Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

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thestringsofgold
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Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#1 Post by thestringsofgold »

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Download either on Mediafire
or Itch.io!



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For years now, monsters have been a growing problem in Diolacov Kingdom.
Their origin and behavior are a mystery, and a solution to control them has yet to be found.
One day in the forest, novice magic student Merona encounters a monster while collecting plant life for study.
At a crucial moment, she somehow manages to save herself by turning the monster into an innocent animal!
Merona is then sent on a journey by her academy with a team of companions to travel over various towns
to discover more about monsters and how she can transform them.
What lies ahead is much more than what everyone had expected.

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100% Free to play!
English
~120,000 words long
2 romance character routes
Can play on Windows and Mac
Multi-genres of fantasy, comedy, drama, and romance
Original Soundtrack
Partially Voiced
Full HD 1080p
Interactive Choices
Romance Elements
Multiple Endings



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Though these are our official positions, we do more than what department we’re under!

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thestringsofgold

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CatharsisGaze
na-o-mi


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Marionette/Rexx9224



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Dorrell Ettienne
Allan Newman




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sailormarymoon



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Mel Gorsha

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Tomoyo Ichijouji

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Tomoyo Ichijouji

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Dazed

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Adoxographist

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Hipe

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The Nova Team would absolutely love to hear any feedback!
Here are some questions you can answer if you'd like:

What do you think about the storyline?
How did you like the demo?
Got a character you particularly like at this point?
What do you think the characters' personalities are based on their quotes?
General thoughts on the VN?

If you have any more questions about the project, feel free to ask~


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Official Site
WIP Blog (Tumblr)
deviantART
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itch.io
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Donate (with PayPal)
Last edited by thestringsofgold on Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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papillon
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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#2 Post by papillon »

Most of this post feels like it was leftover from when the game was just a demo - I think you might get more attention if you deleted a lot of that and focused in on just the actual game release!

How long is the full game? I'm assuming the "fifteen minutes" was just for the demo but that's the only length mentioned! If it's a character route game, how many routes are there?

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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#3 Post by try10 »

I tried to...I really did but I couldn't... I'll tell you my honest opinion so please don't be upset. The game has lots of useless scenes that seem to drag on forever ( reminds me of those painfully boring slice of life animes with no interesting plot whatsoever), the characters didn't catch my attention and the dialogue is lacking in originality, good humor ( you tried but I didn't find it funny), purpose and it didn't have that something to get me immersed while reading. I just wanted to skip everything to get to the good part, except that I didn't find anything so I quit. I felt that from the beginning there was no need for all those long and weird explanations and ideas that the MC has since it made everything boring to read ( for me at least), the friendship/bonding scenes were dull as well and I couldn't take anything seriously. It would have been nicer to keep it short and simple or maybe to add something that can grab the player's attention and make them curious to want to play more and not give up like I did :(( The art and the CG's were cute. The music was nice as well and I can see that there was a lot of work out there. I was really happy when I heard that the game was finished but sadly it didn't meet my expectations.

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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#4 Post by Leo-Leo »

Hi there!
First of all, congratulations on the release! I've been silently following this WiP for about 2 years and it's nice to see long-term projects being finished. Very inspiring, thumbs up for your dedication :D
The previous comment expresses my opinion so accurately I don't know what else to add. Art, GUI and music, they're all nicely done especially since it is a non commercial game. The story itself isn't bad but scenes are overly detailed which makes it unnecessarily lengthy. The part before the journey began was particularly hard to concentrate on. Some characters are more fleshed out than others. I liked Cimaria (she voiced some philosophical ideas i quite agree with), Kreita (a girl with a nice open personality who is involved in the most dialogues and makes them more interesting) and Duran (yey some character development).

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thestringsofgold
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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#5 Post by thestringsofgold »

papillon wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:51 am Most of this post feels like it was leftover from when the game was just a demo - I think you might get more attention if you deleted a lot of that and focused in on just the actual game release!

How long is the full game? I'm assuming the "fifteen minutes" was just for the demo but that's the only length mentioned! If it's a character route game, how many routes are there?
Thanks for the pointers, will update the post a little with your suggestions!
As for the length, it's about 120,000 words long in total, and I'd say going through the route once is 1/2 - 3/4 of that, so the length will determine on how fast you read through the text and if you'd like to listen to some of the voice acting.
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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#6 Post by thestringsofgold »

