a tricky programming project in itself!
Anyway, it's a cool idea, it looks pretty, and I'm glad you released it. :)

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:50 pm
by Aines445
I finished a route (The male doll's route), so I guess I'll review it now:
I loved it! But I think I loved it for the wrong reasons. I didn't go through the female doll's route because she didn't like cats in the demo XD (Not that hating cats is bad for the character, so don't worry XD). So, that system where you type the stuff is REALLY fun! I had so much fun writing all of this stuff, even if I had to go through the keywords, they didn't bother me at all (LOL YEEEAAAH:
Me: "What's love? *writes* It's dificult to explain...."
Male doll: "What?..."
Me: "WHAT?! I WROTE IT!!"
*realization*
Me: "OH GEEEEZ I WROTE DIFFICULT WRONG OH NOES!!!! //sarcasm"
Aahahah...ha....) XD
But it was really fun (For example:
Me: "*writes* JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND MOVE ON!! XD"
Male doll: Okay......."
Me: "Oh how I love myself XD")
Yeah...That's why I was saying that I loved it for the wrong reasons XD. But really, it was great. The story was cool, but It's kinda weird how I got this epic fight with an unimportant for the plot character to get that ending, making me think that the story is pretty much "You got a doll. Take care of it and have fun!" but I enjoyed it and those books made me know just a little bit more on dolls and all of that that you'd want to know about out of curiosity. I also liked Melinda, except for the "Congratz, MAN!" thing, but that is forgiven XD. But even if I'm saying that, it was pretty serious. It always felt like a serious story, not so much humor as I would've liked (I'm a person that just LOVESSS comedy XD), but for others it is probably great in itself. And damn, you absolutely got me with showing the credits before the actual ending, I was really getting pissed off but then the ending shows up and I just put the computer in its place (since I was going to throw it out the window XD). Sucks that when the male shows itself, I confused him with Gilfred until I noticed the eyes XD, damn, I was NOT expecting him to grow up or to even be alive at all! (Maybe a little when the clay vessel dissapeared). The music was kinda unnoticed (Sorry, I was just enjoying the game itself), and the art is awesome, they didn't look horrible at all! And the comic book-like CGs were even better! I loved those (They reminded me of Arcana Fagmilia or however you write it) thhey made the whole situation more epic! I had great expectations with this from the start, and I think it was very good, you don't need to say such things about it!
And that's it!

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:43 pm
by 9-of-Hearts
Omfriggingosh!!!! <3
Now I can finally have my gorgeous mdoll slave in his full glory--I mean story! //brick'd
Congrats on the release, I'll play it soon~~~!
@w@

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:49 pm
by fioricca
Thank you so much to everyone for playing and trying Dolls out! It really means a lot! I'm stoked that feedback for the visuals is positive.
CheeryMoya wrote:if you plan on releasing an updated version I can lend a hand >_> Drop me a PM anytime!
That's really sweet. Thank you so much for your offer! I'll be sure to keep this in mind whenever I plan to re-make the game!
Starwulfen wrote:First, congrats on the release

Both of the dolls are adorable, and while it's a pity fdoll's route isn't complete, I really enjoyed mdoll's route
Not sure if enjoyed is the right word, it made me cry a little, but then the happy ending cheered me up ^_^
I liked the use of comic panels to tell parts of the story, that was really cool.

and I'm terrible at giving feedback...
Thank you so much for playing and I'm really glad to hear that you liked mdoll's route! :'D I'm still new to the comic panels thing, but I'm glad that people have enjoyed it. There's no such thing as terrible feedback!
papillon wrote:Haven't played through, just poked at it a little bit, so this is mostly generic concept feedback:
Slightly strange to hear "Congrats, man!" when I hadn't been prompted for gender.

The idea of typing to your doll is interesting, but since there are only specific things it wants me to say rather than choices, it feels cumbersome and time-wasty rather than natural. Quite often what I want to say isn't what the game is prepared to accept, so the illusion of communication is lowered rather than increased.

Obviously being able to pick up on totally different keywords in the typing and have different responses would be a tricky programming project, but as it is, I find myself resorting to just typing the exact keyword listed and feeling like it's a bother.

I wonder if this would work better for me if there were an audio-recognition pickup? Which is, of course, a tricky programming project in itself!
Anyway, it's a cool idea, it looks pretty, and I'm glad you released it. :)
Eeep you are one of the creators that I look up to, so it's such an honour for you to even poke at it! Really, thank you for that and for your feedback! I do agree that in this case, the chat system has largely backfired. I guess I just wanted to try out something new and see how it went. XD I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to provide responses at all -- the best I could do was accept synonyms. I'll look into this further in the future.

