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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:34 pm
by Rintochii
I finally managed to get all the endings, woo!

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
Yeah, I loved it! I'm looking forward to the final version when it comes out--. Um... I really liked all the expressions for the sprites!
2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
Nicholl and the dragon are probably my overall favorites. The opening scene interaction with Nicholl reminds me a lot of how I act with my best friends so it really struck a chord with me and every time I saw him I thought, "best friend, best friend, best friend!" The dragon was like an adorable, excited puppy, and I just really love adorable, excited puppies.
3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
If you have time, please vote here for your favorite prince!
http://strawpoll.me/7292053
I went with Mer first because everyone was so beautiful I couldn't decide who to go with and figured I might as well just go in listing order from Mer to Zel. I think maybe Zel ended up as my favorite because he's so cute and naïve. I felt an arrow pierce my heart right at, "Oh no. What happened to your wings? Did you give up your wings to the dragon as a trade?" On the other hand, I also enjoyed Snow's cliché pick up lines... and bantering with Evian Mer. A-actually, everyone's great... but maybe I just love Zel a very small, little, tiny bit more--. It's a miniscule lead, really *laughs
4. What ending did you get first?
I got Mer's first ending to begin with.
I was picking all the nice options so I just jokingly thought "Hahaha, I'm trusting him so much, he's probably gonna kill me in my sleep--" and then the dagger scene came up and I had to take a minute to wonder if I did something wrong. *laughs* I was a bit surprised Mer didn't end up killing Charming in the second ending whichIactuallymostlyskippedthroughbecauseI'mannoyinglysensitivetodarker/badendings,haha... ButI'msureitwasawesome! I'mjustnotbuiltforthatstuffbecauseI'masensitivescaredycatcrybaby wwwww 8'D I'm sorry, you worked hard to write it and I should've read through it-- because she was the type of royal he detested. That... seems like a bit of a hard thing to overlook/accept--.
5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
I want to see more dragon friend-- *shot*
6. Other questions or points of critique?
Ah, um... not really?
Actually, wait, what kind of sacrifice did Evian and the fairy make? The one he won't tell about--

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:06 pm
by Kirlett
I think I will wait for the expansion and play the game for the first time then ^^

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:23 pm
by Windchimes
@Rintochii:
AHH HI THERE <3 GRATS ON GETTING ALL THE ENDINGS!! (Especially Mer's second ending, we've been told it's rather hard to get it xDD) Thank you for your feedback <3
I'm so glad you liked the dragon and Nicholl :"D I really enjoyed writing them. Makes me really happy when you said the interaction between Charming and Nicholl is realistic. I'm really looking forward to writing Nicholl's route for the expansion xD
YESSS Zel is adorable :"D It's so funny seeing some pre-release guesses thinking Zel will be the
crazy, yandere one, which I suppose is a fair guess since he's been isolated for so long
when really we were going for the sweet, naive, innocent personality for Zel's since the start. xD And we're really happy you like all the princes <3
As for the questions/comments on Mer's route, I'll leave it to Kumiho to answer, since she knows the route better as she's the writer.
Thank you once again for commenting!

@Kirlett:

Ahah, the expansion won't be out for like... likely end of the year/beginning of next year, so you might have to wait a long time. You could give in and play this first ;)
Thank you though for being interested in our game :"D


Just a quick announcement as well:

I have uploaded v1.1 of the game to itch.io and mediafire mirror. This new version should fix another bug we found, as well as some typos and other minor errors. Please, if you have time, download the new version. <3


Anyways, thank you so much everyone <3

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:48 pm
by Kumiho
Rintochii wrote:
Oh gosh, thanks so much for your comments! We really appreciate them omg <33 It was definitely superrr rushed as a result of word count / time constraints, and hopefully in the expansion, the story won't feel as rushed/terribad! Again, I'm super grateful for your support, so thank you 8')

Regarding Mer's Second Ending:
Well, he probably would have, but Charming's a heck of a lot stronger than he is ;) And it isn't so much that he accepted the situation / Charming voluntarily, but rather that he was forced into his circumstances to the point that he, to some extent, did break.
Regarding the Penultimate Scene:
Mer's sacrifice was intentionally left ambiguous ;) I have an idea, but it's only one idea, and your guess(es) is just as good as mine!
kumiho wrote:
Also, I've heard a lot of people talking about how hard it is to get Mer's second ending x') Which is 1000% understandable, since you have to make all the corresponding choices that lead up to it. I'll upload a walkthrough for the entire VN later today! :)