try10 wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:16 pm I tried to...I really did but I couldn't... I'll tell you my honest opinion so please don't be upset. The game has lots of useless scenes that seem to drag on forever ( reminds me of those painfully boring slice of life animes with no interesting plot whatsoever), the characters didn't catch my attention and the dialogue is lacking in originality, good humor ( you tried but I didn't find it funny), purpose and it didn't have that something to get me immersed while reading. I just wanted to skip everything to get to the good part, except that I didn't find anything so I quit. I felt that from the beginning there was no need for all those long and weird explanations and ideas that the MC has since it made everything boring to read ( for me at least), the friendship/bonding scenes were dull as well and I couldn't take anything seriously. It would have been nicer to keep it short and simple or maybe to add something that can grab the player's attention and make them curious to want to play more and not give up like I did :(( The art and the CG's were cute. The music was nice as well and I can see that there was a lot of work out there. I was really happy when I heard that the game was finished but sadly it didn't meet my expectations.
Leo-Leo wrote: Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:23 am Hi there!
First of all, congratulations on the release! I've been silently following this WiP for about 2 years and it's nice to see long-term projects being finished. Very inspiring, thumbs up for your dedication :D
The previous comment expresses my opinion so accurately I don't know what else to add. Art, GUI and music, they're all nicely done especially since it is a non commercial game. The story itself isn't bad but scenes are overly detailed which makes it unnecessarily lengthy. The part before the journey began was particularly hard to concentrate on. Some characters are more fleshed out than others. I liked Cimaria (she voiced some philosophical ideas i quite agree with), Kreita (a girl with a nice open personality who is involved in the most dialogues and makes them more interesting) and Duran (yey some character development).
Thanks for both of your detailed feedback! Looking back, I do agree with your points about the dragging in the story/dialogue because this was written in tiny bite-sized chunks slowly over the course of four years, resulting in a lot of slow-paced, very detailed writing. Some like that, some don't, but it's totally reasonable if you guys weren't feeling that style of writing.

Regardless, I'm glad you both enjoyed other aspects of the VN and took the time to try it out! Thanks again. :)
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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#7 Post by Virelai »

Hi there! I haven't been able to finish this VN yet, but I am in the process of doing so. However, I think i can give some insight on how I feel about this VN (-:

Starting off the bat, I would like to say that I was thoroughly pleased and surprised to find out that this VN was really nicely set up. That was something really cool because even a lot of commercial novels out there dont have VN's this fleshed out, and I can tell you put a lot of effort into the style, layout, artwork, writing and the mechanics of this novel. Additionally, I really enjoyed the GUI/menu screen! It was soo beautiful, and one of the nicest layouts that I have ever seen. I love how the colors were bright and saturated, and these comments also apply to the backgrounds of each scene as well. I read above that you spent about 4 years writing/working on this VN and your hard work and thoughtfulness really pays off.

Unfortunately, I also have to agree with the comments made above as well.
From the beginning, I was a little taken aback by the long monologue at the beginning about life and death--I felt like it was unnecessarily philosophical for the start of a VN, especially when I didn't exactly know what the plot was about. I found myself skipping through most of this beginning scenes, and I actually found myself a little frustrated (and felt kind of bad) because all of those parts were voiced, including the parts where Merona was describing the scene. Of course, this is my opinion and I think others might really appreciate the fact that everything is voiced. I know I'm contradicting myself in what I said in the paragraph above, but I do feel like all of that voicing was a little bit excessive. Of course, voicing her inner thoughts and dialogue is awesome, but I feel as if the monologues really aren't necessary to voice, as well as the description of the scene. I also know that most of the character voicing really only occurs at the beginning, (so i kind of thought my game broke lol). Jumping back to the point before though, I will say that you're not the only VN that I've seen that has that type of introduction. A lot of other ones really struggled with capturing the reader's/player's attention from the start.
I actually really do enjoy the story. I like the way the characters were introduced and the way scenes are described.
But as someone currently studying journalism in university, I can say that there is a lot of fluff in your writing. I know you spent so much time working on the plot so I feel really REALLY terrible saying this, but I honestly believe that a lot of the descriptive scenes were excessively fluffy, and didn't really contribute to much of the story. I know always come back to the beginning, but I find that the opening scene is the best way to describe this. The way Merona talked about life and death was so descriptive I actually got really confused. Of course, the dialogue about life and death is important, because it sets up her character and shows what type of being she is, but I really felt like it didn't give me as clear of a glance into her character as it would have been if you started with that action packed scene where she's being attacked by that monster, then possibly going through that monologue after that event, then I feel as if it would've made more sense. Additionally, I felt like there was an imbalance in the way the characters were introduced. Of course, I can't say much about this because I haven't finished this VN, but I feel like I'm left in the dark about certain characters while other ones have gotten some really good character development.
I want to ask you to not be discouraged with the feedback given above! I think overall this is a really really excellent effort and I know that you'll only improve from now on. I'm sure the advice I'll give you below are ones that you've already don e in the process of releasing this VN, but if you haven't, I hope you'll take it into consideration!
1. I think having beta readers to discern grammatical mistakes and the plot WHILE you're writing the story would really help. Or even so, having two writers working on the project at once. I think that would quicken the process (if the writers are willing to communicate well of course) and also allow the beta readers / writers to work cohesively as a team. I know there's a lot of beta readers / writers that treat VN-creating as a hobby and would be so eager to give your team feedback.

