Indie/Free: Project Dualis [BxG]/Romance/Slice of life

[desulishor]

Project Dualis is a fully voiced B x G VN, with 2 full arcs and 3 different, fully developed endings. It's been in the works for just under a full year and is now released, completely free and freely distributable. Desura downloads are now up: http://www.desura.com/games/project-dualis



Synopsis: A story of two sisters, Yuki and Yumi, who are linked together more closely than what it would first seem. Haru, a first year student in Kakunoshima high, joins the literary club and meets the shy and reclusive Yuki, but soon finds himself on a collision course with her overprotective sister...
Project Dualis is a visual novel on love and the meaning of one's self.

Check the indieDB site for downloads and more promo images: http://www.indiedb.com/games/project-dualis
Developers blog: http://desulishorwrites.blogspot.fi/



Last but not least, feel free to post your thoughts, comments on story or questions. I also want to hear your thoughts on the characters and the story. Which sister did you end up with the first time and so on...

[suikojay]

I'm downloading this as I type this! This is my kinda game, lol, so I'll be looking forward to playing it! Will leave feedback when I finish! Thx for making this game! =)

[PyTom]

While downloading this, I noticed it was hosted on a website (gamefront) that deletes files after 60 days without a download. While that may be unlikely, I think it's a bad idea to use a site like that as the only host for your game.

[desulishor]

Okay, thanks for the notification. It seems Gamefront is the other end of the IndieDB's database. It wont be a problem for at least two months, I'm keeping copies myself for a reupload and I'm also in the process of getting this one published on Desura, in which case people will be able to download with the client.

[PyTom]

Just FYI, there are a lot of issues with this game. The biggest one is that you had one of the images defined to be "townstreet.jpg.", with the additional period at the end. That causes the game to crash when you get to that scene. The same problem shows up in some of the voice files, but Ren'Py ignores that. Run the lint report to see the various errors.

While you're in there, I also wound up sticking:

Code: Select all

init 100 python:
    style.window.xpadding = 200

into the game. IMO this makes the game way more readable. (As a bigger change, you may want to consider using Ren'Py's voice tag support to make the voices optional.)

While I reserve judgement until I finish the game, I'm kind of digging it so far. (But I'm just a big kid who like

magical girlfriend

stuff.)

[desulishor]

Just FYI, there are a lot of issues with this game. The biggest one is that you had one of the images defined to be "townstreet.jpg.", with the additional perio 'Py ignores that. Run the lint report to see the various errors.

While you're in there, I also wound up sticking:

Code: Select all

init 100 python:
    style.window.xpadding = 200

into the game. IMO this makes the game way more readable. (As a bigger change, you may want to consider using Ren'Py's voice tag support to make the voices optional.)

While I reserve judgement until I finish the game, I'm kind of digging it so far. (But I'm just a big kid who like

magical girlfriend

stuff.)

Edit: I downloaded the package again from indieDB this morning, and ran it through. As far as I understand, it should crash, as you said, but I couldn't make it crash on any of the routes. (could it be about different OS? different ren'py versions?) It's still early to say, but so far there have been about 100 downloads and this is the first time i heard of it.

[PyTom]

Well, I was running it on Linux, but the error seems to be something that would affect all OSes. I don't know why it didn't crash for anyone else, but reading the code, the error seems to be there. (It might be masked on windows due to some weirdness with file extensions.)

[Carassaurat]

Well, I was running it on Linux, but the error seems to be something that would affect all OSes. I don't know why it didn't crash for anyone else, but reading the code, the error seems to be there. (It might be masked on windows due to some weirdness with file extensions.)

I think that's it; I made a game that ran perfectly for everyone on Windows, but it crashed on Mac because some of the images files had an extra space between the file extension and the closing quote. That's probably the same thing as this case.

[desulishor]

Well, I was running it on Linux, but the error seems to be something that would affect all OSes. I don't know why it didn't crash for anyone else, but reading the code, the error seems to be there. (It might be masked on windows due to some weirdness with file extensions.)

I think that's it; I made a game that ran perfectly for everyone on Windows, but it crashed on Mac because some of the images files had an extra space between the file extension and the closing quote. That's probably the same thing as this case.