And l-lol on Mel, I can't believe I completely missed her "Congrats, man" line. How careless of me!
Aines445 wrote:I finished a route (The male doll's route), so I guess I'll review it now:
I loved it! But I think I loved it for the wrong reasons. I didn't go through the female doll's route because she didn't like cats in the demo XD (Not that hating cats is bad for the character, so don't worry XD). So, that system where you type the stuff is REALLY fun! I had so much fun writing all of this stuff, even if I had to go through the keywords, they didn't bother me at all (LOL YEEEAAAH:
Me: "What's love? *writes* It's dificult to explain...."
Male doll: "What?..."
Me: "WHAT?! I WROTE IT!!"
*realization*
Me: "OH GEEEEZ I WROTE DIFFICULT WRONG OH NOES!!!! //sarcasm"
Aahahah...ha....) XD
But it was really fun (For example:
Me: "*writes* JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND MOVE ON!! XD"
Male doll: Okay......."
Me: "Oh how I love myself XD")
Yeah...That's why I was saying that I loved it for the wrong reasons XD. But really, it was great. The story was cool, but It's kinda weird how I got this epic fight with an unimportant for the plot character to get that ending, making me think that the story is pretty much "You got a doll. Take care of it and have fun!" but I enjoyed it and those books made me know just a little bit more on dolls and all of that that you'd want to know about out of curiosity. I also liked Melinda, except for the "Congratz, MAN!" thing, but that is forgiven XD. But even if I'm saying that, it was pretty serious. It always felt like a serious story, not so much humor as I would've liked (I'm a person that just LOVESSS comedy XD), but for others it is probably great in itself. And damn, you absolutely got me with showing the credits before the actual ending, I was really getting pissed off but then the ending shows up and I just put the computer in its place (since I was going to throw it out the window XD). Sucks that when the male shows itself, I confused him with Gilfred until I noticed the eyes XD, damn, I was NOT expecting him to grow up or to even be alive at all! (Maybe a little when the clay vessel dissapeared). The music was kinda unnoticed (Sorry, I was just enjoying the game itself), and the art is awesome, they didn't look horrible at all! And the comic book-like CGs were even better! I loved those (They reminded me of Arcana Fagmilia or however you write it) thhey made the whole situation more epic! I had great expectations with this from the start, and I think it was very good, you don't need to say such things about it!
And that's it!
Haha I'm glad that you enjoyed this game nonetheless! I have to admit that as this is my first Ren'py game, my main concern was just to test the engine out. I paid very little attention to plot/character development, although I tried to make up to it with interactivity and artwork. I'm a fan of comedy myself so I know what you feel! Such a shame that I wasn't able to include more of it in this game. :x This is such a kind comment, you're giving me giddy feelings now! Thank you so much for playing once more and I'm happy to hear that you liked it!

To everyone else who has yet to play the game, I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on it. :D Everything will go into making better quality things!

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:19 am
by JimG
First off, I only played the fdolls route but I really liked the concept. I don't normally spend time on kinetic novels so this one is the exception to the rule. I would really like to see a VN or role play game based on this, there just seems to be a million things you could do with it. The premise seems quite original and I have to confess that I kind of liked the typing. You showed really neat ideas and tons of creativity. Thank you for making this.

Best Regards
Jim

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:55 am
by v3-kei
The epic backstory, the mdoll face who is just so cute akdhdhsksh and then handsome and Gilbert in comic panels look so awesome and Ermagerrrrd so many fanfics it could inspire hnnnggg.....Is it bad if I want full fledged, stat based game of this? I just.. I just want to see my mdoll more.... //cryforeverplz

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:19 pm
by ixWishing
Omg! It's out <3
Downloading it atm (:

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 10:43 pm
by ixWishing
Crying happily because at the end, the male doll was able to grow up c:
asdfghjkl<3 It's so cute, from being a weak "child" to a fine grown man :o

I kinda wish there was an after story or something, after the dolls have grown up lol.

Re: The Dolls' Stories

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:14 pm
by ngareci
I'm cryiiing when I've finished the male doll story..
T____T
It's so beautiful..
I love the way you make the comic event.
I do enjoy every visual aspect very much! So much win!
And the story? Like I said in the first setence, it has got me.
And the part where you have to type your own answer, made the player have a special bonds to the doll. I like it!
I'll be waiting for another "doll" story, either related to this one or not, if you'd like to make it, someday.. :D
Congratulations on the release and thank you for making such a beautiful game!~