One Million Kisses

[mikey]

Hi everyone,

Here is "One Million Kisses", a very short 10-minute multi-end VN.

It's a simple story, it's not meant to be sweet, there are no hidden meanings and no purpose other than that I did it because I felt like it yesterday/today. And I made everything myself, so I'm proud of it, given the fact I've never really drawn.

There are some keys - CTRL+Right to go forward and CTRL+Left for backwards, if you need to use them for replays, with the mouse you can only advance and not go back. No saving possible.

Anyway, there isn't a lot more to say.
http://atp.manga.sk/pages/omk.htm

[Aashtarsrain]

Very nice ! Beautiful and simple. Poetic and efficient story-telling. Very enjoyable. Thank you for this !

[mikey]

Thank you! As cliched as it sounds, if just one person sincerely liked it, there isn't anything more one could want, I'm really happy.

[azureXtwilight]

Aww, I think it's sweet! Finally something new from ATP projects, and with a girl point of view! It's already nice, maybe if you put some music in it....

[herenvardo]

I just needed a rest from all the RPGish stuff I'm dealing with, and I gave this a go. I don't regret it. That's a beautiful, inspired story; the story-telling itself is good enough; and despite you say you've never drawn, you have a definitely good taste for combining colors to convey emotion. Simply good. I hope to stumble upon stuff like this more often.

maybe if you put some music in it....

I agree that good matching music could be an improvement; but you'd need to get it right: everything (concepts+words+images+colors) in the game is so well matched that the wrong music would feel... well, just wrong.

[mikey]

Aww, I think it's sweet! Finally something new from ATP projects, and with a girl point of view! It's already nice, maybe if you put some music in it....

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it - originally it was supposed to just be a narrative, and then from a male POV, but then it made even more sense from the girl's POV. And all of this was decided within an hour

As for music, I planned it without music from the start (also in regards to herenvardo's response - indeed there was no music intended), and there was another thing, I also wanted to make the download less than 2MB (the smallest I've ever had - Kaori has around 2.3 MB, so I wanted to make it even smaller, as an extra challenge), and I thought it was going to be just under 2 MB, but it turned out 1.1 MB packed, so it was better than expected.

I just needed a rest from all the RPGish stuff I'm dealing with, and I gave this a go. I don't regret it. That's a beautiful, inspired story; the story-telling itself is good enough; and despite you say you've never drawn, you have a definitely good taste for combining colors to convey emotion. Simply good. I hope to stumble upon stuff like this more often.

Thank you for playing, it's nice to hear that this was a bit of a break - since it was for me, too, in a way, as I am still working on ATP's current main project and this was an unscheduled weekend game. As to the colors, I wanted to have this I think it's called "dither" look, a bit grainy, also for the sprites. The advantage was that it saved file size, I think the maximum color count was 256 colors.

And thanks for the encouragement in drawing! Though I don't plan on becoming an artist, it's nice to know that I can do it to a certain degree. This is also thanks to or new scanner, it would be impossible to do it without it.

[N0UGHTS]

The BGs are gorgeous...

Just played it. I'm not sure I can really add to this feedback, but regardless, I want to say that I thought it was [some positive adjective other than sweet because that's the only thing I can think of :p], refreshing, and fun all the way through. The basis of the story was also pretty novel; tell me, how did you get that idea? Did it just pop into your head? And man, do I envy you for being able to write short stories as good as this. I can't. (T_T)

The character art didn't bother me at all; the pros outweighed the cons too much. And I, personally, think that getting someone to think like that, stick with the game, and give praise is quite an achievement, especially if the game is as short as yours.

As for the music discussion: I can play with or without music. Though I think herenvardo's right; if you choose to put in music, you'll have to be careful as to not mess up the atmosphere of the game and whatnot.

[musical74]

Let's see.....a game made by mikey on a *spur of the moment* thing? MUST PLAY!

Outside of lack of music, it is CUTE and FUNNY and definitely worth it! Granted, I'm a story-first guy but the graphics were fine - envious that you can do this on a whim! - the character were enganging - esp

Father chewing out Rain for daring to be with a human...I thought that was GREAT!

You've got another great game here, mikey! Keep it up, These little minigames are a lot of fun!

