Finally caught up on my sleep! And wow, was I ever stoked to wake up and see everyone’s responses. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to try our game and comment! For me at least, this is my first completed game ever, so it really means a lot to me as a newbie “game developer” (I can’t believe I can call myself that now <-- tears of happiness).
Again, feel free to let us know what changes/additions you’d like to see in the “remastered” version!
And now for my wall-of-text of replies.
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@ ScottySeng
Thanks for the compression advice –I’ll keep 48 KHz in mind for the future! (Might I also ask what program you use for compressing music? I’m using Audacity, and the options seem rather limited). Also, do you remember if there were certain songs that had more noise than others? Since the music came from different sources, I’m wondering if maybe some recordings were not that good to begin with.
Good point also on the SFX – I think Nellie was planning to “level” the sounds before release, but ultimately ran out of time. That’s definitely something we’re going to have to fix for the new version! I also agree on changing the confirmation screen – we can probably shrink the font and take out the stuff on right to save space.
@ mugenjohncel
Shoot, that’s not good (we’ll be really sad if Uncle Mugen can’t play ;_;). We haven’t been able to recreate the crashes or the fullscreen window errors, so could I ask what kind of system/graphics card you are using? I saw a few reports of similar errors
here and
here, so maybe these are related to your problem as well?
@ Asachi
Thanks so much! I think the art in your game is lovely, so I would love to see fanart from you!
(Haha, yes! Now back to AXIOM.01 and Pirate Mermaid!)
Lol, he must be a secret pervert. If only Sona knew…
I’m glad you liked the extra chapter! We thought a bit about doing a side story/omake where Sona meets Hao’s parents and stuff, but a quick scene was all we had time for. ^^; And haha yes, the Mugen ending is a total troll ending.
Oh, did Sona say there was something black in the soup? Shouldn’t be – I’ll go back and double check. My parents also made me snow fungus soup whenever I got sick, so I relate to it as well (though my reaction was pretty much the same as Sona’s, lol). And yes, the girl chibi in “volti subito” is a younger Sona. She used to have a more “conventional” appearance haha. And I totally agree that Nellie’s chibis (and doodles) are adorable!
@ varyalanis
Thanks for your review! It’s extremely flattering to hear you enjoyed a2 as much as an actual commercial game. As the script writer, I’m especially happy that you thought the characterization was solid. I was a bit nervous about only having two real characters, so I’m glad it worked out in the end!
I love the art as well – Azure and Nellie truly did a spectacular job! I am still in awe of how they managed to finish so much in so little time. Seriously, these girls are amazing – there’s no way this VN would ever have been possible without them! I agree that the backgrounds are unfortunately not up to par since they’re just filtered photos. We’re definitely planning to have drawn backgrounds for the new version, so hopefully they will be an improvement.
Can I also ask you if certain songs had more noise/weird sounds than others? (again, trying to pinpoint if some sources had issues)
I’m glad the running theme of misunderstanding came across coherently, even with the mix of comic vs. serious scenes! Also glad that you didn’t balk at the locking of the translation feature. There were concerns that this would be annoying for players, but I think it’s just like you said – the point isn’t to understand all the Chinese, it’s to experience what the characters are going through with the language barrier and trying to rely on other cues (expressions, context, etc.) for understanding. Though admittedly some bits are funnier when you finally do understand them.
@ ririruetoo
Awesome, sweet and heartwarming was definitely what we were going for! (since it was an originally a game for Valentine’s Day, haha)
@Chaotic
Thanks so much! I love “We Are Legend” as well – Gerald Ko is super talented! We can ask and see how he would like to release his song. And yay, slice of life fan! I enjoy working with these kinds of settings, too.
Also glad you liked the MC’s unconventional appearance! Overall, the reception to her seems a lot more positive than we’d initially anticipated, which is super encouraging.
