Make Love, Not Politics [Slice of Life, Comedy/Romance] (VN)

[Michformer]

MAKE LOVE, NOT POLITICS

Story: Make Love, Not Politics is a kinetic visual novel with political and slice-of-life undertones. It tells the story of Jacob Watfen, a college freshman, who bumps into his childhood friend, Kaitlyn Sherman. Unfortunately, they have trouble getting along due to their political differences. But an unpredictable incident forces them to act like a couple in order to avoid upsetting their parents back in Washington. With the help of their apartment mate, Naomi Lusk, and past experiences, Jacob and Kaitlyn try to find common ground and set their differences aside in order to become legitimate lovers.

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Screenshots:

Age: All ages, suggestive themes in some places

Genre: Slice-of-life, romantic comedy

Technical tidbits:

-30,494 words
-48 images
-12 screens
-Multiple parsing errors while developing game
-First Ren'py release (!)
-Roughly 30-45 minutes long

I'm the only person who worked on the game. I got the sound effects and character images from freesound.org and the Lemma Soft Forums, the music from Incompotech, and the backgrounds from Google. Credit goes to those sources and their contributors.

DOWNLOAD:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16g7bnlhwh0od ... l.zip?dl=0

Let me know what you think of my game and give me your feedback, including any concerns you may have with my game!

[Royalty]

I'm downloading it now. I'm going to play it, and get back to you.

[Tracy Bullet]

What Royalty said

[philip]

@Michformer-

Well, I downloaded this and began playing through, but was kinda turned off by the repeated use of the word "ain't". Are you trying to make a point, or don't you know that it's grammatically incorrect?

philip

[Michformer]

@Michformer-

Well, I downloaded this and began playing through, but was kinda turned off by the repeated use of the word "ain't". Are you trying to make a point, or don't you know that it's grammatically incorrect?

philip

If you're talking about the main character, then yes, that was intentional. Since the protagonist hails from Southern Virginia, he speaks with a Southern dialect. "Ain't" is supposed to be an informal way of saying "isn't".

Let me know if you have any further concerns with my game. I'd be more than happy to make the necessary adjustments.

[Michformer]

Don't be afraid to voice your honest-to-goodness opinion in the reply section.

[Tracy Bullet]

Ok. Time to get to work on this.

The first thing that bothered me was there was a very old man who woke Jacob up on the train. Not that that was a bother; the bother was how afterwards, the man is called middle-aged. I think someone calling a kid whippersnapper and hitting them is more like the father of someone middle-aged.

While I think the previous commenter to bring it up was rude, I agree that "ain't" is overused here, especially for a politician's son who must be used to be corrected all of the time.

The next complaint is small but deadly, and I won't for a minute claim I'm not responsible for falling into it as well. You switch between past and present tense when the action is in fact happening in the present.

I like the voice acting. Who did you get? Or is is stock stuff like the sprites? (Nice choice, btw. I love those sprites and have used them for test games multiple times.)

Some of the descriptions are a bit dull. I wanted to skip through hearing again and again how beautiful the college is. I get that that is indeed what a freshman sounds like sometimes, but it's still annoying.

So much violence to Jacob is unwarranted, and personally, it makes me uncomfortable.

[Michformer]

Ok. Time to get to work on this.

The first thing that bothered me was there was a very old man who woke Jacob up on the train. Not that that was a bother; the bother was how afterwards, the man is called middle-aged. I think someone calling a kid whippersnapper and hitting them is more like the father of someone middle-aged.

While I think the previous commenter to bring it up was rude, I agree that "ain't" is overused here, especially for a politician's son who must be used to be corrected all of the time.

The next complaint is small but deadly, and I won't for a minute claim I'm not responsible for falling into it as well. You switch between past and present tense when the action is in fact happening in the present.

I like the voice acting. Who did you get? Or is is stock stuff like the sprites? (Nice choice, btw. I love those sprites and have used them for test games multiple times.)

Some of the descriptions are a bit dull. I wanted to skip through hearing again and again how beautiful the college is. I get that that is indeed what a freshman sounds like sometimes, but it's still annoying.

So much violence to Jacob is unwarranted, and personally, it makes me uncomfortable.

Thank you for sharing your opinion with me. I'll do my best to address each of the issues you have with my game:

1-The reason I originally used the word "whippersnapper" in the script was because of the age difference between Jacob and the lanky man on the train. I thought that using it would add a humorous touch to the conversation both characters were having.
2-In the South, the word "ain't" can be used by cultivated, well-educated speakers. I agree that I overused the word a bit, but I can't really deny the cultural and informal nature of the word (in the South)
3-Yeah, I overlooked the tense issue. Like you said, small but deadly. Can't really argue with that.
4-Ditto. Even I thought the description of the scenery dragged on for too long. I guess Jacob (and I) got carried away
5-I wanted to use the violence as some kind of running gag. I know it may not be to everyone's taste, but I personally thought I needed to give Kaitlyn some kind of quirk. If you're familiar with the tsundere stereotype in anime, then you know that such characters can easily get physical when provoked in the slightest way.

But thanks again for sharing your concerns with me. I'll do my best to avoid repeating those same mistakes in my next visual novel.