Heartstring Bugs [dating sim, otome] Overall: 90+%

[VenusEclipse]

Updates: Overall Progress: 90+%

[attachment=3]hsbfinal.jpg[/attachment]

Currently:
-Waiting for Assets by Others
-Programming, Bug Fixing and Balancing
-Only Simple Graphical Touch ups

Gameplay: Stat-raising dating sim

Short Gameplay Video:
http://youtu.be/rCRYKenWNy0

Genre: Slice of Life, Otome, Comedy, and Minor Supernatural

Setting Modern times (some city in Canada)

Features
-Over 200k words
-Stat-raising, event-based system with chibi animations!
-Clothing system
-Original soundtrack
-Original art (mostly, I don't know how you categorize the use of some stock art/texture usage)
-Five males love interests, three female friendships
-Playthrough: Three years of high school. The estimated play hours are TBA

Description:
Unsatisfied with her first year of high school, Tori's (or Elly) decided to break out of her mold. After crashing into a baby virus, she is able to see h@x, basically a hack on life itself. Though not strong, she is only able to to see emotions and special qualities about other people. This gave her an extra confidence boost to open herself up.

(Premise was downsized from a couple of super-terrific-epic-plots that were changed and taught me how tough a sim actually is. I will never underestimate such a "simple genre" again.)

Credits
TBA on release.

Screenshots and art

H@x in action.

Characters

Elly
The main character trying not to hide behind a mask this year. Is this h@x thing a plus or a negative?

Vi: A stranded baby virus from another planet, he is staying with the MC until he can figure out how to get home. He is getting distracted with his school project documenting earth, and mingling humans!

Guys of interest
Chase:
The sharp tongued, super-smart guy who keeps trying to get rid his fan girls, but fails.

Dimitri:
The friendly and outgoing blonde who doesn't seem to have much things to worry about.

Lucas:
The laid back guy who says it like it is, rubbing some people the wrong way.

Huang:
The happy but socially-awkward guy who gets confused with English slang.

Blaze:
The unpredictable guy living it large, equipped with a high ego.

Optional secondary friendships

Alice:
The very quiet girl who takes the slightest remarks a bit too seriously.

Tamera:
The popular, outgoing girl who is natural around people.

Naomi:
The frustrated, hardworking girl who shows her low self-esteem from time to time.

[Kokoro Hane]

Wow! This looks really good! I like the art, and seeing that clothing system makes me really wanna try it out! I look forward to a demo of some sort. I like the idea of not just obtainable guys, but obtainable friendships, too! ^.^

[VenusEclipse]

Demo is out of the question though since well, everything still has to go through balancing acts and some things don't "trigger" the way I want them to yet. I plan to tweak those events that happen at random when everything else is done, but they do work, just not at the right percentage yet. ^_^;

[Morishita]

I really like how the snow scenes turned out and can see that you put in a lot of work when making these backgrounds but the main thing that sticks out to me is just the perspective issues with a few of the pictures.
The one that kind of sticks out to me the most or looks the most awkward to me is the picture with the rug and the wooden door. The door just looks a little off to me composition wise. Also *this is just me now* I think the rug is place a little odd. It doesn't quite look like it goes with the perspective of the door, same thing for the walls.
Also the other picture that stands out to me as well would be the mall scene. The water fountain looks a little slanted, also the floor panel is a little confusing. When I look at the right side of the floor it kind of looks like a slope going down but I'm not quite sure because the other side isn't really doing that. I think the issue there is also with the perspective. It doesn't look like there was really one set but over all you are doing a very good job having all of these backgrounds made. I really like the feel of the hall scene. I think you did a good job with the shadows and the light shining on the walls by the windows. I just think your main issues would be the perspective points. I hope what I said wasn't to confusing, I tried reading back over what I type to make sure that I didn't forget to put any words but I just wanted to give you some hopefully helpful feedback.

[VenusEclipse]

No worries. I guess I'll see if I should either keep, modify or redo the mall BG, same with the ones with tons of problems. =3 They are bothering me too. I was experimenting with the most efficient way to do them so some of them might seem out of place.
About the one with the rug, it's not just you Morishita. I think I will redo that one. Those were mostly just stock and textures on line art, but that didn't turn out well at all. XD

Darn, it's hard to "wing it" with perspectives.

