Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

Finished games are posted here, once they've been tested and are ready for wide release.
Forum rules
Adult content should not be posted in this forum.
Message
Author
User avatar
DaFool
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 4171
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 12:39 pm
Contact:

Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#1 Post by DaFool »

By Dennis and Florian (Hey guys, if you're still around, why didn't you tell us? :( )

http://www.serik.de/felix

Now to activate my rusting German... as well as abuse my poor monitor which can barely display HD...

monele
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 4101
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:57 am
Location: France
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#2 Post by monele »

100mb is a bit too much for something I probably won't even be able to read... so I'll wait for opinions ^^;

User avatar
PyTom
Ren'Py Creator
Posts: 16088
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 10:58 am
Completed: Moonlight Walks
Projects: Ren'Py
IRC Nick: renpytom
Github: renpytom
itch: renpytom
Location: Kings Park, NY
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#3 Post by PyTom »

Hm... I forget, did we have a game that was released in Czech first?

Anyway, I'm playing through this... well, really looking at the pictures, since I can't read. It features full voice acting, and high-quality voice acting at that. (Without the background hiss that was in some of the tracks in Senior Year). The pictures are processed photographs.

One problem is that the Linux and Mac versions may be corrupted. At least the Linux version was repacked as a zip... you can't do that, since it loses information. (The mac may be the same way, I haven't checked.)

Anyway, congratulations to the creators, should they show up.
Supporting creators since 2004
(When was the last time you backed up your game?)
"Do good work." - Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Software > Drama • https://www.patreon.com/renpytom

Hudzon
Regular
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:48 am
Location: Demoness of Moe
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#4 Post by Hudzon »

I knew that years of learning German would pay off someday, and that day has finally come!

I just started playing and honestly I don't understand a large chunk of it, but it looks like a good project nonetheless.

I'll post my thoughts once I finish it!

Alessio
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 576
Joined: Fri May 07, 2004 9:40 am
Completed: GO! Magical Boy (2006), Angelic Orbs (soundtrack)
Projects: Cyberlin (in progress)
Location: Finland
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#5 Post by Alessio »

Halfway through so far and looking really good. Interesting story, and everything is top notch, even the actors' processed photographs fit in well. Very good voice acting, too. What makes it slightly different from our standard VNs is that no character sprites are used - it's basically still pictures all the way through - equivalent to having a lot of event CGs...

User avatar
mikey
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 3249
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:03 am
itch: atpprojects
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#6 Post by mikey »

I still have to finish this, I started playing a week ago, but then the phone rang and I lost the immersion, so I'm waiting. Heh, it's *German* German for a change (since I'm surrounded by Austrian German ^_^).

From the beginning I took this as a somewhat travelogue-styled piece, and so far this worked for me. It has a very nice color range which is consistent throughout the game, and really avoids cliches - which gives it a very authentic feel... well maybe the exchange students could do with stronger accents (minor remark).

But I need to play it fully to be able to say. I'm hoping for tomorrow, actually.

Florian

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#7 Post by Florian »

First of all, thanks for all the compliments! :)
DaFool wrote:By Dennis and Florian
Actually by a lot more than just us two. Erik, Christoph, Ralf, Wei, Juan - just to name the rest of the core team. :)
(Hey guys, if you're still around, why didn't you tell us? :( )
Well, you were too fast. We released our story a week _after_ you posted it here. :) You probably got a pre-release of the windows version (but there shouldn't be a noticable difference). When we set out to announce Felix here, we found this thread. :)
PyTom wrote:One problem is that the Linux and Mac versions may be corrupted.
Did anyone test those versions? As written on our websites (which you probably couldn't read, because it's German *g*), we couldn't test them because no one in our team has a test platform.

Honestly, I did not really know what I was doing when I packed the Linux and Mac versions, so it would be really cool if anyone could confirm that they are working (or that they are broken, so that we can fix them... erm... somehow).