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:05 pm
by Hijitoki
Hello!
I was in the middle of your Snow route and have encountered an error.
Attached is this traceback:

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:12 pm
by MimirollCookie
Windchimes wrote:@MimirollCookie:
Hey~ Thanks for the feedback
Happy to hear you like Snow :"D
And yes, the sequel/expansion has been planned for quite some time now. In fact, we're currently recruiting for more CG artists for the future release, which I mentioned in first post.
About the error... ah yes, Idk how we didn't catch that earlier. There was a typo in the code that affected the side sprite. For now, just click Ignore like 5 times to skip past that bit and it'll go back to working fine, or rollback and choose the other option at the choice menu. We'll try to push out an update asap with bug fixes/typo fixes. For now, please bear with us ;;

Thank you again!
Hmm.... I see!
Well then, just click ignore 5 times right? ;;
Thanks Winchimes!!! ^w^
(This game is one of my faves!!)

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:21 pm
by Windchimes
@Hijitoki:
Hey! Thank you for the report :D Someone else reported it earlier, and it is indeed a bug. There was a typo in the code that affects the side sprite. v1.1 of the game which was just up on itch.io a few hours ago should fix that bug as well as some typos, so you can choose to download the new version, or you can just click Ignore at that error for like 5 times or more (just spam click it) until the error goes away. You will miss a few lines with the latter method, but it's a workaround in case you don't want to re-download the first.
Sorry for the bug ;; Can't believe we didn't catch that before releasing.
Thank you for playing and for reporting the bug <3

@MimirollCookie:
Yep! Or alternatively, you can download the new version of the game (v1.1) on itch.io. It fixes that bug and some typos, but otherwise just spam click Ignore until the error goes away.
Sorry for the inconvenience ;; Thank you once again <3

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 2:53 pm
by keelan
Congrats on your release! I've been pumped to play this since I saw your WiP; great work, guys!

I ran through all the routes (and got all the endings! yay!), so lemme see that feedback sheet (long review up ahead!):

(NOTE: I only played the first version of the game, so you might've corrected some stuff since then. Correct me if it's in 1.1!)

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?

Yeah! Totally enjoyed! It felt quite polished (and long) for a NaNo. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't have thought this was made in a month and a bit.

I'll answer the second half of the question at the bottom of my review~

2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?

Charming was, well, charming. She was a great narrator, and I loved her voice! She struck me as independent yet tactful, able to make decisions for herself but veiling them under good intentions or manipulation. Seeing a princess with some backbone, intuition, and level-headedness was amazing. Definitely a strong female character. I absolutely loved her!

(adding onto that, the writing was good, so everyone was well-written. that's why past charming, it's like everyone's ranked second on my list of favourites)

3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?

I went Zel > Snow > Mer (reverse chronological :p), and after getting all the endings, I'm pretty happy I did that order. Geez Louise, I can't even begin to describe my descent from 'awww, this is so cute' to 'holy heck, i'm stuck in plot-whammed horror.' I think if I did Mer > Snow > Zel, I'd probably be super suspicious of the latter two and I wouldn't be able to enjoy them as much XD

I don't have a faourite, especially since I all like them for different reasons:

-Zel was cute and sweet. I felt like I was in a fluffy romance, and boy do I love fluffy romances. It just seemed like one long, steady development of love. And I absolutely adored it. It was also the 'longest(?)' route because it spanned for '2~ months,' so that's a plus.
-Snow focused more on the politics and worldbuilding of the kingdoms, and was different from Zel in a way that didn't feel like a complete jump from fluff to serious plot. It still had cute parts (the dance scene where charming actually dances; or if you were on the idealistic route and made him kiss you three times to 'prove it'), but it was balanced with a straightforward plot. Out of all the routes, this one was my favourite.
-Mer(boy) was plain INTRIGUE. From start to finish, he was a total mystery that kept having tiny twists and turns. I was wondering how you'd incorporate the muteness and dagger from the original tale (plus the 'killing of the prince to get back the mermaid's voice') but I WASN'T EXPECTING IT TO BE LIKE THAT. Bonus points: was the 'shortest(?)' route because it spanned for '2~ weeks.'

