Idol/TYPE

[monele]

monele>> Hmmm, so far it's the default input. You are referring to qwerty/qwertz, right?

Actually Azerty *french*. It's just impossible to play if you think you're typing A and are actually typing Q, and so on ^^;... I can't even pass the first level since so many letters are mixed up.
Sure, I could take time to switch keyboards in my head but it's kinda sad :/

[papillon]

I'm sorry, but this just isn't playable for me at the moment...

It runs okay on my machine, but I am a high-speed typist (I get the top score for data entry at every job agency I sign up with) and I cannot deal with the no-spaces problem and the backspace problem.

It's fine to not allow you to backspace to correct a mistake, that makes sense. However, any practised typist slams that backspace instinctively when they've made a mistake. It happens much faster than the brain catching up to realise that the game doesn't like that. So then you've made two errors instead of one, AND there's a huge pause while your brain has to change gears and figure out what's gone wrong and then skip a few letters ahead. (Depending on how fast your brain switched gears, three 'errors' in the course of a split second: wrong letter, then backspace and right letter.)

Space at the beginning of a line should not be counted as an error. Backspace should not be counted *at all*.

The secondary problem, and this one is more manageable, is that it can be slightly confusing to type lines that, to your eyes, are 'wrong' in spelling or grammar. The brain tries to correct it. But it IS the character, not you, writing it, and this is much easier to get past.

In fact, that's one thing that kept making me speed up - trying to fall into character and go with the *emotion* of the lines rather than argue with the wording.


Unless a version comes out that is more forgiving of people who have to do data entry jobs and type at a breakneck speed, I'll have to go without. (Or else play while drunk. Which doesn't happen very often.)


(other technical note: The menu options on the front screen are really difficult to select with the mouse. I had to click about ten times before anything happened.)

[Kikered]

I finished playing through all the endings last night, and it was a pretty enjoyable experience! Here are my thoughts on the different aspects:

Story - Very interesting way to tell the story! Most of the time, the player has to try to piece together what Reijiro did, how he felt, and what happened in between letters. The story itself may be fairly simple, but the presentation made it a unique experience.

Artwork - The artwork is sparse, but good - I particularly liked the ending pictures with Hirae in an evening gown of sorts even though they pretty much corresponded to the "bad" endings. A minor gripe that I have is that there isn't time to stop and admire the photos of Hirae during the typing sequences.

Music - The music is decent, but not quite as memorable as it was in GR. The song that plays during the typing sequences is pretty fitting though. Its beginning kinda reminded me of Guilty Gear for some reason.

Gameplay - Again, this element made it a pretty unique experience - I was addicted after completing the first letter. It would be helpful to have an error noise whenever the player makes a mistake. Because I memorize a sentence before looking down at the keyboard to type, I only catch my mistakes once I glance up at the screen and see ten mistakes in a row.

Also, the auto-returns seemed counter-intuitive most of the time, particularly since it auto-returns right when a word is finished rather than after a space. There were a few cases where the trend is broken and a space was actually needed to complete a line, but it would help to be consistent one way or the other. This goes for returns as well - there were a couple isolated instances where the player has to do manual returns, and it would help if the game was consistent about it.

Here are a few bugs that I found:
- The last character of each line doesn't seem to count. It stays greyed out regardless of whether it was correct or not, and a typing noise doesn't play when it is pressed. Any mistakes made there doesn't seem to count against he player either.
- In the third letter that the player types up, there seems to be a sentence that was copied and pasted from the second one ("the weather is cooler..."). It seemed to be out of place, so it is probably a bug.
- Saving and exiting resets the mistake count on your current run when you continue. With this little bug, I made it to the fourth ending with only 8 mistakes.

Overall, great game! It was fun to play something that was way out of the norm.

[mikey]

Unless a version comes out that is more forgiving of people who have to do data entry jobs and type at a breakneck speed, I'll have to go without.(Or else play while drunk. Which doesn't happen very often.)

Whoaaaaaa, leave the vodka please, we're on it ^_^. Again as mike.pr promised, there should be a friendlier version done quite soon for instinctive typists, we'll let you guys know asap. I'm probably going to repack it completely and make that newer version the only one once I have it, if no one will miss the original.

Kikered>> Hey, I'm happy you liked it! It's good to know that the story has worked. Again, there should be that newer version with a few bits fixed, thanks also for the other technical comments. On the subject of Hirae's dress, it was the same as you guessed, actually the same pose. I wanted the pictures to be very different, kind of like idols have their promo pictures and shootings, to have it look like they were taken from such sets. This is why the style is relatively abstract, there's no real sense of environment, so the graphics can be so varied.

[mikey]

EDIT: This attachment has been deleted, it's many months after its release and the available version is already up-to-date anyway. The only reason you'd need this patch is if you downloaded the game on the very day of its release.

Here is a new and so it seems final version of Idol/TYPE.

It has blanks at the end of (hopefully all) the lines, so typing is now text-editor intuitive. Do look up from time to time though ^_^

This version also supports different keyboards (*waves to monele*), you can edit the allegro.cfg file, I tested AZERTY, works well.

There are a few changes, the failed screen will stay on for a few secs until you can continue (to avoid hectic restarts), the letter will stay on as well (so you can read it).

I've included the update here (unzip into the data directory and overwrite all) as an attachment, but anyone downloading the full game since this post has been made will get the new version. If there will be no catastrophic glitches (none I could see today), you can consider this version final.

So, everyone who hasn't tried yet is now invited, I hope you can enjoy it properly, thanks for the cooperation and tips, it was quite a new thing to do so these things happen.

