Quine

[Kikered]

I guess it's about time to release since NaNoRenO and IntRenAiMo are almost over. Sadly enough, it was originally intended for release at the beginning of the month as encouragement for people to chug away at their own games, but it took me from August 'til about a week ago to finish the script...

Quine (Thanks for the name recommendation, PyTom!)
Hardware Requirements -
Approximately 8 MB of hard drive space

Synopsis -
"In the year 2006, I joined the ranks of an elusive organization. Our numbers are few, but our objectives are the same: To tell a heartwarming tale of love that cannot be found in this world... To bring interesting, likable characters to life... To help ease the suffering of lonely individuals everywhere... I am Leon Humphrey, and I am a Ren'Ai game maker."

Rating -
"E" for "Everyone"

Playtime -
Approximately 20 minutes

Download -
English versions: http://www.renai.us/game/quine.shtml
Czech version: http://denzil.ic.cz/pages/quine_cs.html

[papillon]

I'm not doing too well at coming up with any deep insightful commentary or review, so I'll just throw a big thumbs-up and leave it at that for now, ok?

[monele]

Got ending 3... Loved it ! It's rather simple and even has the usual clichés, but there are a few one-liners that got me laughing and a particular scene that I thought was quite original. Well... the premise is original to begin with ! I'll have dinner now but I'm going to replay it again after that to see what else can happen ^.^.

The only real down side for me was the lack of music. I went with the Tokimemo 2 soundtrack and it fit amazingly well fortunately ^^.

[PyTom]

I was able to play this game a few days ago*, back when it was called "Untitled", and I really enjoyed it. I'm still hoping for a release that comes with music, but even without, the game is enjoyable.

Of course, I may be a bit biased, since as far as I know, this is the first game that actually mentions me in the body of the game, rather than in credits or an afterword.

* One of the side benefits of making an engine.

[denzil]

Nice game. It was fun and original. Music would be nice but it wasn't too big problem for me. *Cindrella - Shelter me* (and others here:-) Got ending 2.

[RedSlash]

End 3.

Nice job. I laughed at various times. I wonder if Leon posts on these boards regularly.

[mikey]

I have to say, I really enjoyed your game. I got the best ending first, then played for the other ones. I like how you did this - the game really has something special. Maybe it's the mood with all the b/w and then the eye/name colors, maybe it's the narrative which kind of touches the cliches but IMO never really is cliched itself.

I was a bit worried that it may become a sort of game for insiders, but actually, if you don't know anything about Ren'Py and so on, it will feel pretty normal. So it's really well done, and I don't feel like pointing this as a drawback or anything.

As for the character graphics, it's the same, at first they seem a bit strange, but then they become very likeable and distinct. And it's not because it is ren'ai.

It's the very thing I'm always looking for in a game, something special, something that makes it more than a story with pictures. A very good job, consistent direction, I was really happy about this game.

Of course if you want to hear some critical comments, I suppose I could find some, like...
- the game is edging on being too short
- character graphics are flat
- often references are too direct
- there is no music
- Kikumi isn't really involved
- basic idea is a bit stereotypical (generally in stories)
- no indication how many endings there are
- the epilogues are basically the same

[Kikered]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I'm pretty relieved that everyone seemed to enjoy it so far. I think it seems obvious that the game was written with Ending 3 in mind, although I'm not sure if it was a good idea to make it so easily accessible. Assuming that almost everyone getting it on the first try meant that was easily accessible.

Regarding Music: If I were to include music, I'd rather compose it myself. Unfortunately, it takes me about two weeks to brainstorm and record something that sounds decent. Since I wanted to get this out before NaNoRenO and IntRenAiMo are over, it was one of the first things to go in the reduced scope. It'd be a nice summer project to work on though...

Regarding Graphics: Unfortunately, I'm not a great artist. And also, I color and shade much worse than I draw. Originally, I planned on attempting on making it a color game, but after seeing the atrocity that was my first real attempt at coloring, it was best if things were left the way they were.

Regarding Story: Unfortunately, I'm even worse at storytelling than I am at drawing. It really did take me since August to write the script, progressing at Leon's "two steps forward, one step back" pace. So when I reduced the scope during February, I removed Kikumi's totally-unique branch, effectively making the game about half as long as originally planned. So for this, Kikumi is really more of a "cameo" character.