So basically:

-Zel has an award for BEST ROMANCE/DEVELOPMENT
-Snow has an award for BEST PLOT
-Mer has an award for BEST TWIST 10/10 WOULD DO AGAIN

4. What ending did you get first?

I got Zel Ending #2 (so zel's dragon adventure ending). Ack, that one was adorable. But it made a teeny tiny inconsistency with Charming's hair colour because the blue gradient seems to reach a bit below her shoulders, and we don't see it in her sprite/some of the CGs (namely snow's and mer's second).

I also did all the idealistic/nice endings first before the other ones, so it went like:

Zel #2, Zel #1, Snow #2, Snow #1, Mer #1, Mer #2.

Pretty interesting how Zel's endings are still 'romance-y' while Snow's 1st is more bromance, and Mer's 2nd is just...wow (wow in a good way, don't get me wrong; i absolutely loved it :D). Makes me even happier I did the order that I did.

5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?

I second the notion of sprites for the parents (yay! i'll get to see what they look like!). And maybe some extra Nicholl + dragon screentime? I know the routes don't call for a lot of Nicholl, and the dragon's not the most important character, but I really really liked them so it'd be nice if they showed up more >_<

And I'm sure the expansion's going to answer most of the points below, but just in case, I'll add the stuff I want to see in it:

-who was the witch that kidnapped Zel (and why he was kidnapped)?
-backstory for Kailee?
-explanation for Grisalda (*gasp* grisalda screentime)?
-who's Prince (something?) (second prince of the snow kingdom; was that name on purpose?)
-backstory for Mer + curse?
-backstory for Mer's parents?

6. Other questions or points of critique?

People caught the errors I was going to talk about, so that's moot.

Other than that, I think I'm good ^^ There's a few inconsistencies here and there (mostly regarding art, like the sprite issue above, or how the backgrounds look different from each other), but they're pretty tiny concerns.

OTHER THOUGHTS/COMMENTS

-Art was fantastic! If I had to say so myself, Mer's the most dashing haha. And the backgrounds. THE BACKGROUNDS. Goodness gracious, the magic room-thing was spectacular, as was the ballroom.
-MUSIC WAS GREAT. All the custom tracks were A+ (great work there!). I'm also glad you guys put down links for all the other music tracks (thank you~), but there's one specific track that I'm looking for, and I don't exactly have the time to find it through all that XD Maybe later, I guess.
-A LOT OF THE MUSIC TRACKS LOOP PERFECTLY TOO *thumbs up*
-GUI's very fairy tale-like. Shoutout to Alcor who worked on this AND another NaNo game! Kudos to you!
-I've said it before, but the writing's niiice. Development, plot, characterization... You did an awesome job on all aspects!

But yeah, you all did such amazing work this past month and it definitely showed! I'll be looking forward to the expansion (new routes! longer routes! this is going to be a blast!). Keep it up! :D

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:34 pm
by Lyhra
So I've just finished the game! Yey, congrats for the release!

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
I did enjoy it, it was really fun and cute to play, with many funny and well-written dialogues.

2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
So as I've only played the game one time, I guess is too soon to choose my favorite character. But I really liked Charming and Snow (I felt that Nicholl appeared too little to have and opinion about him, sorry), specially when they engaged in their sassy-flirty-witty tone.

3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
I started with Snow, because The Snow Queen is one of my favorite fairy-tales and i really like white haired guys and winter themed things. I haven't replayed the game yet.

4. What ending did you get first?
The Love Match ending for Snow. It was interesting and then cute but not extra-fluffy (well, maybe a little bit by the end, but it's a fairy-tale so it can be understood) which is something I enjoyed, it feels a little bit weird when sometimes, in some games, the LI personality changes completely after they confess their love.

5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
Some ideas I have: stat-rasing options, since Charming has magic, strength and charisma as her main attributes it could be interesting that they needed to be improved in some way; also maybe some personality building, like the options in dialogue would affect not only the ending but also the MC personality in some way? As someone has already said, longer routes and more endings, obviously. Also, yes, more sprites would be cool!
Another thing that could be interesting is that the games wasn't focused on choosing a LI at the early beginning but that you could interact with all the characters (?)
Maybe some more... spice? *wink*

6. Other questions or points of critique?
My only critique could be that, at the beginning, the introduction kinda felt a little bit to long? Too much exposition and text, until you as a player have the option to start doing things. But well is a very little concern.

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:26 pm
by selenity136
1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?

I really enjoyed the game a lot. It was cute and charming was very quirky.