Now, to get some sleep...

[musical74]

OK switching the DLL file worked...it's a good game I think

[Alessio]

Just started playing, brilliant game so far. One problem I have though with the ' character (like in "it's"). Which one is it supposed to be on the keyboard? It always registers as the wrong one when I type. Or should I use the accents instead (` or ´)?

Edit: The same problem with the question mark ("?"). So I guess it's more of a keyboard layout problem? Finnish layout on an IBM laptop here...

[monele]

You might try the fix Mikey gave a few posts above : edit data/allegro.cfg and change the "keyboard=US" line to hm... "keyboard=FI" I suppose ? There's a list of codes for each keyboard layout ^^

Thank for giving out this tip Mikey ! It works like a charm and I was able to play without pulling out my hair . Got 3 endings out of ... 5 ? so far.

Can you tell what's happening in the blue ending ? When we don't give her time to think... How come there's no reply at that point ? Or how come there is one when we give her time to think actually ^^;...

About the gameplay mechanics, I spotted a few annoyances : sometimes I'll be typing rather fast and the game seems to freeze for a second (no typing sound, text cursor not moving forward) and suddenly it registers all my key presses, except it seems to skip a letter since they're *all* bad.
I thought it might be taking too much time to do a particular process (picture alpha, sound loading ?) and that's why it hangs a bit.
I tried typing at a slower pace and I get the error a lot less.

I'll agree that it lacks a sound to tell whenever you make a mistake. It'd warn the mind and makes us stop right away instead of going on with errors ^^;. Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 red letters to notice (kinda like breaking on a wet road you know?)

Overall it's a really interesting story and concept, albeit a little tiring after a while. Good thing you tried something different ^.^

[Alessio]

Argh, of course. That did the trick. Sorry for not reading carefully enough. That's what happens when you get up at 6.00 on a Sunday morning to bring your wife to the train station. ^_^;;;;

[mikey]

monele>>

The reason there's no reply after the choice you mentioned... it's a design thing, I agree it's a bit unconventional, but you can draw some conclusions as to why that happened from a different ending (4).

About the speed thing, actually this never happened to me, it may be the game is a little tough on slower machines, it does have those alphas and sounds, so it's most probably a processing power issue.

Thanks for the other comments and suggestions and it's nice to see that keyboard thing working.

[monele]

Mikey :

Ending 4 is the first one I had so I know the "truth" . Yet I'm not sure I see a good reason for not having a reply. In the 4th path, Hirae ends up replying if I'm not mistaken. I suppose her writer has been fired or at least is not authorized to reply to the main character anymore. Hirae replies because she realizes the hero is a nice guy or maybe it's just politeness at first.
What would replying immediately change about this though? :/ *kinda lost*

About ending 4 : I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to know a bit more about Hirae's writer, or at least actually *type* the final letter to her. It felt a bit rushed :/.

I also forgot to say that I stamped the game "very good" when at some point I spent about 5 minutes thinking about the choice to make. I just love when a game makes me feel stressed about the consequences of my choices

[musical74]

I also forgot to say that I stamped the game "very good" when at some point I spent about 5 minutes thinking about the choice to make. I just love when a game makes me feel stressed about the consequences of my choices

I think that's what makes this game so much fun (for me, anyway). When you have a game that really makes you think about the choices, it adds to the flavor of the game.

[mikey]

I think that's what makes this game so much fun (for me, anyway). When you have a game that really makes you think about the choices, it adds to the flavor of the game.

It's also I think due to the fact that it has only an autosave - the choices at the end mean you have to weigh that choice since if it's the bad one, you'll have to type your way all that distance again. It works in a good way, but also in a bad one. So I'm glad that the positive aspect prevailed for you.

monele>>

- replying directly means to Hirae one more letter showing Reijiro's affection for Umeko. Hirae will be more inclined to think Reijiro has already fallen in love with Umeko and forget about it. She will definitely not answer in this case, not even as an apology.

- if we give her time, and not write the letter, Umeko will be gone of course, but it's about Hirae - because Umeko got less letters (less intense) she will be less inclined to think that Reijiro has completely fallen in love and will bring herself to look at the letters from the beginning where he wrote to her (Hirae). She will realize Reijiro likes her, Hirae - and she'll answer him even though she will feel guilty.

The final letter for Umeko - The thing is, Reijiro and Umeko is a completely different story. The letters are (although it doesn't seem so when you have to type them) relatively short and that's the point of the communication and atmosphere of that relationship - it developed from the usual short replies fans get from their stars and continued in that manner. Assuming Reijiro decides to write to Umeko, it would be a completely different kind of letter, much longer and it would have a very different feel, because it would be a different relationship and I felt it was better to just leave it out completely. Sorry, I tried a few letters, but it kind of always broke the atmosphere.

[monele]

The autosave doesn't help on the 4th or 5th play though :p *hasn't found courage to try again yet*

I see, it does make sense ^.^.
I also understand your choice for Umeko's ending. No need to add something if it just doesn't work ^.^

[Watercolorheart]

Just to get this out of the way:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, I feel much better now.

So far, I've only gotten two endings, and just about gone insane trying to find the save feature before realizing that there wasn't one ...

The artwork is very nice, I enjoyed it when I could, particularly when done typing a letter and before pressing "enter" again to jump ahead to the next screen.

The music is ... negligible. It just doesn't grip me one way or the other ...

The gameplay is absolutely infuriating and after playing through 3 times and typing the same letters over and over again after making choices that seemed to be sensible at the time but led to a bad ending, I had completely lost interest.

Please add a save feature.