Hahaha, yay for the Mugen ending! It initially wasn’t going to be a dream, but then the troll path somehow would’ve been the happiest… And yeah, I think your interpretation of Sona is what we were going for. She kind of lost her purpose in life and became a slacker who ostensibly didn’t care about anything. Her interactions with Hao ultimately changed that (and changed him a bit, too, I think).
@ kumacat5
Oh no, that definitely shouldn’t have happened! I’m really sorry you had to wait ten minutes just to get through the intro.
And you should have been able to click anywhere or hit the “Enter” key to advance, so it’s really weird that it was behaving like that. Hmm…have you had any problems with other recent Renpy games? Or maybe it’s a computer system thing? Maybe we can ask for advice in the Renpy Help forum.
@ sonnet009
I’m really happy you found Sona sympathetic! Between her appearance and personality, I was a bit afraid she’d put people off, so I’m relieved that wasn’t the case.
And yesss, we were hoping at least some people would cry at those parts! <-- we’re clearly terrible people. Also glad that you thought the pacing was alright! Since I had to finish the writing in 2 weeks to leave time for coding, I worried it would be too rushed. ^^; I think we might do a longer bonus chapter for the “remastered” version, at least, though it’s still up in the air for now.
@ bippers
Thanks! Let us know if you have any more suggestions/critiques when you’re finished! And lol, we
should take responsibility because we secretly wanted some people to cry. By “smallness,” do you mean “slice of life”-ish, maybe? Not really sure how to describe it, either. ^^; And yessss, glad you got the Sonic reference!
I’m fond of some of those nameless orchestra members as well! Especially the shy flute girl and spacey tuba lol. And the random guy who looks like Detective Conan hahaha.
@ KittyKatStar
Thanks so much – I’m glad you enjoyed it! And yes, everything is better with cute chibi drawings! XD
@ DiamondRoseTears
Yay, you unlocked it!
We were actually hoping some people would cry at that part mwahaha. And yes, it’s definitely a good thing Sona didn’t understand what Hao was saying at the concert…and at some of the other parts as well lol.
@ Sheridan
Thanks! Nellie’s adorable chibi chapter slides are some of my favorite pieces, too! And good catch with the CTC error; I believe it’s caused by improper spacing of the {w} tag. I double checked and found several occurrences of it during Hao’s Chinese dialogue – let me know if you’ve noticed it anywhere else as well.
@ Flowers from Nowhere
I never would’ve thought we could’ve finished in a month, either, but the power of a strict deadline is really amazing.
I think everyone doing (real) NaNoRenO right now will experience that, too! Are you planning on participating?
Likability is always one of my main concerns with character writing, especially with “harsher” characters like Sona, so I’m really happy to hear your comments on that! My level of Chinese is also similar to hers, so we’re all in tune in that respect. As for the freezing/music catching issue, hmm…I wonder what would cause that. Does it occur more at certain points than others (perhaps during animations/transitions)?
@ SilverHyena
Thanks so much for your comments and encouragement! I know I keep saying this, but I’m genuinely stoked whenever I see Sona getting a positive response!
Family issues make me emotional for some reason, so I hope I was able to do that scene justice. ^^ And lol, the orchestra beating up the gang was one of my favorite “fun” parts because it was just so over the top!
Also glad you found the doodles effective (especially Hao’s – I thought it would be very challenging to convey his backstory in pictures, but Nellie’s drawings really rose to the occasion imo). We actually wanted to incorporate more doodles, so that might be something we’ll try to do in the “remastered” version!
@ Mimi_Melody
Yep, that’s pretty much the right way to get all the endings! I think we could definitely add more for the “remastered” version, so let us know what you would like to see more of!
Hahaha, Uncle Mugen is the best!
If you’ve seen the bonus chapter, it makes the Love End a little less “bittersweet” imo, but it’s still rather open-ended.
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To everyone else who downloaded the game, thanks for giving it a try! Let us know what you think once you’ve gotten a chance to play it.