2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
I have to say Nicholl because I can just see him being the type of friend who's reluctant to do crazy stuff but still does it in the end.

3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
I pursue Mer first and my favorite is Zel.

4. What ending did you get first?
Ending 01

5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
I think Mer's route need a bit more story since I felt like that it's really short compare to the other routes. But I think overall more routes need to flesh out more. Like for example, why Zel really want to stay in the tower. Also, more routes will be great featuring other tales as well :D.

6. Other questions or points of critique?
Nope.

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:18 pm
by Windchimes
@keelan:
Thank you so much for your continuous support and for playing the game! <3 And especially for taking the time to leave us such a detailed, lovely comment :D We really really appreciate it. We're so glad you enjoyed the game :D Thank you for all the compliments <3 (As one of the writers, I'm especially thrilled to hear you think the characters are well-written ;; We tried so hard haha) Charming seems to be a huge fan favorite. I'm so happy ;; And I love your interpretation of her character. It's pretty accurate! <3 We try to leave some of her personality/character up for interpretation on the reader's part, though we obviously have our own interpretation, so it's really interesting to hear what other people think Charming is like.

Haha omg, one of our artists who never played this game pre-release said the same thing. She went from Zel > Mer, and was horrified at the change LOL We have a different theme/feel going for each route, and we honestly just arranged the guys in alphabetical order according to name, so we never thought about this issue. xD Hopefully it won't be a problem in the final game with 7 total routes.

Thank you so so much for saying you like Snow's route the most ;; I was worried I was making the plot too complicated to fit into a game of this length haha. So I'm always happy to hear that the route came out well and people like the plot :"D

As mentioned just now, we did try to go for a different theme/feel with each route, so it won't feel repetitive in the sense that all that's different is the prince you're romancing, so we're really happy that each route is the best in terms of a different criteria/thing since that's exactly what we were going for :"D Thank you <3

Thank you for mentioning what you would like to see in the expansion! We will keep those in mind <3 In fact, some of them are already planned to be explored further in the expansion. Many of the loose ends/unanswered questions in the current game are actually intended e.g. what happened in the end with Snow's stepmother? They will be answered in the final expansion. Consider it incentive for players to replay Snow/Zel/Mer's routes in the final version xD

Nicholl and dragon will most likely appear more. In fact, Nicholl will have his own route. He was planned to be a romanceable since the start but we didn't have time to write his route too, so he will be a romanceable in the final game instead. The king/queen will also be getting their own sprites in the final version. They were supposed to have one this version, but we ran out of time, so they will be in the final game instead.
For Prince (something) ... that was an oversight. I'm extremely bad at naming names, so I just write the whole script without naming secondary characters, then go back and name them at the end, and I forgot about Snow's stepbro LMAO V1.1 actually fixes that issue. Sorry about that xD His name is supposed to be Rigel
Sorry for the inconsistencies in art! ;; Many of the BGs are CC since the game is too big to ask our BG artists to do every single BG, so the inconsistency is something we can't really fix ;;

Thank you so much for the compliments <3 We are so glad you enjoyed the game :D


@Lyhra:
Thank you for commenting! We are happy to hear that you enjoyed the game :"D

Thank you for your suggestions! We will keep them in mind when deciding what to do for the final game <3
About MC's personality being affected by choices, actually, it's probably not as noticeable in Snow's route, but in Mer/Zel's, the two endings are actually based on different aspects of her personality, depending on the choices you've made throughout the game. I'm not explaining it right, probably, but basically, on Zel's route for instance, there are two ways her personality can go, because currently her personality is firmly in the middle of the spectrum, and your choices can push her to either end of the spectrum which triggers the corresponding ending. I hope that makes sense!
Thanks for the critique as well! We will keep that in mind :D


@selenity136:
Thank you for the comment! So glad you enjoyed the game <3

If you liked Nicholl, I'm not sure if you'll be happy or sad about it, but Nicholl is going to be romanceable in the final game! :D

Thanks for the critique as well! Each route will definitely be fleshed out a lot more in the final game. Each route is estimated at 50k in the final game, while currently it's 25k per route. So with double the length in route, we plan on going way more in depth with the world building, characterization and plot. We just didn't have enough time this NaNo, unfortunately ;; There will also be 4 new routes involving new 4 (?) fairy tales! :D