By the way, for those who want to see some more pictures before the 100MB-Download, there are 7 pictures online.

User avatar
mikey
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 3249
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:03 am
itch: atpprojects
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#8 Post by mikey »

Well, I finished this game!

Kudos for the graphics - the gigantic resolution 1280x1204 is interesting, I pressed the "F" key and nothing happened ^_^. Since my screen resolution is also 1280x1204 - it took me a few seconds to realize what was going on - I wonder why this resolution was chosen though.

Anyway, the combination of vectorized photography and non-textured 3D models seemed a bit sterile at first, but it remained constant for the whole of the game, and gave it a good sense of atmosphere, and even though it took a pinch more imagination than games with full-scale graphics, after 20 minutes, at least for me, the illusion was there. Really excellent - except for that disco... I played at night, with only the monitor's glow, and I thought I would get that Pokemon fit or if I'm lucky that only some veins in my eyes explode. It was really hard to read, I covered the screen with my hand, trying to have only the textbox in view, but it still hurt.

The voices and narration was nice as well - as I said before, the foreign students could have used more accents, but it was nothing that would bother me that much. I liked Nakamura's squeaky voice... though that seemed rather Chinese-ish, than Japanese-ish. Nevertheless, I was impressed by the scale of the voice acting - there was really a lot of time put into that, the voices were crisp and I assume this was all very well prepared.

But to get to the point - the story and overall atmosphere - it really continued with the first impression it gave me - this was like a travelogue you could experience yourself. It made a very good effort in being close to reality - I've never climbed the Fujisan, but I really felt like it was realistic what happened in the VN and the climax of that part was really touching - I almost thought there would be a reference to the rising sun on the Japanese flag. There were several good touches like this scattered all over the VN even though some felt a bit educational. And of course as with every good thing, there are some things that you could nitpick - such as that Felix claims to have 8 semesters in japanology and then Yui has to explain to him what the suffix -chan means.

I guess this is all from the need to balance the information with the competence - you generally don't want a patronizing "this is how they do it in Japan" story, on the other hand going into too much detail with discussions about something too specific is also alienating - so I found the balance very nice - and I learned a thing or two as well. As for the cliches, I think the game handles them well, there was nothing standing out too much, and having no cliches would be disappointing - and again, I think the balance was good.

Overall, I really enjoyed it - though this wasn't the first German VN I played (there was Honey Hotel, which was done by AFAIK what Austrians like to call "South-Tyroleans", but whether you can call the beach cliches with sexy girls a VN is another matter - well, for me you can - but that's another matter entirely :) Anyway, as far as the story goes, it's - how should I say - neutral, I think is the word. It fits the nature of the project and I wouldn't expect any other resolution to the conflicts or any other things that Felix comes to understand or realize at the end. One remark (not a bad one, just a note) to this is that this all contributes to the project feeling academic, in adition to being artistic. And as such, it's quite realistic in that it shows the typical way that an exchange year usually takes. Combined with the numerous small episodes and attention to detail, this is really a nice (and since this is still somewhat special in OELVN) also a very polished work.

Congratulations!

User avatar
PyTom
Ren'Py Creator
Posts: 16088
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 10:58 am
Completed: Moonlight Walks
Projects: Ren'Py
IRC Nick: renpytom
Github: renpytom
itch: renpytom
Location: Kings Park, NY
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#9 Post by PyTom »

I _believe_ the linux version is broken. If you unpacked it on windows, and then made it into a zip, then you lost the file permissions information, and it won't run. (I tested the version of a few days ago.) The same thing goes for the mac version, although I haven't tested it.

mikey >>> (and since this is still somewhat special in OELVN)

But heck, _half_ of all OGLVNS have this, apparently. :-)

Congratulations to the makers.
Supporting creators since 2004
(When was the last time you backed up your game?)
"Do good work." - Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Software > Drama • https://www.patreon.com/renpytom