[mikey]

The basis of the story was also pretty novel; tell me, how did you get that idea? Did it just pop into your head? And man, do I envy you for being able to write short stories as good as this. I can't. (T_T)

Thank you! The idea, I just woke up and had it, there was no particular trigger I think - I wanted to do something completely different, something with a condensed storyline. I may have been inspired by the various children's Flash intreractive stories and also I liked the concept of Hikari No Ribbon and I always thought that one day some day maybe if the time is right I could do something like this, a very small story - and so it came about, I would say. It was really the moment.

The character art didn't bother me at all; the pros outweighed the cons too much. And I, personally, think that getting someone to think like that, stick with the game, and give praise is quite an achievement, especially if the game is as short as yours.

This means a lot to me, and it also reminded me I wanted to catch up on some of the released games myself (dreams of the skies for example) - I'm a bit consumed with my ongoing game, so it's difficult to find some quality time, well, I'll do my best.

Let's see.....a game made by mikey on a *spur of the moment* thing? MUST PLAY!
Outside of lack of music, it is CUTE and FUNNY and definitely worth it! Granted, I'm a story-first guy but the graphics were fine - envious that you can do this on a whim!
You've got another great game here, mikey! Keep it up, These little minigames are a lot of fun!

I'm glad you liked it! It's great to know that even these minigames have their place. I wasn't really sure how to present it, to be honest, since it's so tiny. So I'm happy it worked.

[lordcloudx]

Well, this is a surprise release from you.

First of all, let me just say that I liked the way you presented this story; from the graphics to the choice of fonts and colors. The lack of music did kinda bother me initially, but that went away as I got into the story.

I love the concept of One Million Kisses and the way you used the supernatural elements to tell a sweet, feel-good story.

It felt like everything within the story revolved around a particular theme. I can't quite put it into words, but it was very well-executed if that was your intention.

If I had one complaint about this game, (and this is a personal gripe) it would be the ending. I kinda wish it had ended in a more bittersweet tone, but again, this is just because that's the kind of story that I like to tell.

I'm also happy to see that a deliberately unpolished game like this is still well-received.

[mikey]

First of all, let me just say that I liked the way you presented this story; from the graphics to the choice of fonts and colors.
The lack of music did kinda bother me initially, but that went away as I got into the story.

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for commenting!

I love the concept of One Million Kisses and the way you used the supernatural elements to tell a sweet, feel-good story.
It felt like everything within the story revolved around a particular theme. I can't quite put it into words, but it was very well-executed if that was your intention.

I'm not going to try to seem like I consiously know, the truth is I just did the game the way it felt right to me - I certainly hope there was something that connected all the elements, but I didn't think about it before making it and I don't want to make things up now to seem smart

If I had one complaint about this game, (and this is a personal gripe) it would be the ending. I kinda wish it had ended in a more bittersweet tone, but again, this is just because that's the kind of story that I like to tell.

I understand - well, but you probably already know me and how I don't like bittersweet endings, so...

I'm also happy to see that a deliberately unpolished game like this is still well-received.

For the drawing part, I gave it my all, though. But it feels really nice when the game is enjoyed for what it is. Really, what more could one want.

[lordcloudx]

For the drawing part, I gave it my all, though. But it feels really nice when the game is enjoyed for what it is. Really, what more could one want.

Hehe! It's just that I felt that this game wasn't trying to be the next benchmark OELVN with the lack of music and all.

As for the art...
These are my sentiments from last night.

<lordcloudx> hmm...
<lordcloudx> maybe I'll give mikey's new game a shot
<lordcloudx> wha? If he drew the characters, he's not too bad at it

[A22 is awesome]

Backgrounds are bad. Colors are an eyesore.

Sprites are bad. No blending of colors, too flat. Also having the characters hide their hands behind their backs is like the oldest trick in the book, but eventually you kind of have to show hands.

No music. Music is very important in a VN, and this had no music. Could have at least thrown something together in garageband, at least.

Even if you do it yourself, there should be a higher standard of quality. Maybe even moreso as doing it yourself, you have absolute control. If you're going to try and justify it by saying "it was a rush job," that is a poor excuse.

You should have taken more time.

In before troll.

[Aashtarsrain]

Again ? That's not the spirit...

[A22 is awesome]

They're all valid criticisms. A lack of music hurts the game. So do the overly flat, bright colors that do not mesh at all, and the unvaried sprites.

No music = losing out on a huge part of the gameplay experience. Good music can make a scene and lift writing and visuals beyond what they are. Having no music at all? Kiss one opportunity for immersion goodbye.

Stale sprites are pointless, because they don't do what sprites are supposed to do: Express.