Thank you for playing and for commenting! <3




Thank you for all the support, guys! We're so happy about the feedback so far.
We will possibly release a v1.2 of the game, which will actually improve a bit of the scenes, as well as fix more bugs (e.g. flying Snow in one scene LOL) and typos. We'll let you guys know when the new version is ready! Thanks everyone :D

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 11:41 pm
by Elze
keelan wrote:Other than that, I think I'm good ^^ There's a few inconsistencies here and there (mostly regarding art, like the sprite issue above, or how the backgrounds look different from each other), but they're pretty tiny concerns.
Hi hi :'D Thank you for your lovely review! <3 Sorry, can I just check what sprite issue are you referring to? Do you mean the CGs vs Sprites, or do you mean issues with the Sprites themselves? If it's issues with the Sprites themselves, Idk if I caught it so it'll be good if you can repeat your feedback ; v ;

We actually have different artists working on different art sections, so that may be why there are some inconsistencies here and there.. I'm doing character art, which includes the design of the sprites, as well as the sprites themselves. However, CG art is done by a team of 3, and they all have different art styles from me, so unfortunately there'll definitely be some inconsistencies in style. Regarding Charming's hair length, we'll let the CG artists know to take note of the details. Now that I have more time post-Nano, I'll probably whip up some character reference sheets as well, which will hopefully help the CG artists in getting the design details right xD

Thank you for your feedback!!

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:16 am
by Kumiho
Sorry about the delay! The walkthrough is available on our Tumblr [ AT THIS LINK ]!
Please note that, since I'm giving away the choices, it's not the most spoiler-free ;)
Seriously, thanks to everyone for the support & suggestions <3

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:16 am
by iusername
1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
Yes, i enjoyed the game!
i like how three princes have distinguish personalities, but all of them can be still charming and flirt with her.
I definitely liked Queen Gretel and King Jack. i love their conversation with Princess Charming.
can i know what was Mer(Evian)'s sacrifice? and how Nicholl helped him maintain Mer's body?
and what happened to witch in Zel's story?
In Perfect Solution ending, i believe Snow was in love with Charming and even in the future scene, i think he still was in love with Charming and was trying to propose wedding if Charming didn't stop him with another idea XD am i right?
2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
uh.. not sure. they are all great characters.

3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
I pursued Prince Snow first since i love a charming handsome flirt character. XD
hmmm not sure. either Snow or Zel is my favorite love interest. Mer is iffy even with his happy ending. i understand him, but still...
but story-wise, i think Mer is most interesting. and character-wise, Snow is charming and Zel is sweet

4. What ending did you get first?
Snow Ending Love Match which was very sweet! I really did laugh at his flirt lines but still love them nonetheless.
i like how everything is real. being a flirt. even with a curse, still desiring companionship, and being a troublesome prince
i like how his inborn skills of charisma and persuasiveness flash out, but also show his lack of skills in swordsmanship and such.
and i like that
curse is something nondramatic non-dangerous and also turns out be not a curse at all
5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
I want more interaction with Dragon in Zel's story! Dragon is adorable~

6. Other questions or points of critique?
In the future scene, it was confusing at first because the names still say prince/ss, but they were king and queen
also, there are some mistakes in sentences. for example, one time I was sure it was Charming talking, but it says Snow talking.
in Mer wedding scene, Nicholl said Charming put a ring on Charming when he should have said ring on Mer.

Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 1:38 am
by Windchimes
@iusername:
Hey there! Thank you for the comment :D Happy to hear that you enjoyed the game.
First, let me answer your questions. About the loose ends/unanswered questions such as the witch in Zel's story, they are actually left unanswered on purpose. We plan to address them in the future expansion/final version of the game. Consider it giving players incentive to replay Snow/Mer/Zel's routes in the final story where each route will be double in length. xD
About Snow's friendship ending, it's actually up for interpretation whether or not Snow moved on. I think it's pretty obvious in the scene previously that Snow was into her, and was disappointed she only felt friendship, but it's open to the reader to interpret whether Snow has moved on in the last two years.
I'm super super pleased to hear that you like Snow and thought his character was realistic <3 And I'm so glad you liked the
twist with the curse. xD
Yep, dragon will show up more in the expansion :D Everyone seems to love dragon, including us haha.
Ah yes, those mistakes with the wrong label for Snow's line and the ring on Mer bit were caught a while ago, and they will be fixed in v1.2, which will be up in a day or two. Sorry about that~
Thank you again for playing and commenting!