Florian

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#10 Post by Florian »

Thanks for the extensive review, mikey. I'm glad you liked it. :)
mikey wrote:Kudos for the graphics - the gigantic resolution 1280x1204 is interesting, I pressed the "F" key and nothing happened ^_^. Since my screen resolution is also 1280x1204 - it took me a few seconds to realize what was going on - I wonder why this resolution was chosen though.
The resolution was chosen because that is the resolution that your system uses. :) Felix automatically adjust itself to the user's resolution (at least on windows). I'm working on an article (almost done) that explains the technical details for the case that someone else wants to do the same.
PyTom wrote:I _believe_ the linux version is broken. If you unpacked it on windows, and then made it into a zip, then you lost the file permissions information, and it won't run. (I tested the version of a few days ago.) The same thing goes for the mac version, although I haven't tested it.
You tested the current version. There wasn't any pre-release of non-windows versions.

Damn. :)

I'll ask Dennis if he knows how to create those versions without actually having one of those systems. He knows more about all that packaging stuff than me. And if not, we'll probably post yet another request for help in the support forum. ^_^

Greetings,
Florian

User avatar
mikey
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 3249
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:03 am
itch: atpprojects
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#11 Post by mikey »

Florian wrote:The resolution was chosen because that is the resolution that your system uses. :)
It's witchcraft! :P

Unfortunate English Speaker

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#12 Post by Unfortunate English Speaker »

...I really do wish there was an English version of this.


O N L I N E P E T I T I O N

OK People... let's sign this petition and demand that this 100mb masterpiece
be released in English for the benefit of all humanity.

What are you waiting for... SIGN NOW!

1 ______________________________ 11 ______________________________
2 ______________________________ 12 ______________________________
3 ______________________________ 13 ______________________________
4 ______________________________ 14 ______________________________
5 ______________________________ 15 ______________________________
6 ______________________________ 16 ______________________________
7 ______________________________ 17 ______________________________
8 ______________________________ 18 ______________________________
9 ______________________________ 19 ______________________________
10 _____________________________ 20 ______________________________
...and so forth

[CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE VERSION]

[CLICK HERE IF YOUR PRINTER RAN OUT OF INK]

"POOF" (Dissapears... for now)

lordcloudx
Eileen-Class Veteran
Posts: 1406
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:47 pm
Completed: http://rd2k2-games.blogspot.com

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#13 Post by lordcloudx »

I'd sign that petition... and since visual novels are being released in other languages, panahon na siguro upang gumawa ng original filipino language visual novel. :twisted:
How do you make your games? I see. Thank you for the prompt replies, but it is my considered opinion that you're doing it wrong inefficiently because I am a perfushenal professional. Do it my way this way and we can all ascend VN Nirvana together while allowing me to stroke my ego you will improve much faster. Also, please don't forget to thank me for this constructive critique or I will cry and bore you to death respond appropriately with a tl;dr rant discourse of epic adequately lengthy proportions. - Sarcasm Veiled in Euphemism: Secrets of Forum Civility by lordcloudx (Coming soon to an online ebook near you.)

User avatar
PyTom
Ren'Py Creator
Posts: 16088
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 10:58 am
Completed: Moonlight Walks
Projects: Ren'Py
IRC Nick: renpytom
Github: renpytom
itch: renpytom
Location: Kings Park, NY
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#14 Post by PyTom »

I'm going to call a stop to this. It's one thing to make a sensible comment as to why you want an English-version, but petitions are out of bounds. A petition doesn't promote discussion, it just sort of takes names and sits there.
Supporting creators since 2004
(When was the last time you backed up your game?)
"Do good work." - Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Software > Drama • https://www.patreon.com/renpytom

ssssss
Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:49 am
Contact:

Re: Felix, Gaijin [First Non-English Ren'Py release]

#15 Post by ssssss »

so this games about a russian samurai who hits on asian popstars in his spare time

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users