Anyway, I got into a groove and decided to finalize the last group of BGs. Hopefully those are better. If so, I'll redo the mall and the rug one too sometime. =3

[Zogunplex]

Sweet! I'm so glad you put this up As always, I love the hair of your characters. My heavens....the shading is very good. And your backgrounds are really colorful, but don't look like they will distract from the characters when you put them together in the VN. Nice job

[gekiganwing]

...Tori's (or Elly) decided to break out of her mold. After crashing into a baby virus, she is able to see h@x, basically a hack on life itself. Though not strong, she is only able to to see emotions and special qualities about other people. This gave her an extra confidence boost to open herself up.

It sounds like your main character meets an alien life form called Vi. So, because this happens, she is thus able to comprehend others' emotions and abilities?

Also, I noticed that one of the girls in your game has a dark skin tone. I'm not sure if this is significant, but it's encouraging. There's only a few characters in romance games who (or whose ancestors) are not from Europe or East Asia. I'm hoping for a little more diversity.

[Stargirl18]

The game so awsome ut. I really like otome games very much. I dont think is need much more in the game. The CG and backgrounds so very good ut. I think this game will be very good like frozen essence my favorit otome game. And yes i have som question for you.

1. Is Frozen essence going to have a sequel?
2. How many ending is this game going to have?
3. Are you going to make more games after this one?

yes i know some question have not whit this game. But i dont know where else im going to ask. Good luck whit this game and i hope i can play this game soon.

[Wright1000]

The game so awsome ut. I really like otome games very much. I dont think is need much more in the game. The CG and backgrounds so very good ut. I think this game will be very good like frozen essence my favorit otome game. And yes i have som question for you.

1. Is Frozen essence going to have a sequel?
2. How many ending is this game going to have?
3. Are you going to make more games after this one?

yes i know some question have not whit this game. But i dont know where else im going to ask. Good luck whit this game and i hope i can play this game soon.

I don't think Frozen Essence will have a sequel but VenusEclipse is working on a remake which will be released sometime next year. And obviously, there will be more games even after this one.
I have some questions for you, Stargirl18.

1. Are you going to buy a new keyboard?
2. If so, when?

I can feel my eyes burning whenever I read your text.

[Stargirl18]

Hello Wright1000. Im not going to buy a new keyboard because im using bærbar pc. And im have just fixel my bærbar pc whit new keyboard. Sorry for at my writing is so bad. Is not everyone so are good to write. And thank you for answer my question.

[VenusEclipse]

@Zogunplace: <3
It's hard to get the sprite and bg to match just enough.

@Gekiganwing:
She can only "see them" which will be further explained in the game. It's more like whenever someone lies, the player might see a character's unhappy emotions when they lie about how happy they are to receive your gift. I didn't want to overload my first post with that though. ^^; It's more of a play on how you see angry veins and sparkles in Anime shows.
It takes place in Canada so I had to make sure it's multicultural. :3

@Wright
Oh no, I didn't promise any release date on the remake of Frozen Essence. I did before (that's probably where you remember it) when that was the only game I was working on but now with other projects, it'll be a disappointment if I can't make it. I can't control time and I have less of it now. ^^; I still want to do it but there's no promise on a release date now.

@stargirl18
I have a new titleless game in progress at the moment but I can't release any info on that until things are concrete.
And this game will have at least two endings per male character and one per female character. They won't be as drastically different than those from Frozen Essence. It'll be more like having a friendship or love ending.

[Stargirl18]

Thank you so much for your answer VenusEclipse. I really love your games very much. Good luck whit your game and i hope i can play it soon.

[xelacroix]

1. the guy at the left is so hot.

2. girl character need improving. not so good. draw her cuter. maybe like ellie in rave or sakura naruto or erza ft

3. name elly is better.

4. so cool have dress up mode! but hope its not on no face model. make her have face not just black.

5. background looks good!

[Alice PH]

I'm soooo gonna watch this I love ur Frozen Essence too XD This game looks cool n none of the art makes me go "ew" instead my eyes opened wide n wow when i see that cool guy on the left of the first pic D Heheheh I look forward to it >3

[try10]

I so impressed. The art is absolutely gorgeous! I loved your Game Frozen Essence and I am sure that this one will also be an awesome one!

Good luck!