Looking back at the tree, I just now realized that almost all paths led to the "eventually finish" version of the Epilogue (since I didn't reduce motivation as originally planned at one branch).

If you'd like to see the other two Epilogue segments, focus solely on working on the game as soon as you can or try to disrupt work and delay working on it.

Based on the comments so far, I'm guessing that means I didn't leave enough "whodunit" clues across the different branches to explain the second morning. It may be due to suspension of disbelief when playing these games, though. Hopefully, there were enough consistent "coincidences" across the paths to raise a flag.

I also ended up dropping a fourth ending concerning this point since I get tired of script writing. But if it seems like I didn't do a good enough job, I'll be sure to add it later...

But yes, thanks again for the comments so far!

[ShiraiJunichi]

Ending 3

Wow. I really liked this game. I'll tell you though, the ending was really playing games with my mind. I actually started wondering if you WERE Leon, and the whole thing had, in reality, happened...

I agree with Mikey. At first the art seemed really strange, but I quickly grew to like it. A lot.

One thing that sort of bothered me was Solangel's almost immediate understanding of the term "romantically themed visual novel". I'm not exactly sure what the misunderstanding in the beginning was about, but apparently mentioning that Leon just needed help developing a good character was enough to clarify. Whatever the misunderstanding in the beginning was about, led me to believe that Solangel had no clue what Leon needed help with. But then, without much clarification, she is able to suddenly give insightful advice. It's not a big deal, but it's just something that disturbed the flow of the game.

I liked

Kikumi's warning. It added a big, unknown element at the end. I didn't know if something completely off the wall would happen or not...

maybe it's the narrative which kind of touches the cliches but IMO never really is cliched itself

Cliched? Maybe I'm a bit naive. What makes a ren'ai game cliched exactly? Because I'm obviously a bad judge... ;_;

Oh, and the "rated E for everyone"... I'm not to sure about that...

[mikey]

maybe it's the narrative which kind of touches the cliches but IMO never really is cliched itself

Cliched? Maybe I'm a bit naive. What makes a ren'ai game cliched exactly? Because I'm obviously a bad judge... ;_;

I meant that the game mentions stereotypical characters, stereotypical situations that appear in ren'ai games, but it never really is a stereotype itself. For instance, Leon talks about what a typical ren'ai protagonist would say, how a typical ren'ai girl will look, what her personality will be, yet in the game itself, neither Leon, nor Solangel are such stereotypical characters themselves.

[Keota]

;_; I can't download it!!!!

Every time I try it gives me a file called download.php

Need. Help. Please!!!

[Kikered]

This may be a silly suggestion, but try copying and pasting the link into your address bar. It seems that it won't work correctly if you try to save the link destination (i.e. right-clicking and choosing "Save Link to Disk" or something similar) instead of following it.

[F.I.A]

;_; I can't download it!!!!

Every time I try it gives me a file called download.php

Need. Help. Please!!!

Rename the file to a zip file. That way, you can later uncompress it.

To Kikered: I kind of like your game, albeit short. It got the nice ammount of humor and a little pinch of romance in it. The only bad is perhaps that the endings do not show much difference. Well, I am the one guy who wants a good happy-ever-after ending, so ignore me.

[TMBpower]

Got ending 2 on my first go.

I really like it! It's very sweet and cute without being strictly romantic. Even though it's not a long game, Solangel's mystery perks your curiousity even after you're finished. I'll definatly continue to the other endings.

I think the character design has a good appeal to it...just correct your proportions and add noses! Unless you want her to still look super-deformed.

A ren'ai game about a guy who's making a ren'ai game...why didn't anyone else think of that before, I wonder (so original).

[ShiraiJunichi]

I hope I understand this now...

When Solangel comes out from the shower, and you can only see her shirt, the Leon stammers "Pants!" Solangel simply responds "they are a bit too loose", and then everything is fine. I internalized that to mean, "Your pants are too loose on me, so I decided not to wear them." To which Leon seems to respond, "Oh, ok. That's cool." Needless to say, that seemed really strange to me... It was only just recently that I realized Solangel probably meant "Your shorts are too short- that's why you can't see them.