Ah... I don't have access to Linux or Mac myself, so I just assumed that the code was universal enough after testing it on Windows. I don't have the full list of errors as even my Lint refuses to find any problems within the script. If I get the game to Desura, I should at least be able to patch it out quickly, but before that I'd probably need the full list of errors.

[Sheridan]

I've only played the beginning, so I can't judge the story, but I noticed some balance issues between the voices: the music is way too loud compared to the voices (easily fixed by turning the music volume down, but you could start it softer by default), and Yuki's voice is really soft compared to the others. The voice acting as a whole isn't bad, though, so that was nice.

Why did you choose to voice all the narration as well as the dialogue?

EDIT: I have a Linux computer, although I was playing the game on Windows before, so if I get a chance I can run through the game on Linux and see if I find any bugs.

[desulishor]

I've only played the beginning, so I can't judge the story, but I noticed some balance issues between the voices: the music is way too loud compared to the voices (easily fixed by turning the music volume down, but you could start it softer by default), and Yuki's voice is really soft compared to the others. The voice acting as a whole isn't bad, though, so that was nice.

Why did you choose to voice all the narration as well as the dialogue?

EDIT: I have a Linux computer, although I was playing the game on Windows before, so if I get a chance I can run through the game on Linux and see if I find any bugs.

The truth is, I have zero experience with GUI design, and no real programming skills either, so I don't even know how to set default levels.
And... I wanted Yuki's voice to sound softer, because of the type of a character she is, and on the other hand, I wanted to Yumi to sound stronger than your average 'anime girl'. And yet these two were still voiced by the same actor. (I find it pretty cool.)

The voicing for the narration is kind of like an homage to The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Kyon's voice narrates major parts of the storyline, and I think those works have had an effect in how I write.

Thanks for all the pointers with the technical side, but as a writer I'd also love to hear what you think about the story and the characters?

[philip]

@desulishor -

Well, this was a huge waste of time, so far! I downloaded the mac version of the story, and began going through it. At the first decision point, I made a choice and proceeded for a little way and the program crashed. Clicking the "ignore" button did not help; I had to quit the game. I restarted and went back to the decision point, choosing the other path, and made some more progress, and then the program crashed again. I have a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Mac, running OSX v.10.6.8.

I enjoyed what little of the story that I was able to see and the characters seem interesting, but it is annoying to have a game listed as "Completed" and then not be able to pursue it to its completion!

Do you intend to fix the bugs in the mac version of the game, and if so, when? You say that you have no programming skills; surely there is someone here on the forum who can help.

[desulishor]

@desulishor -

Well, this was a huge waste of time, so far! I downloaded the mac version of the story, and began going through it. At the first decision point, I made a choice and proceeded for a little way and the program crashed. Clicking the "ignore" button did not help; I had to quit the game. I restarted and went back to the decision point, choosing the other path, and made some more progress, and then the program crashed again. I have a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Mac, running OSX v.10.6.8.

I enjoyed what little of the story that I was able to see and the characters seem interesting, but it is annoying to have a game listed as "Completed" and then not be able to pursue it to its completion!

Do you intend to fix the bugs in the mac version of the game, and if so, when? You say that you have no programming skills; surely there is someone here on the forum who can help.

I don't have an access to a mac, so I have no idea what bugs might occur on that system. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's not like I could afford 3 different computers either. I've been notified of one bug, and I'm uploaded a fix while writing this. I do want to hear everyone's opinion on the game itself, so yeah...

[philip]

@desulishor-

Noticed that you said you were uploading a fix, so I downloaded the story again and played through it quite a few times. There were no crashes or anomalies of any kind. Thanks!! It is an excellent game, with a great story - very professionally done - I liked both sisters - I liked the various twists the story took - I highly recommend this to everyone.

Will look forward to your next effort!

[desulishor]

@desulishor-

Noticed that you said you were uploading a fix, so I downloaded the story again and played through it quite a few times. There were no crashes or anomalies of any kind. Thanks!! It is an excellent game, with a great story - very professionally done - I liked both sisters - I liked the various twists the story took - I highly recommend this to everyone.

Will look forward to your next effort!

Ah, glad to hear you liked it in the end! And I'm also glad to find out that there weren't other bugs. On a sidenote, I hope to hear more playthrough comments, and a question to everyone who played: Which sister did you end up with the first time? (was it intended?)