2. I can see from your previous posts that your team was incredibly well-organized and you really planned everything out so I would say continue that! Also I have no idea how your team operates and whether you guys chat often, but asking each other questions within the group; even if it's not their expertise always helps.

3. I really appreciate you trying to step up to the effort of making the VN voiced! Like I said above, I'd say stick to strictly the dialogue and I think it would be less work and editing overall (and it really steps up the idea of consistency).

I hope my feedback was valuable to read! And I really wish you all the best (-: I will continue reading tihs VN and if there's anything else I'll just edit this post.
Last edited by Virelai on Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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thestringsofgold
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Re: Nova: Synthesis Creaturum [Fantasy|Romance|Comedy][FREE][GxB]

#8 Post by thestringsofgold »

Virelai wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:05 pm Hi there! I haven't been able to finish this VN yet, but I am in the process of doing so. However, I think i can give some insight on how I feel about this VN (-:

Starting off the bat, I would like to say that I was thoroughly pleased and surprised to find out that this VN was really nicely set up. That was something really cool because even a lot of commercial novels out there dont have VN's this fleshed out, and I can tell you put a lot of effort into the style, layout, artwork, writing and the mechanics of this novel. Additionally, I really enjoyed the GUI/menu screen! It was soo beautiful, and one of the nicest layouts that I have ever seen. I love how the colors were bright and saturated, and these comments also apply to the backgrounds of each scene as well. I read above that you spent about 4 years writing/working on this VN and your hard work and thoughtfulness really pays off.

Unfortunately, I also have to agree with the comments made above as well. From the beginning, I was a little taken aback by the long monologue at the beginning about life and death--I felt like it was unnecessarily philosophical for the start of a VN, especially when I didn't exactly know what the plot was about. I found myself skipping through most of this beginning scenes, and I actually found myself a little frustrated (and felt kind of bad) because all of those parts were voiced, including the parts where Merona was describing the scene. Of course, this is my opinion and I think others might really appreciate the fact that everything is voiced. I know I'm contradicting myself in what I said in the paragraph above, but I do feel like all of that voicing was a little bit excessive. Of course, voicing her inner thoughts and dialogue is awesome, but I feel as if the monologues really aren't necessary to voice, as well as the description of the scene. I also know that most of the character voicing really only occurs at the beginning, (so i kind of thought my game broke lol). Jumping back to the point before though, I will say that you're not the only VN that I've seen that has that type of introduction. A lot of other ones really struggled with capturing the reader's/player's attention from the start.

I actually really do enjoy the story. I like the way the characters were introduced and the way scenes are described. But as someone currently studying journalism in university, I can say that there is a lot of fluff in your writing. I know you spent so much time working on the plot so I feel really REALLY terrible saying this, but I honestly believe that a lot of the descriptive scenes were excessively fluffy, and didn't really contribute to much of the story. I know always come back to the beginning, but I find that the opening scene is the best way to describe this. The way Merona talked about life and death was so descriptive I actually got really confused. Of course, the dialogue about life and death is important, because it sets up her character and shows what type of being she is, but I really felt like it didn't give me as clear of a glance into her character as it would have been if you started with that action packed scene where she's being attacked by that monster, then possibly going through that monologue after that event, then I feel as if it would've made more sense. Additionally, I felt like there was an imbalance in the way the characters were introduced. Of course, I can't say much about this because I haven't finished this VN, but I feel like I'm left in the dark about certain characters while other ones have gotten some really good character development.

I want to ask you to not be discouraged with the feedback given above! I think overall this is a really really excellent effort and I know that you'll only improve from now on. I'm sure the advice I'll give you below are ones that you've already don e in the process of releasing this VN, but if you haven't, I hope you'll take it into consideration!
1. I think having beta readers to discern grammatical mistakes and the plot WHILE you're writing the story would really help. Or even so, having two writers working on the project at once. I think that would quicken the process (if the writers are willing to communicate well of course) and also allow the beta readers / writers to work cohesively as a team. I know there's a lot of beta readers / writers that treat VN-creating as a hobby (including me wink wink) and would be so eager to give your team feedback.

2. I can see from your previous posts that your team was incredibly well-organized and you really planned everything out so I would say continue that! Also I have no idea how your team operates and whether you guys chat often, but asking each other questions within the group; even if it's not their expertise always helps.

3. I really appreciate you trying to step up to the effort of making the VN voiced! Like I said above, I'd say stick to strictly the dialogue and I think it would be less work and editing overall (and it really steps up the idea of consistency).

I hope my feedback was valuable to read! And I really wish you all the best (-: I will continue reading tihs VN and if there's anything else I'll just edit this post.
Thank you so much for your highly detailed feedback! Very much appreciated. :) You made several good points about the writing, the fluffiness, etc. which I can agree with. I don't think I or my team will be making another VN anytime soon, but this was still great advice nonetheless. I still have room to grow regarding writing for VNs, but I believe I can become better with everyone's feedback and more practice. Thanks again for checking us out!
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