One Million Kisses

[Der Tor]

I like the game too

And yeah... with a little music it could have been even more cutie-pie-thingy.
You could ad MIDI music - that would only increase the file size by around maybe 20 or 30 kilobytes.

And one question... did you come up with the story yourself, or is this a "real" fairy tale legend thingy?

[mikey]

I'm feeling all fuzzy-good now thanks to this . And it was short enough that I still have half an hour to do some other things on the side. This is just great .
It would definitely work great as a children story since it's sweet and to the point. I have only tried one path so I'm not sure what else there is... but I'm not even sure I want to know! XD The version I got from my choices was just what I wanted to read.

There is only one real path, the rest is "bad" endings, so I trust you got it.

I suppose HQ version wouldn't *hurt*, per se, but I don't feel they would be necessary. Nothing felt out of place, if you will.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I like the game too
And yeah... with a little music it could have been even more cutie-pie-thingy.
You could ad MIDI music - that would only increase the file size by around maybe 20 or 30 kilobytes.

Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it - as for MIDI, I don't really like to use it because of the relatively flat sound, but practically speaking you're right, MIDI would be the way to go to for an economical OST. Maybe just having one track for the whole game would be sufficient.

And one question... did you come up with the story yourself, or is this a "real" fairy tale legend thingy?

This is my own story, at least I wasn't aware that there exists such a legend/fairytale. If it was, I'd definitely say this in the introduction post.

[Ayato Vu too lazy to sign in]

Woah, I'm loving your stories man!
I could care less about physics, pre-calc, and british literature...

This is something to behold.
I'm reading a lot of other posts, and many of them compare just the graphics, lack of music, and so such. But in my opinion, I look as the graphics, and music on the same scale, and storyline above everything. Those two things are used to push the story's tone and mood.
With them, it is not just a visual novel, but a short look into the author's mind, and the story's world.
Without them, it is just a story, like A Tale of Two Cities, Pinochio, ect.

With a release from ATP projects/mikey, it is always something great. I'll be on it as soon as possible!

[mikey]

Thank you. I don't quite know what to reply, but it all keeps me more motivated to continue.

[Guest]

This is something to behold.
I'm reading a lot of other posts, and many of them compare just the graphics, lack of music, and so such. But in my opinion, I look as the graphics, and music on the same scale, and storyline above everything. Those two things are used to push the story's tone and mood.
With them, it is not just a visual novel, but a short look into the author's mind, and the story's world.
Without them, it is just a story, like A Tale of Two Cities, Pinochio, ect.

Yes, truly. By striding boldy into the untouched and deeply inventive territory of combining words and lazy PS scribbles, Mikey has surely elevated himself above the level of Charles Dickens who is only one of the most widely celebrated authors of all time. What a god damn visionary he is.

[blakjak]

That was a nice little story. Thank you for sharing it. It felt like a mix between an ancient greek tale and a bedtime story. Soft and poetic. I liked the backgrounds, what effect did you use for them ? I didn't like the effects used on the character though. I felt like you used it to blend it better with the background, but it wasn't reallly necessary, am I wrong ?
Another question is why didn't you choose to make a kinetic novel, the other routes being so short ?

[mikey]

Thanks for the comments!

The effect used was dither - I took a picture and then decreased the number if colors by using dither. It doesn't work on basic colors, since it apparently splits the complicated colors into basic ones, at least I think it works that way.

Indeed I used them on the sprites as well, to blend in, since I didn't have any shading, so I wanted to add a bit of texture. They looked very plain with just single colors for pants, shirt and hair. Although I didn't run dither through the skin color and eyes, obviously skin is best looking in skintone color. It seemed like a good decision to me, sorry you didn't like it that much.

As for having those obvious choices and quick bad endings, I wanted the choices to contribute to the atmosphere, rather than them being a gameplay feature. You could probably say it's "practically" a kinetic novel, or that it's "barely" a visual novel... but it wouldn't be the same being completely linear or having distinctive paths, at least not for me. So I did it like I felt was right.

Anyway, thanks for playing!

[monele]

Adding choices to give the illusion of freedom, yet have them be obvious enough that you still take the best route on the first try... A risky gamble . Worked for me but it might ruin things for others? (or at least not work as intended). It would also be disappointing for anyone who tried replaying to see what changes (practically nothing). I think it's an interesting idea, but it might be lacking some safeguards : indicate that the player has seen all there is to see, and somehow prevent actually getting into bad ends?.. I'm not sure.

[mikey]

It's a good point - it might have been good to have some sort of acknowledgement for the player that he has taken the primary route and there is no need to explore further. Maybe a simple sentence like "You have successfully completed the story!" would fix it. I put this on my list of update ideas for this game. (though unfortunately this doesn't mean that there will be an update anytime soon, I keep this as an option for the time when I don't have the motivation to work on my current projects, but you know... some day. And it's noted down, so... )

[monele]

I thought of it more as an advice for future games actually ^^, but if it's to be implemented as an update for this one, yay too

[blakjak]

Ok I understand your decision to apply dither to both to blend them in better. And I think I understand my uneasyness with the effect on the character sprites, it probably comes from the fact that they had less colors, or/and shades than the backgrounds to start with, hence the cross-hatching effect on the sprites.

Well thank you for the tip.

[Ayato Vu]

Woah...
In this story, I see no need for any sound, and the graphics are perfect for the story.

Since the rain is "young" her perception CAN be views in these types of graphics, innocent and pure.
Music is not needed, because this is possibly "before" music. (Only assuming, since it was when rain was still a season.) If someone wanted sound, I can only imagine the gentle brushes or rain being used from time to time. Nothing else.

IMHO, the simplicity of this story is quite beautiful, and the lack of music, and simple pictures add to the taste.
9/10 just because I wish it could be a bit longer...
I do so LOVE Mikey's works.

[mikey]

Thanks again for the replies.

Ayato Vu >> I'm glad you liked the game and it's flattering to hear you like the original ATP games in general. Hopefully you'll also like the future games, especially my ongoing larger project means a lot to me, and as I said, this just adds extra motivation.

[Ayato]

Thanks again for the replies.

Ayato Vu >> I'm glad you liked the game and it's flattering to hear you like the original ATP games in general. Hopefully you'll also like the future games, especially my ongoing larger project means a lot to me, and as I said, this just adds extra motivation.

Ooo
Is that a tease for the new game?

Are u a programmer for a living?

[mikey]

Is that a tease for the new game?

Uh, I just wanted to say thanks, that this helps get extra motivation for the ongoing project (especially as there always are preriods of slow times in every project, at least it worked like that for me), so I'm really thankful for every response that reassures me that I'm doing the right thing.

Are u a programmer for a living?

No, my work is completely unrelated to game making - all this is a free time hobby, and I like it that way. I has worked for me for all this time, so why change it.